President Obama Proposes New Solutions for States and Education

Decisions of the United States’ democratic president Barack Obama lie before American Educators and state officials regarding what they will do with NCLB. History may shed some light as one reflects on the differences of the democrats and republicans of 1870. Compulsory education became an enormous political issue for republicans in 1870. Compulsory education was viewed the answer for resolving the matter of “ignorant masses.” The democrats of that time held to the Jeffersonian beliefs that a government that governs least governs best as democrats believed that states exercising too much power were un-American. Democrats believed that states should not have so much power as to determine how people should live their lives as they continued to oppose compulsory laws for school attendance though republicans promoted compulsory laws for school attendance (Provansnik, 2006). In many ways, America has changed and as President Obama promotes new policies for states to opt out of the accountabilities of NCLB, one cannot help but question who will really be the beneficiaries of such a waiver.

With much controversy over No Child left Behind and the results of countless schools labeled failures, President Obama has now responded to the matter by allowing schools to opt out while labeling the NCLB Act of 2001 a signature legacy of President George Bush’ presidency (Hefling, 2011). While under NCLB, children in schools labeled failures are granted remedies, school choice and extra tutoring. However, states granted a waiver under the plan of President Obama will be able to determine if they want to use the same corrective measures. Educating the children of America will become the responsibilities of state officials. The idea of the state taking care over education poses many concerns especially in view of the state of Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Corbett proposed budget for 2011-2012 that included major cuts in public education and higher education. His proposal reduced education by nearly 550 million dollars which reduced the budget ten percent less than the previous year. Governor Corbett described the cut as a reality cut. I believe that as new legislation related to education is before America just before election-day on November 8, 2011, America now has a clearer understanding of the platform needed for officials who will occupy state seats as legislatures and policy makers. Let us maintain our democracy as I believe that fixing one problem and adding new problems only creates "policy chaos" and not a remedy.

American Educational Reform and Charter Schools

Charter schools are described to be a solution for educational reform as they provide improved learning opportunities for low-income minority students. Policymakers in several states have now included the charter school law for racial classification provisions that will lead to imrpoved student sorting by ethnicity and race (Oluwole & Green; Rensulli, 2006).

After an examination of schools in New Jersey, the study demonstrates that racial segregation has increased and is more severe as more African Americans enroll in charter schools. The reason for this result is because of the tendency for charter schools to cluster in area just outside of African American communities. The student racial sorting depends on the surrounding learning environment as minorities could be over represented or under-represented.


References
Gulosino, C., Charisse, d’E. C. (2011).Circles of influence: An analysis of charter school location and racial patterns at varying geographic scales. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 19(8), 1-25.

Oluwole, J. & Green, P. (2008). Charter schools: Racial balancing provisions and parents involved. Arkansas Law Review, 61, 1-52.

Policy Improvement Recommendations for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

Policy Improvement Recommendations by Leah Spencer Hopkins

This writing represents an evaluation plan to send to the state senator about the No child Left Behind act of 2001. An assessment of the act is presented followed by a framework evaluation including feasibility, propriety, accuracy, and usefulness of the act. Finally, recommendations offered are based on the assessment of the policy for improvement.

The federal policy NCLB has alarmed teachers all over the country as the requirements have negatively affected teachers and students. Teachers remain concerned that the responses to the incentives of the law have reduced the quality of the education provided for some children. The views of teachers are sensitive toward teachers where significant populations of disadvantaged students feel pressured from administrators to increase test scores without clear instruction on how to accomplish that goal (Murnane & Papy, 2010). Controversy exists with the NCLB in the amount of control the federal government will have in enforcing state standards. Questions rise considering whether the government will withdraw funds from states who do not adequately assess students or who show little to none in progress toward reducing student achievement gaps. Some states have chosen to opt out of federal funding while withdrawing from the federal testing. Proficiency levels are not increasing under NCLB although many schools are labeled failures (Bracey, 2007). The chairperson of the Assembly Education Committee says that the focus on testing in NCLB has led to narrowed curricula (Taylor, 2007).

An examination of the feasibility of the policy shows the act requires that 95-100 % of children achieve proficient scores or higher on state standardized test by 2014. Many questions exist regarding whether the goal proves achievable or feasible. The act does not specify what criterion represents proficient, as each state can choose their own tests, state standards and cut off scores for AYP. Think- tanks exist for ranking states for the rigor of their standards and tests (Chapman, 2004).

Considerations are given to matters related to propriety, because of NCLB: threats of privatization exist for public schools. Curricula requiring that only facts need to be mastered for the purpose of standardized test exist, as teachers teaching long hours for test preparation. Low-income students disproportionately placed in special education classes prove the reality of racism in America. The problem is that issues related to NCLB remain alive as corporate like accountability processes still exists. Weakening teacher’s unions and a strong mayoral control over school systems still exists.

Accuracy is necessary in an evaluation. If one will produce an accurate evaluation, the study of the context where implementation of the policy has taken place while becoming familiar with cultural and socioeconomic aspects of the environments must take place.” The NCLB requirements were largely based on Texas’ educational accountability practices as Texas’ successful practices were to serve as a model for the country (Haney, 2000; Reyes, 2008). The problem is that Texas’ system has been filled with problems and inconsistencies. Examples include excluding low performing students from school and the test, and the sudden increase of student population who entered special education programs, large numbers of retention for ninth grade students resulting in increased test scores for the next year 10th grade students. Large numbers of students entered GED programs while significant high dropout rates occurred and an increase in inequity for students (Haney, 2000, 2001; Heilig & Darling-Hammond, 2008).

Considerations were given regarding the usefulness of the act, and stakeholders are identified as relevant data sources as the data gathered will serve relevant to major purposes for this evaluation. A survey polling 925 school leaders and 1,006 district administrators showed mostly negative responses as educational professionals expressed hope and doubt about NCLB achieving the goal of the policy. The responders to the survey were positive about the policy’s focus on reading instruction (Archer, 2003). The Public Education Network (2006) had hearings that permitted teachers and students to express opinions about the policy while expressing dissatisfaction. The responses from the public about NCLB during the hearing showed negative public response toward the act (Galloway, 2007).

The recommendation to improve the NCLB is for educators, teachers, and school administrators to determine how they will assess the children in their individual schools but remain relevant for the racial and ethnic group and accountable while reporting the discoveries to the state. Site-based management requires the rethinking of accountability as the site managed schools must have the ability to maintain a distinguishing character while not complying to procedural requirements. The school curriculum, pedagogy, and climate must match the students the school serves (Hill & Bonan, 1991). Supporters of data-driven decisions advocate that using data enables the school systems to learn about their schools as the can pinpoint challenges, successes, and identify improvements, and evaluate effective programs and practices (Mason, 2002). Data-driven decision-making can also increase student learning (Alwin, 2002; Doyle, 2003).As schools learn how to interpret and analyze data as mandated under NCLB, informed decisions can occur about all areas of learning (Wohlstetter, et al., 2008). The recommendation suggests that the power of assessment should become the primary responsibility of the individual school.
This paper was meant to assess the No Child Left behind act and to evaluate the act using the special designed framework. Considerations offered provided structure for the community and finally, offered is a recommendation to improve the NCLB act. Empowering the schools again will enable schools to provide the instruction needed to help each student develop with the use of data instruction stays better informed (Alwin, 2002).

Why are People Like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann so Critical of Policies of President Obama?: Are They Afraid of Him?

Why are people like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann so Critical of policies of President Obama?: Are They afraid of him? Sarah Palin says she fears for the democracy because of President Obama’s agenda, and has further accused President Obama of being a sympathizer of terrorist. Michelle Bachman accused the president of being even worse than President Jimmy Carter (Cesca, 2011). I want to consider the expectations of the president and consider if the accusations are reasonable.

The constitutional expectations of the president include an oath according to the Article II that President Obama swore to on the day he was sworn into office, while swearing to his commitment to execute the office of president. The oath affirms that the president will protect and defend the constitution of the United States. While recalling the day of the inauguration of President Obama, the swearing in seemed botched, and on the next day, Chief Justice Roberts asked of the president to take the oath again without mistakes as they did while speaking carefully, making efforts to speak the oath perfectly. A historical note is that not all presidents have recited the actual oath but instead say “I do” after someone else has recited the oath as questions. The expectations of the people supplement the constitutional text as the practices of the constitution are not always consistent with the constitutional text. An example is when Senator Hillary Clinton took office as secretary of state, and Kirsten Gillibrand who was representing New York’s 20th district in the House of Representatives replaced Mrs. Clinton in the Senate. The problem is that Murphy won an election in 2009 to replace Gillibrand. However, when can Murphy run for re-election- since the Article 1 section 2 says that members of the House of Representatives will be chosen every two years. Murphy ran and won in 2010 or two consecutive years as opposed to every two years, and this is a standard practice while meeting expectations of Americans though not in the constitutional text (Primus, 2010).

Needless to say, the 21st century is proving to be a time of globalization requiring much change in our thinking. Has the president kept his word? How can accusations of Sarah Palin possibly reflect the actions of a president who has sworn to defend the constitution of the United States? Former presidents and leaders have made changes that were necessary as the Supreme Court had to decide on Brown v. the Board of education, hall of famer, Wesley Branch Rickey a baseball executive for the major leagues decided to integrate Major league baseball while signing Jackie Robinson and Black Hispanic Roberto Clemente to Major league. President Harry Truman decided to integrate the American armed forces. The point is that constitutional developments occur and though people may not have immediately embraced the changes, the validity of the changes are not always immediately apparent. Though President Obama has exercised his transformational gifts, we must open our eyes and learn from our history while not judging the worth of the decisions of our leaders based on the color of their skin. President Obama is our first acknowledged Black president and we must continue to daily consider him in prayer to God.

References
Primus, R. (2010). Constitutional expectations. Michigan Law Review, 109(1), 91-110.

African American Leaders Speak Out

I have been wondering when Reverend Jesse Jackson would speak out concerning the accusations against our President Barach Obama. Donald Trump has climbed to the top of the republican vote with lies about President Obama's birthplace. He says President Obama is not an American. I say, Ludicrous! Why won't Donald Trump talk about real issues like education or the budget; issues that affect people.

Republicans and Democrats: Don’t Forget Our Past Failures, but Learn from America’s Past!

In 2007 five of the largest banks became insolvent resulting in takeovers. Wall Street’s five largest banks vanished, Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association) both government sponsored lenders declined approximately 99 percent since 2007. Unemployment has risen, as credit interest rates are at peak levels. What appears to be the catalyst for the economic crisis was the housing market and the falling prices of homes and mortgages having minimal equity. Thus, a recession began in December of 2007. As mortgages were left uncollateralized, the values of securities backed by mortgages were inflated leaving financial institutions unable to lend while losing capital. The vicious cycle began with foreclosures and diminished credit (Reinganum, 2009).

My perspective is that Obama has sought to do what a good leader should do so as to soften the pain of a failing economy. Because the current crisis does not reflect the capitalistic economy system or the free-market, many believe that the economic suffering will last for a short term. Innovative policy and creativity must be developed and directed to avoid the same failures in the future. We can look with hope to see a healthy America in years to come.

The problem is that the economic crisis and campaigning for official positions has taken the focus off of the most important of our society. Our children must be remembered in the midst of the crisis. Educational policies must be developed that provide social justice while eliminating threats of privatization of schools . Policies that will eliminate the teacher having to spend a school year teaching to a test and that will eliminate the disproportionate numbers of children of color who are placed in special education classes while reinforcing the perpetual racism in society at large.

Cry, Oh America, for the children who will grow in a nation of inequalities that are ignored from one generation to the next because of hidden agendas, yet ingrained in the very fabric of the American culture. I believe that parents and community leaders must visit and volunteer to see how they can contribute to the work of educating students. As I advocate for the urban student, one must not forget them because they deserve part of the American dream as well. The task is difficult as I praise principals and teachers who endure and serve thousands of urban students each day, realizing that the job is not always respected or appreciated.

Education is power and though President Obama has made progress through Race to the Top policies, as schools will be rewarded for student achievement even if achievement does not result in annual yearly progress (AYP). A cultural change has begun to occur where the shame of schools are being lessened through rewards. The Race ToThe Top policy includes the starting of charter schools, however, charter schools are known to fare worse than public schools. The emphasis is not on privatization but provides more choice through the public sector while not vilifying the public sector as with the Bush administration (Apple, 2011).

I submit that republicans and democrats must maintain the integrity of the election process; no longer fighting over issues that destroy our leaders and the hope of our children and the American people. America desires to have ethical leaders with integrity who will fight against injustices but who uphold what is good and right. As our economy has suffered failure, lets learn from our past failures and heal our nation again. President Obama, has done what a good leader does, as he seeks to lessen the pain of those whom he leads. Thank you President Obama for your leadership!

Reference

Apple, M. W. (2011). Grading Obama’s education policy. Progressive. 75(2), 24-27.

Reinganum, M. R.(2009). Setting national priorities: Financial challenges facing the Obama administration. Financial Analysts Journal. 65(2), 1-4.