In a recent interview with Matt Lauer of NBC’s Today morning show, President Obama dove head first into the hot topic of education reform, taking on tough questions about the success and validity of “Race to the Top”, suggestions for longer school years and the part that parents and students have to play to secure real advancement in US education reform.
About Teachers
"The vast majority of teachers want to do a good job ... We have to be able to identify teachers who are doing well," the president said. "Teachers who are not doing well, we have to give them the support and the training to do well. And ultimately, if some teachers are not doing a good job, they've gotta go."
This has been the standpoint of the White House for the duration of the President’s tenure. He and Education Secretary Duncan have reiterated the importance of retaining dedicated education staff in each and every public forum regarding education reform. While the President did acknowledge that budget issues could be affecting performance of schools, he was quick to point that financing wasn’t the bottom line factor for most districts.
The Race to the Top was created to answer the funding issues for schools that qualified and won the monies. For those that didn’t, Obama has noted future plans specifically intended to help our educators.
“My administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers," he said. "We have to boost performance in that area. We used to rank at the top; we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. That is a sign of long-term decline that has to be reversed.”
Education Reform Begins at Home
"No matter how good the teacher, if the kid's coming home from school, and the parent isn't checking to see if they are doing their homework or watching TV, that's going to be a problem," he said. "And that, by the way, is true here in this White House. Malia and Sasha are great kids, and great students. But if you gave them a choice, they'd be happy to sit in front of the TV all night long, every night. At some point you have to say, ‘Your job, kid, right now, is to learn.’ ”
This is the long-standing perspective of the Providence Effect movement. It is in American homes, as much as in the classrooms, that education reform will live, breathe and grow. The time has come for each member of the community to take responsibility for the future of our education system.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Tuesday, October 5th 2010 at 10:43PM
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