Moderator Lowell Milken talks about effective strategies to improve the quality of education in America's public schools.
In many of our nation's largest cities, more than 60 percent of students perform far below grade level in English and math. Drastic achievement gaps exist between white students and their African-American and Hispanic counterparts. And overall student performance nationwide remains flat, despite dramatic increases in K-12 education expenditure. This panel gathered to discuss what educational policies or programs needed to be implemented in order to reach a goal the national goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.
Lew Solmon of the Milken Family Foundation's Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) began by stressing the importance of teacher quality and the need to build systems to create and reward excellent teachers. A dollar spent on a teacher quality initiative has 10 times the impact of a dollar spent to reduce class sizes, he said, and teachers respond well to programs that encourage them to build careers and reward them for improving their teaching practice. He encouraged policy-makers to emulate systems designed by TAP that link strong professional development programs with performance pay initiatives.
Nina Rees of Knowledge Universe, stressed the importance of innovation and competition in America′s public schools. Charter schools, she said, serve as important "laboratories for school innovation," and their best practices can be replicated across their home school districts. She also shared data showing that districts with charter school competition have seen improved performance in their non-charter district schools, suggesting that competition can have a strong positive impact on student performance.
Ron Packard of K12 Inc. showed that innovative curricula and information technology could also have a strong impact on student achievement. K12 online education programs have shown strong performance in a variety of state and district implementations across the country. Packard attributes this success to an online curriculum that is easily and constantly improved and updated to reflect student and teacher feedback, creating high degrees of student engagement in the online format.
After these presentations, California Secretary of Education Alan Bersin was asked to discuss educational governance and local control of school districts. Bersin noted that the 20th century has seen increasing centralization of government institutions, and that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was the first attempt to centralize the public schools over this period. There has been a further push, most recently in Los Angeles, for mayoral control in large cities. While Bersin stressed that mayoral control was not a panacea, it has the potential benefits of centralizing accountability and decision making.
Finally, former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige was asked to share his thoughts on the improvements needed in the education system. After speaking on a variety of issues, Paige said that "we have not exhibited the political will to do what we need to do to fix our schools." This is partly because the public ahs not expressed clearly enough to its representatives and other leaders its dissatisfaction with school performance. It was clear from this panel that there are many great innovations and exciting reforms that can improve America's public schools, but that their implementation will require increased community and political engagement.
Global Conference 2013
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, philanthropist Bill Gates and Strive Masiyiwa of Econet Wireless discuss advancing prosperity in Africa.
