An Open Letter To President-Elect Obama And The 111th Congress
Congratulations on your victory, we look forward to being served by you. You have all worked hard to earn the trust of the people and garner their votes. Soon you will be convening in Washington to craft policy that will improve and preserve democracy in our country.
There are many challenges ahead of you: curing a sick economy, managing two wars overseas, helping Americans keep their homes, to name a few, and we here at Education Insights know that this will keep you busy for quite some time.
However we must add to your long and daunting "to do" list the task of improving the educational system in our country. Every sector from Pre-K to college needs improvement, so while you are thinking hard between sessions, we would like to give you our own modest assignment to tackle before you ascend Capitol Hill or take office at the White House.
Public Agenda is in the unique position of being equipped to provide you not only with a list of ideas but also with a healthy dose of public thought.
You no doubt heard much of the public's thoughts during your campaign, but we have carefully gathered public opinion on a variety of issues and would like to share our resources with you.
Teachers
The Obama Administration has made it clear that getting good teachers into schools is a top priority. The ranks of teachers need to be filled, and the teachers need to be better trained and mentored. Our report "Stand By Me: What Teachers Really Think about Unions, Merit Pay and Other Professional Matters," offers a chance to get a look at what teachers themselves think, and their views are more textured and complex than many assume.
For example, most teachers support standardized testing, high school exit exams, and using testing as a basis for promotion. At the same time, most are concerned about the amount of testing and the danger that too much "teaching to the test" can stifle real learning. Similarly, teachers support higher academic standards, and very few want to return to policies of the past such as social promotion. Yet, most want standards set by educators, and not by state or local elected officials.
Lawmakers are legitimately concerned about the need to remove ineffective teachers who "are just going through the motions," and they may be tempted to focus mainly on eliminating tenure or reducing the influence of teachers' unions. But the views of rank and file teachers suggest a more complex situation. Most teachers say that without unions, their working conditions and salaries would be worse, and they might be vulnerable to unfair charges from parents or students. Yet, nearly half say unions sometimes protect teachers who shouldn't be in the classroom, and most acknowledge that receiving tenure is no guarantee that teachers have proved their effectiveness in the classroom.
"Stand By Me" also offers insights helpful to those trying to insure that new teachers start off on the right foot. Teachers believe the rookies among them need more training on how to handle discipline problems. The newbies themselves see reducing class size and requiring high school teachers to major in their subject as very effective ways to improve teacher quality.
Our latest series of teacher reports deals even more closely with new teachers. "Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long Range Plans," (see each part of the series, Issue I, Issue II and Issue III) offers a great deal of insight into how new teachers are trained, how they fare in their first year, and the distinctive challenges of middle and high school teachers.
New teachers are upfront about revealing they need more preparation, especially when it comes to dealing with more diverse classrooms and working with special needs students. New high-school and middle-school teachers are more likely to say they have problems with student discipline and are not getting support from the administration. Finally, new teachers from premier alternative programs such as Teach For America or Troops-To-Teachers are more idealistic than their traditional path counterparts, but often say they could use more preparation and support than they currently receive.
A Mission of the Heart: What Does It Take to Transform a School, which focuses on principals in high-needs schools, also provides food for thought. Most principals we interviewed fell into one of two distinct categories: they were either "transformers," with an explicit vision of what their school might be like and a specific plan for moving it forward, or they were "copers," just struggling to avoid being overwhelmed and make it through the day without the situation getting worse. It's a crucial and intriguing difference, and it could be an important key to transforming troubled schools.
Higher Education
Current economic woes threaten higher education in a variety of ways.
As Wall Street's woes increased, the size of many college and university endowments decreased, due to the declining value of many investments. Donors are also not immune to stock market fluctuations and economic problems and have less money to give schools. Students and their families are furthermore less likely to be able to afford college in a trying economy, and lenders are cagier about loaning money.
Unfortunately, studies here at Public Agenda suggest the picture was getting grim for the college-bound even before the bad news of the last few months. Our report, "Squeeze Play: How Parents and the Public Look at Higher Education Today," is required reading for legislators interested in a snapshot of public views on higher education.
Most people feel that a college education is virtually a right, something that should be provided to qualified students regardless of cost. Less than half of Americans believe that someone can succeed without a college education, and they believe that employers are less likely to hire individuals with a degree.
People still tend to believe that college offers a solid education but more than ever, they think qualified students don't have the opportunity. It is important to take action to reverse this sentiment which has been growing steadily for the past decade. Moreover, significant numbers of Americans question whether higher education is becoming too much like a business with diminishing focus on education itself.
Solving the challenges facing higher education today will require the participation of many stakeholders, not least among them the leaders of colleges and universities. In our report, "The Iron Triangle: College Presidents Talk About Costs, Access, and Quality," we find that university presidents for the most part see cost, quality and access as locked into an unbreakable reciprocal relationship.
In their view, the improvements that many Americans want to see, such as more opportunity for qualified students to go to school, cannot be made without resources. . College presidents believe that to increase access and decrease costs would mean sacrificing quality. They would like to see more government investment in higher education and improvements in K-12.
A stalemate among stakeholders appears all but certain unless steps are taken to encourage a more candid and probing dialogue about what it's going to take to build the kind of higher education system to U.S. needs for the future.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education (STEM)
Technology is king in our information economy, but the STEM fields may face a dwindling talent pool unless efforts to educate and recruit more young learners to the scientific ranks aren't stepped up. Our report, "Reality Check: Are Parents and Students Ready for More Math and Science?", takes a close look at the thoughts of parents on this subject. We also got a more focused look at the issue in the Midwest with a report called "Important But Not For Me: Parents and Students in Kansas and Missouri Talk about Math, Science and Technology Education."
Reality Check reveals that while math and science are on parents' radar as important topics, more than half of parents interviewed believe that math and science education in their own child's school is fine as it is, with nearly 7 in 10 parents of high school students saying this. Perhaps this is a misconception that lawmakers should address. Students themselves aren't that keen on math and computer skills, just half of them believe that strong math and science skills are absolutely essential.
Public Agenda has also taken a close look at the Hispanic population's relationship with Math and Science. In our report, "Out Before the Game Begins," we spoke with prominent leaders in science, business, and public service about what will be needed to help Hispanics - the nation's fastest growing population group - get involved in science, math, and engineering, as their presence will be greatly needed there.
The leaders we spoke with had many helpful insights and emphasized that many young Hispanics are poorly served by the education system, lack of strong English-language-learning program and a lack of important role models in the STEM fields. Combined, these hurdles make it difficult to encourage them to pursue science education.
In a partner report to "Out Before The Game Begins," Public Agenda analyzed and compiled our recent opinion survey findings presented it in "A Matter of Trust: Ten Key Insights from Recent Public Opinion Research on Attitudes About Education Among Hispanic Parents, Students and Young Adults." In this report, we found that Hispanic parents are more trusting of teachers and administrators and value college education even more than non-Hispanic parents. However, many believe the schools their children attend suffer from by a lack of resources and social problems such as violence in schools and high dropout rates.
Public Engagement
Finally, in tough times like these, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to afford all the things we might want, such as new facilities, new technology, or big pay raises for teachers. But this doesn’t mean we can’t do anything.
One of the greatest contributions new leadership can make is to create and support opportunities for the public to get involved through well-designed and moderated opportunities for citizen engagement and problem-solving.
In the summer of 2007, Public Agenda convened a meeting of foundation representatives and leaders of community-based organizations, to explore the relationship between philanthropy, community engagement and civic health, especially with respect to the specific case of education.
At the meeting, leaders addressed using a citizen-centered approach as a model to follow. Participants argued that it would be difficult for a school to remain unhealthy in a healthy community and likewise a healthy school would not last long in an unhealthy community. So while our economy may not be healthy, our communities don’t need to follow suit.
Another important insight that came from this meeting is that participants spoke about the potential for leaders to effect meaningful change.
We'll leave you with what we hope is an inspiring quote from that conference - - words we believe are a call to action for the leaders who have stepped forward at this time when we are facing so many critical challenges:
"Very few figures have the power to capture the imagination of citizens and really mobilize the public. Therefore it's important to capitalize on those moments when powerful leaders step up and say they want to engage citizens."
