News Briefs
Broader, bolder education reform advocated
Jun 5, 2008 5:17 PM
A new bipartisan group of national policy experts is launching a campaign for what it calls a “broader, bolder approach to education.” The recommendations mirror many of the same reform initiatives long backed by the AFT.
The group unveiled its campaign on June 10 with ads in The New York Times and Washington Post. The ads call for an expanded concept of education — one that moves beyond just formal schooling — as a way to close achievement gaps.
“Some schools have demonstrated unusual effectiveness,” the group states. “But even they cannot, by themselves, close the entire gap between students from different backgrounds in a substantial, consistent and sustainable manner on the full range of academic and non-academic measures by which we judge student success.”
The group recommends adopting core principles that encompass but go beyond continually improving K-12 education, including tackling social and economic disadvantages directly. It advocates creating developmentally appropriate, high-quality early childhood education. It also wants comprehensive health screening — including routine pediatric, dental, hearing and vision care for all children, along with full-service school clinics — available in areas with shortages of primary care physicians. Lastly, it calls for improving the quality of students' out-of-school time with such initiatives as after-school and summer programs.
Co-chairs of the group are Helen Ladd, Duke University professor of public policy studies; Pedro Noguera, an NYU sociologist; and Tom Payzant, a Harvard education professor and former Boston schools head. Some 60 prominent leaders in the fields of education, social welfare, health, housing, economics and civil rights signed the statement, ranging from education writers Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, Richard Rothstein and veteran AFT education policy analyst Bella Rosenberg to two former Bush and Bush Sr. assistant secretaries of education.
For more information, go to http://www.boldapproach.org/.
AFT LeaderNET, June 12
