Under NCLB, schools are evaluated based on student test scores. In an effort secure federal aid, 13 states actually lowered standards for math, reading and science. The Obama administration proposes a common set of standards that crosses state lines and tests for career or college readiness.

Presenting to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Duncan cited 27 percent of American high schoolers drop out and that only 40 percent of the country’s young people earn a two-year or four-year college degree. “I believe that education is the one true path out of poverty. It has to be the great equalizer in our society,” added Duncan (see complete speech here).

Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the senior Republican on the Senate education committee commented, “What we have learned is that a better balance is needed between prescriptive federal mandates and state and local flexibility. The blueprint seems to reflect this belief.” The reform is under fire from teachers unions for dumping all of the burden without any of the authority onto teachers.

For the coming school year, the state faces thousands of teacher and administrator layoffs along with increased class sizes. The UC system and community colleges have experienced a 20 percent decrease in funding over the last three years while student fees have gone up 182 percent since 2002.

“The less affordable education becomes, the less likely low-income students will be able to get a college education,” said Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association and professor of history at California State University Los Angeles.

Earlier this year, Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on Education’s government and public affairs division proclaimed higher education as “something that we all ought to be concerned about because we do know that in the 21st century nations that invest in science and technology and education will outperform those that don’t make those investments.”

“We must continue to work toward the critically important
end-goal of raising achievement for all students
and closing the achievement gap during good times and bad.”

In his 7th and final State of Education Address, Jack O’Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, highlighted progress in student achievement and the race against time to build an education system that will prepare every student for success in the global economy of the 21st century.

While acknowledging deep cuts in school funding, as well as the achievement gap that exists between white and Asian students and Latino and black students, O’Connell shared good news too, “In each of the last seven years since our statewide tests were completely aligned to our high standards, California public school students have made real gains in achievement. Today, half of our students are proficient in English-language arts. Think about this: seven years ago only 35 percent of our students met this high bar. In mathematics, 46 percent of California’s students are now at the proficient or above level eleven points above where we were seven years ago.”

Full text for this speech can be found here.

“The equation is simple: No matter what their background, students who take challenging math courses in high school get better jobs and earn more money throughout their entire lives.”

Do you have a reluctant math student living under your roof? The Math Works advocacy kit from Achieve.org is written for every student who has uttered the famous words: “I won’t use math in my job, so no sense suffering through more than I need to graduate.”

If this sounds even a little familiar, it’s worth your time to download Math Works, a series of one-page fact sheets written for high school students to explain the lifetime advantages of taking advanced math:

• Advanced Math Equals Career Readiness
• All Students Need Advanced Math
• Advanced Math: Closing the Equity Gap
• Americans Need Advanced Math to Stay Globally Competitive
• The Value of the Fourth Year of Mathematics
• Math’s Double Standard and Exposing the Myth: Advanced Math Does Not Increase Drop Out Rates

If your student is still not convinced that, regardless of post-graduation plans, engaging in rigorous math will lead to greater opportunities, the Mathematics at Work brochures may offer enlightenment. Drawn from leading industries nationwide, these case studies illustrate the advanced math knowledge and abstract thinking skills necessary to advance in today’s workplace.

For more in-depth reading, download The Building Blocks of Success: Higher-Level Math for All Students [pdf], a policy paper which synthesizes current research on why math is so important to all students and how it serves as a foundation for higher-order thinking and improves access and success in college and careers.

Created in 1996 by the nation’s governors and corporate leaders to help raise academic standards, Achieve is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization based in Washington, D.C. The intent of the Math Works materials is to help policymakers, advocates, educators, parents, and students understand the connection between higher-level math courses and college access and success, workplace and career readiness, and personal and U.S. competitiveness.

“Everyone knows the ultimate purpose of public education is to ensure that all children learn how to use their minds well.”

Seems the Rethink Learning Now campaign, launched September 8, 2009, would have been hard pressed to come up with a less original or more obvious idea. But, if it’s so obvious, why isn’t every school doing it?

Today, too many schools still reflect an Industrial-age philosophy about the proper management of human beings. In fact, although schools have changed some in the last one hundred years, most are still organized to impart a largely fact-based, rote-oriented curriculum through structures that do not allow long-term teacher-student relationships or in-depth study.

We can end the nationwide culture of testing, and create a national culture of learning instead. And we can start to do so by reflecting on what we already know to be true about powerful learning, seeing which elements are most essential to those experiences, and then holding ourselves and our elected officials accountable for supporting policies that empower educators to create those sorts of learning environments for all children.

Supported by leading education advocates, civil rights groups, professional networks and philanthropic organizations, the Rethink Learning Now campaign invites parents, educators, elected officials, and young people to share learning experiences and identify the attributes that made those experiences successful.

The campaign is currently working to establish clarity around its core objectives: powerful learning, highly-effective teaching, and a system that is committed to ensuring fairness. The next step is to use qualitative data to create specific proposals that help build healthy, productive learning environments.

According to Sam Chaltain, national director of the Forum for Education and Democracy, “As the number of stories grows over time, we’ll see which attributes appear most often across people’s experiences. The purpose is to focus the country’s attention on powerful learning, and on the core conditions that best support it, so that all of us can be more prepared to ask our lawmakers, our President, and our local communities to institute reforms based more clearly on what young people need in order to thrive and stay in school.”

The case involved an Oregon high school student who, after being found ineligible for special-education services by the district, was moved by his parents to a $5,200 per month residential school. He was later diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other disabilities.

In the majority opinion for Forest Grove School Dist. v. T. A.[pdf], Justice John Paul Stevens wrote,”We conclude that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) authorizes reimbursement for the cost of private special education services when a school district fails to provide a free and appropriate public education and the private school placement is appropriate, regardless of whether the child previously received special education or related services through the public school”

Prior to the ruling, disability rights advocates argued that, if the court ruled in favor of the district, schools would have an incentive not to identify a student as learning disabled. Having seen countless clients and friends forced to go outside the system for help when told by by school psychologists that their struggling children did not qualify for special education services, I can only hope this ruling encourages school personnel to actively collaborate with and support parents.

Despite the ruling, Ron Hager senior staff attorney at the National Disability Rights Network, recommends continued parental vigilance and cautions that:

• School districts have an obligation to locate and evaluate children to determine if they have a disability.
• If parents disagree with school evaluations, they have the right to an independent evaluation at the district’s expense.
• School districts tend to be overly narrow and restrictive in qualifying children for learning disabilities.
• Parents often assume the school is telling them the right thing and go away rather than persist.

A U.S. News and World Report article further clarifies Hager’s points for parent to keep in mind: Know Your Rights, Get Involved, Question the Evaluation, Be Wary of Narrow Criteria, and Don’t Wait to Take It to Court.

Despite opposition from California’s School Superintendent, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the State Board of Education endorsed a plan to require Algebra 1 testing for all eighth-graders beginning in 2011. Opposition groups sued, questioning whether the state had enough money or trained staff to comply with the state’s decision.

Judge Shelleyanne Chang issued a preliminary injunction, ruling that the State Board of Education acted outside its jurisdiction and without public input. She added that the plaintiffs would likely win if the lawsuit went to trial. The state Board of Education intends to appeal.

While about half of California’s eighth-graders take algebra, only about a quarter score proficient or above on standardized tests. The rate is even lower for minority and poor students.

According to Claremont Graduate University education professor and former school superintendent Barbara DeHart, “Recent studies have found that ninth-graders are dropping out of school because of pressures related to NCLB. The push for eighth-grade algebra proficiency is a big part of that pressure.”

With just half of California’s eighth-graders taking full algebra at this time, only about 23 percent score as proficient or above on standardized tests. The success rate is even lower for minority and poor students.

While some eighth-graders are ready for the algebra curriculum, thousands lack the solid foundation needed for algebraic problem solving. According to a Brown Center on Education Policy report [pdf], “One hundred twenty thousand students are misplaced in their eighth-grade math classes.” Students who don’t know how to multiply and divide are not learning algebra while, at the same time, well-prepared kids are being held back.

In a RAND study titled Mathematical Proficiency for All Students [pdf] a panel of researchers, mathematicians, and educators explain that,”Without proficiency in algebra, students cannot access a full range of educational and career options, and they have limited chances of success. Failure to learn algebra is widespread, and the consequences of this failure are that far too many students are disenfranchised.” The report recommends further research on how policy decisions can shape student learning and improve equity.

Algebra 1 should be taught to all students, but only once they have the basic skills required for algebraic proficiency. Before mandating that all students take Algebra 1 at a younger age, the Board of Education has a clear responsibility to provide every student with the basic foundation needed to succeed.