Franklin Schargel’s Blog

Attendees at my workshops are informed that 15 states produce nearly 80 percent of all school dropouts. I ask them if they believe that their state is one of those states. Some correctly say “yes”; some correctly say “no”; and some incorrectly identify their state’s position. I follow up and ask what the states on the list have in common. Most correctly state that the states are predominantly rural, are positioned along the southern and western borders, and have a large minority population. What they fail to identify is that the states spend less on education than the majority of states. With the American economy at the beginnings of a recession/depression, educational spending will be a major issue in the next few months.

The General Accounting Office estimates that the 50 sttates need to spend an additional $112 billion just to put school buildings in a reasonable working order.

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of the top 15 states in reading, 10 are among the top 20 percent of state spenders. Among the top 15 states in science curriculums, more than half are among the top 20 spenders.

Money however is not the magic answer to all of the problems. Obviously, Washington DC spends more money on education than any single state and has a terrible record. Massachusetts, is 43rd in spending and is high in achievement. But Massachusetts, is a state with one of the highest per-capita incomes in the country and a high concentration of elite public and private schools.

The reality is that when the data is released on achievement or dropouts or graduation rates, we need to look at how much each state spends on achieving those results.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen R. Sroka addressed a conference in Dubai. A journal in Dubai asked if they could reproduce the speech. They did and I asked Steve if I could reproduce it as well. For those of you who do know Steve, this will serve as an introduction. Dr. Sroka is an international expert on school improvement and school violence. He has been on the Oprah show and has been featured in USA Today. Some of you have been lucky enough to hear his dynamic presentations. His contact information is at the end of the article.

I feel privileged to call Steve a friend. Read this and you will understand why.

Getting to the Heart of Education: Listening to the Whole Child
Dr. Stephen R. Sroka
Many students are crying out for help with non-academic issues, yet many educators continue to respond with an emphasis on academic proficiency skills. With today’s stress on academic achievement at all costs with little regard for the mental, social, physical, emotional or spiritual aspects of the whole child, many teachers teach tests rather than students, who become point averages and not people. Consequently, many students tune out and drop out literally or figuratively. Sex, drugs, violence and boring classes are sensitive issues that need to be examined and addressed if schools are to become successful. One person can make a difference by teaching to the whole child, and help students learn more and live better. Today, new ways to motivate, inspire and help children learn include social and mental-health communication skills that incorporate kindness along with motivating brain-based learning strategies.
They integrate cutting-edge research (including social and emotional learning, social intelligence, stress management, communication strategies, motivational interviewing, brain-based learning, media and cultural literacy, character education, resiliency, and youth and asset-development programs), humor and inspirational real-life stories to facilitate learning about the whole child and the students’ mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical-health needs, and their relationship to success, both academic and in life. These novel approaches make classrooms come “alive” by offering relevant information, life skills, and most importantly hope for the future. For many students, if you don’t get to their hearts, you don’t get to their heads. In the end, for many students, only kindness matters. I had the opportunity to present at a closing general session for the Conference on Teaching and Learning for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in San Francisco in 2005. The topic was titled, “Students Speak! Voices from the Trenches: Are You Listening?” I brought some experts with me ““ four high-school students. In 2006, I keynoted the Kentucky Truancy/ Dropout Prevention Symposium. This session of experts included a panel of 10 students to discuss the real-life issues that had an impact on whether they dropped out and stayed in school. It was a chance for students to tell their teachers what they wanted. In both conferences, the students made suggestions on how we may reach and teach the whole child. Among the issues discussed were concrete strategies to retain, engage, challenge, support and educate all students, including the unmotivated, as well as suggestions on how to make your learning environments come alive.
The following are students’ responses to my questions:
What makes a school a safe and healthy place?
“¢ Supportive teachers that students can connect with
“¢ Being free to speak your mind and being respected
“¢ Knowing you’re there to learn and there are no outside or internal threats
“¢ Healthy lunches and snacks
What are the qualities of effective teachers? What kinds of teachers make the classroom come alive?
“¢ Their passion
“¢ They are nonjudgmental.
They let kids know their opinions are welcomed and respected
“¢ They are outgoing, understanding and not intimidating, and you can confide in them
“¢ They care
“¢ They have a passion for the content and the students they teach. They don’t just say, “It’s in the book”
“¢ They see you as a person and not as a point average
“¢ They respect you

What problems would you remove from your school?
“¢ Apathy
“¢ Not being challenged
“¢ Not feeling welcomed
“¢ Bullying
“¢ Discrimination
“¢ Dispassionate and lifeless teachers and students
“¢ Boring classes
“¢ Standardized lessons
“¢ Standardized tests
“¢ Standardized lunches
“¢ Testing as a way of ranking students
“¢ Grades
“¢ Drugs and alcohol
“¢ Early morning classes

What top qualities would you want in your school?
“¢ Positive discipline
“¢ A clean safe and welcoming environment
“¢ Teaching for understanding, not memory
“¢ Emotionally nurturing, quality teachers (with a sense of humor)
“¢ Creativity that is valued and encouraged
“¢ A feeling that it was like a family community
“¢ Extracurricular activities ““ sports, music, art, clubs, dances, field trips, service learning, things to do besides boring school work

After listening to the students tell me what they want, researching adolescents
and learning, and teaching for 30 years, I respectfully offer these observations.
Do all students learn the same? Of course not, so why do we teach and test them all the same? Are all students gifted? Of course they are, but some just open their boxes a little later. If students are not learning the way we are teaching, we must teach the way that they learn. All children have different
learning styles, so teaching should be tailored to involve all students in activities that are interesting, fun, insightful, useful and let them explore their creativity, reflect on their life and develop relevant life skills that utilize all of their multiple intelligences. All students need individualized learning plans. Teaching is about relationships. To get to the head you must go through the heart. Students don’t care what you teach if you don’t teach that you care. Safe and healthy schools help make better students who learn more. Many students, who put themselves at risk with sex, drugs and violent behavior, are crying for help. But today, rather than try to help them, we punish them. What good is it if a student can pass a proficiency test but not a reality test? What good does it do to develop your head if you are going to be dead? Students need life skill to prevent risky behavior, and interventions to help them overcome problems which impact their ability to learn more and live better, safe and free of drugs.

Everyone needs the three Fs of life: a “family” that loves them, even if it is not a
biological family; “friends,” who will pull them up rather than down; and “faith,” a moral compass, a sense of right and wrong. The three Fs sound like a sound bite, but are firmly based on research on resiliency, asset development, connectedness and protective factors.

Programs don’t change kids, people do. Put your money in training people. Studies show that resiliency is related to an adult, other than a family member, who is there to help turn a person around. You have the “Power of One” to make a difference. The Power of One is a belief that with education, helping one another and believing in yourself, you can help change schools, communities and lives. The Power of One is not something you buy; it is something you buy into.
Even small gestures may have huge effects. I met a former student whom I had not seen in 20 years. He gave me a hug and told me that I was his favorite teacher. When I asked him why, he replied: “Because you always said, Hi,” ““ a courtesy that he could not remember any other teacher doing. He said that he now has kids in school, and when he goes to their school, he still sees teachers who do not acknowledge students as they walk down the hall. After 20 years, long after all the classroom lessons were forgotten, he still remembered a simple act of kindness. After I keynoted the Kentucky Great Kids Summit this last summer, one of the participants sent me a large manila envelope with the words largely written on the outside, “You changed my life at the Kids Summit.” Her letters confirmed the importance of treating people with honesty, respect, dignity, love and kindness. Students crave honesty and heart, and they love humor.
Humor grabs attention, fosters creativity and makes learning fun. But knowing how and when to use humor in the classroom is just as important. Humor is not appropriate when it makes fun of a person’s race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or disability. Good humor does not include crude language; off-color words have no place in the classroom. Humor should never hurt.
*
Recently I retired after teaching for 30 years. When some of my former students gathered to honor me, I asked them what they remembered about me “back in the day.” Was it the time I jumped up on the desk and took off my shoes to teach the bones of the feet, or the community projects in the ghetto in which we participated during summer breaks? One student piped up and said: “No. It was your caring and sense of humor. In fact, we forgot everything you said, and most of the things we did, but we never forgot the way you made us feel.”
I believe that education is the most powerful weapon we have against the problems our youth face today. I believe the efforts of one person can make this a better world. This is why I teach. I have the Power of One to make a difference, and so do you. Our students are speaking. Are you listening?
Further information on this topic can be found at DrStephenSroka.com
Long after all the classroom lessons were forgotten, he still remembered a simple act of kindness

MEE January-February 2009 www.middleeasteducator.com Dr. Stephen R. Sroka was the keynote speaker at the TeachME 2009 Conference which was held in Dubai on January 14-15. He can be contacted at: [email protected]

25 THINGS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT IN AMERICA
Many of us can remember “candy stores” and dial-up internet,
even if we do not want to tell others. I found this information found below fascinating. For those of you in the classroom, Ask your students to predict what will also be disappearing from the landscape.
For those of you in foreign lands, is the same thing happening in the country where you live?

Can they predict: What will replace the newspaper, etc.? How will schools change?

25. U.S. Post Office
They are pricing themselves out of existence. With e-mail, and
and online services they are a relic of the past. (refer to #9)
Packages are also sent faster and cheaper with UPS.

24. Yellow Pages
This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry.
Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed
dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet
Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination
search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors like20an
acceleration of the print ‘fade rate’ and the looming recession
will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the
falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even
reach 10% this year — much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen
in past years.

23. Classified Ads
The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper
classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a
long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that
could signal the end of civilization, as we know it. The argument
is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online
listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then
newspapers are not far behind them.

22. Movie Rental Stores
While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps
closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000
left across the world, but those keep dwindling and the stock is
down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a
quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood
Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small
video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost
already.

21. Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008.
The combination of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable
high speed Internet connections and the disappearing home phone
have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up
Internet access.

20. Phone Landlines
According to a survey from the National Center for Health
Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was
cell-only and, of those homes that had landlines, one in eight
only received calls on their cells.

19. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
Maryland’s icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake
Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds)
since 1945. Just four decades ago the bay produced 96 million
pounds. The population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did
a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay
and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population.
Over-fishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get
the blame.

18. VCRs
For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller
and staple in every American household until being completely
decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In
fact, the only remnants of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or
Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes
are largely gone and VHS decks are practically nowhere to be
found. They served us so well.

17. Ash Trees
In the late 1990s, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle,
now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North
America with ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. In less
than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the
Midwest, and continue to spread. They’ve killed more than 30
million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of
millions more lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash
trees are currently at risk.

16. Ham Radio
Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide)
wireless communications with each other and are able to support
their communities with emergency and disaster communications if
necessary, while increasing their personal knowledge of
electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation of the
Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of
amateur radio. In the past five years alone, the number of people
holding active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even
though Morse Code is no longer a requirement.

15. The Swimming Hole
Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a
thing of the past. ’20/20′ reports that swimming hole owners, like
Robert Every in High Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of
worry that if someone gets hurt they’ll sue. And that’s exactly
what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was sued by Katie
Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole
in Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow,
expect more swimming holes to post ‘Keep out!’ signs.

14. Answering Machines
The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly
tied to No 20 our list — the decline of landlines. According to
USA Today, the number of homes that only use cell phones jumped
159% between 2004 and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New
York; since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It’s logical
that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional
landlines, that there will be fewer answering machines.

13. Cameras That Use Film
It doesn’t require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance
of the film camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon,
the professional’s choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006,
it announced that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to
the shrinking market — only 3% of its sales in 2005, compared to
75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment.

12. Incandescent Bulbs
Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt)
bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement
and all-things-sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent
Lightbulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era
incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star
CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for
approximately 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb market. And
according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out
incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys
BowlingBalls. US claims there are still 60 million Americans who
bowl at least once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone
bowling alleys. Today most new bowling alleys are part of
facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag,
go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and glow
miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many
non-traditional venues such as adult communities, hotels and
resorts, and gambling casinos.

10. The Milkman
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over
half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by
1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4%
percent. Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon
jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of
course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration
and longer-lasting milk. Although some milkmen still make the
rounds in pockets of the U.S., 0A they are certainly a dying breed.

9. Hand-Written Letters
In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion
e-mails were sent each day. Two million each second. By November
of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones,
and 80% of the world’s population had access to cell phone
coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and
the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So
where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant,
polite hand-written letter?

8. Wild Horses
It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses
were roaming free within the United States. In 2001, National
Geographic News estimated that the wild horse population had
decreased to about 50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild Horse
and Burro Advisory board states that there are 32,000 free roaming
horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing in
Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management is seeking to reduce the
total number of free range horses to 27,000, possibly by selective
euthanasia.

7. Personal Checks
According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of
consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two
years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit.
Bill payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based
payments — for the time being. Checks continue to be the most
commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at
least one recurring bill per month by writing a check. However,
a bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of consumers’
recurring bill payments (down from 72% in 2001 and 60% in 2003).

6. Drive-in Theaters
During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in
theaters in this country, but in 2007 only 405 drive-ins were
still operating. Exactly zero new drive-ins have been built since
2005. Only one reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006, so
there isn’t much of a movement toward reviving the closed ones.

5. Mumps & Measles
Despite what’s been in the news lately, the measles and mumps
actually, truly are disappearing from the United States. In 1964,
212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By 1983, this
figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination
program. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine,
approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the
U.S. annually, resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases
were recorded.

4. Honey Bees
Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire;
plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our
food supply as the honey bee. Very scary. ‘Colony Collapse
Disorder,’ or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over
the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many
beekeepers — and along with it, their livelihood.

3. News Magazines and TV News
While the TV evening newscasts haven’t gone anywhere over the last
several decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story about
the diminishing returns of the evening news, the New York Times
reported that all three network evening-news programs combined had
only 40.9 million viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they have today is half that.

2. Analog TV
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television programming through cable or satellite providers. For the remaining 15% — or 13 million individuals ““
who are using rabbit ears or a large outdoor antenna to get their local stations,
change is in the air. If you are one of these people you’ll need to get a new TV or a converter box in order to get the new stations which will only be broadcast in digital.

1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining
rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the
nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census
(data from the 2007 census hasn’t yet been published).
Ninety-one percent of the U.S. FARMS are small Family Farms.

History has shown that you can throw huge amounts of money at schools and it will only mildly affect students’ learning. What makes the difference are highly qualified, highly effective teachers.

We need to higher and recognize and reward exceptional teachers and we need to identify mediocre teachers at each and every school and either retrain them or encourage them to find new employment. I frequently ask teachers at my workshops, if there are any teachers at their school who they would not put their children into their classrooms. The response is overwhelmingly positive. Yet we allow these individuals to teach without being given the proper support and training.

I am not suggesting comparing teachers at suburban or high performing inner-city schools with teachers working in “dropout factories”. Rather I am asking that we compare teachers to teachers within the same school. And the comparison data should be for a number of years not just one year. Exceptional teachers work with existing conditions and overcome their challenges. Mediocre teachers blame everything but themselves. They blame the background of their students, the lack of funding, the student’s parents, and their community that the student comes from.

If exceptional teachers in each school are recognized and rewarded with extra funds and given time to provide training to the mediocre teachers in each school, I believe that we will see a rapid improvement in schools.

A teenage gunman murdered 15 people in one of the world’s worst high school massacres. Tim Kretschmer, murdered nine of his former school mates as well as three female teachers near Stuttgart. Police said the tool would have been even higher had it not been for the sacrifice of three teachers who stood in the killer’s way in order to protect students.

The killings are the second worst school killings in Germany’s history. The worst occurred in April 2002 when an expelled student killed 16 people before killing himself.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, according to press reports,describe the murders as “incomprehensible.”

While schools are safer than they have ever been, school violence, is nothing new nor is it “incomprehensible”. There have been a string of school killings both in the United States and in Europe. As in many cases, the killer(s) have notified people in advance of the killings. For any educator dealing with the possibility of school violence, I suggest reading the two major American studies done regarding school violence, “The School Shooter Report” published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and “The National Threat Assessment Report” published by the United States Secret Service. Both are available on line. I will in a future “Franklin’s Thoughts” summarize both.

Till next time.

A number of readers have asked if I could sum up what President Obama has indicated are his plans for education. Rather than summarizing (and getting it wrong) I am posting his entire speech. Please be aware that these are only his plans. Will Congress and the teacher unions go along? Only time will tell.

The source of America’s prosperity has never been merely how ably we accumulate wealth, but how well we educate our people. This has never been more true than it is today. In a 21st-century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there’s an Internet connection, where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best job qualification is not what you do, but what you know — education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it’s a prerequisite for success.

That’s why workers without a four-year degree have borne the brunt of recent layoffs, Latinos most of all. That’s why, of the 30 fastest growing occupations in America, half require a Bachelor’s degree or more. By 2016, four out of every 10 new jobs will require at least some advanced education or training.

So let there be no doubt: The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens — and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation. We have the best universities, the most renowned scholars. We have innovative principals and passionate teachers and gifted students, and we have parents whose only priority is their child’s education. We have a legacy of excellence, and an unwavering belief that our children should climb higher than we did.

And yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we’ve let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us. Let me give you a few statistics. In 8th grade math, we’ve fallen to 9th place. Singapore’s middle-schoolers outperform ours three to one. Just a third of our 13- and 14-year-olds can read as well as they should. And year after year, a stubborn gap persists between how well white students are doing compared to their African American and Latino classmates. The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, it’s unsustainable for our democracy, it’s unacceptable for our children — and we can’t afford to let it continue.

What’s at stake is nothing less than the American Dream. It’s what drew my father and so many of your fathers and mothers to our shores in pursuit of an education. It’s what led Linda Brown and Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez to bear the standard of all who were attending separate and unequal schools. It’s what has led generations of Americans to take on that extra job, to sacrifice the small pleasures, to scrimp and save wherever they can, in hopes of putting away enough, just enough, to give their child the education that they never had. It’s that most American of ideas, that with the right education, a child of any race, any faith, any station, can overcome whatever barriers stand in their way and fulfill their God-given potential. (Applause.)

Of course, we’ve heard all this year after year after year after year — and far too little has changed. Certainly it hasn’t changed in too many overcrowded Latino schools; it hasn’t changed in too many inner-city schools that are seeing dropout rates of over 50 percent. It’s not changing not because we’re lacking sound ideas or sensible plans — in pockets of excellence across this country, we’re seeing what children from all walks of life can and will achieve when we set high standards, have high expectations, when we do a good job of preparing them. Instead, it’s because politics and ideology have too often trumped our progress that we’re in the situation that we’re in. For decades, Washington has been trapped in the same stale debates that have paralyzed progress and perpetuated our educational decline. Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom. Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education, despite compelling evidence of its importance. So what we get here in Washington is the same old debate about it’s more money versus more reform, vouchers versus the status quo. There’s been partisanship and petty bickering, but little recognition that we need to move beyond the worn fights of the 20th century if we’re going to succeed in the 21st century. (Applause.)

I think you’d all agree that the time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding us — holding ourselves accountable is here. What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It’s time to expect more from our students. It’s time to start rewarding good teachers, stop making excuses for bad ones. It’s time to demand results from government at every level. It’s time to prepare every child, everywhere in America, to out-compete any worker, anywhere in the world. (Applause.) It’s time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career. We’ve accepted failure for far too long. Enough is enough. America’s entire education system must once more be the envy of the world — and that’s exactly what we intend to do.

That’s exactly what the budget I’m submitting to Congress has begun to achieve. Now, at a time when we’ve inherited a trillion- dollar deficit, we will start by doing a little housekeeping, going through our books, cutting wasteful education programs. My outstanding Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who’s here today — stand up, Arne, so everybody can see you. (Applause.) I’m assuming you also saw my Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis. (Applause.) But Secretary Duncan will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars: It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works. And this will help free up resources for the first pillar of reforming our schools — investing in early childhood initiatives.

This isn’t just about keeping an eye on our children, it’s about educating them. Studies show that children in early childhood education programs are more likely to score higher in reading and math, more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, more likely to hold a job, and more likely to earn more in that job. For every dollar we invest in these programs, we get nearly $10 back in reduced welfare rolls, fewer health care costs, and less crime. That’s why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that I signed into law invests $5 billion in growing Early Head Start and Head Start, expanding access to quality child care for 150,000 more children from working families, and doing more for children with special needs. And that’s why we are going to offer 55,000 first-time parents regular visits from trained nurses to help make sure their children are healthy and prepare them for school and for life. (Applause.)

Even as we invest in early childhood education, let’s raise the bar for early learning programs that are falling short. Now, today, some children are enrolled in excellent programs. Some children are enrolled in mediocre programs. And some are wasting away their most formative years in bad programs. That includes the one-fourth of all children who are Hispanic, and who will drive America’s workforce of tomorrow, but who are less likely to have been enrolled in an early childhood education program than anyone else.

That’s why I’m issuing a challenge to our states: Develop a cutting-edge plan to raise the quality of your early learning programs; show us how you’ll work to ensure that children are better prepared for success by the time they enter kindergarten. If you do, we will support you with an Early Learning Challenge Grant that I call on Congress to enact. That’s how we will reward quality and incentivize excellence, and make a down payment on the success of the next generation.

So that’s the first pillar of our education reform agenda. The second, we will end what has become a race to the bottom in our schools and instead spur a race to the top by encouraging better standards and assessments. Now, this is an area where we are being outpaced by other nations. It’s not that their kids are any smarter than ours — it’s that they are being smarter about how to educate their children. They’re spending less time teaching things that don’t matter, and more time teaching things that do. They’re preparing their students not only for high school or college, but for a career. We are not. Our curriculum for 8th graders is two full years behind top performing countries. That’s a prescription for economic decline. And I refuse to accept that America’s children cannot rise to this challenge. They can, and they must, and they will meet higher standards in our time. (Applause.)

So let’s challenge our states — let’s challenge our states to adopt world-class standards that will bring our curriculums to the 21st century. Today’s system of 50 different sets of benchmarks for academic success means 4th grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming — and they’re getting the same grade. Eight of our states are setting their standards so low that their students may end up on par with roughly the bottom 40 percent of the world.

That’s inexcusable. That’s why I’m calling on states that are setting their standards far below where they ought to be to stop low- balling expectations for our kids. The solution to low test scores is not lowering standards — it’s tougher, clearer standards. (Applause.) Standards like those in Massachusetts, where 8th graders are — (applause) — we have a Massachusetts contingent here. (Laughter.) In Massachusetts, 8th graders are now tying for first — first in the whole world in science. Other forward-thinking states are moving in the same direction by coming together as part of a consortium. And more states need to do the same. And I’m calling on our nation’s governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity. That is what we’ll help them do later this year — that what we’re going to help them do later this year when we finally make No Child Left Behind live up to its name by ensuring not only that teachers and principals get the funding that they need, but that the money is tied to results. (Applause.) And Arne Duncan will also back up this commitment to higher standards with a fund to invest in innovation in our school districts.

Of course, raising standards alone will not make much of a difference unless we provide teachers and principals with the information they need to make sure students are prepared to meet those standards. And far too few states have data systems like the one in Florida that keep track of a student’s education from childhood through college. And far too few districts are emulating the example of Houston and Long Beach, and using data to track how much progress a student is making and where that student is struggling. That’s a resource that can help us improve student achievement, and tell us which students had which teachers so we can assess what’s working and what’s not. That’s why we’re making a major investment in this area that we will cultivate a new culture of accountability in America’s schools.

Now, to complete our race to the top requires the third pillar of reform — recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers. From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom. That’s why our Recovery Act will ensure that hundreds of thousands of teachers and school personnel are not laid off — because those Americans are not only doing jobs they can’t afford to lose, they’re rendering a service our nation cannot afford to lose, either. (Applause.)

America’s future depends on its teachers. And so today, I’m calling on a new generation of Americans to step forward and serve our country in our classrooms. If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation, if you want to make the most of your talents and dedication, if you want to make your mark with a legacy that will endure — then join the teaching profession. America needs you. We need you in our suburbs. We need you in our small towns. We especially need you in our inner cities. We need you in classrooms all across our country.

And if you do your part, then we’ll do ours. That’s why we’re taking steps to prepare teachers for their difficult responsibilities, and encourage them to stay in the profession. That’s why we’re creating new pathways to teaching and new incentives to bring teachers to schools where they’re needed most. That’s why we support offering extra pay to Americans who teach math and science to end a teacher shortage in those subjects. It’s why we’re building on the promising work being done in places like South Carolina’s Teachers Advancement Program, and making an unprecedented commitment to ensure that anyone entrusted with educating our children is doing the job as well as it can be done.

Now, here’s what that commitment means: It means treating teachers like the professionals they are while also holding them more accountable -#8211 in up to 150 more school districts. New teachers will be mentored by experienced ones. Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement, and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools. Teachers throughout a school will benefit from guidance and support to help them improve.

And just as we’ve given our teachers all the support they need to be successful, we need to make sure our students have the teacher they need to be successful. And that means states and school districts taking steps to move bad teachers out of the classroom. But let me be clear — (applause.) Let me be clear — the overwhelming number of teachers are doing an outstanding job under difficult circumstances. My sister is a teacher, so I know how tough teaching can be. But let me be clear: If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances but still does not improve, there’s no excuse for that person to continue teaching. I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences. The stakes are too high. We can afford nothing but the best when it comes to our children’s teachers and the schools where they teach. (Applause.)

Now, that leads me to the fourth part of America’s education strategy #8211- promoting innovation and excellence in America’s schools. One of the places where much of that innovation occurs is in our most effective charter schools. And these are public schools founded by parents, teachers, and civic or community organizations with broad leeway to innovate -#8211 schools I supported as a state legislator and a United States senator.

But right now, there are many caps on how many charter schools are allowed in some states, no matter how well they’re preparing our students. That isn’t good for our children, our economy, or our country. Of course, any expansion of charter schools must not result in the spread of mediocrity, but in the advancement of excellence. And that will require states adopting both a rigorous selection and review process to ensure that a charter school’s autonomy is coupled with greater accountability #8211- as well as a strategy, like the one in Chicago, to close charter schools that are not working. Provided this greater accountability, I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place.

Now, even as we foster innovation in where our children are learning, let’s also foster innovation in when our children are learning. We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day. That calendar may have once made sense, but today it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children — listen to this — our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea — every year. That’s no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy. That’s why I’m calling for us not only to expand effective after-school programs, but to rethink the school day to incorporate more time -#8211 whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it. (Applause.) Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas. (Laughter.) Not with Malia and Sasha — (laughter) — not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom. If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America.

Of course, no matter how innovative our schools or how effective our teachers, America cannot succeed unless our students take responsibility for their own education. That means showing up for school on time, paying attention in class, seeking out extra tutoring if it’s needed, staying out of trouble. To any student who’s watching, I say this: Don’t even think about dropping out of school. Don’t even think about it. (Applause.)

As I said a couple of weeks ago, dropping out is quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country, and it’s not an option — not anymore. Not when our high school dropout rate has tripled in the past 30 years. Not when high school dropouts earn about half as much as college graduates. Not when Latino students are dropping out faster than just about anyone else. It’s time for all of us, no matter what our backgrounds, to come together and solve this epidemic.

Stemming the tide of dropouts will require turning around our low-performing schools. Just 2,000 high schools in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles and Philadelphia produce over 50 percent of America’s dropouts. And yet there are too few proven strategies to transform these schools. And there are too few partners to get the job done.

So today, I’m issuing a challenge to educators and lawmakers, parents and teachers alike: Let us all make turning around our schools our collective responsibility as Americans. And that will require new investments in innovative ideas — that’s why my budget invests in developing new strategies to make sure at-risk students don’t give up on their education; new efforts to give dropouts who want to return to school the help they need to graduate; and new ways to put those young men and women who have left school back on a pathway to graduation.

Now, the fifth part of America’s education strategy is providing every American with a quality higher education -#8211 whether it’s college or technical training. Never has a college degree been more important. Never has it been more expensive. And at a time when so many of our families are bearing enormous economic burdens, the rising cost of tuition threatens to shatter dreams. And that’s why we will simplify federal college assistance forms so it doesn’t take a Ph.D to apply for financial aid. (Applause.)

That’s why we’re already taking steps to make college or technical training affordable. For the first time ever, Pell Grants will not be subject to the politics of the moment or the whim of the market #8211- they will be a commitment that Congress is required to uphold each and every year. (Applause.) Not only that; because rising costs mean Pell Grants cover less than half as much tuition as they did 30 years ago, we’re raising the maximum Pell Grant to $5,550 a year and indexing it above inflation. We’re also providing a $2,500-a-year tuition tax credit for students from working families. And we’re modernizing and expanding the Perkins Loan Program to make sure schools like UNLV don’t get a tenth as many Perkins loans as schools like Harvard.

To help pay for all of this, we’re putting students ahead of lenders by eliminating wasteful student loan subsidies that cost taxpayers billions each year. All in all, we are making college affordable for 7 million more students with a sweeping investment in our children’s futures and America’s success. And I call on Congress to join me and the American people by making these investments possible. (Applause.)

This is how we will help meet our responsibility as a nation to open the doors of college to every American. But it will also be the responsibility of colleges and universities to control spiraling costs. We can’t just keep on putting more money in and universities and colleges not doing their part to hold down tuitions. And it’s the responsibility of our students to walk through the doors of opportunity.

In just a single generation, America has fallen from 2nd place to 11th place in the portion of students completing college. That is unfortunate, but it’s by no means irreversible. With resolve and the right investments, we can retake the lead once more. And that’s why, in my address to the nation the other week, I called on Americans to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training, with the goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the year 2020. And to meet that goal, we are investing $2.5 billion to identify and support innovative initiatives across the country that achieve results in helping students persist and graduate.

So let’s not stop at education with college. Let’s recognize a 21st century reality: Learning doesn’t end in our early 20s. Adults of all ages need opportunities to earn new degrees and new skills — especially in the current economic environment. That means working with all our universities and schools, including community colleges — a great and undervalued asset — to prepare workers for good jobs in high-growth industries; and to improve access to job training not only for young people who are just starting their careers, but for older workers who need new skills to change careers. And that’s going to be one of the key tasks that Secretary Solis is involved with, is making sure that lifelong learning is a reality and a possibility for more Americans.

It’s through initiatives like these that we’ll see more Americans earn a college degree, or receive advanced training, and pursue a successful career. And that’s why I’m calling on Congress to work with me to enact these essential reforms, and to reauthorize the Workforce Reinvestment Act. That’s how we will round out a complete and competitive education in the United States of America.

So here’s the bottom line: Yes, we need more money; yes, we need more reform; yes, we need to hold ourselves more accountable for every dollar we spend. But there’s one more ingredient I want to talk about. No government policy will make any difference unless we also hold ourselves more accountable as parents — because government, no matter how wise or efficient, cannot turn off the TV or put away the video games. Teachers, no matter how dedicated or effective, cannot make sure your child leaves for school on time and does their homework when they get back at night. These are things only a parent can do. These are things that our parents must do.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that Hispanics now make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. In addition, one-fourth of the nation’s kindergartners are Hispanic.

This ethnic shift in school enrollment are most evident in the West. States such as Arizona, California, New Mexico and Nevada are seeing an influx of Hispanics due to immigration and higher birth rates. Minority students in that region exceed non-Hispanic whites at the pre-college grade levels, with about 37% of the students Hispanic. Hispanics make up 54% of the students in New Mexico, 47% in California, 44% in Texas and 40% in Arizona.

In 2007, more than 40% of all students in K-12 were minorities “” Hispanics, Blacks, Asian-Americans and others. That’s double the percentage of three decades ago.

In colleges, Hispanics made up 12% of full-time undergraduate and graduate students, 2% more than in 2006. Still, that is short of Hispanics’ 15% representation in the total U.S. population.

Minorities are projected to become the majority of the overall U.S. population by 2042. For minority kids, that shift is seen coming in 2023, seven years earlier than the previous estimate, from 2004. The accelerated timetable is due to immigration among Hispanics and Asians, and declining birth rates among non-Hispanic whites.

Other released data include:

More Hispanic kindergartners in 2007 were U.S.-born than foreign-born, assuring them of citizenship that will make them eligible to vote by 2020.

About 58% of children enrolled in grades K-12 are non-Hispanic whites, a group that represents 66% of the U.S. population. After Hispanics, Blacks were the second-largest minority group enrolled in K-12 (15 percent), followed by Asians (4 percent).

Fifty-three percent of Hispanic 4-year-olds were enrolled in nursery school, compared with 43% in 1997 and 21% in 1987.

1. What are the implications of the results of this survey?
2. What can be done to prepare these students who have difficulty with learning subject material as well as the language?
3. How do we get the parents of these students involved in the schools?
4. How do we improve the system when the majority of the students will be from minority households?