Today “education is where medicine was in 1910,” stated Dan Leeds, founder of the Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance) and current board chairman. Leeds was referring to the pivotal moment in history, after the publication of the Flexner report, when American medical schools began to adhere strictly to the protocols of science in their teaching and research. With modern technological advances and a wider range of research methodologies for studying how humans learn and develop, the field of education likewise now has greater access to research that can guide practitioners and policymakers in how best to design schools to improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps.
But this research must be useable and accessible if researchers hope to influence education decisions. Therefore, the Alliance’s science of adolescent learning initiative focuses on translating and disseminating adolescent learning and development research to inform school improvement policy and practice, especially for secondary schools serving historically underserved students.
As part of this initiative, the Alliance recently gathered together an impressive group of researchers, practitioners, and policy experts to examine these advances in research and discuss how recent findings from the science of adolescent learning might inform high school improvement strategies under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As states finalize their plans for identifying schools in need of comprehensive or targeted support, school districts are developing processes and strategies for ensuring that they support these schools, and their subgroups of students, using evidence-based strategies…
The science of adolescent learning is the interdisciplinary study of what happens in and with the brain during learning. To learn more, visit https://all4ed.org/issues/science-of-learning/.
Robyn Harper is a policy and research associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education.
Nationwide, there more than 6 million job openings according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Far too often, businesses say that there are not enough qualified applicants to fill their openings. Now, thanks to the nation’s main education law, there’s something that business can do to change that.
By requiring states and school districts to engage a variety of stakeholders, including business, as they develop plans to educate their students, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides an excellent opportunity for the business community. By working with states and school districts, the business community can help to shape policy to ensure that more students graduate from high school with the skills they need. In today’s economy, students need content knowledge, but they must also understand how to apply that knowledge across a variety of challenging tasks. They also need critical thinking, communications, collaboration, and other deeper learning competencies.
To help business leaders understand the key role they can play in helping students develop these skills, the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives have developed a new fact sheet identifying three key areas within ESSA implementation where business can get involved.
First, business leaders can encourage states to include measures of college and career readiness as one of their indicators of school quality or student success. Examples include the percentage of students who enroll and perform in advanced coursework such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate or the percentage of students who enroll, persist, and complete postsecondary education. Louisiana’s ESSA plan includes a “strength of diploma” indicator that measures the quality of a student’s diploma while Tennessee uses a “ready graduate” indicator that incentivizes students to pursue postsecondary experiences while still in high school…
Download the fact sheet from Alliance for Excellent Education and Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives to learn more about these recommendations and how business leaders can get involved.
A little-noticed change in the country’s main federal education law could force many states to lower their high school graduation rates, a politically explosive move no state would relish.
Indiana is the first state to be caught in the crosshairs of the law’s new language, but other states are likely to be affected soon. The resulting debate could throw a sharp spotlight on a topic that’s been lurking in the wings: the wildly varying levels of accomplishment signified by a high school diploma.
“This is about to become a national issue,” said Phillip Lovell, the policy director of the Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy group that focuses on high school issues.
In Indiana, the state faces the prospect of having to lower its graduation rate from 89 percent to 76 percent, a move its state superintendent fears could harm its economy and reputation.
The state’s in a bind because it offers several types of high school diplomas, and some are easier to earn than others. Half of Indiana’s students earn the default college-prep diploma, known as the Core 40. Thirty-eight percent earn the Core 40 with honors, and 12 percent earn the “general” diploma, which has lesser requirements.
Diplomas with less-rigorous requirements are the target of new language in the Every Student Succeeds Act. The law requires states to calculate their graduation rates by including only “standard” diplomas awarded to a “preponderance” of students, or diplomas with tougher requirements.
For Indiana, that means the state might not be able to count its general diplomas. State officials are in talks with the U.S. Department of Education about that prospect. Indiana Superintendent of Schools Jennifer McCormick also reached out to Indiana’s congressional delegation for help, saying in a letter last month that the lower graduation rate will put Indiana “at a national disadvantage” and would “not reflect well upon our state and could negatively impact our economy.”
Officials from the federal Education Department declined to discuss how they would interpret the ESSA language. In an email to Education Week, a spokesman said only that the department would provide “technical assistance” to states as they complied with the law, and that states can consult federal guidance issued in January on the law’s graduation-rate provisions.
The preponderance language in ESSA is only now beginning to creep onto states’ radars. The exact number that could be affected isn’t clear, although a recent report found that 23 states offer multiple pathways to a diploma. Many states offer multiple types of high school diplomas, though most don’t track—or publicly report—how many students earn each type.
In Arkansas, two-thirds of students graduate with the state’s “smart core” diploma, and one-third earn its less-rigorous “core” diploma.
In New York state, 4 percent of graduates get a “local” diploma, which isn’t as rigorous as its “regents” and “advanced” diplomas. In Oregon, 3.7 percent of students earn a “modified” diploma, which is intended for students with a “demonstrated inability” to meet all the state’s academic expectations.
“The idea is to create a pathway toward a diploma for students with significant challenges,” Jennell Ives, a program specialist with Oregon’s department of education, explained in an email.
Diplomas that signify less-than-rigorous academic preparation, however, were the express target of the new requirement in ESSA. No such language was in the previous version of the law, the No Child Left Behind Act.
“We were trying to address concerns about those weaker diplomas, to put a signal in there to drive states to make sure that diplomas were really preparing students for success,” said a Senate aide who helped draft the Every Student Succeeds Act.
‘Make the Most Difference’
Advocates for lower-income and minority students, and those with disabilities, were key voices at the table when that section of the bill was being drafted. Those students tend to earn disproportionate shares of the lower-level diplomas.
“We wanted the language in ESSA to make the most difference for those students,” said Laura Kaloi, who participated in the talks on behalf of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a special-education advocacy group.
By inserting the preponderance language into ESSA, its authors pushed federal law into a new area: linking graduation rates to the quality of the diplomas, not just to how many diplomas are awarded.
A 2008 regulation broke new ground by requiring all states to calculate graduation rates the same way: by counting the proportion of entering freshmen who completed school four years later.
That regulation also ventured into new territory by tackling the related idea of which diplomas should be counted. It said states could count only “regular” diplomas, not alternative or equivalency credentials.
The concept of diploma quality was on policymakers’ minds as they sat down to write the accountability section of the Every Student Succeeds Act. There was “a lot of bipartisan agreement” that the idea of counting only regular diplomas should finally be written into federal law, the Senate aide said.
“You could see this as being about states that have to lower their graduation rates, or about trying to be honest about our graduation rates.”Phillip Lovell, Alliance for Excellent Education
“This is new. For a long time, federal officials have been focusing on graduation rates without caring what a diploma actually means,” said Michael Cohen, who was the assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education under President Bill Clinton and now heads Achieve, a group that has researched the wide variety in states’ diploma requirements.
Allowing states to report graduation rates based only on regular diplomas, and diplomas that require more rigorous study, is long overdue, according to Lovell of the Alliance for Excellent Education.
States could well feel the sting of public disapproval if they have to revise their graduation rates downward, but the resulting shift in message justifies the discomfort, he said.
“The statute calls for honesty,” he said. “We’re finally being honest about what a diploma means.”
But Lovell also worries that an unintended consequence of the law is that states could lower their regular-diploma requirements to keep their graduation-rate numbers high.
‘Perverse Incentives?’
Other consequences are already unfolding, showing up first in Indiana.
The state has long been recognized as a leader in getting students to complete college-prep courses of study: 88 percent take the four years of English and three years of math—through Algebra 2—that are widely viewed as a “college-ready” curricula.
Yet Indiana might have to pay the price of lowering its graduation rate because it chose not to require college-prep study for all. That situation strikes Cohen as creating “perverse incentives” for states to award less-rigorous diplomas to a “preponderance” of their students.
“States that do the best job of getting kids to take advanced coursework could be the ones at greatest risk under this policy,” he said. “They’ve succeeded their way into trouble.”
Lovell begs to differ. “You could see this as being about states that have to lower their graduation rates or about trying to be honest about our graduation rates,” he said. “Indiana is stepping up and being honest.”
Activists may differ on whether the preponderance requirements in ESSA are a step in the right direction. But they agree on another, more ironic truth, which is that the law will fall short of ensuring that all high school diplomas mean students are ready to do well in college.
Even among the many states that offer only one type of diploma, what students achieved to earn that diploma can vary wildly. Still, those states are unlikely to be affected by the preponderance requirement of ESSA, since all students earn the same diploma.
In Massachusetts, for instance, 77 percent of students complete a course of study that reflects the expectations of the University of Massachusetts. The rest finish high school with other assortments of courses. Yet all students earn the same diploma, said state education department spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis.
The same situation holds true in Maryland, where most students finish coursework geared to state university requirements, and the rest don’t, but all walk across the graduation stage with the same type of diploma.
In Oklahoma, students are automatically placed in the college-ready curriculum and remain there unless they opt into a less-rigorous one. But only the tougher course of study requires three years of math—through Algebra 2. And all Oklahoma students earn the same high school diploma, a state education department spokeswoman said.
The rate at which women enroll in four-year colleges and complete bachelor’s degrees continues to outpace the rate for men. In fact, by 2025 women will represent nearly 60 percent of all university students. Yet despite their growing numbers on college campuses, women remain a small minority among students majoring in physical, engineering, mathematics, and computer (PEMC) sciences. It seems that personal beliefs about their math skills, and not actual math ability, in high school keep young women out of PEMC college classes and careers, according to new research from Florida State University (FSU).
The FSU study examines boys’ and girls’ perceptions of their math abilities in tenth and twelfth grade. The researchers analyzed longitudinal data to determine whether variations in those perceptions influence which students pursue advanced science courses in high school and PEMC majors in college. Overall, boys rate their math skills 27 percent higher than girls do, regardless of either group’s actual demonstrated math ability, according to Gendered Pathways: How Mathematics Ability Beliefs Shape Secondary and Postsecondary Course and Degree Field Choices. In fact, the gender gaps are largest among the most talented tenth- and twelfth-grade math students, as the graphs from the report show below. That means among students who demonstrate the highest potential for future success in math and science careers, girls have less confidence in their math abilities than academically-matched boys do, even though the girls are equally capable.
“That’s important because those confidence levels influence the math and science courses students choose later in high school,” says Lara Perez-Felkner, assistant professor of higher education and sociology at FSU’s college of education and the study’s lead researcher. “It influences whether they choose colleges that are strong in certain science majors. It also influences the majors they intend to pursue and the majors they actually declare and continue on with in degrees and potential careers.”
In fact, Perez-Felkner and her team find that students’ tenth-grade perceptions of their math skills are the most influential predictor of a student’s likelihood of completing advanced science course work. After controlling for variables in students’ background characteristics and objective math ability, girls are 24 percent less likely than boys to complete advanced science courses in high school, the study says. Once those students reach postsecondary education, girls have a 4.7 percent chance of declaring PEMC majors, while boys have a 14.9 percent chance. But “[g]irls’ chances of choosing these [PEMC] majors more than tripled as their ability beliefs increased from low to high, even while controlling for key background, secondary school, and postsecondary characteristics,” the report explains. That means “increasing girls’ beliefs about their ability with challenging mathematics can raise their probability of majoring in PEMC fields,” the study says.
Additionally, increasing women’s presence in PEMC majors—and, by extension, in PEMC careers—could address persistent earning gaps between women and men. “Mathematics-intensive science fields are expected to constitute an increasing share of the labor market,” the study says, and PEMC fields offer some of the most lucrative careers. Nine of the ten highest paying majors are in engineering fields alone, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. Furthermore, the gender gap in earnings is smaller in PEMC fields, the FSU study adds. While the average U.S. woman earns just 78 percent of what her male colleagues earn, female computer programmers, for instance, earn 92 percent as much as their male peers, according to the FSU study.
Because girls have more negative perceptions of their math abilities, they may steer away from scientific careers if they encounter challenges in their math course work, the study notes. Programs that help girls build resilience along with social support from teachers, parents, and peers can help girls overcome their lower beliefs about their math abilities, the study adds.
“It is difficult to change societal associations between gender and mathematics ability, which boys and girls experience and may internalize early,” the FSU study says. “[T]his research implies the need for continued investment in efforts to generate and sustain creative, multi-pronged approaches to help more talented and ambitious girls see themselves as—and become—scientists.”
Many have asked about the future of Future Ready Schools®, which was launched by President Obama in 2014 as a partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and the Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance) to help school district leaders improve teaching and student learning outcomes through the effective use of technology. The short answer is that the future of Future Ready Schools is extremely bright.
In the coming weeks, the Alliance and Future Ready Schools will announce exciting new projects that will build on this momentum to help district leaders, school leaders, and teachers plan and implement personalized, research-based digital learning strategies so all students can achieve their full potential. Specifically, we’ll be announcing the schedule for a series of “Institutes” throughout the country, tools for rural schools, robust support for state leaders, and a brand new planning section of the Future Ready Schools dashboard aligned with Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Future Ready Schools was created with the understanding that the Alliance for Excellent Education would develop and run the program as a freestanding program, no matter who succeeded Barack Obama as president.
No federal funds have ever been given to support the Future Ready Schools program. It was built and continues to thrive in consultation with its sixty national partners and is supported and managed by the Alliance.
The tremendous show of support from the more than 3,000 districts committed to being Future Ready—including more than 800 that were added in the last three months—is an affirmation of our efforts and confirms the value and need of the Future Ready Schools program.
Future Ready Schools is dedicated to supporting districts with digital learning transition tools that empowers teachers and address districts’ vision for student learning personalized learning. All we ask of you is to stay tuned, get involved, and let us know how we can help!
Bob Wise is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia.
“On education, there is no state in the U.S. that is demanding the spotlight like Tennessee,” Haslam said. “It’s worth repeating: with the incredible hard work of our teachers and students, Tennesseans are the fastest improving in the country in math, reading and as of this year, science. This past October we received the science scores from the Nation’s Report Card, and beyond being the fastest improving, we narrowed the gaps between African American, Latino and white students. We also completely eliminated the gap between male and female students.”
Haslam was not ready to rest on his laurels. He announced one of the largest funding increases for education in Tennessee history, including $22 million in additional funding for high-need students, $15 million for equipment for career and technical education programs, and $100 million for an increase in teacher salaries.
“Tennessee has shown it will not balance the budget on the backs of teachers and students,” Haslam said. “In fact, under the legislature and this administration, Tennessee has increased total K-12 spending by more than $1.3 billion.”
Haslam also discussed his “Drive to 55” initiative, a goal that 55 percent of the state’s residents will have a college degree or certificate by 2025. A critical element to reaching that goal has been Tennessee Promise, which provides two years of free tuition at a Tennessee community or technical college.
“While it’s still early in the Tennessee Promise story, the results so far are incredibly encouraging,” Haslam said. “Since the program started, more than 33,000 students have enrolled in college as a result of Tennessee Promise, and of the students who began in fall 2015, 63 percent are still enrolled.”
Haslam noted that Tennessee last year led the nation in applications for free student aid by high school seniors through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and is ahead of last year’s rate in 2017. Additionally, he noted that 9,000 Tennessee adults are volunteer mentors to high school students, who have, in turn, contributed more than one million hours of community service.
At the same time, Haslam acknowledged that Tennessee cannot reach its Drive to 55 goal by just serving high school students. He proposed that Tennessee become the first state in the nation to offer all adults free access to community college through a program called Tennessee Reconnect.
“Just as we did with Tennessee Promise we’re making a clear statement to families with Reconnect: wherever you might fall on life’s path, education beyond high school is critical to the Tennessee we can be,” Haslam said. “We don’t want cost to be an obstacle anyone has to overcome as they pursue their own generational change for themselves and their families.”
Haslam also spent a significant portion of his speech discussing infrastructure—roads and bridges, yes, but also access to high-speed internet. “We live in a world where if you have a strong internet connection you can just about work from anywhere,” Haslam said. “If we’re serious about putting our rural counties on a level playing field, then opening up broadband access is one of the largest steps forward we can take.”
“The Tennessee we can be provides not only access to opportunity but the tools to be successful. Good roads that take you to good jobs. Broadband access to conduct and grow your business anywhere in Tennessee at the speed of the 21st century. A high-quality education system that educates all.”
Pennsylvania: Gov. Tom Wolf Works to Restore Previous Cuts to Education Funding
Saying that there should be “no greater priority” for the state government than educating its children, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D)outlined a budget plan on February 7 that would provide $125 million more in K-12 education funding, part of a continued effort to restore a $1 billion cut from education enacted five years ago.
“Instead of allowing schools to become the first casualty of our budget deficit, we’ve made them our first priority,” Wolf said. “We’ve undone nearly two-thirds of those short-sighted cuts to our public school system. In fact, we’ve made the largest investment in education in the history of the Commonwealth.”
Wolf highlighted some of the progress schools have made as a result of those investments, including an expansion in career and technical education programs, advancement placement courses, and learning pathways programs that prepare high school students for careers in business, human services, and industrial technology.
Maryland: Gov. Larry Hogan Looks to Expand P-Tech High Schools
“We have already accomplished a great deal,” Hogan said. “But together, we can – and we must – do more. Every single child in Maryland deserves access to a great education, regardless of what neighborhood they happen to grow up in. Sadly, we still have students who are trapped in persistently failing schools.”
Hogan highlighted efforts to provide students with greater choice, including an increase in a voucher program that provides scholarships for certain students to attend a private schools and an expansion in charter schools. Specifically, Hogan cited P-Tech, which began as a partnership between IBM and a high school in Brooklyn in which students graduate with both a diploma and an associate’s degree in a field related to computers or engineering. Maryland began six such schools last year. In his address, Hogan committed to doubling that number in 2017.
Alabama: Gov. Robert Bentley Focuses on Middle School Students
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) set a goal in his state of the state on February 7 to address to “significantly increase” the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education by 2019.
To meet that goal, Bentley described how Alabama’s FUTURE Scholarship plan, which is modeled after the GEAR UP program, would identify seventh graders in the state’s poorest counties for tutoring, summer help programs, visits to college campuses, and financial planning.
“By the time they graduate high school, after they’ve met strict criteria, kept their grades up, and tapped into all available financial aid, we will pay their two-year college tuition,” Bentley said. “The FUTURE Scholarship Plan will not only educate and train our students, it will produce a pipeline of well-trained, well-educated talent for industries so those businesses can expand and grow.”
Jason Amos is Vice President of Communications at the Alliance for Excellent Education.
Today the Alliance for Excellent Education was recognized for its work to expand quality Linked Learning opportunities for students in California and across the nation at the Linked Learning Convention in Oakland, California. Linked Learning is a comprehensive educational approach that integrates rigorous academics, high-quality career and technical education, work-based learning, and student support to prepare all students, especially those who are traditionally underserved, to graduate from high school with the skills necessary to succeed in college and a career.
“From the most rural to the most urban school settings, Linked Learning is a sterling example of how the combined efforts of school districts, colleges and universities, and employers can make education more engaging for students and more relevant to the twenty-first-century economy,” said Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise, who received the 2017 Linked Learning Policymaker Champion Award. “The Alliance is honored to be partners in this movement and to have communicated the impact of Linked Learning to federal policymakers and education leaders for nearly a decade.”
Originating in California with nine school districts, Linked Learning has expanded to serve more than 65,000 students in California, and many more in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin. The approach is working to reverse the trend of too many students, particularly African American, Latino, and students from low-income families, who are failing to graduate from high school with the skills necessary to succeed.
In conjunction with the convention, the Alliance released a short video demonstrating how Linked Learning is changing lives and improving educational outcomes for students at Los Angeles Unified School District. In the video, Paola—a first-generation college student—shares how her mentorship in high school helped to prepare her for college and a career. Watch the video below or at https://youtu.be/rUbM4wMjvcs.
“Our students are becoming increasingly more diverse and it is clear that our success as a nation is inextricably linked to the achievement of students from low-income families,” said Wise. “Linked Learning has been a successful approach to more positive education results for traditionally underserved students. For example, African American students in Linked Learning pathways are 12.4 percentage points more likely than their peers to enroll in a four-year college.”
“More than 11 million jobs have been created since the Great Recession, and only 1 percent of those jobs went to people with only a high school diploma,” said Wise. “It’s obvious that students need preparation for both postsecondary education and the workforce—not one or the other.”
“Linked Learning makes the critical connection between the classroom, college, and a career while eliminating the disconnect between classroom learning and the real world of the workplace,” said Wise. “This approach enables students to explore their interests while preparing them for the jobs they will be applying for and that the workforce will be seeking.”
Even though just a few days remain before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, members of President Barack Obama’s team have continued to advance the education priorities of the current administration, including issuing regulations and state guidance on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Amid that work, though, U.S. Secretary of Education John King, First Lady Michelle Obama, and even President Obama himself have taken time in their final remarks to reflect on the administration’s education accomplishments and outline the challenges that await the next administration.
In an exit memo released the beginning of this month, Secretary King highlighted the progress the Obama administration has made at all levels of education, from preschool through college. Noteworthy achievements include marking a record-setting national high school graduation rate—83 percent for the Class of 2015—and reductions in high school graduation rate gaps between students of color, students from low-income families, English learners, students with disabilities, and their peers.
King’s memo also celebrated the administration’s efforts to transform learning with technology, recognizing the ConnectED initiative, which aims to connect 99 percent of students to high-speed internet access by 2018, and Future Ready Schools®, an effort co-led by the Alliance for Excellent Education to support school districts in implementing digital learning strategies. The memo also recognized the administration’s legacy of encouraging school improvement through rigorous academic standards and innovation with programs such as Race to the Top and its follow-up challenges, the Investing in Innovation (i3) program, and the Next Generation High School Initiative.
Additionally, the Secretary’s memo highlighted the administration’s work to protect students’ civil rights and “safeguard the access of all students to a world-class education,” an effort the memo described as “[o]ne of the Obama Administration’s highest priorities.” Moreover, King, who has described the U.S. Department of Education (ED) as a “civil rights agency,” emphasized the need for future administrations to maintain a strong Office for Civil Rights within ED “to make our schools even safer, fairer, and more equitable, and help to ensure all students have the chance to achieve their fullest potential.” He also encouraged states to “use their flexibility [under ESSA] to raise the bar for all students, not to lower it.”
President Obama echoed those sentiments in his farewell address earlier this week and called on the nation to move beyond “disaffection and division” and embrace a sense of solidarity to advance equal educational and economic opportunities for all individuals.
“[S]tark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic ideal,” Obama said. “And so we’re going to have to forge a new social compact to guarantee all our kids the education they need.” He added that addressing inequities in opportunity requires the collective effort of the nation. “It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours,” he said. “Because for all of our outward differences, we, in fact, all share the same proud title, the most important office in a democracy: citizen.”
Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama offered a message of inspiration directly to students in her final remarks earlier this month. “[O]ur glorious diversity—our diversities of faiths and colors and creeds—that is not a threat to who we are, it makes us who we are,” the First Lady said during an event to honor the national school counselor of the year. “I want our young people to know that they matter, that they belong. So don’t be afraid—you hear me, young people? Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.”
Kristen Loschert is editorial director at the Alliance for Excellent Education.
In his last major policy speech, U.S. Secretary of Education John King delivered what could be seen as a motivational speech for education advocates preparing for President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to expand school choice options for students through a $20 billion voucher program that would allow federal funds to follow students to private schools.
“For all who believe that strong, equitable public education is central to a healthy democracy and a thriving economy, now is the moment for us to set aside the policy differences that we have let divide us, and move forward together courageously to defend and extend this fundamental American institution,” King said on December 14.
King discussed progress over the last eight years, including a high school graduation rate at an all-time high of 83 percent, closing achievement gaps, and the largest and most diverse college graduation class in history. Still, he acknowledged that too many students fail to graduate from high school and those who do are frequently unprepared for the rigors of college.
“Ensuring more Americans get the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in our country matters more than ever,” King said. “It is not enough for those already prosperous to prosper. Unless we are ensuring that all Americans can meaningfully participate in our nation’s growth, our nation will not succeed. The simple fact, confirmed by the research, is that reducing income inequality positively influences economic output. When everyone has a fair chance, whole societies are healthier, better off and more productive.”
King said the Every Student Succeeds Act “rightly empowers state and district leaders to develop strategies that address their unique challenges and needs,” but he cautioned them to maintain “guardrails” for protecting students.
He spoke strongly in support of college- and career-ready standards and urged states to “fight the inevitable efforts” to water down high expectations. King stressed the need for accountability—saying, “Without accountability, standards are meaningless and equity is a charade”—and urged states to develop accountability systems that are “rich and varied” and include “measures such as chronic absenteeism, access to and success in advanced courses, or new approaches to discipline that help students improve their behavior and their academic achievement.”
Looking ahead, King discussed “growing bipartisan consensus” around increased access to preschool and free community college and other options to make high education available to more students without a mountain of debt.
King spoke passionately about equity and funding disparities that exist across the country. “Money is never the only answer, but money does matter,” King said. “It pays for higher salaries and for school counselors. Money builds science labs and repairs leaky roofs. Yet, in districts all across the country, students who need the most still get the least.”
He also encouraged schools to embrace diversity and inclusion and reject segregation. “Diverse schools are great preparation for all students,” King said. “They help more children succeed, help broaden students’ perspectives, and help prepare them to participate in a global workforce. And I am convinced that the growing conflicts in this country over race and religion and language would be profoundly reduced if our children were able to learn and play alongside classmates who were different from themselves and if they regularly encountered teachers and leaders of color in their schools.”
How many of the Obama administration’s education policies will continue into a Trump administration is an open question, but, with his passionate defense of equity and public education, King is betting that his words will remain with people even if some of his policies do not.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers a number of opportunities to support rural education by providing states and local districts more flexibility while preserving the critical role of the federal government. ESSA also includes an array of federal funding programs, research initiatives, and capacity-building efforts directed to support rural schools.
