This week’s Education Week (http://www.educationweek.org/ew/articles/2007/03/07/26politics.h26.html) has an interesting piece trying to demonstrate that Barack Obama’s experience with an Annenberg Challenge school in Chicago demonstrates the education attention and experience he will apply to crafting an education platform. It then goes on to cite other Democratic candidates and their education experience. (Don’t ask me why it doesn’t even look at Republican candidates.)
Fortunately (and I mean that I hope no one implies that any of the leading candidates have in been talking education, because they haven’t), EdWeek notes that no candidate has come forward with a K-12 agenda. Heck, their Hillary Clinton reference is one from her days as first lady … of Arkansas.
Simple fact is that education reform has not broken through the white noise to make it onto the agendas of aspiring candidates. And with so much talk about NCLB, that is a cryin’ shame.
In the coming weeks, eduflack will be proposing some reccs for how Democratic and Republican aspirants can start talking about education reform. After all, it is not the policy itself that counts, but how well it excites the political base, interests the undecideds, and fits on a political bumper sticker. Stay tuned …
(Originally posted March 7, 2007)
Year: 2007
A New World for Online Ed
Education Week is reporting on a new study that nearly two-thirds of public school administrators surveyed said they are offering some form of online education. Fascinating study, and even more interesting implications for how we talk about successful education reform.
High school doesn’t have the capacity to increase the number of AP courses? Access them online. Limited interest in foreign languages like Chinese or Arabic? Learn through the computer. Unable to build a sustainable early college program in your community? Dial in a reputable two-year or four-year college. And let’s not even talk the possibilities for home schoolers or charter schools.
The unanswered question is how did the 63% of those surveyed by the Sloan Foundation get buy in from their local teachers? How do you convince a licensed, veteran teacher to ultimately play the role of facilitator, as the instruction is handled by an image on a computer screen or on a DVD?
If access to online learning is to continue to grow in our public schools, we need to demonstrate to all stakeholders — especially teachers — that there is value to them. If the study is right, and 19% of all students will soon be taking all of their classes online, teachers will need to be under the online ed tent. Growth and success are one thing. Buy-in from the teachers is essential to successfully implementing classroom change.
(Originally posted March 6, 2007)
The NCLB Legacy
For years, I have said that No Child Left Behind could serve as President Bush’s legacy in terms of domestic policy. Love it or hate it, NCLB has changed the educational landscape. With the exception of some choice oppposition from groups like the NEA and AASA, most in the education community have supported (albeit quietly) a national call for research-proven instruction, greater accountability, and qualified and effective teachers in the classroom.
But the President’s words, delivered yesterday in Indiana, don’t quite match the rhetoric put forward by his Education Secretary. Last year, Spellings came out strong, stating that NCLB was 99.999% effective, leaving almost no room for improvement. Bush, however, is now saying while the law is working, “we can change parts of it for the better.”
The jury is still out as to whether NCLB will get reauthorized this year. Democratic congressional leaders voice support for the intent behind the law, but continue to call for additional funding (heck, a just-released study claims the state of Ohio needs to increase public education funding 30%). Meanwhile, Republicans are voicing greater concern with NCLB, claiming it is denying local control of the schools. Bush acknowledged that criticism in his remarks, using GOP grumblings as his justification for not having national testing standards.
So which is it? Are we 99.999% pure, or do need to change multiple parts of the law?
For the past five years, the U.S. Department of Education has been virtually all stick, no carrot when it comes to talking about NCLB. If they are serious about reauthorizing the law virtually intact, they need to shift their rhetorical focus.
NCLB is not about rules and regulations and unfunded mandates. NCLB is about ensuring that every child receives access to a high-quality, effective education. To do that, NCLB supporters need to put a human face on the law. Let’s hear from the kids and families and teachers who have benefited. When we hear NCLB, we need to see ourselves in the law. We need to know it is improving schools like ours and kids like ours.
The face of NCLB is academic achievement and student success. At the end of the day, who can oppose a law that says we need to teach what works in our classrooms, we need qualified teachers to teach it, and we need to make sure that every kid — not just those who can afford it — is given the academic tools to succeed?
(Originally published March 6, 2007)
The Launch of Eduflack
I know, I know, yet another blog on education policy in the United States. But don’t expect to see in-depth discussion and debate on the impact of high-stakes testing on the student psyche or how charter schools are destroying the framework of our urban school systems. No, this isn’t that sort of chronicle. Why take on issues that are already so deftly discussed by true leaders in the field? (Originally posted March 5, 2007)
Instead, eduflack was created to discuss education reform through a different lense — communication. Well before A Nation at Risk hit our school systems, true reformers have been using communications and public engagement strategies to promote their ideas, win supporters and advocates, mute the opposition, and ultimately change public behaviors so that meaningful reform can take hold in our schools, our communities, and out nation.
The coming year will play host to continued discussions on NCLB and its reauthorization, the positioning of presidential candidates and their policy platforms, and the impact of recent philanthropic investments in high school improvement and similar reforms. All important issues, and all requiring communications planning, implementation, and measurement to ensure they make a difference and leave a lasting mark.
For education policy reforms to succeed, they need to be understood and embraced both at the ivory towers and on Main Street, USA. Eduflack will seek to sort through the white noise, and track the successes and failures of communicating reform.
Improving our public education system requires the participation of all key stakeholders — students and parents, teachers and administrators, policymakers and business leaders. We need to move all corners of learning to act if we are to improve.
Too often, education PR is about cults of personality and attacking the messengers, rather than the message. That’s where eduflack is different. Demonstrate true communication skills, you’ll get the bouquets. Pander to the lowest common demoninator or simply contribute to the grousing chatter, you’re getting the brickbats.
Let the pageant begin …
Eduflack By Patrick R. Riccards 