Education Questions for Obama State of the Union

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

Our friend and ally, Anthony Cody, poses some great questions that 
viewers can send to President Obama for White House response after 
tonight's State of the Union address.


PRESIDENT OBAMA WANTS OUR QUESTIONS
Education Week "Living in Dialogue" Blog -- Monday, January 23, 2012
By Anthony Cody

It has been a busy week for the internet Goliaths -- education tweeters 
who have enjoyed turning Michelle Rhee's #sixwordessay contest on its 
head. Perhaps we can shift our focus to our President, whose education 
policies leave a great deal to be desired.

Tomorrow evening President Obama will take to the air to make his State 
of the Union address. Advisor David Plouffe explained that an enhanced 
version of this speech will be broadcast on the www.whitehouse.gov 
website, and the speech will be followed by a discussion where staff 
will respond to questions from the public. Before and after the speech, 
use the hashtag #SOTU. For the discussion during the speech, use the 
hashtag #WHchat You can also submit your questions via YouTube. See 
details here. On January 30, President Obama will hold a separate event 
where he will respond to these questions.

This is an opportunity for teachers and parents to communicate our 
concerns once again.

So what would you ask the President?

Here are my questions to kick us off. Please add your own below, and if 
you have a Twitter account, begin tweeting them as well.

1. No Child Left Behind will soon declare every school a failure. Why 
must states agree to use test scores to evaluate teachers and principals 
to get relief from this terrible law?

2. You say you don't want teachers to teach to the test. Isn't this 
inevitable when you make teacher pay and evaluations depend on these scores?

3. How will your administration respond to states like California that 
fail to apply for NCLB waivers?

4. Teachers in Hawaii have just voted to strike rather than agree to the 
conditions imposed by the state's Race to the Top application, in 
particular an agreement to be evaluated by some as yet to be determined 
system based on their test scores. Doesn't this raise questions about 
the wisdom of this approach?

5. As we go further down the road of expansion of charter schools, 
supported by Race to the Top and other federal policies, researchers are 
finding that these schools are intensifying the degree of economic and 
racial segregation. Does the administration plan to continue to support 
the expansion of charter schools?

6. Last March you said we are too often using tests to punish students 
or schools. You suggested we could shift away from annual tests. But 
your administration is moving towards even more frequent tests, with 
even more rewards and punishments attached to them. Why don't your 
policies match what you know to be sound practice?

7. The practice of labeling schools as failures has become impractical 
as almost all schools will soon fail according to NCLB. But the idea 
that we can improve education for students by declaring their schools 
failures, and subjecting them to closures or harsh "turnaround" 
strategies has not worked. Your administration's proposal to continue 
this practice for the "bottom" 5% of our schools will perpetuate the 
high pressure on test scores for student in poverty. If punishing 
schools for low test scores has not worked -- as you suggested last 
March, (and was not shown to work in Chicago under then CEO Arne Duncan) 
why is it being continued for any schools at all?

8. Last year Congress passed a law that allows people with as little as 
five weeks of training to take positions of responsibility as full time 
teachers. These poorly trained teachers are concentrated in areas of 
high poverty. Will you support efforts to reverse this law, to ensure 
that all students have fully qualified teachers?

9. I worked in the schools of Oakland for 24 years. We have huge 
problems with high teacher turnover, and part of the reason is the 
endless pressure to raise test scores. Why would anyone choose to teach 
in high poverty schools when this pressure is the status quo?

    
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/01/some_questions_for_president_o.html