PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2008
NATIONAL THOUGHT LEADERS URGE OBAMA
ADMINISTRATION TO ADDRESS EDUCATION CRISIS
New report prescribes five-part cure
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today the Center for Education Reform is distributing to every federal and state lawmaker in the country a monograph of recommendations that the national group is confident can help guide government leaders to improve our nation’s schools. Such recommendations suggest a new role for the U.S. Department of Justice in policing school choice, a national imperative to have student level data on a daily basis for every child, a rejection of the appalling performance of too many teachers and a call for every school to abandon their central districts and to behave like charter schools.
While others propose that the global economic crisis and a matrix of threats to our national security must lead the Obama Administration’s long list of priorities, this brief but commanding booklet argues that fixing public education is hands down the most leveraged domestic policy opportunity of our time.
Utterly refreshing in its approach, Mandate for Change does not spend a lot of time diagnosing the causes of our current afflictions. Instead, it moves immediately to prescribe a five-part cure made all the more compelling by the star power of its authors and their basic insights into the key issues at hand:
- Juan Williams - Federal Accountability
- Honorable John M. Engler - Transparency
- Honorable Kevin P. Chavous - Charter Schools
- Jeanne Allen - School Choice
- Richard Whitmire - Teacher Quality
Each of these five themes is taken up in a separate essay that aims to simply and succinctly present uncommon solutions outlining what we need to do and what we need to avoid. As the editor writes in the introduction, “the challenge at hand - as we have accepted it in these pages - is to focus on what matters most and to provide actionable recommendations that leaders in government can move today to implement.”
Download copies of the complete text and monitor the ongoing discussion at the Center for Education Reform’s dedicated website, mandate.edreform.com.
###
January 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
[...] for Education Reform’s Mandate for Change prescribes a five-part cure for our education woes. Juan Williams writes on federal accountability, [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Sad. I’m from Canada and I can’t download the Mandate which CER doesn’t provide for international downloads.
But, the main thing I want to comment and say is:
The five points, though very important, will be minimally effective without the essential 6th plank: Effective parent involvement.
Please, CER, allow Canadians to be part of this conversation, as we also suffer under central controlled school system.
And, please comment on the absence of an evolved position statement on parent involvement: rights, role, and responsibilities.
I’m looking forward to reading all five proposals and hope to join this conversation in time.
February 27th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
In regards to reform that would affectively enhance the way countless students are educated
“All Screwed Up” An open letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
I have heard you speak of wanting to help children do better in
school as discussed in many of your speeches. I have been working on a
project for over 25 years that you probably can relate to quite
“handily” sort of speaking. I am referring
to the fact that you are an “inverted lefty” when you write.
After testing several hundred individuals with characteristics relating
to this behavior while working at the University of CT, I have
concluded what is often occurring consequently, affecting learning.
First of all, as to what is occurring; neurologically, the area of the
parietal lob of the brain, controls what is known as proprioception.
Proprioception is the perceptual method by which we humans sense
everything around us both in distance and how we move in relationship
to what we physically control. i.e. a pencil or a base ball bat.
This work has led to an idea that this motor sense has a dimensional quality
that in some of us for genetic reasons feel that certain parts of our
bodies (in this case the dominant left hand) feel that the bottom of
a movement is the top and consequently mirrors the movement sensation,
neurologically.
When learning to write for example, an inverted counter clockwise
rotational hand movement when writing, actually is feeling as if it
is moving on the back side of the paper used. The big problem is that
the sounds that are heard and seen when learning reading and writing
skills do not match what is consequently being felt. Compensations
after a while occur, and the problems do subside. However, each time a
new symbolic concept is encountered, i.e. new math or new language
subject, the problem of overcoming the inverted movement sensation
happens again. Again, depending upon what other brain laterality
interaction occurs from one individual to another, the more
difficulties with this, can be encountered. The student who also has
aural learning issues can be drastically affected. For the most part,
the student who is only a motoric inverter with no other learning
issues will usually after awhile, succeed, often known as the “bright
under achiever”.
Because one of the ways we discovered existence of all this was
observing identified learning disabled students we tested turning
things like 2 liter bottles with the bottom hand, we laughingly felt
that the term ” all screwed up” was unknowingly thought up by the
people who unrecognizably carried the inverted movement behavior.
Being an inverted lefty and then your stating you “screwed up” made
me think that you might truly understand it’s significance.
The most important educational aspect of all of this, is that early
identification of the roots of such a hidden problem, so that
appropriate remedial methods are found and employed must become a
reality. I have long been searching for help to make the very simple
testing needed to identify those with the difficulties available.
Hopefully this will one day occur.
Sincerely,
Rowe Young MS
Retired UCONN Bio-Behavioral Science Dept. .
December 21st, 2010 at 12:59 pm
……….
Chanukah http://www.alljewishlinks.com Chanukah…
June 12th, 2011 at 8:05 am
hello…
really good article. Ready to hear more next week,my blog http://justyourspace.com/profile_blog_full.php?id=52538 Many Thanks….
June 16th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
really good article…
I have spent a bit of time going through your posts, more than I should have but I must say, its worth it! http://zyuan.homepage.ph/wp-admin/post.php?post=6&action=edit&message=6 many Thanks….
June 20th, 2011 at 3:11 am
hello…
Hello there thanks for the quality post! http://rachels11.skyrock.com/ ,i had a good read.thank you for your article,My problem continues to be resolved….
June 20th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
very helpful…
I preferred to thank you for this good article. http://nxysm.blogcentral.is/ I by all odds liked every little bit of it…
June 21st, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Great…
You did a great job! http://dacia.blogetery.com/2011/06/17/the-energy-of-the-necklace/...
June 22nd, 2011 at 4:43 am
Great…
You did a great job! http://denae.blogth.com/560219/Treats+magazine%3A+a+return+toward+the+golden+age+of+print.html...
June 26th, 2011 at 2:42 am
quality post…
I have spent a bit of time going through your posts! http://chrisa.over-blog.com/article-piers-atkinson-accessories-as-art-77284208.html ,i had a good read….
September 1st, 2011 at 4:06 pm
very helpful…
I preferred to thank you for this good article. http://pcztew.blogs.sapo.pt/ I by all odds liked every little bit of it…