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Inner Workings

Perspectives

One Day asked: Imagine no barriers. No limits. How would you reinvent the profession of teaching? Your fellow alums answer.
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Election Watch

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are on the hot seat, answering your questions on education policy.

Where They Stand

CandidatesOne Day put presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain on the hot seat to answer tough questions about their education platforms from Teach For America alumni. Here’s what they said.

Q: Numerous public charter schools have led their students to success through a combination of innovation, research-based methods, and hard work. Still, the charter movement cannot feasibly run every public school, and not every charter school is a quality school. As president, what will be your stance on charter schools? Will you support reducing restrictions and limits on charters?
—Janelle Berg Conroy (Metro D.C. ’02)

McCAIN: I fully support public charter schools, and am proud my state of Arizona pioneered the first directly state-chartered schools. I regret any impediments to their expansion represented by caps on the number of charters a state allows, or an inability to easily franchise clearly successful models.

Every time I see another report of students languishing on waiting lists to gain access to a great school, I am reminded of the need for policies that allow this urgently needed growth in excellence to occur. Where schools and their operators are ready, willing, and have proved themselves capable of successful expansion, we should be supporting their efforts to expand. Public charter schools play a necessary role in providing choice and options for parents.

OBAMA: I have been a big fan of public charter schools throughout my career. In the Illinois legislature, I was a leading advocate of public charters and helped pass legislation that authorized Chicago to create 15 new charter schools. I’ve said before that more resources alone will not improve our schools. We also need to encourage innovation and experimentation within our public schools—by adopting curricula and the school calendar to the needs of the 21st century, by updating the schools of education that produce most of our teachers, by welcoming charter schools within the public school system, and by streamlining the certification process for engineers or businesspeople who want to shift careers and teach.

Q: Many school administrators believe that the current tenure policy implemented by our nation’s school districts is in dire need of change. Administrators have an extremely difficult time weeding out poor-performing teachers who are tenured, and often hold no right to terminate their employment. Would you support modifying the tenure policy or eliminating it entirely?
—Wendy Miller (R.G.V. ’95)

McCAIN: I oppose state- or district-imposed management interference such as tenure laws. These policies impede a school leader’s ability to recruit, hire, and maintain a staff whose skills reflect the mission and goals of the organization.

Such interference prevents the development of professional career path reforms in teaching, which I support. The best high school in Arizona (and the nation, according to Newsweek in May) is a public charter school with an exceptional master-teacher program that would not be possible within the confines of most state-policy-enforced contracts. Teachers deserve this professional treatment, and schools deserve these professional teachers.

In addition, we forget that these arcane and outdated policies actually keep us from recognizing and rewarding our excellent teachers. As one would expect, research shows that teachers are the key when it comes to improved student achievement.

OBAMA: I firmly believe that we need to do more to challenge the system that prevents us from promoting and rewarding excellence in teaching, but we also need to do more to ensure that all of our students are taught by high-quality teachers. We cannot ask our teachers to perform the impossible—to teach poorly prepared children with inadequate resources—and then punish these teachers when students perform poorly on a standardized test. But if we give teachers the resources they need; if we pay them more and give them time for professional development; if they are given ownership over the design of better assessment tools and creative curricula; if we shape reforms with teachers rather than imposing changes on teachers, then it is fair to expect better results. Teachers who are still struggling and underperforming should receive individual help and support. And if they’re still underperforming after that, we should find a quick and fair way to put another teacher in that classroom. Our children deserve no less.

Q: Forty years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American schools are largely divided along racial and class lines and are unequal in one pivotal area: teacher quality. What is your plan for preparing, securing, and retaining high-quality teachers for all American schools?
—Tanya Morgan Dixon (At lanta ’00)

McCAIN: I believe teachers should be actively recruited from among the nation’s brightest graduates in all fields of study. Any federal programs that support teaching ought to be made available for such recruiting efforts.

In addition, our education policy needs to allow for student dollars to flow directly to school sites, so that teacher salaries can be made a top priority at each site. I would like to see revisions to teacher employment policies that would mean staying in the classroom for a full career, and mentoring other teachers along the way, becomes the most lucrative and highly sought-after position in education.

OBAMA: The most important factor in a child’s education is the person standing in front of the classroom, which is why my plan focuses on providing a high-quality teacher for every classroom. I will launch a Service Scholarship program that will pay for a college education for those people who commit to teaching in a high-need field or location. To train our teachers, I’ll require all schools of education to be accredited. To make sure our teachers have effective support, I will expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. And when our teachers and principals excel, they deserve a raise. We’ll give teachers support as they move up the career ladder, and we’ll work with them to find new and innovative ways to increase their pay.

Q: South Korea, Singapore, and other countries score higher than we do on international math and science assessments. Unlike the United States, they also have nationally implemented learning standards, teaching practices, textbooks, and standardized tests. What is your policy regarding the creation of a national system of rigorous curriculum, instruction, and assessment?
—John Becker (Metro D.C. ’03)

McCAIN: Education in the United States is a state-governed issue, but clearly it must be a national priority. I support the federal requirement for states to maintain a uniform system of standards and assessment for all students. We rely on this information to ensure that every student has access to an education that prepares them to live a meaningful and productive life.

I will encourage states to constantly compare the depth and challenge of standards state to state, and will also promote a voluntary national effort to benchmark our states’ standards against internationally competitive standards. I take very seriously the obligation to prepare our students for the challenges of a changing world.

Bottom line, if we don’t measure, we don’t care. We must know where we stand in order to know our students will receive a world-class education.

OBAMA: My administration will make math and science education a priority, recruiting high-quality math and science teachers, enhancing science instruction, and improving assessments. My Service Scholarship program will prioritize recruiting math, science, and technology graduates. We know that too often science is a low priority among school programs. I will bring more coherence to federal science education efforts and work with the states to develop science assessments that do more than test knowledge of math and science facts. Assessments should use a broader range of measures to test thinking skills, including inference, logic, data analysis, and the formulation of questions.

Q: What do you think is the most exciting education initiative in the country right now? Why do you like it, and what will you do to further it?
—Caroline Sabin (L.A. ’90)

McCAIN: What I find most exciting about the changes in American education are the talented individuals who are confronting the status quo in education, or simply ignoring it and going around.

Be it charter school founders, master teacher developers, or your own Teach For America . . . these leaders bring a new entrepreneurial spirit of service to the American classroom. They are smart, bold, sometimes outrageous, but never bowed.

This combination of intelligence, creativity, and ambition is redefining public education in America. This generation has capitalized on every incremental policy change, creating ever more opportunity from a previously moribund system. I will do everything I can to create or support policies that will turn these individual efforts into an overpowering movement where education is first and foremost about our children and ensuring their success.

OBAMA: The focus on successful teaching and effective leadership is exciting, as is the innovation we are seeing in districts across the country. Teach For America has played an important role and produced leaders such as Michelle Rhee—who has done great work in D.C. Other distinct models also bring successful teachers to high-need schools, such as Chicago’s Academy for Urban School Leadership, which emphasizes mentoring support during the first years of teaching. Organizations such as New Leaders for New Schools are advancing the training of new school leaders. Improving support for teachers through reforms in compensation and offering differentiated roles for experienced teachers are exciting approaches in districts across the country. Excitement arises from innovation, whether under the direction of clever and adventurous school and district leaders or through the efforts of social entrepreneurs. That is why I’ve tried to support these kinds of efforts through my Innovation Districts legislation in the U.S. Senate, and why I will continue to support them as president with my Career Ladder Initiative.