|
No Child Left Behind |
No Child Left Behind |
|
Barack Obama calls for reforming the No Child Left Behind Act but believes that its goal was right -- to ensure that all children can meet high standards. To address that, Obama seeks to improve student assessments. He believes that students and teachers should spend less classroom time on test-taking strategies and more on challenging curriculums. Obama wants to improve assessments to track student progress and identify higher-order skills such as problem solving, scientific investigation, and technological understanding. Barack Obama believes that funding inadequacies for No Child Left Behind are one of the biggest problems facing the public schools today. According to Obama, the legislation has failed to provide all students with high-quality teachers, thereby shortchanging our students.
|
John McCain calls for building on the lessons of the No Child Left Behind Act but he does not want to scrap the law altogether. McCain believes that it has been a good tool for providing a clear picture of student and school achievements and failures. The focus, according to McCain, should not be on group averages, but on the ability of every student to reach his or her potential. McCain supports providing the resources that schools need to succeed, but he advocates delegating the funding to a local leader, rather than to a state-level official or bureaucrat. For John McCain, the real promise of No Child Left Behind is giving parents a greater choice in the school that their child attends -- and, as a result, more control over the money that follows that child. (See vouchers section below).
|
|
Teachers |
Teachers |
|
Barack Obama wants to create new programs to recruit, prepare, retain, and reward teachers. To expand recruitment, he supports Teacher Service Scholarships to cover the cost of teacher education (at a four-year undergraduate school or for two years of graduate certification). Obama believes that teachers are the "single most important factor" in a child's education, and he is committed to recruiting an army of new teachers. He plans to institute Teacher Residency Programs and national performance assessments to prepare 30,000 recruits a year to teach in high-need schools. The residencies would reward teachers who excel in the classroom and work in underserved areas, such as rural and urban schools. Obama wants to increase teacher pay by providing $1 billion for grants to create programs that reward veteran teachers who serve as mentors.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
John McCain believes the biggest challenge in improving a failing school is teacher quality. He plans to recruit quality teachers by encouraging a more open-door policy for certification, fostering program such as Troops for Teachers, and by devoting 5 percent of Title II funding to recruiting from the top 25 percent of colleges classes and programs like Teach for America. An open proponent of merit-based pay (basing teacher pay on student achievement), McCain would devote 60 percent of Title II funding to teachers who raise student achievement, work in challenging settings, and/or teach subjects like math and science. The remaining 35 percent of Title II funding would be directed toward school principles for specific needs in their schools. McCain adamantly encourages teachers who have lost their inspiration, accountability, and focus to find another line of work.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
|
Early Childhood Education |
Early Childhood Education |
|
Barack Obama's "Zero To Five Plan" calls for providing essential resources to children and parents to prepare for kindergarten. Obama plans to quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding, and encourage all states to adopt voluntary universal pre-school. Obama says that such preparation and care makes economic sense; for every dollar spent in supporting children and families, there is a $7 to $10 return to society in the form of less crime, a decreased need for special education resources, higher graduation rates, better public health, and less use of public welfare. Obama's plan includes a Presidential Early Learning Council to encourage dialogue between federal and state programs, and to bring business, political, and religious leaders together to discuss opportunities to expand investment in young children.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
John McCain's policies on early childhood education are intended to focus, not create, federal resources to ensure that the neediest children are gaining access to a range of quality programs. McCain believes that these existing programs (Head Start, Even Start, Early Reading Services, etc.) must be built on a solid foundation and must focus on fundamentals. McCain argues that the existing programs are flawed -- that they lack quality instructors, are not accountable to parents, and focus on outcomes instead of process. To improve such systems, McCain calls for the creation of Centers for Excellence in Head Start -- centers that would be nominated and honored for their proven record of success in preparing children to learn.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
|
School Choice/Vouchers |
School Choice/Vouchers |
|
Barack Obama believes that America should foster innovative thinking and focus funding on programs that are proven to work and offer parents choice within the pubic education system. Obama plans to create an "Innovative School Fund," which is a portfolio of successful schools including public charters, nonprofit schools, Montessori schools, career academies, and theme-focused schools that gives districts ideas about the best practices of school innovation. Obama's Federal Charter Program would support the creation of more successful public charter schools, particularly in high need districts, and would include a clear process for shutting down underperforming charter schools. Obama fears that allowing inner-city children to use vouchers for non-public charter or parochial schools would stratify the spectrum -- benefiting some on the top and leaving many kids at the bottom. In an ABC News interview, Obama observed, "We don't have enough slots for every child to go into a parochial school or a private school. And what you would see is a huge drain of resources out of the public schools." A voucher program, Obama believes, would drain money from public schools, diminishing America's commitment to public education.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
McCain believes that public education has been greatly improved by the competition of charter schools, private schools and home schooling, and parents should not be denied access to these alternatives. McCain has always been an open-proponent for student and parent choice, and argues that throwing money at schools only reinforces failures. He believes that public support (or vouchers) should follow the child to the school of the parents' choosing, and that school (whether it be private or charter) is responsible for educating that child and for reporting to the parents and the public on his or her progress. Under his reforms, parents may exercise the freedom to choose to receive extra tutoring for their student who is falling behind. McCain adamantly believes "all federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools." By sending funding directly to local education agencies, McCain feels that schools could use the funds for their students, and not bureaucratic red tape. McCain believes that his proposed voucher system increases parental involvement in the quality of their children's education.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
|
Special Education |
Special Education |
|
According to Barack Obama's website, Congress failed in its promise to shoulder 40 percent of the Individuals with Disabilities Act for the states (they currently give about 17 percent). By fully funding the IDEA, and effectively implementing the Act, Senator Obama believes that states will provide disabled students with the education they have a right to, and districts will be able to provide these services without having to cut into their own budgets. In addition to fully funding IDEA, Obama plans to "ensure effective implementation and enforcement of the Act."
|
John McCain believes that special education programs, including those that are a part of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, should be fully funded because they are a federally mandated responsibility. McCain also believes that standardized testing of students with disabilities needs to be re-examined in light of No Child Left Behind, and he is a proponent of flexibility when measuring the progress of special education students.
|
|
English Language Learners |
English Language Learners |
|
Barack Obama supports transitional bilingual education and plans to fund English Language Learner classes. Obama will support the creation of more appropriate assessments to keep schools accountable for tracking English Language Learner progress and ensuring they are on the path to graduation.
|
McCain supports flexible assessment of ELL students. From 2002 to 2008, McCain demonstrated his support for ELL and LEP students by voting for $11.5 billion in bilingual education programs.
|
High School
(Drop-outs/Achievement Gap) |
High School
(Drop-outs/Achievement Gap) |
|
Barack Obama points out that only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduate with a diploma, and black and Latino students are significantly less likely to graduate. To address this issue, Obama wants to create more transparency in reporting how many students graduate from high school and attend college. According to Obama, only 20 percent of students are prepared to take college courses in English, math, and science, and many students find out too late that they are not on track to attend college. To combat this, Obama proposes $25 million annually in matching funds for states that develop programs like the Early Assessment Program, which enables 11th graders and their families to ascertain whether they are on track to go to college. Obama also plans to launch a "Make College a Reality" initiative, which would place college readiness at the center of high school reform. This initiative would work to increase the amount of high school students taking college-prep courses (like AP and IB) by 50 percent by the year 2016. If these courses are not available to the student, Obama plans to provide grants for students to take courses elsewhere. Obama fervently believes in teaching young people the importance of community service, and plans to set a goal for all middle school students to do 50 hours, and all high school students to do 100 hours of community service.
|
John McCain is committed to giving parents, especially minority parents, more choice in deciding how their child is educated. McCain believes we must work to change the startling statistics that only half of Latinos and African Americans will graduate from high school, and Black students are the least likely to attend college. McCain cites the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington D.C. as a testament to the conviction of poor parents in neighborhoods with failing schools. By shaking off the old ways and embracing new reforms, McCain is committed to fixing the "civil rights challenge of our time." McCain's education policies also include hundreds of millions in funding for the expansion of virtual learning centers. Students at these learning centers would be given the opportunity to receive online tutoring, take an increased number of AP programs, and take SAT/ACT preparation courses virtually. Low- income students would be eligible to receive up to $4,000 to enroll in the online courses.
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
|
Global Workforce/Technology |
Global Workforce/Technology |
|
Citing research that U.S. 15-year-olds ranked 25th out of 40 countries in math and 19th out of 40 countries in science, Barack Obama plans to work with governors to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum. Because students are not being prepared for college-level courses, only 14 percent of bachelor's degrees are in engineering and mathematics, and American students are thus left out of the global marketplace (where 80 percent of the fastest growing occupations depend on a knowledge base in science and math). Obama wants to make math and science education a national priority and provide schools with the tools to educate 21st-century learners. He plans to recruit high-quality math and science teachers, enhance science instruction, and develop assessments that gauge higher-order thinking skills such as inference, logic, data analysis, interpretation, question formation, and communication.
|
According to John McCain, "In a global economy, what you learn is what you earn." McCain warns that American students are losing their lead over other industrialized nations as a result of our students' "deplorable" preparation. By 12th grade, U.S. students score in the bottom half of all industrialized nations, and McCain blames the bureaucracy of schools, calling for a weed out of incompetent teachers. As a feed into the future global economy, McCain wants to find ways to reward engineers and those in the science and math fields. McCain plans to use current federal funds to create virtual learning centers, as well as $250 million additional dollars for a competitive grant program to support those states that are committed to expanding the availability of online tutoring. To help low-income students pay for the tutoring, McCain will offer $250 million for scholarships (up to $4,000 per student).
FURTHER RESEARCH
|
|
College Affordability |
College Affordability |
|
Barack Obama's higher education plan calls for making college more affordable for all Americans by creating the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which would ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free. To receive this credit, a student would be required to do 100 hours of community service. Obama would also work to streamline the financial aid process by having families check a box on their tax returns to be used for financial aid purposes, thereby eliminating the need for additional forms. Obama's comprehensive plan will eliminate costly bank subsidies and direct the savings into financial aid for students. Obama would also continue to ensure the Pell Grant award is increased for low income students, striving for an annual grant of $5,400 over the next few years (right now it is $4,050). Barack Obama also understands the vital role that community colleges play in the higher education system. It is an "excellent" investment; a graduate with an associate degree earns $1.6 million over their lifetime, while a high school graduate earns only $400,000. Obama also says these schools foster Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) opportunities for under-represented groups and he supports authorizing the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education program at $100 million, which supports STEM programs in community colleges.
|
John McCain wants every student to be able to afford college and hopes to find creative ways to "put the brakes on the escalation of education costs." McCain proposed that the Department of Education work with states to meet student loan obligations as a lender of last resort. He is a proponent of providing veterans with educational benefits for national service. McCain supports providing more money for needy college students, as well as the recent efforts by Congress and the Bush administration to save the student loan program, and he has recently pushed to increase Pell Grants and low-interest loans for families struggling with tuition costs. McCain also believes that community colleges should be extensively utilized because they have a proven record of tailoring programs to the local business climate, as well as acting as an efficient and effective way to build economic strength.
|
Parent Involvement and
Community Engagement |
Parent Involvement and Community Engagement |
|
Barack Obama believes that parents, families, and schools must work together in an effort to improve student achievement and school quality. Obama wants to collaborate with state leaders to develop meaningful report cards for parents that provide specific information so they can improve their child's performance and plan for life after high school. Obama also encourages school-family contracts that lay out "expectations for student attendance, behavior, and homework."
|
McCain wants to increase parental involvement by empowering parents with substantial knowledge about their child's academic achievement. McCain believes that a critical component of parental involvement is giving parents the ability to choose the school their child attends, and he plans to work to provide parents with information needed to choose the best school for their child.
|
Education and the next president: McCain and Obama advisers to debate
On October 21, the education advisors to the presidential candidates will face off in a debate at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City. The debate will feature Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and adviser to Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University and adviseor to Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).
The debate is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. EST and will be webcast by Education Week. Susan Fuhrman, president of Teachers College, will moderate.
People who want to examine the candidates' education platforms before the debate can do so by visiting the following websites:
• Senator McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues
• Senator Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/issues
To register for the webcast, visit http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html and look for a banner with information on the debate in the upper-right-hand corner of the page. |
|
