The President Speaks Out on Education

On Tuesday, President Obama made his first major education speech since taking office. Some of the speech sounded very much like every other education speech - a list of sobering statistics about how far American education has fallen, an inspirational story, a call for greater accountability. But parts of the speech stood out in what could have been a simple, party-line statement.

Teachers

Not only did President Obama mention the importance of financial incentives to bring good teachers into hard-to-staff schools and subject areas, but he also talked about the value of performance pay for teachers. In fact, Obama pledged to make such programs possible in 150 more school districts. Not only will this promise upset many union groups who oppose linking teacher pay to student performance, it will require states and localities to pioneer data systems and methods to determine a teacher's impact on student achievement. Luckily, Obama's plan includes strengthening state and local data systems and enabling educators to use them to improve teaching and learning.

In the same vein, Obama mentioned bolstering teacher training and retention through better induction programs. Here, we imagine, he is referring to programs like Urban Teacher Residencies he supported in legislation in 2007. These programs attract second-career teachers into schools by offering comprehensive training and mentoring programs coupled with a full year of classroom practice.

Obama's speech also focused on changing the way schools handle bad teachers. He challenged states, school districts, and schools to stop protecting teachers that aren't performing and push them out of teaching if they fail to improve. Again, this stance goes against teacher union contracts which often provide permanent status to teachers who teach for as few as three years.

Charter Schools

A portion of the president's speech concentrated on innovation in schools and the role charter schools play in encouraging reform. He cited charter schools as the cutting edge in public school excellence and entreated states to lift charter school caps. At the same time, he recognized that charter school autonomy must be coupled with greater accountability to prevent the spread of mediocre models.

Standards

In addition to asking governors to make academic standards tougher and clearer, the president encouraged states to join together to develop stronger standards for students. This is one step away from national standards in which all states would hold their students to the same expectations. This idea represents a break from NCLB's focus on a state's right to set its own standards.

Middle Schools

While both elementary and high schools have had their time in the political sun, middle schools have often been the over-looked step-child in public education. Obama's speech paid particular attention to middle schools and the role they play in preparing students for high school and beyond. Specifically, he encouraged using middle school performance to predict whether students will struggle to graduate from high school. Cities like Chicago are already doing this by creating early warning indicators using ninth grade data. Encouraging more states and localities to use middle school data to identify struggling students sooner can only improve results.

Expanded Learning Time

Although the idea is unpopular with students, Obama stressed the need to break from the current school calendar and ensure that students are learning for longer periods of time. He said that the current agriculture-based schedule, which ensured that students would be home over summers and afternoons to plow the fields more than a hundred years ago, is robbing today's students of valuable learning time. This is particularly the case, he claimed, for struggling students who would benefit the most from extended instructional time.

College Affordability

As outlined in his budget request summary released two weeks ago, Obama emphasized the importance of increasing college affordability by increasing students' access to -- and the hard dollar amounts of -- student aid. Specifically, he mentioned tying the Pell grant amount to inflation (while making them mandatory, rather than discretionary) and simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Both of these moves would make federal student aid more accessible to a greater number of students.

Many of the ideas Obama outlined in his speech are not directly under his control. In fact, a good portion of his speech was directed at Congress and the governors to implement his ideas. Only time will tell if they follow suit. In the mean time, it's nice to see the President stepping up on education.