The Boston Globe and the Palm Beach Post both had articles last week examining candidates' positions on education. The Globe's story focuses on how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had been strong voices for education reform in the past, but seem strangely reticent right now. The PB Post's story uses Arthur Levine's column (see previous blog item) as a launching point on why education seems to have little resonance on the campaign trail.
(hat tip: Eduwonk)
Monday, August 13, 2007
Tommy bows out
This writer relinquishes the task of following the educational positions of Tommy Thompson, who has dropped out of the GOP pack after a poor showing in the Iowa GOP’s straw poll. One note for TT watchers: Don't expect him to go quietly into retirement. He once told the editorial board of The Janesville Gazette that after his then-current term as governor, he would be content to go back and run for school board in his hometown. Afterward, he not only ran for governor again (posting a record 16 years at that post), he ran for president (twice) and became a cabinet secretary under the current President Bush.
Frank Schultz, fschultz@gazetteextra.com
Frank Schultz, fschultz@gazetteextra.com
Huckabee and evolution
The surprise runner-up in the Republican straw poll in Iowa over the weekend is a Baptist minister who believes God created the universe.
Huckabee’s so-called creationist beliefs place him terra-firmly on one side of the cultural divide, of course, but would those beliefs affect his educational policies as president of the United States? Maybe not. Consider the following from Huckabee, quoted by Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in May:
“I believe that the Creation has a creator. I believe there is a God. And I believe God put this whole creative process in motion. How he did it and the time frame in which he did it, I honestly don't know. Nor do I think it's relevant to being president of the United States,” Huckabee said. “I'm going to leave the scientists to debate the intricacies of how it happened and when it happened because I simply don't know. But I believe that rather than all this being just some accident that happened, there was a design, and a designer in the design.”
So, Huckabee apparently isn’t saying that evolution didn’t happen. Just that if it did happen, it would have been guided by God.
Or, maybe Huckabee was tacking as far to the left on this issue as he possibly could, in an effort to appeal to a wider range of voters while maintaining his creationist bona fides. It is extremely difficult for anyone to truly know the heart and mind of any other person, much less a presidential candidate.
Now, Huckabee also is famous for losing lots of weight and for having his own rock band. Does that translate into backing for funding to boost physical education, more healthful school lunches or music in schools? These are questions to be asked.
On a personal note, this writer joyfully relinquishes up the task of following the educational positions of Tommy Thompson, who has dropped out of the GOP pack after a poor showing in the straw poll. One note for Tommy watchers: Don't expect him to do quietly into retirement. He once told the editorial board of The Janesville Gazette that after being governor, he would be content to go back and run for school board in his hometown. Afterward, he not only ran for governor again, he ran for president (twice) and became a cabinet secretary under the current President Bush.
Frank Schultz, fschultz@gazetteextra.com
Huckabee’s so-called creationist beliefs place him terra-firmly on one side of the cultural divide, of course, but would those beliefs affect his educational policies as president of the United States? Maybe not. Consider the following from Huckabee, quoted by Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in May:
“I believe that the Creation has a creator. I believe there is a God. And I believe God put this whole creative process in motion. How he did it and the time frame in which he did it, I honestly don't know. Nor do I think it's relevant to being president of the United States,” Huckabee said. “I'm going to leave the scientists to debate the intricacies of how it happened and when it happened because I simply don't know. But I believe that rather than all this being just some accident that happened, there was a design, and a designer in the design.”
So, Huckabee apparently isn’t saying that evolution didn’t happen. Just that if it did happen, it would have been guided by God.
Or, maybe Huckabee was tacking as far to the left on this issue as he possibly could, in an effort to appeal to a wider range of voters while maintaining his creationist bona fides. It is extremely difficult for anyone to truly know the heart and mind of any other person, much less a presidential candidate.
Now, Huckabee also is famous for losing lots of weight and for having his own rock band. Does that translate into backing for funding to boost physical education, more healthful school lunches or music in schools? These are questions to be asked.
On a personal note, this writer joyfully relinquishes up the task of following the educational positions of Tommy Thompson, who has dropped out of the GOP pack after a poor showing in the straw poll. One note for Tommy watchers: Don't expect him to do quietly into retirement. He once told the editorial board of The Janesville Gazette that after being governor, he would be content to go back and run for school board in his hometown. Afterward, he not only ran for governor again, he ran for president (twice) and became a cabinet secretary under the current President Bush.
Frank Schultz, fschultz@gazetteextra.com
McCain: Still No Media Questions About Education
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, who has a new book coming out Tuesday, Aug. 14, called "Hard Call," appeared on the Today show last week, where Matt Lauer did not ask about education. He did ask about Iraq, of course, and also had questions for McCain regarding Don Imus, Barry Bonds, and whether he would be tempted to peek at his teen-age daughter's Facebook profile. (That last topic is not really about education, but it's about kids, so we'll count it as relevant here. McCain's response: "Sure. Yes, I would. I would, and I'd tell her that I'd read it. I mean, it's just like when children go online. Parents should know what our children are doing. But we tell our children that. We're not -- we need to know as parents what our children are doing. And, by the way, this issue of Internet child pornography is one of the most terrible and awful assaults on family and children in history, and we've got to fight that hard.")
Maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart will have an education question for McCain when he makes his 10th appearance on "The Daily Show" on Aug. 16.
The media may not be asking much about education, but some voters are keeping it in the public eye. GraniteGrok, a conservative blog site run by two New Hampshire political junkies, reports that an educator asked McCain about President Bush's No Child Left Behind law during a town meeting Aug. 10 in Wolfeboro, NH. McCain mostly repeated what he has said before (and what we've reported here): That NCLB is not perfect, but it's a good beginning, and that he supports vouchers and charter schools. "We need choice and competition," he said.
McCain, who skipped last Saturday's straw poll in Iowa, has spent much of his financially challenged campaign in New Hampshire. More from McCain's New Hampshire appearances can be found at GraniteGrok.com.
-- Mary Beth Marklein
Maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart will have an education question for McCain when he makes his 10th appearance on "The Daily Show" on Aug. 16.
The media may not be asking much about education, but some voters are keeping it in the public eye. GraniteGrok, a conservative blog site run by two New Hampshire political junkies, reports that an educator asked McCain about President Bush's No Child Left Behind law during a town meeting Aug. 10 in Wolfeboro, NH. McCain mostly repeated what he has said before (and what we've reported here): That NCLB is not perfect, but it's a good beginning, and that he supports vouchers and charter schools. "We need choice and competition," he said.
McCain, who skipped last Saturday's straw poll in Iowa, has spent much of his financially challenged campaign in New Hampshire. More from McCain's New Hampshire appearances can be found at GraniteGrok.com.
-- Mary Beth Marklein
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Heeere's .... Mitt Romney
Hello, EWA'ers -- it's Greg Toppo from USA Today. I've been asked to follow the Republicans' great-hair candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
So far it has been easy -- Romney doesn't have much to say about education, aside from a few predictable GOP positions. But he has great news potential, so stay tuned.
First a little background:
Willard Mitt Romney was born in Detroit on March 12, 1947, and attended private schools in Michigan. He attended Stanford for a semester, then spent two years as a Mormon missionary in France. He was BYU's valedictorian in 1971, and went on to earn MBA and law degrees from Harvard.
And yes, he's an Eagle Scout.
He's been married to the same woman, Ann Romney, since 1969 -- they have five sons and 10 grandchildren. Mrs. Romney was diagnosed with MS in 1998.
Business background: Management consultant, famously president of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games.
Political background: His father is George Romney, former Michigan governor and HUD secretary under Nixon.
Son Mitt ran unsuccessfully in 1994 for Ted Kennedy's senate seat, then successfully in 2002 for governor against state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien.
His education platform: Romney sorta likes No Child Left Behind (testing good, federal intrusion bad) and abstinence-only sex ed. He likes charters and vouchers and wants to give principals more control over their schools; he also likes pay-for-performance (and for advanced credentials) but isn't convinced that smaller class sizes matter. He worries that Asian kids are kicking our butts and wants immigrant kids to learn English.
In 2004, as governor, he vetoed a bill that would have given illegal immigrants who'd graduated from Mass. high schools in-state college tuition rates even if they promised to seek citizenship.
As has been pointed out previously in Ed Week, last May in one of the debates, Romney said he once wanted to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, but that as governor, he witnessed “the impact the federal government can have holding down the interest of teachers’ unions and instead putting the interest of parents and teachers first.”
Among his most interesting proposals as governor: mandatory parental preparation courses. That could be worth looking into.
He also made headlines in 2005 by proposing to spend $54 million to hand out laptops to half a million Massachusetts kids. (Mass. reporters -- did this die on the vine?)
Perusing www.mittromney.com, it's clear that, at least for now, he's not putting much energy into the issues that make EWA members sit up straight. Education doesn't appear at all on "The Romney Agenda," his four-point plan for America. Poke around his website and you'll find a few generic excerpts from speeches he gave as governor ("If we are going to compete in the global economy, we have to set our education goals higher") but little else.
His Feb. 13 announcement speech in Dearborn, Mich., features only cursory nods to education -- here's the most detailed reference (blink and you'll miss it):
"Look, America faces unprecedented challenges. We are under attack from jihadists, we face new competition from Asia unlike anything we have known before. We are spending too much money here, our schools are failing too many of our kids, forty-five million people don't have health insurance, we are using too much oil. And what does Washington do, it talks and debates and talks and kicks the ball down the field. It is time for less talk and more action in government."
He has said he wants to "raise the bar on education by making teaching a true profession," -- but few details so far -- and he wants to focus on math, science and parental involvement.
He believes, as I mentioned, that we're lagging in math and science -- last February he told the Detroit Economic Club: "Our schools are falling behind those of other nations -- you've seen that. It's true particularly in math and science. Our 15 year olds ranked 24th out of 29 OECD nations in math. 24th out of 29. Our high school seniors rank in the bottom 10% in math and the bottom 25% in science. How can you lead the world if the kids in the next generation are falling behind in the skills they need to innovate and create new enterprises?"
Romney's most interesting statement so far is this:
"We cannot continue to have an excellence gap with the rest of the world and intend to remain the economic superpower and military superpower of the planet. That's just not going to happen. We're in a position where unless we take action, we'll end up being the France of the 21st century: a lot of talk, but not a lot of strength behind it in terms of economic capability."
Never mind that French kids were up there with the Asians in math in the last round of PISA.
To be fair, Romney's website does feature a short (two-minute) video of an "Ask Mitt Anything" town hall meeting, in which a young girl stands before a microphone and asks, "What do plan to do to help schools?"
Good question, he says, then gives this lengthy reply:
"I generally like schools to be managed by local communities and states -- not the federal government. And I don't want the federal government telling people what to teach in schools and how to run schools. So I'm kind of hesitant to get the federal government too involved in education. But there are things that I think make a huge difference: I like choice -- I like parents being able to send their child to different schools, including charter schools, or to have vouchers to let them go to schools. I like English being taught in our schools. In my state as you know, we had a ballot initiative when I ran for governor that said that our kids should not be taught in bilingual classes, they should be taught in English. And I said, 'You know what, for our kids to be successful in America, they need to speak the language of America.' So I wanted that to be part of our system. (applause) Then we fought to make sure that we gave kids an incentive to do well in school -- and I was able to work with my counterparts in the legislature to get in place something known as the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, and it says that if you graduate in the top quarter of your high school class, you're entitled to a four-year, tuition-free scholarship in higher education to our state university or state colleges. I want to make sure we make sure our kids know that if they're doing well in school we're going to stand with them and help them in education. (applause) So there are things we can do to encourage that. And I do know that I know some people are not that happy with the No Child Left Behind legislation, but I have to be honest with you -- I find the testing of our kids to be a good thing, to find out which schools are succeeding and which ones are failing. And to make sure that we provide the support to those that are failing and school choice to those that are failing, so kids in their schools have the kind of opportunities they need."
That's all for now -- I'll continue to come back to Romney whenever he makes news, so if you see something I don't (or need to correct something I flubbed), please e-mail me: gtoppo@usatoday.com.
Edited to Add: Caroline Grannan (in comments) correctly notes that many researchers -- Bracey included -- are skeptical of the unfavorable comparisons to U.S. kids' performance and that of kids in other nations.In my defense, though, I'd point out that a new NCES report found here -- http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007006_2.pdf -- suggests that the French kids may be taking August off, but they still get the job done ... -gt
So far it has been easy -- Romney doesn't have much to say about education, aside from a few predictable GOP positions. But he has great news potential, so stay tuned.
First a little background:
Willard Mitt Romney was born in Detroit on March 12, 1947, and attended private schools in Michigan. He attended Stanford for a semester, then spent two years as a Mormon missionary in France. He was BYU's valedictorian in 1971, and went on to earn MBA and law degrees from Harvard.
And yes, he's an Eagle Scout.
He's been married to the same woman, Ann Romney, since 1969 -- they have five sons and 10 grandchildren. Mrs. Romney was diagnosed with MS in 1998.
Business background: Management consultant, famously president of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games.
Political background: His father is George Romney, former Michigan governor and HUD secretary under Nixon.
Son Mitt ran unsuccessfully in 1994 for Ted Kennedy's senate seat, then successfully in 2002 for governor against state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien.
His education platform: Romney sorta likes No Child Left Behind (testing good, federal intrusion bad) and abstinence-only sex ed. He likes charters and vouchers and wants to give principals more control over their schools; he also likes pay-for-performance (and for advanced credentials) but isn't convinced that smaller class sizes matter. He worries that Asian kids are kicking our butts and wants immigrant kids to learn English.
In 2004, as governor, he vetoed a bill that would have given illegal immigrants who'd graduated from Mass. high schools in-state college tuition rates even if they promised to seek citizenship.
As has been pointed out previously in Ed Week, last May in one of the debates, Romney said he once wanted to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, but that as governor, he witnessed “the impact the federal government can have holding down the interest of teachers’ unions and instead putting the interest of parents and teachers first.”
Among his most interesting proposals as governor: mandatory parental preparation courses. That could be worth looking into.
He also made headlines in 2005 by proposing to spend $54 million to hand out laptops to half a million Massachusetts kids. (Mass. reporters -- did this die on the vine?)
Perusing www.mittromney.com, it's clear that, at least for now, he's not putting much energy into the issues that make EWA members sit up straight. Education doesn't appear at all on "The Romney Agenda," his four-point plan for America. Poke around his website and you'll find a few generic excerpts from speeches he gave as governor ("If we are going to compete in the global economy, we have to set our education goals higher") but little else.
His Feb. 13 announcement speech in Dearborn, Mich., features only cursory nods to education -- here's the most detailed reference (blink and you'll miss it):
"Look, America faces unprecedented challenges. We are under attack from jihadists, we face new competition from Asia unlike anything we have known before. We are spending too much money here, our schools are failing too many of our kids, forty-five million people don't have health insurance, we are using too much oil. And what does Washington do, it talks and debates and talks and kicks the ball down the field. It is time for less talk and more action in government."
He has said he wants to "raise the bar on education by making teaching a true profession," -- but few details so far -- and he wants to focus on math, science and parental involvement.
He believes, as I mentioned, that we're lagging in math and science -- last February he told the Detroit Economic Club: "Our schools are falling behind those of other nations -- you've seen that. It's true particularly in math and science. Our 15 year olds ranked 24th out of 29 OECD nations in math. 24th out of 29. Our high school seniors rank in the bottom 10% in math and the bottom 25% in science. How can you lead the world if the kids in the next generation are falling behind in the skills they need to innovate and create new enterprises?"
Romney's most interesting statement so far is this:
"We cannot continue to have an excellence gap with the rest of the world and intend to remain the economic superpower and military superpower of the planet. That's just not going to happen. We're in a position where unless we take action, we'll end up being the France of the 21st century: a lot of talk, but not a lot of strength behind it in terms of economic capability."
Never mind that French kids were up there with the Asians in math in the last round of PISA.
To be fair, Romney's website does feature a short (two-minute) video of an "Ask Mitt Anything" town hall meeting, in which a young girl stands before a microphone and asks, "What do plan to do to help schools?"
Good question, he says, then gives this lengthy reply:
"I generally like schools to be managed by local communities and states -- not the federal government. And I don't want the federal government telling people what to teach in schools and how to run schools. So I'm kind of hesitant to get the federal government too involved in education. But there are things that I think make a huge difference: I like choice -- I like parents being able to send their child to different schools, including charter schools, or to have vouchers to let them go to schools. I like English being taught in our schools. In my state as you know, we had a ballot initiative when I ran for governor that said that our kids should not be taught in bilingual classes, they should be taught in English. And I said, 'You know what, for our kids to be successful in America, they need to speak the language of America.' So I wanted that to be part of our system. (applause) Then we fought to make sure that we gave kids an incentive to do well in school -- and I was able to work with my counterparts in the legislature to get in place something known as the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, and it says that if you graduate in the top quarter of your high school class, you're entitled to a four-year, tuition-free scholarship in higher education to our state university or state colleges. I want to make sure we make sure our kids know that if they're doing well in school we're going to stand with them and help them in education. (applause) So there are things we can do to encourage that. And I do know that I know some people are not that happy with the No Child Left Behind legislation, but I have to be honest with you -- I find the testing of our kids to be a good thing, to find out which schools are succeeding and which ones are failing. And to make sure that we provide the support to those that are failing and school choice to those that are failing, so kids in their schools have the kind of opportunities they need."
That's all for now -- I'll continue to come back to Romney whenever he makes news, so if you see something I don't (or need to correct something I flubbed), please e-mail me: gtoppo@usatoday.com.
Edited to Add: Caroline Grannan (in comments) correctly notes that many researchers -- Bracey included -- are skeptical of the unfavorable comparisons to U.S. kids' performance and that of kids in other nations.In my defense, though, I'd point out that a new NCES report found here -- http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007006_2.pdf -- suggests that the French kids may be taking August off, but they still get the job done ... -gt
Dodd: The K-12 plan
Yesterday, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd was all about higher education. Today, he focused on the younger set.
In comments to the New Hampshire National Education Association (watch the video here), Dodd laid out his main platform for K-12. He wants universal preschool for low- and middle-income children and big bonuses for teachers who commit to "high-needs" schools for at least five years. He also called for changes to the way teachers get certified and the way kids' achievement is measured.
To read more, check out this Associated Press report in Ed Week. To read the campaign press release, click here. To visit the campaign web site, click here.
As for me, I'm Jeff Solochek, education reporter and blogger at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. I've agreed to collect Senator Dodd's comments about education issues for you. Look for more later. And if you have questions or suggestions, please e-mail me at solochek@sptimes.com.
In comments to the New Hampshire National Education Association (watch the video here), Dodd laid out his main platform for K-12. He wants universal preschool for low- and middle-income children and big bonuses for teachers who commit to "high-needs" schools for at least five years. He also called for changes to the way teachers get certified and the way kids' achievement is measured.
To read more, check out this Associated Press report in Ed Week. To read the campaign press release, click here. To visit the campaign web site, click here.
As for me, I'm Jeff Solochek, education reporter and blogger at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. I've agreed to collect Senator Dodd's comments about education issues for you. Look for more later. And if you have questions or suggestions, please e-mail me at solochek@sptimes.com.
Governor Bill Richardson
Greetings everyone. I’m going to be blogging on New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s education agenda as he seeks the democratic presidential nomination.
This first entry is just introductory to get us acquainted with Richardson and his state. Future blogs will provide more details of his education policies and positions.
The one caveat is his stand on No Child Left Behind. Governor Richardson opposes it. "I would scrap it, it doesn’t work," he told a cheering audience at the CNN/YouTube debate (7/23/07) among Democratic presidential candidates. "It is not just an unfunded mandate but the one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. It doesn’t emphasize teacher training, it doesn’t emphasize disabled kids, English learning kids don’t get help. The worst thing it does is it takes districts and schools that are not doing well, takes their funds away, penalizes them. If a school is not doing well, we help that school."
First, a bit about the New Mexico Governor. He was born in November 1947 and has quite an impressive resume (with the exception of some confusion regarding his being drafted or merely scouted by the Kansas City A’s ball team as a young man). Voters in New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District sent him to Congress in 1983. He served seven terms and sat on the Interior Committee and the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Richardson also chaired the Hispanic Caucus (his mother is Mexican and Bill lived in Mexico City until high school). Former President Clinton appointed him as United States Ambassador to the UN in 1997. In 1998, Clinton tapped him to succeed Federico Peña as US Energy Secretary (Richardson’s Congressional district included Los Alamos National Lab). He ran for Governor of New Mexico in 2002 and was re-elected in 2006.
Now, here are a couple of fun facts about the man from which you can draw your own conclusions. He holds the Guinness Book of world records for the most handshakes in an eight hour period. This feat took place in 2002, in Albuquerque and involved 13,392 hands. Richardson has been a strong believer in this sort of grass roots, person-to-person campaigning since entering political life. The Governor, by the way, eschews hand sanitizers during these campaign events, something you may want to keep in mind when interviewing him since as many as 3,000 of those hands belonged to people didn’t wash after using the restroom according to the American Society for Microbiology.
Okay, now for some facts about the state population. New Mexico is a bit shy of 2 million residents, placing it 36th out the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of about 328,000 K-12 students, nearly 55 percent are Hispanic, 30 percent are white, and 11 percent are Native American; far above the national average of about one percent. More than half of all students are on free or reduced lunch.
State schools fared well in the most recent "Quality Counts" report by Education Week. New Mexico received an A in standards and accountability, the national average was "B-"; it earned a "B" in efforts to improve teacher quality, the nationwide average was "C+"; and it was one of the top states in resource equity with a "B+". It’s only below average grade was for school climate, where the state earned a "C". According to Ed Week, New Mexico "does not have laws in place to address school harassment or to enforce specific penalties for school violence."
New Mexico’s record in higher education is sketchier. The non-profit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gave the state an "F" for affordability and preparation. And while the state received an "A" in participation, actual graduation rates earned it a grade of "D".
That’s it for this entry. Feel free to reach me at kbaron@kqed.org for now. I’m heading to UC Berkeley for a one-year fellowship, but will still be checking my KQED email.
--Kathy Baron
This first entry is just introductory to get us acquainted with Richardson and his state. Future blogs will provide more details of his education policies and positions.
The one caveat is his stand on No Child Left Behind. Governor Richardson opposes it. "I would scrap it, it doesn’t work," he told a cheering audience at the CNN/YouTube debate (7/23/07) among Democratic presidential candidates. "It is not just an unfunded mandate but the one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. It doesn’t emphasize teacher training, it doesn’t emphasize disabled kids, English learning kids don’t get help. The worst thing it does is it takes districts and schools that are not doing well, takes their funds away, penalizes them. If a school is not doing well, we help that school."
First, a bit about the New Mexico Governor. He was born in November 1947 and has quite an impressive resume (with the exception of some confusion regarding his being drafted or merely scouted by the Kansas City A’s ball team as a young man). Voters in New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District sent him to Congress in 1983. He served seven terms and sat on the Interior Committee and the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Richardson also chaired the Hispanic Caucus (his mother is Mexican and Bill lived in Mexico City until high school). Former President Clinton appointed him as United States Ambassador to the UN in 1997. In 1998, Clinton tapped him to succeed Federico Peña as US Energy Secretary (Richardson’s Congressional district included Los Alamos National Lab). He ran for Governor of New Mexico in 2002 and was re-elected in 2006.
Now, here are a couple of fun facts about the man from which you can draw your own conclusions. He holds the Guinness Book of world records for the most handshakes in an eight hour period. This feat took place in 2002, in Albuquerque and involved 13,392 hands. Richardson has been a strong believer in this sort of grass roots, person-to-person campaigning since entering political life. The Governor, by the way, eschews hand sanitizers during these campaign events, something you may want to keep in mind when interviewing him since as many as 3,000 of those hands belonged to people didn’t wash after using the restroom according to the American Society for Microbiology.
Okay, now for some facts about the state population. New Mexico is a bit shy of 2 million residents, placing it 36th out the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of about 328,000 K-12 students, nearly 55 percent are Hispanic, 30 percent are white, and 11 percent are Native American; far above the national average of about one percent. More than half of all students are on free or reduced lunch.
State schools fared well in the most recent "Quality Counts" report by Education Week. New Mexico received an A in standards and accountability, the national average was "B-"; it earned a "B" in efforts to improve teacher quality, the nationwide average was "C+"; and it was one of the top states in resource equity with a "B+". It’s only below average grade was for school climate, where the state earned a "C". According to Ed Week, New Mexico "does not have laws in place to address school harassment or to enforce specific penalties for school violence."
New Mexico’s record in higher education is sketchier. The non-profit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gave the state an "F" for affordability and preparation. And while the state received an "A" in participation, actual graduation rates earned it a grade of "D".
That’s it for this entry. Feel free to reach me at kbaron@kqed.org for now. I’m heading to UC Berkeley for a one-year fellowship, but will still be checking my KQED email.
--Kathy Baron
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)