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March 02, 2011 08:43 PM UTC

Bennet, White House Unveil New Education Reforms

  • 14 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

An ambitious proposal from most of the Senate’s top leaders on education policy and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, as McClatchy reports today:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a group of Democratic senators this morning embraced a slate of education reforms that move away from rigid testing and toward flexibility for local school districts…

Part of the push is to re-vamp No Child Left Behind, the landmark Bush-era legislation that focused on closing the achievement gap for minority children, but also has been lambasted by parents and educators as too narrowly focused on testing.

“I’ve heard for years from principals and teachers that this does not work,” said U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat who, along with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, helped lead the effort to develop the principles. “The stale arguments of yesterday are impeding change, and the same-old, same-old is too late.”

Hagan said new legislation must encourage all progress – recognizing, for example, when a teacher helps a 5th grader, for example, move up from a 3rd-grade reading level to a 4th-grade reading level.

Now, testing focuses primarily on whether children are at or below grade level.

There’s quite a bit to this proposal, including better testing methods, retention of new teachers, flexible approaches to meeting academic targets, and prioritization of funding for the lowest-performing districts in individual states. And yes, it includes more of the competitive “Race to the Top” style grants for states who submit education reform plans.

We know that the convoluted process of awarding these grants in previous years, and Colorado’s failure to win the competition despite significant reform measures like last year’s Senate Bill 191, has left a bad taste in a lot of local mouths. But there’s no question we could still use the money; and one would hope these reforms, local and federal, would factor as well.

Additionally, we haven’t seen any signs to indicate this is a backroom subversion of everything good and decent in the world, as seems to frequently be charged when the name Michael Bennet is mentioned with “education.” We realize this won’t put a stop to the, um, theories.

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14 thoughts on “Bennet, White House Unveil New Education Reforms”

  2. Effective school reform efforts invites attacks from all sides. But they’re stepping up to address the most important issue this country faces long term. They both deserve a major thank you.

    2. from one of President Obama’s more vocal supporters in 2008 – Matt Damon.

      When asked if he was happy with the way the President is running the country, Damon said, point blank, “no.”

      “I really think he misinterpreted his mandate. A friend of mine said to me the other day, I thought it was a great line, ‘I no longer hope for audacity,'” Damon said. “He’s doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education… the idea that we’re testing kids and we’re tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We’re training them, not teaching them.


      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

      And when the President is allowing ‘reformers’ like Bennet and Duncan to take the lead, they call for school closures, increased testing, and other brilliant ideas that make no sense whatsoever:


      Sunday, February 27, 2011

      Arne Duncan and Bill Gates: Dumb and Dumber

      On Saturday, Arne Duncan warned governors about ‘dumb’ education cuts and then suggested even dumber cuts, like increasing class size:



      “Duncan also said that states should think selectively about increasing class sizes. The father of two grade-school-age children said he’d rather his kids be in a bigger class with a better teacher than a smaller class with a lousy one. He suggested teachers could get paid extra for getting a bigger class…”

      Now can anyone explain how that would help kids? Pay teachers more to teach more students, each of which would get less attention and and a lower quality of education? Talk about paying more for less.

      Meanwhile, the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the US Department of Education (which he heads) points out that class size reduction is one of only a handful of reforms that have been proven to work through rigorous evidence.

      http://www.politico.com/news/s…

      This argument is not going away – this is a fundamental assault on the Public Education system. If you think this is not related to Wisconsin, think again.

      The neocons and the few DINOs millionaires that are working alongside with them don’t care about the middle class being well educated.

      The primary is over, the fight has just begun.

      1. But they are doing this because the see how our educational system has been parked in failure for decades and they think their proposals are the best way forward.

        Disagree with what you think will work. But I think it’s unfair to say they are trying to destroy public education.

          1. Arne Duncan is not in favor of increasing class sizes.

            He is, however, thinking creatively in multiple ways, including how to deal with the reality of increasing class size.  

          2. Because we know continuing to operate as before will fail.

            We do know that the quality of the teacher has more impact on how well a student does than everything else combined (except the mother’s educational level – which again requires a better system). So are you going to be leading the fight to improve the quality of our teachers?

  3. The Race to the Top gambit resulted in Colorado passing legislation which depended on the Top  money to be implemented.  NO win.  NO money. Plan with no funding.

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