In Chicago last week, Diana Rauner, the First Lady of Illinois, interviewed Margaret Spellings, President of the George W. Bush Presidential Center...
In Chicago last week, Diana Rauner, the First Lady of Illinois, interviewed Margaret Spellings, President of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and former U.S. Secretary of Education. The pair discussed the future of education during a session at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Principal Leadership
*Quote of the Day: "Fight with army you have. Not the army you want to have." –Diana Rauner
*Principal preparation matters, but it is only one piece of the puzzle.
*Schools can learn from the private sector how to do talent management.
*Principals are instructional leaders of their communities.
*It’s now about going beyond compliance to thinking about outcomes – it’s about accountability.
Teachers
*Teachers say: “Tell us what to do and we'll do it.” We owe teachers our best thinking about what works.
Middle Schools
*Middle schools matter because it’s the last time to capture students who may be headed off-course.
*Middle school is the place to look for the early warning indicators and target them with interventions.
Accountability
*Quote of the Day: "In God we trust, all others bring data." – Margaret Spellings
*Accountability shines the light on where we need interventions.
*Holding schools accountable for their work, providing quality early childhood education, and making sure middle schools prepare their students for high school all matter as well.
*It’s easy to change the behavior of kids. We need to change the behavior of leaders.
Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind
*Accountability and system-building are two things that can be done well at the federal level in early childhood and beyond.
*Education is a state-level activity, but the federal law can help states build a real system for a continuum of learning from pre-K and beyond.
*No Child Left Behind succeeded in creating annual, independent exams in core grades in every state across the country, breaking apart the results from those tests for all to see, and focusing on graduation rates.
*The reauthorization of the current legislation in Washington has been bipartisan – which is great.
*With reauthorization, the pendulum now is going the other way. States can do anything or nothing. Without someone requiring a meaningful change to do something different, we don’t pay attention to poor and minority kids.
*Common Core, created by the National Governors Association and the states, has become a distraction. It is only half the equation. You need standards, but you also need to measure how many students get over the bar.
Staying Vigilant for Student Achievement
*This is a worrisome time. Those pushing for raising standards, measuring whether students grasp them, and holding schools accountable for the results are on our heels. Hope the retreat doesn’t show up in bad legislation.
*Yes, there’s too much testing, but that’s because local districts start putting them in place too frequently. No Child only requires one state test in grades three through eight and once in high school.
*The frequency of exams is killing testing. We can hope that data systems and technology catch up soon because they will give us a better, deeper, and faster sense of how kids are doing.
Helping Parents Engage
*We’ve underserved parents in telling them how to get involved.
*Early childhood has a lot to offer the K-12 system as it relates to getting parents involved.
*It’s important for school leaders to help parents navigate the system on behalf of their child.
Tracy Young is Director of the Bush Institute's education initiative.
