Education Secretary Duncan is touring the US to listen and learn about NCLB. Invite him to your school and share how NCLB affects you. Email him at Arne.Duncan@ed.gov
Read more about the “Listening and Learning” tour at:
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/05/05052009.html
This Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will begin the "Listening and Learning: A Conversation About Education Reform" tour with three events in West Virginia. In the coming months, Duncan will travel to 15 or more states to solicit feedback from a broad group of stakeholders around federal education policy in anticipation of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The tour will gather input on the Obama administration's education agenda, including early childhood, higher standards, teacher quality, workforce development and higher education. On Tuesday's trip, Duncan will travel with West Virginia State Superintendent Steven Paine, First Lady and State School Board Member Gayle Manchin, and Berkeley School District Superintendent Manny Arvon.
"The primary purpose of the Listening and Learning tour is to have a national dialogue about how to best deliver a complete and competitive education to all children—from cradle through career," Duncan said. "We want to hear directly from people in the classroom about how the federal government can support educators, school districts and states to drive education reform. Before crafting education law in Washington, we want to hear from people across America—parents, teachers and administrators—about the everyday issues and challenges in our schools that need our national attention and support."
Other states targeted for potential events include Michigan; Vermont; California; Montana; Wyoming; New Jersey; Tennessee; North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Ohio; Indiana; Florida; Utah; and Alaska. Additional states and events may be added during the course of the tour.
Duncan wants to ensure that he visits a mix of rural, urban, suburban and ethnically diverse districts, and hears from a broad range of stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, administrators and community and business leaders. Specific events will vary from small group private meetings to large public forums.
The meetings and events will be taped, and reports and video summaries will be published on the Department's Website, www.ed.gov. Duncan said the tour will "help launch an open, honest conversation about education reform, because this issue touches everybody in America.
"Education is not just an economic issue," he said, it's a moral issue. It's the civil rights issue of our generation. We have an obligation to give every child in America an education that helps them succeed in their career and fulfill their role as active and involved citizens."
Saturday, May 09, 2009
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I've not encountered the “Five Other Solids” terminology previously. But I do instantly recognize it as a significant missing element of our current curriculum.
Me, a pre sputnik K-12 student fortunately missed the obsession with reading and math. The pre sputnik classrooms had all that other stuff, stuff which many students other than the mathematically gifted survived in and sometimes excelled. But the curriculum was sufficiently broad to allow almost all students to find a collection of courses they could realistically pass, encouraging most to stay through graduation in large part because graduation was realistically obtainable. The focus on math and science unfortunately also created an opportunity to support the concept that mathematical and science special skills are culturally superior. This concept has been institutionalized and nationalized by No Child Left Behind testing. I strongly encourage the K-12 curriculum be returned to the reading, writing, arithmetic and the “Five Other Solids” all equally represented, all equally funded and all equally part of the graduation requirements. Please note arithmetic is not advanced math. I strongly encourage the concept that advanced math is a special talent just as artistry, musical skills, writing skills are viewed as special talents. Special talents I argue will emerge from the pool of well and broadly educated K-12 graduates. Course selection, as done in the pre sputnik era, in the 9 - 12 area from all areas, reading, writing arithmetic and the “Five Other Solids” will allow development of special talents across the board in preparation for whatever path of life the graduate chooses.
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