Excerpts from LA Times today by Christi Parsons:
Reporting from Madison, Wis. – Declaring there should be “no excuse for mediocrity” in public schools, President Obama on Wednesday pledged to push for recruitment of better teachers, better pay for those who succeed and dismissal of those who let their students down.
When principals are trying to determine which teachers are doing well, he said, they should be able to consider student performance as part of the evaluation.
And when schools are failing, “they should be shut down,” Obama said. “But when innovative public schools are succeeding, they shouldn’t be stifled, they should be supported.”
The president’s tough words came as Obama spoke to students and teachers at a charter middle school in Wisconsin’s capital, Madison. But as he announced the criteria by which states can win grants from the Department of Education’s $4.35-billion “Race to the Top” fund, Obama spelled out standards that depart from conventional Democratic dogma.
Obama called for the abolition of “firewall” rules, which prevent many schools from judging teacher performance based on student performance.
To win the grant money, they’ll also have to develop internationally competitive standards, find innovative ways to recruit educators and track the progress of students to make sure every child graduates ready for college.
“If a state wants to increase its chances of actually winning a grant, it will have to do more,” Obama said. “It will have to collect information about how students are doing in a particular year — and over the course of an academic career — and make this information available to teachers so they can use it to improve the way they teach. That’s how teachers can determine what they should be doing differently in the classroom. That’s how principals can determine what changes need to be made in our schools.”
November 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Words are one thing, actions are another. I’m all for fighting the teachers’ unions but we’ll see how serious Obama actually is on this.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
I don’t like much of what the President stands for, but thusfar he’s been with us on this.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Loons….daft loons….
Messiah, The Enlightened One is all double talk….he will bring billions and billions more money to education while preaching educational excellence…..follow the money loons….unions will gain more power and teachers will be making 125k for nine months indoctrinating your soon to be serf illiterate children!!!!
How many times do you have to be hit over the head by socialists ala Democrats….but maybe you have in public school educated yourself and have a analytical handicap….sorry…
November 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Robert, as much as I appreciate your single mindedness (you would have been great as the first guy out of the trench at the Somme), it is instructive to realize the Democrats and their allies are hardly any more singled minded, with a single policy sheet, than we are. In fact, one of the great fault lines in the Democrat Party is education reform, and many of the state legislative races in the Democrat Primaries are fought over just that. If you look at some of the people around the President on education reform, a number of them are on our side of the fence.
It’s always better to exploit their own divisions, rather than ignore them. Its a way to win elections.
Hark, I think I hear a whistle blowing! Robert, time to get out of the trench and start walking forward. The officers tell us all the Germans will be dead, so take your time.