Pedro Antonio Noguera's blog

by Alan M. Blankstein and Pedro Antonio Noguera

(commentary in Education Week)

An important feature of the Obama administration's Race to the Top initiative is the call to turn around failing schools.  The policy calls for persistently failing schools to be subjected to specific turnaround strategies, and $3.5 billion in federal School Improvement Grant funds has been allocated to support the effort.

We applaud President Barack Obama's desire to address this pervasive problem.  However, we are concerned that the approach prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education, while well intentioned, is misguided.  Because of the vast sums of federal dollars that have been directed toward this effort and the narrow timeline under which changes are expected to be made, we are seeing a new industry of "turnaround experts" emerge, most of whome have no track record of helping struggling schools.

This is Forum Convener Pedro Noguera's speech at the Save Our Schools rally on Saturday, July 30th, on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.

Someone needs to tell President Obama to get out here, because his base is getting out ahead of him.

(CNN) -- President Obama should be applauded for keeping education at the top of the nation's policy agenda at a time when so many other important issues -- the ongoing recession, two wars, health care, etc. -- demand his attention.

He was right to urge parents to do their part to reinforce the importance of education with their children, and he is to be commended for recognizing the important role of teachers who so often are blamed for the failings of our nation's schools.

(first published on May 27th, 2010 in The Nation)

Before his election President Obama carved out what many regarded as a more progressive and enlightened position on education reform. Recognizing that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had become widely unpopular because of its overemphasis on standardized tests, he declared, "Don't tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend too much of the year preparing him to fill out a few bubbles in a standardized test." He pledged to lead the nation in a different direction.

President Obama has made it clear from the earliest days of his presidency that he intended to make education a high priority for his administration.  He will reaffirm that commitment this week when he addresses the nation on the topic.  In one of his first presidential addresses, he made a special appeal to students at risk of dropping out: “… [D]ropping out of high school is no longer an option.  It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country, and this country needs and values the talents of every American.”