Educating the Green Generation

Building a clean energy economy in which the United States is the world leader in manufacturing renewable energy systems will take a lot of ingenuity, creativity and all-around brilliance. No problem there, but we’re lagging behind in training our best and brightest in the science and technology that will define the green era.

Efforts like “No Child Left Inside,” an environmental education bill now in the U.S. Senate, are a move in the right direction, as is the $1.2 billion portion of the stimulus package devoted to new science funding. Kansas just received $15.3 million of those funds, part of which will go to scholarships for professional development in the science of renewable energy.

Throughout Kansas, schools and organizations have already been working hard to help develop the environmentally literate workforce that will lead us into a new energy future.
Moving toward energy efficiency and sustainability also has an impact on business education. The School of Business at Emporia State University just created a new undergraduate course about bringing social responsibility into business decisions. The goal of “Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability” includes honing students’ problem-solving skills in finding alternative methods of sustaining the environment.

Remarks by President Obama on Education

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for the outstanding introduction from Matthew. And Matthew’s teacher, you’re doing obviously an outstanding job — although I understand Matthew’s mom is also a teacher who has also won awards for her outstanding work. So the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. We are very proud of him.

Obviously I want to thank my wonderful Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who has helped to lead us. (Applause.) I want to thank all the members of Congress who are here, the governors who are in attendance. And I want to give a special shout out to Chairman George Miller of the Education Committee in the House, who has just been a outstanding partner for reform. Please give him a big round of applause. (Applause.)

You know, from the moment I entered office, my administration has worked to beat back this recession by creating jobs, unfreezing credit markets, extending unemployment insurance and health benefits to Americans who are out of work. But even as we’ve worked to end this immediate crisis, we’ve also taken some historic measures to build a new foundation for growth and prosperity that can help secure our economic future for generations to come.

One pillar of this new foundation is health insurance reform that can control deficits, and reduce costs for families and businesses, provide quality affordable care for every American. Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, that creates green jobs that can’t be outsourced, and frees America from the grip of foreign oil. We’re also working to enact financial reforms that will set up firm rules of the road to help prevent an economic crisis like the one we’ve just gone through from ever happening again.

But even if we do all of those things, America will not succeed in the 21st century unless we do a far better job of educating our sons and daughters, unless every child is performing the way Matthew is performing. In an economy where knowledge is the most valuable commodity a person and a country have to offer, the best jobs will go to the best educated — whether they live in the United States or India or China. In a world where countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, the future belongs to the nation that best educates its people. Period. We know this.

But we also know that today, our education system is falling short. We’ve talked about it for decades but we know that we have not made the progress we need to make. The United States, a country that has always led the way in innovation, is now being outpaced in math and science education. African American, Latino students are lagging behind white classmates in one subject after another — an achievement gap that, by one estimate, costs us hundreds of billions of dollars in wages that will not be earned, jobs that will not be done, and purchases that will not be made. And most employers raise doubts about the qualifications of future employees, rating high school graduates’ basic skills as only “fair” or “poor.”

Of course, as I said before, we’ve talked about this problem for years. For years, we’ve talked about bad statistics and an achievement gap. For years, we’ve talked about overcrowded classrooms and crumbling schools and corridors of shame across this country. We’ve talked these problems to death, year after year, decade after decade, while doing all too little to solve them.

But thanks to Arne’s leadership, thanks to George Miller’s leadership, thanks to all the dedicated Americans in statehouses, and schoolhouses, communities across this country, that’s beginning to change. We’re beginning to break free from the partisanship and the petty bickering that have stood in the way of progress for so long. We’re beginning to move past the stale debates about either more money or more reform, because the fact is we need both. We’re beginning to offer every single American the best education the world has to offer from the cradle to the classroom, from college to careers.

In recent months, I’ve spoken about the different parts of this strategy. I’ve spoken about what we’re doing to prepare community college students to find a job when they graduate; to make college and advanced training more affordable; and to raise the bar in early learning programs. Today, I want to talk about what we can do to raise the quality of education from kindergarten through senior year.

Because improving education is central to rebuilding our economy, we set aside over $4 billion in the Recovery Act to promote improvements in schools. This is one of the largest investments in education reform in American history. And rather than divvying it up and handing it out, we are letting states and school districts compete for it. That’s how we can incentivize excellence and spur reform and launch a race to the top in America’s public schools.

That race starts today. I’m issuing a challenge to our nation’s governors, to school boards and principals and teachers, to businesses and non-for-profits, to parents and students: if you set and enforce rigorous and challenging standards and assessments; if you put outstanding teachers at the front of the classroom; if you turn around failing schools — your state can win a Race to the Top grant that will not only help students outcompete workers around the world, but let them fulfill their God-given potential.

This competition will not be based on politics or ideology or the preferences of a particular interest group. Instead, it will be based on a simple principle — whether a state is ready to do what works. We will use the best evidence available to determine whether a state can meet a few key benchmarks for reform — and states that outperform the rest will be rewarded with a grant. Not every state will win and not every school district will be happy with the results. But America’s children, America’s economy, and America itself will be better for it.

And one of the benchmarks we will use is whether states are designing and enforcing higher and clearer standards and assessments that prepare a student to graduate from college and succeed in life. Right now, some states like Massachusetts are setting high standards, but many others are not. Many others are low-balling expectations for students — telling our kids they’re prepared to move on to the next grade even if they aren’t; awarding diplomas even if a graduate doesn’t have the knowledge and skills to thrive in our economy.

That’s a recipe for economic decline, and it has to stop. With the Race to the Top fund, we will reward states that come together and adopt a common set of standards and assessments. Now, let me be clear: This is not about the kind of testing that has mushroomed under No Child Left Behind. This is not about more tests. It’s not about teaching to the test. And it’s not about judging a teacher solely on the results of a single test.

It is about finally getting testing right, about developing thoughtful assessments that lead to better results; assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can use a pencil to fill in a bubble, but whether they possess basic knowledge and essential skills like problem-solving and creative thinking, creativity and entrepreneurship. And already, 46 states are working to develop such standards. I urge those 46 states to finish the job. I urge the other four to get onboard. (Laughter.)

An Apple for Your Teacher

It’s shaping up to be a grim year for the Spokane Public School district in Washington state. Like so many others, it is making deep cuts in everything from teaching staff to school supplies this coming school year. But there’s one bright spot for the district: The amount of federal dollars to incorporate technology in the classroom—and to train teachers to use it—is expected to double to about $160,000 from the previous year.

At the same time school districts around the nation are bracing for a round of severe belt-tightening as a result of strained state and local budgets, they’re also getting a significant bump in federal funding to make their classrooms more tech-savvy, which they hope will help improve student performance.

The only problem: Districts are prohibited from using the money for any other purpose—which can mean that they have to cut staff and other programs while spending lavishly on computers.

The Enhancing Education Through Technology program was authorized in 2002 as part of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. But the level of funding steadily declined to $267.5 million in 2008 from $700.5 million six years earlier—a 62% drop. The economic-stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama in February restored $650 million in funding to the program, to be used over the course of the next two school years. States are expected to receive those funds this week to distribute to their school districts.

That money will help places like North Kansas City, Mo. Starting in the fall, the district is distributing “mini note” devices—small laptops with 10-inch screens—to each of its 5,600 high-school students. At the same time, it is “retooling” its teachers, says Janet Herdman, executive director of technology for the district. This year, 90 high-school teachers will receive comprehensive technology training provided by the district over the course of the school year. The goal: for all 400 high-school teachers to be trained over the next four years.

Many districts receiving these funds are looking beyond simply equipping classrooms with the latest gadgetry, such as Smart Boards and video equipment, in favor of rethinking the way education is delivered. In some tech-equipped schools, teachers are playing a less-dominant role in the classroom, group work and problem-solving are emphasized, and technology is infused into every lesson, whether that means dissecting a frog with a software program or predicting the weather using real-time information.

Preparing Today’s Workers for Tomorrow’s Jobs

They say there’s only one thing that matters in real estate: location, location, location. A similar mantra could apply to the job market: education, education, education.

That is the theme of a new report, released today by the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, entitled “Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow.”

The report surveys previous research done on which parts of the labor force will grow the most between now and 2016 (answer: health care, and jobs requiring post-secondary education). It then argues for ways to improve the educational system so that American workers can more readily adapt to our ever more skill-based economy.

Given this, the rest of the report describes goals for improving the post-secondary education system. These goals include providing more training programs for displaced workers, improving financial access to educational programs, offering students more guidance in their course selection and degree planning, and working with employers to make sure educational programs equip students with the skills they will need on the job.

And the report asserts that “the most important ‘post-high school’ education and training reform is a strong early childhood and elementary and secondary system.”

Obama, Private Sector Call for Better Workforce Preparation

President Barack Obama was scheduled to outline a proposal for increasing funding for community colleges on Tuesday, July 14, at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan.

In prepared remarks released in advance of the speech, Obama said that community colleges play a central role in helping workers survive economic change.

“[T]he hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won’t be coming back,” Obama said. “And that only underscores the importance of generating new businesses and industries to replace the ones we’ve lost, and of preparing our workers to fill the jobs they create.”

Obama called his American Graduation Initiative the “most significant down payment yet” on his stated goal of ensuring that by 2020 the U.S. has the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Under the plan, Obama projects that an additional 5 million people would earn degrees and certificates from community colleges.

The $12 billion, 10-year program would help the institutions improve their facilities and expand online education. It would be financed by cutting waste out of the student-loan program, according to the White House….Companies indicate that the applied skills that are most lacking are critical thinking and problem solving, while the basic skill in short supply is writing in English, said Mary Wright, a program director at the Conference Board.

Obama to salute U.S. problem-solving Tuesday

So what’s working when it comes to innovative problem solving around the country?

President Barack Obama on Tuesday will be highlighting nonprofit programs that are making a difference. The White House says the president will salute creative approaches and will discuss the importance of looking outside Washington for solutions. He’s expected to challenge philanthropists and foundations to do their part.