President Obama Sees Deeper Learning in Action

On Thursday, May 9, President Obama went to Austin, Texas, to talk about jobs, skills, and opportunity. His first stop was a school: Manor New Tech High School. That was no accident. As the President put it, “Every day, this school is proving that every child has the potential to learn the real-world skills they need to succeed in college and beyond.”

He was right. Manor (pronounced May-nor) New Tech is part of the New Tech Network, a group of 115 schools in eighteen states that are designed to foster students’ abilities to understand core content and use their knowledge to think critically and solve problems, and to communicate effectively—the deeper learning competencies that are essential for their future. The school, like the others in the network, accomplishes this goal by integrating technology into every classroom and engaging students in a project-based approach that enables them to apply their learning to authentic situations.

President Obama mentioned some of these projects in his address: “A history teacher might get together with a science teacher to develop a project on the impact of castles in world history and the engineering behind building castles. Or a group of students might be in charge of putting together a multi-media presentation about moral dilemmas in literature as applied in World War II.” In addition, as the President noted, students take part in internships, which give them hands-on experiences in real work settings, and give as many as 200 speeches during their school career, which develops their communications skills. “I can relate,” Mr. Obama quipped. Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements April 4, 2012

Happy Wednesday. It’s the middle of the week and hopefully today is going smoothly for you. Just because, go out and treat yourself to something nice. You’ve earned it. Here is our special treat to you: your daily morning announcements. Enjoy!

Parents in Chicago are urging for a longer school day for their children, but just how long the school day should be is up for debate. The Chicago Tribune reports that those who are pushing for a 6 1/2 hour school day have met with Chicago Public Schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard in recent days to explain their opposition to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed 7 1/2 hour-school day.

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Obama Releases Fiscal Year 2013 Budget

Released this morning at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia, President Obama's budget for Fiscal Year 2013 proposes $47 billion in discretionary spending (excluding Pell Grants) for the U.S. Department of Education, an increase of 3.8 percent over the current funding level of $45.3 billion.

"We ... know that education and lifelong learning will be critical for anyone trying to compete for the jobs of the future," Obama wrote in the message that accompanied the budget. "That is why I will continue to make education a national mission. What one
learns will have a big impact on what he or she earns: the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is only about half the national average, and the incomes of college graduates are twice as high as those without a high school diploma."

According to the U.S. Department of Education Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Summary and Background Information document, the three major initiatives for Fiscal Year 2013 are (1) improving affordability and quality in postsecondary education; (2) elevating the teaching profession to the same high status it enjoys in nations with the highest-performing education systems, and (3) strengthening the connections between school and work and better aligning job training programs with workforce demands. 

[Photo via Washington Post]

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Stats that Stick: January 25, 2012

In honor of the State of the Union Address, we bring you facts about this year's speech delivered by President Barack Obama. This was President Obama's third State of the Union Address (the speech during the first year of the presidency is not considered a State of the Union address). The speech was thirteen pages long and lasted exactly 65 minutes.

Average estimated grade level of the State of the Union speeches delivered by President Obama: 8.4

According to the University of Minnesota's Smart Politics, the President's speech rated at an 8th grade reading level based on the Flesch-Kincaid test. The test measures longer sentences and sentences utilizing words with more syllables to produce high scores. Shorter sentences and sentences with more monosyllabic words have lower scores. The test assesses the level of readability of written text through a formula that translates the score to a U.S. grade level. President Obama's score from last night's address was the third lowest score since 1934.

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In State of the Union Address, Obama Stresses Education, Calls for Mandatory School Attendance Until Age 18

During his State of the Union address on January 24, President Obama stressed the importance of education in driving the U.S. economy and called on states to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.

"When students aren't allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma," Obama said. 

Although he did not directly mention a revamp of the No Child Left Behind Act, he did discuss more flexibility for states and changes to testing.

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State of the Union Bingo 2012: Download Your Bingo Card and Watch the State of the Union Address on January 24

On Tuesday, January 24, at 9:00 p.m. EST, President Barack Obama will give the 2012 State of the Union address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

The State of the Union address allows the president to report on the condition of the nation, but also gives him a national stage on which to outline his legislative agenda for the coming year.

Will President Obama's legislative agenda in 2012 include education reform? The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), is ten years old and is long overdue for a revamp. Both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are considering legislation to rewrite NCLB, but few people expect a final bill to reach the president's desk in 2012.

Will the president use the State of the Union address to urge Congress to speed up its work on revamping NCLB? Or will he stick to more general themes linking education to better outcomes for individuals and the nation? Will he even mention education at all? (We're betting that he will.)

To help you keep track of these and other issues, the Alliance for Excellent Education has brought back its popular State of the Union Bingo cards.

Click "Read entire post" below to access the Bingo cards.

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Afternoon Announcements: December 20, 2011

Good afternoon. The Alliance brings you seasons greetings, holiday cheer, and education news. Enjoy!

A large focus for education reform experts has been minimizing the achievement gap that exists between White and Asians students and their non-White counterparts. Education Week reports on the existence of a diffrent type of achievement gap often overlooked. According to new data, African-American students whose primary language is English perform worse on math and reading than Blacks who speak a different language at home.

Just how vital are scholarships? In 1988, two philanthropists give college scholarships to a group of fifth graders from Maryland and their journeys were chronicled by The Washington Post magazine. Learn just how critical scholarship aid is to education and personal development as brought to you by NPR.

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"Storm" Looming Over Washington, DC Could Impact Nation's Schoolchildren

In the video to the left, Alliance President Bob Wise explains how competing "storms" around education reform in Washington, DC, could impact the educational futures of the nation's schoolchildren.

In this "weather report," Gov. Wise discusses two looming "storm" systems. The first, led by President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, is focused on providing waivers and greater flexibility to states from key requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act. The other, underway in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, is about rewriting No Child Left Behind, but will require Democrats and Republicans working together on a compromise.

In the coming weeks, Gov. Wise will report on whether the Senate and House of Representatives can come together on a bill that could be sent to the White House and outflank the waiver option. "If no agreement is made, then the waiver option could overwhelm the Congress, pushing them out of the picture completely and controlling the education atmosphere in Washington, DC until after the next presidential election," Wise says.

Learn more in the Alliance's federal policy news section.

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Afternoon Announcements--November 28, 2011

Today's top education headlines come to you courtesy of the Alliance's policy intern, Bill DeBaun:

We have a veritable ton of education news to share with you today. We hope you made your Thanksgiving leftover sandwich extra big today, because it's going to take you a while to sift through all the happenings from the past few days!

The New York Times and The Huffington Post both offer takes on what the Congressional super committee's failure to strike a deal means for education. The long story short is that automatic cuts to a variety of education programs will trigger in 2013 unless Congress intercedes. Cuts to Pell grants, special education funding, and general Title I funding will all be made in the 2012-2013 school year. This will compound budget crunches in states across the nation.

US News and World Report reports on Pathways in Technology Early College High School in New York City, a six-year high school program that sees students graduate with a diploma, associate's degree, and job opportunities. The school is a partnership between IBM, the New York City Department of Education, and the City University of New York. Students who graduate from "P-Tech" will be "'at the front of the line' to be hired for entry-level positions at the company, according to Stanley Litow, IBM Foundation president." Students from any of New York's five boroughs can apply to matriculate to P-Tech.

 

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Morning Announcements: September 9, 2011

In his address before Congress yesterday evening, President Barack Obama laid out a jobs plan that included plans for $30 billion in new money to stave off teacher layoffs, along with another $30 billion to revamp decaying school facilities and community colleges. The proposals are a part of the Americans Jobs Act – a $447 billion legislative package expected to be introduced into Congress next week – that Obama told lawmakers to pass “right away.” According to Education Week, K-12 schools could get up to $25 billion for renovations, which administration officials estimate could pay for makeovers of at least 35,000 public schools. That construction money could be used for emergency repairs and renovations, energy efficiency updates, and asbestos removal. Schools also could use the money to build new science and computer labs, and to update technology. These proposals have greatly pleased America’s two largest teachers unions, according to the Huffington Post. Read Entire Post