OBAMA: Presidential Proposals (But No Clear Plan For Enactment)

Lots of coverage of Obama's first big education speech since becoming President, even though no one's quite figured out if and how the proposals (several of which seem to go beyond the scope of the stimulus) get enacted:

Obama Outlines Five Top Education Priorities PBS
Obama: 'We've let our grades slip' MSNBC
Obama backs teacher merit pay, charter schools AP
Obama Criticizes U.S. Schools, Calls for Reform Washington Post
Obama, Taking On Unions, Backs Teacher Merit Pay NPR
Obama wants to overhaul education system from 'cradle to career' CNN
Obama Outlines Plan for Education Overhaul NYT
Obama Calls for Ambitious Education Policy Agenda CQ

Or, you can just watch the speech yourself.  Here's a 30-minute clip:

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Frankly, I'd rather just see him take care of the economy and fix the health care system right now, rather than make promises and pronouncements that he can't do much about (eliminating state charter caps, for example).

Comments

[Dick Schutz]

"Frankly, I'd rather just see him take care of the economy and fix the health care system right now, rather than make promises and pronouncements that he can't do much about (eliminating state charter caps, for example)."

Too bad President Obama didn't get that advice from his advisers. And it's remarkable that none of the news media cited didn't arrive at a similiar conclusion. They could at least have done some fact checking.

"“By 2016, four out of every ten new jobs will require at least some advanced education or training.”

What hat the President's speech writers pulled the date and the percentage from is anybody's guess. But technology is moving job requirements in an opposite direction.

"Studies show that children in these [preschool] programs are more likely to score higher in reading and math, more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, more likely to hold a job, and more likely to earn more in that job."

That's based on one dubious study from one preschool (Dave Weikart's Perry Preschool). The Weikart people flunked the Follow Through and more adequate studies have found no effects of preschool programs.

“far too few districts are emulating the example of Houston and Long Beach, and using data to track how much progress a student is making and where that student is struggling – a resource that can help us improve student achievement, and tell us which students had which teachers so we can assess what’s working and what’s not”

I happen to live in Long Beach. If the President believes this, we have a bridge or two I think we may be able to get him to buy.

And Googling for "value added testing Houston" turns up similar counter evidence.
See, for example:

https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/002/891/abu_dhabi_2009%20SC.ppt

When you blueline all the rhetoric, yellowline the proposals that haven't and won't work, and redline the flatout inaccuracies, "No Clear Plan For Enactment" is as positive a spin as can be put on the Address.