by Forum Conveners George Wood and Pedro Noguera

After the President’s State of the Union speech, speculation has begun about what will happen with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), most recently renamed No Child Left Behind.  Reports in the national press cite sources that the Obama administration is ready to address some of the most grievous problems in the current law.  That will be a good start, but we want to encourage the Administration and Congress to do more than fix a bad law – we want them to invest in public schools in ways that prepare every young person to use his or her mind well.

For the past week my school has been closed due to the snows that have made our roads unsafe for bus traffic.  This happens sometimes, and it starts the annual computing of when the last day of school will be.  It also started a rather telling conversation about global warming.

At the monthly pancake breakfast this past weekend a number of folks dug out of the snow and made it in for coffee, conversations, and too much to eat.  More than once some neighbor made a comment about the weather and global warming.  “So much for global warming,” or “Where’s Al Gore when we need him?” or “If the world’s heating up, why are my walks still frozen over?”

In the Dec. 14 issue of The New Yorker, physician Atul Gawande takes on one of the persistent critiques of the current health care debate:

“We crave sweeping transformation, however all the current bill offers is … pilot programs, a battery of small-scale experiments.  The strategy seems hopelessly inadequate to solve a problem of this magnitude.  And yet—here’s the interesting thing—history suggests otherwise.”

(Previously published in the Columbus Dispatch) 

The recent release of the Department of Education's Race to the Top application has me anxious and hopeful. On the one hand, we've been through a trying eight years of the failed No Child Left Behind Act. Schools have dumbed-down and narrowed curricula, cutting the arts, physical education and more in the name of prepping for tests. Some kindergartners have forsaken rest time and recess for test prep; field trips have been replaced by worksheets; and some students likely to fail the tests have been pushed out of schools.

I always try to be first to vote in my town, and usually lose out to a local electrician whose job starts even earlier than mine. Part of the reason for my early arrival is that it gives me time to check in and chat with our former students who are working the polls as well as those that are showing up to vote.

On October 22, the Forum hosted a panel discussion in Washington, DC about how to invest in the creation of a long-term teaching profession in the United States. The following article about the event, written by Anthony Rebora, appeared in Teacher Magazine. A copy of the Forum's policy brief can be found at http://rethinklearningnow.com/resources/Teaching_Brief_1009_ForumForEd.pdf.

It is with great sadness that we at The Forum share with you the news of the death of our friend and mentor, Ted Sizer.  Ted lost his battle with cancer on Wednesday while at home with his family.

In case you missed it, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced his intentions to jumpstart the reauthorization process for federal education policy in 2010.

Duncan’s call to action suggests a breakneck pace of policy debates this fall. But as you well know, we can’t craft the best possible guidance for our public school system until we rethink learning NOW.

Forum for Education and Democracy National Director Sam Chaltain issued the following statement on Secretary Duncan’s priorities for ESEA reauthorization:

“At The Forum, we share Secretary Duncan’s sense of urgency regarding the reauthorization of ESEA, and we appreciate his call for substantive policy ideas from the field of advocates, educators and others.  We also agree that standardized tests, when used as the sole measure of student achievement, distort our public education system and discourage educators from creating healthy and high-functioning learning environments.

August 27, 2009

Office of Secondary and Elementary Education
c/o Race to the Top Fund
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Room 3W329
Washington, DC 20202

To Whom It May Concern:

We are writing to submit our comments regarding the U.S. Department of Education’s (“Department”) notice of proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria pertaining to the Race to the Top Fund (“Fund”). These comments reflect the Forum for Education and Democracy’s (“Forum”) concerns as well as our recommendations for how to improve the proposed regulations.