In Search of Education Leaders

[tonysam]

For me, the greatest national security crisis in the United States is the crisis in education. We are turning out new generations of Americans who are whizzes at video games and may be capable of tweeting 24 hours a day but are nowhere near ready to cope with the great challenges of the 21st century.

An American kid drops out of high school at an average rate of one every 26 seconds. In some large urban districts, only half of the students ever graduate. Of the kids who manage to get through high school, only about a third are ready to move on to a four-year college.

It’s no secret that American youngsters are doing poorly in school at a time when intellectual achievement in an increasingly globalized world is more important than ever. International tests have shown American kids to be falling well behind their peers in many other industrialized countries, and that will only get worse if radical education reforms on a large scale are not put in place soon.

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Dream on, Bob. So what if Harvard has a program? Eli Broad has beaten the Ivy League school already with his superintendent "academy."

[C_Lawyer09]

1. I find it beyond belief

That this new program would come close to answering this question. Look at the standardized testing debacle. Secondly, what are students gaining from a typical four year university education. I submit some critical thinking skills. Another overlooked fact, is how many students are pushed to a university that are not meant, or don't want to be there. This isn't a question of who stays in school, and who goes to college, it is a question of can high school graduates or ged recipients get a job? That places scrutiny on industry, trade agreements, and the fundamental goals of our system. Germany specializes and vocationally trains students to get good jobs out of high school through partnerships and developed vocational training. I'm definitely not convinced that evaluation of higher learning and programs to turn out brighter educators is the fix. Look at how much crap a person who wants to teach, has to wade through, vis a vis various state and federal standards to instruct primary school students. We need to find a way to target funds effectively. The top down approach of better trained administrators does not work.

[tonysam]

2. The top-down approach is part of the problem.

People like Herbert are really naive when it comes to public education and its political underpinnings.

[Hannah Bell]

3. purposefully naive.