Recently in Barack Obama Category

Barack Obama will stop in Wisconsin tomorrow--one year and one day after being elected to the presidency--in advance of a key vote expected Thursday in the state legislature that could put Wisconsin in a better position to compete for the Race to the Top Fund.

Obama will cheer on the legislature as it considers a proposal to lift the ban on using student test scores for teacher evaluations, which would lift the so-called "data firewall" that stands between any state and being eligible for a slice of $4 billion in Race to the Top grants.

In a conference call today, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes said the Obama Administration is taking direct credit for spurring education-reform moves in several states--including similar data firewall actions in California and Indiana, and efforts to improve the charter school climates in Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Ohio and Rhode Island.

Obama is expected to praise states for taking these steps, and encourage Wisconsin to follow along. Barnes did not mention anything about legislation in the Wisconsin legislature to allow the mayor of Milwaukee to take over the city's schools. That's something Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, champions.

If you'll remember from the draft regulations on Race to the Top, while not having a data firewall is a must for Race to the Top, a state's charter school environment is just part of the larger overall criteria by which states will be judged.

However, any of this could change as the U.S. Department of Education continues to make changes after receiving a slew of comments.

Barnes wouldn't even give us a hint as to what changes are coming for Race to the Top. And as to when we might see final regulations, applications, and how the criteria will be weighted, she said the administration isn't at a "final, final" place yet.

So stay tuned here for final, final regulations.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 5:39 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Steve Robinson, who was hired by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a special adviser on math, science and other issues, is moving to the White House—a small but not insignificant shift in job duties.

The education department says he's still working as a special assistant in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, but will be doing so from the White House's Domestic Policy Council.

"Having Steve over there allows the [department] to maximize coordination" between the education department, the White House, and other agencies, an Education Department spokeswoman said.

Just last week, Robinson, a former high school science teacher who worked for Obama when he was in the U.S. Senate, was a focus of an EdWeek story on Washington fellowships for teachers.

What's interesting about Robinson's shift is that it further signals that STEM is a really big issue for President Obama, but perhaps not as significant for his education secretary. (UPDATE: The department wants to stress that STEM is just as significant for Duncan as it is for Obama, and that Robinson's move is more of a re-location than anything else.)

President Obama has talked about science, technology, engineering and math (the STEM subjects) a lot in major speeches. Today, President Obama spoke at a New York community college to emphasize innovation and technology, according to prepared remarks.

In an August speech on the economy, he said: "Right now, our schools continue to trail many of our competitors, and that's why I've challenged states to dramatically improve achievement by raising standards and modernizing science labs, upgrading curriculum, forming new partnerships to promote math and science, and improving the use of technology in the classroom."

In the many, many, many speeches Obama's education secretary has given, Duncan doesn't often focus on things like modernizing science labs, or improving technology. That's not to say Duncan isn't in favor of these things. (UPDATE: I was neglectful in not highlighting the March speech he gave to the National Science Teachers Association, when he stressed getting great talent into STEM subjects. Or his Aug. 25 remarks to the National Science Board panel.) It's just that he's much more keenly focused on teacher quality, data systems, academic standards, and low-performing schools. And probably rightly so, since Congress identified those areas, or "assurances", as priorities in implementing the $787 billion economic-stimulus act, $100 billion of which is for education.

So in many ways, it seems Robinson is a better fit for the White House than the Education Department.

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The honor of introducing President Barack Obama at Wakefield High School today went to senior Tim Spicer, who has to be one of the most popular kids in school today.

He told Alyson, who called in just a few minutes ago from the school, that not only did he get a presidential seal as a thank-you gift from Obama, but he also got the president to autograph the introductory remarks he had carefully typed out.

Spicer acknowledged, though, that he was far more nervous meeting Obama before the speech than actually standing in front of a televised audience and introducing the president.

As for the all of the hubbub that preceded the speech, Spicer told Alyson the controversy was "pointless."

And 14-year-old Elizabeth Brantley, who was one of 40 9th graders who participated in a round table before the speech with Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, called the controversy "kind of dumb."

Another 14-year-old, Max Rosenberg, had even stronger words in speaking to Alyson, saying people who didn't want Obama to address students are "racist."

The 20-minute round table in the school's library featured these 9th graders—nearly 40 in all—who had all sorts of questions for Obama—none of which focused on the controversy that engulfed Obama before the address. Instead, they wanted to know: How has your life changed? How would your life have been different if your dad had been around when growing up? Why did you pick Wakefield over other schools? How can I become president?

To the last one, Obama advised: Don't post anything on Facebook or YouTube that you'll later regret, work hard in school, and be passionate about something.

The very last question from students involved health care: Why can't the United States have universal health coverage?

And so Obama got to tout his big health-care address to Congress tomorrow.

Read Obama's full answers to these questions and more in this transcript.

By the way, EdSec Duncan was at the round table, too. But Alyson reported that he was not nearly the star of the show, as the students called him the "other guy" in the room.

(Photo: Wakefield High School Senior Tim Spicer and President Obama. Gerald Herbert/AP)

Posted by Michele McNeil at 2:00 PM | Permalink | 14 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said today at Wakefield High School, where President Obama is set to deliver his back-to-school speech at noon, that the controversy surrounding the remarks has “absolutely not” undermined the president’s intended message of personal responsibility and the need for students to stay in school and stay focused. He said such controversies roll off him like “water off a duck’s back,” and said that one of the problems in education policy today is that we “focus on adult issues and adult drama,” instead of paying attention to the huge challenges facing school systems. (This is similar to what Duncan told Bob Schieffer on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday.)

Duncan stressed that watching the speech is entirely voluntary—students can watch in school today, online later, or not at all. As for the suggested lesson plans and classroom activities that some conservative critics have said violate restrictions against the federal government setting curriculum, Duncan said the lessons were put together by “some of the best teachers in the country”—participants in the Education Department’s Teaching Ambassador fellowship program. He conceded that some the original wording of those activities focused too heavily on the president’s goals and that the wording was modified in some cases to focus more heavily on students’ goals.

Before the speech, Secretary Duncan and President Obama planned to hold a round-table discussion with ninth-graders at Wakefield High School to listen to their concerns about their own educations. And he wasn’t the only cabinet secretary planning to visit a school—nearly two dozen cabinet secretaries and other high administration officials were expected to fan out today in support of the president’s pep rally.

Posted by Alyson Klein at 11:18 AM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

When President Obama addresses the nation's students today (or at least those who are allowed to watch), he'll deliver a back-to-school pep talk that surely doesn't live up to the controversy it created.

In prepared remarks, he takes a walk down his own memory lane by recalling early morning tutoring sessions and a dad that wasn't around. He acknowledges that many students out there aren't learning under the best of conditions—that they may live in neighborhoods that aren't safe, or in families affected by job losses.

"That’s no excuse for not trying," he is expected to say during his noon speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., which my colleague Alyson Klein will be staffing.

And he'll tell students: "You make your own future."

It's a feel-good message about personal responsibility. What will be really interesting is to see the reaction after he delivers it, especially from those who thought Obama would push a "socialist" agenda.

UPDATE: Alyson just reported in from the scene at Wakefield High School, where about a half-dozen protesters are holding up signs that read "Children of God, not Obama" and "Obamanation."

Posted by Michele McNeil at 9:16 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

To push states into undertaking education reform, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are using $4 billion from the Race to the Top Fund as leverage.

But when it comes to making students and parents take more responsibility for their own educational futures, Obama and Duncan have little more than their bully pulpits—and now a $1,000 cash prize.

When Obama delivers a Sept. 8 back-to-school speech, he will emphasize personal responsibility on the part of students and parents and urge the nation's schoolchildren to set short-term and long-term goals. These are themes that he touted during his campaign. The noon EDT speech will be carried live on C-SPAN and on whitehouse.gov. (UPDATE: By the way, Obama will deliver his speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., which has gotten some love from his administration before.)

UPDATE: The speech, and accompanying "lesson plans" that the education department shared with teachers and school districts, is already causing quite a stir. The department is having to retract one lesson plan that asked students to write letters on how they might "help" the president, according to the Washington Times and Talking Points Memo. Meanwhile, school districts, such as those in the Dallas, Texas area, are struggling with concerns from parents who may not want their children to watch the speech.

In helping the White House gear up for the speech, Duncan taped a promo this morning in his office that will run on MTV on Sept. 8, urging kids to watch the speech by tuning into C-SPAN (and urging MTV viewers to flip to C-SPAN is no easy pitch).

And as part of this back-to-school message, Duncan also taped a commercial that will be featured on YouTube and on a new Web site promoting a contest the department will run called "I Am What I Learn." (The filming of this was a low-budget operation—no teleprompters. Picture Duncan's assistant Liz Utrup standing on a chair, holding print-outs of the script, in 40-plus-point-size, taped to a big flip chart.)

The month-long contest, which starts the day of Obama's speech and ends Oct. 8, invites students to submit videos of up to two minutes long on YouTube that will highlight their personal stories about how they will improve their educations this school year and the "role it will play to fulfilling their dreams," according to the department. A few celebrity judges (to be named later) will narrow the entries down to 20, and then the public will vote for the winner of the $1,000 prize.

This notion of personal responsibility in education reform hasn't been raised just by Obama and Duncan. It was raised, albeit in a less-than-tactful way, by an Atlanta-area teachers' union leader in an Aug. 31 piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Metro Association of Classroom Educators Chairman John Trotter was quoted as saying, in reference to proposed regulations by the Education Department for turning around the nation's worst schools that call for firing staff: “He [Duncan] wants to replace everyone ... except the ones who matter, the children ... The problem starts with the students. What is Duncan going to do with some so-called students who act like miscreants each day?”

Those statements lit up the blogsphere and Twitter feeds.

But Duncan, who would surely quibble with most of what Trotter had to say, also acknowledged when I asked him about this today, that "unquestionably, without a doubt" students bear responsibility, too, for the state of the nation's most struggling schools. And that broader message of personal responsibility is what you'll hear from him and Obama next week.

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President Obama is planning today to announce a $12 billion infusion into community colleges to jumpstart progress to a new goal he's setting to increase the number of graduates by 5 million by 2020.

According to the Washington Post's article, the breakdown for the $12 billion is: $2.5 billion for construction and renovation at the nation's community colleges, $500 million to develop new online courses and $9 billion for "challenge grants" aimed at spurring innovation at the colleges.

UPDATE: According to excerpts of Obama's remarks, distributed by the White House, the President is calling this the "most significant down payment yet on reaching this goal in the next ten years. It’s called the American Graduation Initiative." And to pay the tab, Obama says: "We pay for this plan by ending the wasteful subsidies we currently provide to banks and private lenders for student loans, which will save tens of billions of dollars over the next ten years."

Obama's announcement is well timed, given the latest jobs report my colleague Catherine Gewertz blogs about over at High School Connections.

And if you'll remember, in a February speech, Obama set a new goal that the United States will be No. 1 in the world for college graduates by 2020.

Still, we've heard very little from the Obama administration (including EdSec Arne Duncan) about how to boost high school graduation rates, specifically, especially given that high school is the gateway to postsecondary education. In May, Catherine explored this issue, and whether the 2020 goal is realistic. Clearly, the $100 billion in education aid that's wrapped up in the stimulus package may indirectly help improve graduation rates, but so far, stimulus money is supporting the status quo rather than reform—and the status quo isn't going to boost high school, or college graduation, rates.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 1:12 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

From guest blogger Erik Robelen:

Apparently, a Democratic lawmaker in Texas didn’t get the talking points from Education Secretary Arne Duncan about expanding the charter schools sector.

A bill that would have allowed more charters to open in Texas was killed on the floor of the state's House of Representatives last night by a point of order raised by Democratic Rep. Lon Burnam, of Fort Worth, according to the Quorum Report, an independent newsletter on Texas politics.

Some charter critics couch their language diplomatically, but Rep. Burnam didn't mince words.

“This is a massive charter school expansion bill,” the Quorum Report quoted Rep. Burnam as saying to explain the move. “I hate charter schools. I’m going to kill this bill.”

Posted by Michele McNeil at 4:49 PM | Permalink | 4 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Over at the School Law Blog, my colleague Erik Robelen gives a K-12 once-over on President Obama's nomination of New York federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Her personal and professional resume includes a lot of anecdotes that will resonate with the public. Her father, who had only a third-grade education, died young, leaving her mother—a nurse—to raise her and her brother. Sotomayor took comfort in Nancy Drew books, and the fictional amateur detective ended up inspiring the now-Supreme-Court-nominee to read and learn. She excelled in school, got college scholarships to Ivy League schools, and became a lawyer and jurist. Now, she works to help high school students learn about the judicial system—putting Goldilocks on trial so students can practice being prosecutors and defense attorneys, according to the White House's official backgrounder on her.

Her legal highlights, with a K-12 twist, include her opposition to student strip searches in the N.G. ex rel. S.C. vs. Connecticut case

(Photo cutline and credit: Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor smiles as President Barack Obama applauds on May 26 at the White House in Washington. Alex Brandon/AP.)

Posted by Michele McNeil at 12:40 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

The Obama administration has proposed cutting 12 programs from the Department of Education's budget, for a savings of $550.7 million. By contrast, in his fiscal year 2009 budget, President George W. Bush sought to scrap 47 Education Department programs (such as Even Start, and EdTech state grants) for a potential savings of $3.3 billion. But, as then-President Bush discovered, proposing those cuts and actually getting Congress to go along are two different things.

Let's look at the programs on the chopping block this time around. Notice that the department plans to keep many of the concepts of these programs (like character education) but absorb them into other programs.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools State Grants: According to the department, this program has not demonstrated effectiveness. Money would be better spent for targeted school safety and drug prevention education activities. The Office of Management and Budget, in its performance-based budget rating system, has not quite declared the program ineffective, but instead says that results have not been demonstrated. This means the program either hasn't set goals, or hasn't collected enough data to determine if it's performing. Savings: $294.8 million.

Even Start: This family literacy program is one of the more high-profile cuts, and may face the biggest barriers. The education department points out that three separate national studies find no benefit to the program. OMB rates Even Start ineffective. Savings: $66.5 million.

College Access Challenge Grants: The department wants to eliminate this program, which helps increase the number of underrepresented students in higher education, in favor of its own, much bigger, "better structured", $2.5 billion College Access and Completion Fund. Seems like a name change to me. (The program wasn't evaluated by OMB.) Savings: $66 million.

Mentoring: This program that provides grants to school districts and community-based organizations for mentoring at-risk youth was found to be ineffective, according to a recent evaluation conducted by the Institute for Education Sciences. OMB declared it duplicative of other programs. Savings: $48.5 million.

Civic Education: This program provides non-competitive grants for the We the People civics education course and for exchange programs. The department says it will replace this with a broader, competitive grant program. OMB hasn't evaluated this program. Savings: $33.5 million.

Character Education: Eliminates funding to states and school districts for character education, instead wrapping it into a new initiative that's part of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools national program, not to be confused with the state program that's getting the ax. OMB hasn't evaluated this program. Savings: $11.9 million.

Ready to Teach: Eliminates funding for TV programming that helps improving teaching in core curricular areas. OMB hasn't evaluated this one either. Savings: $10.7 million.

Javits Gifted and Talented: Read more about this over at the On Special Education blog. Savings: $7.5 million.

National Institute for Literacy: The department wants to cut this nearly 20-year-old program for demonstrating "little success" in providing national leadership on literacy issues (its mission). The OMB said this institute overlaps with the duties of other federal agencies. Savings: $6.5 million.

Academies for American History and Civics: The department says this program, which makes "3 or 4 awards" annually to support workshops for teachers, is too small to make any real difference. And apparently too small for OMB to bother evaluating. Savings: $1.9 million.

Close Up Fellowships: Provides funding for low-income students and teachers to visit Washington, D.C. The department says the foundation that runs the fellowship doesn't need taxpayer money because it gets plenty from the private sector. Not evaluated by OMB. Savings: $1.9 million.

Foundations for Learning: The program is too small for its broad mission of helping to promote the emotional, behavioral, and social development of at-risk kids, the department says. Plus, other parts of the budget address these issues. OMB hasn't evaluated this one either. Savings: $1 million.

Total Savings: $550.7 million.

Posted by Michele McNeil at 11:28 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments | TrackBacks (0)