Human geography is a division of geography that concentrates on the examination of patterns and progressions that have an effect on human interface with an assortment of atmospheres.
It takes in human, political, cultural, social, and economic characteristics.
While the most important focus of human geography is not the physical geography of the Earth, it is scarcely probable to converse human geography exclusive of signifying to the physical landscape on which human behaviors are being played out, and environmental geography is budding as a association between the two.
Human geography can be separated into scores of extensive categories, such as: cultural, development, economic, health, historical and time, political and geopolitical, population, demography, religion, social, transportation, tourism.
Urban brings an addition to behavioral, feminist, culture, and geosophy.
In this article I will relay the changes in geographical education reform with the articles I found outlining the events. 1.
National Leaders Urge Obama to Address Education Crisis CER Press Release Washington, DC January 26, 2009 "Today the Center for Education Reform is distributing to every federal and state lawmaker in the country a monograph of recommendations that the national group is confident can help guide government leaders to improve our nation's schools.
Such recommendations suggest a new role for the U.S.
Department of Justice in policing school choice, a national imperative to have student level data on a daily basis for every child, a rejection of the appalling performance of too many teachers and a call for every school to abandon their central districts and to behave like charter schools. While others propose that the global economic crisis and a matrix of threats to our national security must lead the Obama Administration's long list of priorities, this brief but commanding booklet argues that fixing public education is hands down the most leveraged domestic policy opportunity of our time. Utterly refreshing in its approach, Mandate for Change does not spend a lot of time diagnosing the causes of our current afflictions.
Instead, it moves immediately to prescribe a five-part cure made all the more compelling by the star power of its authors and their basic insights into the key issues at hand: Juan Williams - Federal Accountability Honorable John M.
Engler - Transparency Honorable Kevin P.
Chavous - Charter Schools Jeanne Allen - School Choice Richard Whitmire - Teacher Quality Each of these five themes is taken up in a separate essay that aims to simply and succinctly present uncommon solutions outlining what we need to do and what we need to avoid.
As the editor writes in the introduction, "the challenge at hand - as we have accepted it in these pages - is to focus on what matters most and to provide actionable recommendations that leaders in government can move today to implement."" The "Mandate for Change" venture is meant at intensifying the Obama supervision at a time when the need for liberal guidelines-and employing succeeding people to be in charge of such labors-is for the most part pressing. Chester Hartman, an IPS associate fellow and the founding Executive Director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, custom-built and abridged an array of essays for the Mandate for Change Project.
The tome offers a set of specific policy propositions for the latest administration on every foremost domestic and international subject matter, written exclusively for the book by primary thinkers and campaigners. This path-breaking book materialized just as the post-election deliberation about concerns took off.
Just as audacious change was unconventional in the United States in the 1930s, the country faces a phase where deep-seated change is probable.
Just as FDR's New Deal was made achievable by resourceful coordination from unions and grassroots societies, once again it will be fervent coalitions of citizen groups engaging in a bold line up that can compel more vital change on a new administration. I'd give more view on each subject matter of the book but I do not have it to review. 2.
Statement on Education and the Economic Stimulus by Jeanne Allen Washington, DC February 14, 2009 "Center for Education Reform president Jeanne Allen made the following statement concerning Friday's 60-38 Senate vote completing the passage of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion economic stimulus package: "While the economic stimulus may provide jobs for some Americans and make available to states an infusion of funds to shore up their budget deficits, by and large, the education portion of the package misses the mark by a wide margin.
Student achievement, the purpose of our nation's schools, is not an explicit or implicit requirement of the new stimulus spending for education, which mainly provides an immediate influx of funding for the construction of new school facilities and the preservation of teachers' jobs, even for those who fail our children on a daily basis. "While states bear the primary responsibility of making policy changes that could dramatically improve student achievement - from performance based compensation to creating new choices for children - the federal government could have created incentives for states to make necessary changes in law that often fail because of opposition from powerful interest groups. "Until Congress and the Administration make a commitment to change more than just the façade of our public schools and to relieve our students of the status quo shackle of ineffective education policies, the economic revival so sorely needed in America will, sadly, be a long time in coming"" More information about The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: It was an economic stimulus package endorsed by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009.
The Act pursued other economic recovery legislation approved in the final year of the Bush presidency together with the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which produced the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). The transactions are evidently worth $787 billion.
The Act take account of federal tax cuts, development of unemployment benefits and other social welfare rations, and domestic expenses in education, health care, and communications, including the energy division.
The Act also includes abundant non-economic recuperation associated items that were either part of longer-term plans or preferred by Congress 3.
President Appears to Mandate Change in Education CER Press Release Washington, DC March 10, 2009 "The President today used his bully pulpit to bring national attention to the failure of America's public education system to serve our children well.
While applauding this necessary and forceful call for improvement, the nation's leading reform group argues that change will not come without a battle.
In order to get it right, reform needs to be prescribed in a particular way. Specifically, the President addressed the importance of teacher quality and charter schools, two hallmarks of successful reform efforts examined in Mandate for Change, a monograph of education policy recommendations from the Center for Education Reform (CER) to the Obama Administration. "The President echoes our calls to lift the cap on charters and ensure their autonomy and accountability," says CER president Jeanne Allen. The history of charter school accountability over time is outlined in CER's latest publication, The Accountability Report: Charter Schools. In his Mandate for Change essay, former D.C.
Councilman Kevin Chavous says one of the leading causes of bad charter schools is a bad charter law.
However, he further cautions that their autonomy is the first target of traditional public school opposition and the special interests President Obama maintains we must be above. Special interests have also traditionally blocked the path to improvements in teacher quality, another key component of the President's education plan.
"His recommended federal teacher incentives, while helpful, will not lead to the substantive change he's looking for," says Samuel Casey Carter, editor of Mandate for Change and author of the book No Excuses, "Teacher quality can't change without changing teacher contracts, which protect the very system the President says 'rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences.' He must take that on. While the President this morning painted with broad strokes of the brush, he will face opposition on the details of his plan.
Mandate for Change prescribes a succinct five-part approach that he and his Administration would be wise to wield in their defense as they enter the fray." No Republicans in the House and merely three Republican Senators nominated for the bill.
The bill was signed into law on February 17 by President Obama at an economic debate he was hosting in Denver, Colorado. As of the end of August 2009, 19% of the stimulus had been expended or gone to American taxpayers or business in the manner of tax reductions. The Center For Educational Reform has thoroughly studied, for more than 15 years, what is effective and what is not effective regarding policies that don't have much to with student achievement.
What is looked at in having possible effect on the improvement of children's educational outcomes are school choice, transparency, accountability, teacher quality and charter schools. Charter schools in forty states plus the District of Columbia are the best areas to see the above issues being performed.
Being that they are not bound to the majority of rules and regulations that govern typical public schools. The first charter school law was passed in Minnesota in 1991 with the basic idea of giving parents and teachers freedom of choice to permit schools to operate with freedom and flexibility.
If they failed, they were closed.
In which makes them in the need to forth going in effort to remain open.
Meaning that they are required to set and meet high academic standards, plus meet or exceed the state in which they operates proficiency requisites.
These schools are consistently eagle-eyed with scrutiny by teachers unions, the media and law makers. Since the first charter school opened eighteen years ago, signalized information shows charter schools outdoing their public school peer counterparts with less resources and higher obstacles.
Charter schools are relevantly being held accountable for the notable results. It is best determined that charter schools are re-investing public education when taking into consideration the results of student achievement and data from closed charter schools respectively in forty of the fifty states including the District of Columbia.
The states with firm charter school laws make the most recognized gains.
The others, inevitably, closed due to under-performance. The academic advancement of students can be fully understood by local and state-level assessments in absence of objective and longitudinal studies. Currently, thirty of the forty states plus D.C.
allow a better analogical look at charter school success but with more in-depth research still needed to track individual progress of students as they begin to attend a charter school More positive results appear when parents are given a choice. Performance-based accountability is the function of charter schools. Of the 5,250 plus charter schools to have ever opened, 657 closed for various reasons such as financial deficiencies due to less than minimal student enrollment or inadequate funding.
Twenty-seven percent closed due to mismanagement.
Charter schools that have the inability to be financially viable or to operate effectively are first to be noticed before they begin to fail academically. For "Fast Facts" about each state and where they sit on a A-F grading, visit http:https://www.edreform.com/download/CER_2009_AR_Charter_Schools.pdf 4.
Making Good on the Promise CER Press Release Washington, D.C.
May 15, 2009 In advance of the 55th anniversary of Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Jeanne Allen, President of the Center for Education Reform, released the following statement: "Brown v.
Board was a defining milestone that promised all of our children access to a quality education regardless of their race or socio-economic background.
Fifty-five years later, while we've made tremendous progress, we can't rest on our laurels.
We must continue to work to make good on this promise to our children." "Tomorrow, as parents, students, and advocates join together at the White House Ellipse to call for more action to close the achievement gap, we can look to programs that are working to achieve this goal as a model for our work.
Programs like the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program that today gives more than 1,700 students in DC access to some of the best schools in the nation." "However, after sitting in on two days of Congressional hearings about the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, I am struck that there are those who are still trying to kill this vital program.
The program is a part of the important work to fulfill the promise made in Brown v.
Board.
Not only can we not let this program die, we must expand it to reach more students in the District." The Oliver L.
Brown et.
al.
v.
the Board of Education of Topeka (KS) was a significant turning point in the judicial growth of our country when in 1954, the U.S.
Supreme Court decided that discrimination in racial segregation, ".
.
.violates the 14th amendment to the U.S.
constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws." The case was more than just about children and education.
Moreover, it concerned the human tendencies to harbor pre-judgment, discriminate against, and stereotype people based on ethnicity, religion, physical limitations, and/or cultural regard. Alas, there have been myths and misconceptions pertaining to the case.
Such as that the case was not the first to challenge school segregation and that since 1849, African Americans have filed against the education system.
Or, that Oliver Brown was one of the NAACP cases presented to the Supreme Court in 1951. The case itself headed educational and social reform and helped launch the modern Civil Rights movement. What's to be known about this case is the fact that is a combination of five cases: Belton v.
Gebhart (Bulch v.
Gebhart), Brown v.
Board of Education, Briggs v.
Elliot, Davis v.
County School Board of Prince Edward County, and Bolling v.
C.
Melvin Sharpe.
All of the cases revolving around the subject matters concerning inferior conditions of African American schools, segregated elementary schools based on population, school accommodation based on student population, and denial of academic admittance. 5.
Federal Money Will Follow Charter Success, Says Duncan CER Press Release Washington, DC June 22, 2009 The success and undisputed acceptance of charter schools as critical for public education reform is clear today, just 18 years after the first charter law was passed. At the 9th Annual Charter Schools Conference, Education Secretary Arne Duncan demonstrated this acceptance and challenged the gathered advocates to make all public education better: "Sadly, investing in the status quo will not get us where we need to go.
With unprecedented money, must come unprecedented reform," said Duncan, who promises to review whether or not states effectively foster charter school growth in order to determine their eligibility for further federal stimulus dollars. But while applauding charter schools, Duncan cautioned about failing charters, buying into recent, questionable study results released by a Stanford University based research institution last week.
Though critical, the source and cause of failed charters is not, as Duncan and others believe, a matter simply of bad school leadership or composition, but oftentimes of failed laws and policies that allow such schools to stay open.
This is validated regularly by the unique data collected by the Center for Education Reform (CER). Today, some 12% of all charter schools ever opened have been closed for cause, demonstrating that laws are working in many of the strongest charter states.
School success follows authorizer success.
Stringent entry standards, imposed by authorizers as a result of laws such as those implemented in DC, Minnesota and California, ensure the success of charter schools in those states. "Until we face the complex relationship between laws and the quality and success of schools, and ensure that all laws contain the necessary components - independent authorizers held accountable for results, real equity funding, and operational autonomy - no level of federal endorsement or funding will make a difference," says CER president Jeanne Allen. The news that on June 15th, 2009, students in charter schools were not faring as well as their public school student counterparts was founded by The Center Of Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University.
The findings revealed that seventeen percent of charter schools had reported academic gains that bested their public schools and that thirty-seven percent had gains that were worse compared to their counterparts, while forty-six percent had no reliable difference in gains. The success of students academically was a result of the individual state policy environment.
Caps that limit the number of charter schools in each state have a markedly lower academic outcomes than those states without caps.
Where multiple charter school authorities are present, lower academic results followed.
Additionally, states that have charter legislation that allow for appeals of denied applications to attend a charter school have an increase in student performance. This report is titled, "Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States." It was the first detailed report of the national assessment of charter schools and their impacts regarding longitudinal, student-level analysis.
That which covers more than seventy percent of the students attending our nations charter schools.
The analysis takes into account the growth in states achievement tests in reading and math from fifteen states plus the District of Columbia.
The data can determine whether or not these students would have achieved better had they'd been enrolled in a traditional public school. "The issue of quality is the most pressing problem that the charter school movement faces, " says Dr.
Margaret Raymond, director of CREDO at Stanford University. Several key positive findings were that students of lower income had both a larger and more positive effect, English Language Learning students had a significantly higher gain, and special education students fared better as well.
What's more is that the report noted students doing better the longer they remained in a charter school. "If the supporters of charters schools fail to address the quality challenge, they run the risk of having it addressed for them," says Dr.
Raymond, " If the charter school movement is to flourish, a deliberate and sustainable effort to increase the proportion of high quality schools is essential .
.
.
On the other hand of the equation, however, authorizers, charter school advocates and policymakers must be willing and able to fulfill their end of the original charter school bargain, which is accountability in exchange for flexibility." The full report can be read at http:https://credo.stanford.edu 6.
Congress Rejects Successful DC Schools Program CER Press Release July 9, 2009 "Led by Senior Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the full Appropriations Committee today moved to full Senate consideration a bill terminating the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program after the 2009-10 school year and reducing funds for those currently in the program. "While this Congress and the Obama Administration took control in January promising they would restore sanity to Washington and reject business as usual, their actions on this program speak louder than their words," said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) offered facts and data to support the DC choice program while Subcommittee Chair Durbin stated inaccurately that the program does not work.
Sen.
Durbin also misquoted stats on DC's community of more than 90 highly impacting charter schools, calling for one fourth to close when, in fact, those charters are actually educating successfully children lagging behind when they come in. "Sen.
Durbin and others have one interest - serving the national unions who are threatened by reform," remarked Ms.
Allen." The Center for Education Reform drives the creation of better educational opportunities for all children.
CER changes laws, minds and cultures to allow good schools to flourish." Also known as the D.C.
Voucher program, D.C.
OSP offers school choice to low-income families scholarships to children in grades K-12 in non-public schools within District boundaries with a maximum of $7500 per child in families at or below 185% pf the federal poverty level.
The one requirement is that families re-apply each year to determine eligibility. This program was designed as a five-year program in 2003.
It was extended in 2008 for an additional year.
Parents and supporters continue to work to extend the program past the 2009-2010 school year. If families are not qualified for this program, they can opt to qualify for a secondary program titled the Signature Scholarship program that has a maximum scholarship allowance of $3000 per child in a family at or below 270% of the federal poverty level with the same requirement of re-applying yearly for eligibility. 7.
Heading Back to School, U.S.
Students Face Continued Crisis CER Press Release Washington, DC August 25, 2009 As students all over the country head back to school this year, what is their likelihood of succeeding?
A quick look at four recent indicators of school success - and attitudes surrounding it - is cause for concern: Lagging Internationally - The U.S.
still trails other countries in international comparisons.
In reading, students in Italy, Hungary, Russia and Hong Kong outperformed U.S.
fourth grade students, who remain in the lower quarter among all participating countries.
Math scores, while improving, have not caught up with Asian countries, and U.S.
15 year olds are less successful in applying their skills than students in most other OECD countries.
Lagging at home - ACT scores for the last year of test takers have not changed either, with only 23% of students who take the test meeting standards in all 4 subjects tested.
A nearly 5-point gap remains between whites and blacks, whose college readiness stands at 4%.
SAT scores, released today, will tell a similar story.
Americans' attitudes - Ongoing poll results show that most Americans know very little about the problems plaguing their own schools, and those of the nation as a whole, and show even less understanding of common sense reforms that can help fix the problem.
The new PDK/Gallup poll due out tomorrow is expected to show that while increasing numbers of Americans support education reforms, they still believe the problems are largely in someone else's community. As Americans fight the continued economic crisis and try to bolster their country's competitive edge, the educational crisis that persists threatens both." 8.
Parents' Primary Job: Choosing the Best Education for Their Child CER Press Release Washington DC September 28, 2009 Experts agree that parents need more opportunities to make good choices if they are to succeed in educating their children, their primary job.
While schools can - and must - play a large role in a child's life, its parent power that can make all the difference when it comes to whether or not one has access to effective or ineffective schools." The Center for Education Reform is pleased to present the inaugural issue of its new Parent Power!
Series of publications aimed at parents concerned about their child's education and searching for more than what they are traditionally offered.
Based on the maxim that information is power, Parent Power!
seeks to provide parents with the knowledge necessary to improve their child's education. Know Your Choices: Sowing the Seeds of Education Reform, the series' first installment, shares with parents the full range of school choice throughout the country, from vouchers and scholarships to charter schools and virtual learning. "Too many parents feel they have no choice but to accept a poor situation as 'just the way it is,'" says Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform.
"Parent Power!
provides families with a strong starting point - a window to the options available to them - which they can use to challenge the system for the better for their own child or for all kids." It's routine that when enrolling a child in a public school, it's based in accordance to where they live.
Thanks to changes in both state and federal laws, parents no longer have to afford the costs of moving or enrolling their child into a private school.
Unless they feel that a move or a private school would benefit their child more in the long run.
I, for instance, don't feel that any of the education offered where I live currently is efficient enough for my kids.
Unfortunately the places I feel would be best for them, I can't afford to move to.
And there all out-of-state. The types of school choices that are currently in existence are private schools, charters school, virtual schools, home schooling, public choice, and private scholarship programs. We know of the first two.
Virtual school function the same as public schools only the teachers and students are not physically together and parents or other involving adults act as learning coaches for the at-home student.
This option is available in the following 21 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Home schooling us sanctioned by most state laws that recognize accepted programs and graduation benchmarks much in the same way traditional education is recognized. For more information, visit www.hslda.org Home schooling is supported in these following states: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Public school choice is viable within established school systems.
Allowing parents the choice of selected pubic school.
Some states not only allow but encourage students to cross districts.
Four-hour Arizona, Georgia, and Minnesota allow statewide open enrollment includingly post-secondary education options that let them take classes on a college level as well as receive college credits for completing these courses. States that support this option are; Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Private scholarships are given to low-income children with financial aid opportunities that help in the payment and cost portionaly of private school tuition. To find out if this option may be available to you, visit www.edreform.com/psp 9.
Lack of Math Proficiency Underscores the Need for School Options CER Press Release Washington, DC October 14, 2009 "American students are not being properly prepared to succeed in the global workforce and demonstrate slower progress than ever before in math proficiency, according to an evaluation of test scores under the Nation's Report Card (NAEP) released today. "It is a national disgrace that America's children are flat-lining when it comes to math performance," said Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform (CER).
"Year after year, the entrenched bureaucracies that control our nation's public education system fail to address the math learning crisis in America.
It is time for real reform.
After all, how can we hope to compete in an increasingly globalized society when a grasp of basic education keystones is literally slipping through our students' fingers?" For the first time in the assessment's history, fourth grade students showed no growth in math proficiency while eighth graders have shown only a slight up tick since 2003.
Results also illuminate a continued achievement gap amongst ethnic groups, further showcasing a need for dramatic reform of America's schools. "We remain a nation gravely at risk of failure when it comes to educating every child - especially those in need," says Jeanne Allen.
"When nearly 60 percent of our kids are not proficient in math, we must not blink before embracing meaningful reforms like teacher merit pay, stronger charter laws, and higher standards.
This is no longer a choice - it is a necessity" What the Nation's Report CardÔ informs the general public of is the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students within the U.S.
The findings are of the results concerning the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In 2009, samples were taken from 168,000 fourth-graders and 161,000 eighth-graders in the subject of mathematics.
Overall average for fourth-graders was reported to be unchanged since 2007.
Eighth-graders continued their 2-point increase in the time period of 2007-2009. In the categories of basic and proficient achievement levels, a similar pattern resulted.
Fourth-graders that performed at basic levels were at 82% and those at proficient levels, 39%.
Eighth-graders that performed at basic levels were at 73% and those at proficient levels, 34%. More information about student performance based ethnicity, public and private school settings, and other categorized groupings can be found at http:https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2009/2010451.pdf To ensure an appropriate leveling of content along with allowance of a variety of paths to knowing and doing mathematics, the framework of which the findings were based consisted of five mathematical content areas: number properties and operations, measurement, geometry, data analysis (statistics, and probability), and algebra. Representative samples involved 168,800 fourth-graders and 161,700 eighth-graders from a total of 16,540 schools (public schools, private, schools, Bureau of Indian Education schools, and Dept.
of Defense schools) were of whom who participated in the National Assessment.
Scores are given on a 0-500 scale with lower (10th-25th) percentile, middle (50th) percentile, and higher (75th-90th) percentile. 10.
Obama Administration Must Embrace Real Education Reform, Not Rhetoric Statement by Jeanne Allen, CER President November 4, 2009 "In response to President Barack Obama's remarks today on his Administration's education reform initiatives and Race to the Top competition, Center for Education Reform president Jeanne Allen released the following statement: Today, President Obama championed his administration's education reform initiatives in a Wisconsin speech, focusing on states that he claims are leading the charge for education reform. The Obama Administration has jumped on board the charter school bandwagon and, in doing so, is telling states they must do better and create or fix laws in order to compete for their share of $4.3 billion in federal "Race to the Top" funds. As admirable as the Obama administration's policy on charters may appear to be, the President and his Education Secretary are, too often, giving states credit for talking about charter schools rather than actually changing laws to improve the likelihood that children will have real school choice. For example, Education Secretary Arne Duncan's description of reforms in Tennessee, Rhode Island, Indiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Illinois has been misleading.
While the Secretary has said that 'numerous states have adopted reforms that would have been almost unthinkable a year ago,' this is simply not the case. No state cited in this popular mythology has revoked limits on the number of charters allowed to open this year.
Several, in fact, merely fulfilled budgetary promises of charter funding after having first wiped them off the books. In reality, most of the nation's 40 charter laws will need dramatic legislative changes to develop robust charter laws that actually allow for the growth of the types of schools both President Obama and Secretary Duncan routinely credit with raising academic achievement and turning around students' lives. We want to see states get bold and adopt strong charter laws - which everyone knows how to do, but often aren't courageous enough to buck the status quo, the unions, and even continued ignorance of what precisely a charter school is.
But that isn't happening.
For President Obama and his Education Secretary to claim victory before "Race" participants have even reached the starting gate is disappointing. It is time that President Obama and Secretary Duncan stop championing half measures and start demanding real results and bold changes in state laws." During a visit to Falls Church, VA, President Obama and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, talked to thirty 6th graders about an investment of more than a billion dollars to a budget that hopes to encourage understandable strategies that turn about student achievement, adopt rigorous and high quality student assessments, teacher evaluation, and professional development, as well as innovative and effective use of data systems to track students performance just as the school that the President visited ¾ Graham Road elementary. The budget is titled, "Race To The Top". "Last year, we set aside more than $4 billion to improve our schools -- one of the largest investments in reform in our nation's history.
But we didn't just hand this money out to states that wanted it; we challenged them to compete for it.
And it's the competitive nature of this initiative that we believe helps make it so effective.
We laid out a few key criteria and said if you meet these tests, we'll reward you by helping you reform your schools. First, we encouraged states to adopt more challenging standards that will actually prepare our kids for college and their careers.
We also encouraged schools to adopt better assessments -- not just one-size-fits-all approaches -- to measure what our kids know and what they're able to do. Second, we urged schools and school districts to make sure we have excellent principals leading our schools and great teachers leading our classes by promoting rigorous plans to develop and evaluate teachers and principals and by rewarding their success. Third, we urged states to use cutting-edge data systems to track a child's progress throughout their academic career, and to link that child's progress to their teachers so we know what's working and what's not working in the classroom.
Fourth, we encouraged states to show a stronger commitment to turning around some of their lowest-performing schools. And even before states have received a single dime of taxpayer money, many of them have committed to instituting important reforms to better position themselves for a Race to the Top grant.
Forty-eight states have now joined a nationwide partnership to develop a common set of rigorous, career-ready standards in reading and math.
Wisconsin has enacted legislation permitting schools to link student achievement to the performance of teachers and principals.
In Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, California, we've seen changes in laws or policies to let public charter schools expand and succeed.
These are public schools with more independence that are formed by teachers, parents, and community members. So by rewarding some of these states submitting applications today, by extending the Race to the Top for states, by launching a Race to the Top among school districts, and by applying the principles of Race to the Top to other federal programs, we'll build on this success.
We're going to raise the bar for all our students and take bigger steps towards closing the achievement gap that denies so many students, especially black and Latino students, a fair shot at their dreams." Essentially, Race To The Top asks states to improve reforms centering around four specific areas: Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy; Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction; Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and Turning around our lowest-achieving schools. http:https://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/index.cfm?year=2009&page=2 http:https://www.mandate4change.org/ http:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_RecThe American Recovery and Reinvestment Actovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009 http:https://brownvboard.org/summary/ http:https://www.washingtonscholarshipfund.org/programs/index.html http:https://credo.stanford.edu/reports/National_Release.pdf http:https://www.edreform.com/toolkit/parents.pdf http:https://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html http:https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/19/speeding-race-top
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