William Bennett, Former U.S. Secretary of Education; Founder and Chairman, K12; CNN Contributor (Washington, DC)

Thomas Boysen, Chief Operating Officer, Los Angeles Unified School District

Neil Bush, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Ignite!, Inc. (Austin, TX)

Liliam Leis-Castillo, Superintendent, District E, Los Angeles Unified School District

Kevin Murphy, George Pratt Shultz Professor of Economics and Industrial Relations, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business

Moderator:

Robert Antonucci , President of the School Group, Riverdeep-The Learning Company (Cambridge, MA)

Summary:

Of the many important themes drawn from this distinguished panel, the reccurring theme was "Who owns the schoolhouse?" Ultimately, they agreed, it is not just the teachers, the students or the parents, but the entire community. This includes leaders in business, government and other societal groups. The panel noted that President Bush′s administration had made it a clearly stated goal that "no child gets left behind," making educational reform a top priority in all 50 states.

Business has stepped up to the plate and developed technology to assist in a child′s learning process. Neil Bush, brother of current President Bush, and founder and CEO of Ignite! Inc., stated that "all kids can learn, they just learn differently." He emphasized that children learn by doing and applying concepts.

How then do we take what systems exist now, and create a more effective educational platform for early education? According to Robert Antonucci, three key components must be implemented: 1) recognition of teacher achievement, 2) teacher accountability and 3) a set of standards or a way to measure best practices for teaching children.

"We must share a vision, a clear purpose, and an ability and courage to lead," said Antonucci, noting that the Milken Family Foundation (MFF) has been integral in developing initiatives for teachers and offering a list of alternatives to better enhance teacher productivity: 1) give teachers multiple career paths within the educational system; 2) implement performance based accountability; 3) promote ongoing self development; 4) provide market-based compensation; and 5) implement an aggressive system to engage young people in a teaching career path.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a good example of an educational system that has adopted methods to cater to a highly diverse student body, says Liliam Leis-Castillo. Roughly 87 languages are spoken within the LAUSD, thus requiring different ways to teach younger students how to learn to read and write. They utilize early phonics instruction and expand reading from a minimum of 40 minutes per day to two hours per day on average. The goal is to have children across the board reading by the age of three, she said. Most importantly though, says Castillo, is that you have to be able to reach a student′s heart before you can reach their minds. Castillo also points out that as these breakthroughs are made in early childhood education, they must be documented, added to the ongoing research and proliferated to promote best practices.

Background Info:
Milken Institute Review article

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