SOTU Bingo

Hi all,

The Alliance for Excellent Education has become one of my favorite education groups in Washington. I have attended several of their panel discussions and have come away with thoughts to chew on and impressed by the caliber of speakers they gather. Yesterday I attended one which explored using the NYC models as a way to formulate federal policy to combat the nation's chronically failing schools. You may recall that Johns Hopkins came out with a list of the 2000 worst high schools in the US based on graduation rates, the so-called "drop out factories". A woman from Hopkins opened the panel talking about different ways to look at states with failing schools. 17 states produce 70% of the drop outs, an overwhelming majority of whom are black, Latino and poor. No real surprises there. The panel went on to look specifically at NYC's approaches to rehabing or closing schools, opening smaller schools and charters. An interesting discussion with much of the talk revolving around the ability to use data to drive instruction. There was a school in NYC which had 1200 freshmen in a school of 1700 students; the dropout rate was that problematic. Even when I was teaching at Logan the drop out rate didn't come close to that. It was disheartening. The chancellor for NYC schools did have an inspiring comment when he challenged adults in the system to think what percent of the city's schools would they send their own children to? And then, whose children should go to the rest? Until all adults would send their own children to any school in the city, their work is not done. An honorable goal.

Today I received an email from the same group with some follow up articles. I'll share one tomorrow on the economic impact of drop outs. For today I will leave you with a humorous bit to be used during tomorrow night's State of the Union Address: SOTU Bingo!! Print out various versions for you and your friends and have some fun with it!! Enjoy.

SOTU Bingo Returns: How Much Will President Obama Discuss Education in His January 27 State of the Union Address?

On January 27 at 9:00 p.m., President Obama will give his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and millions watching at home. With the nation shedding more than eight million jobs since the Great Recession began in December 2007, the economy and job creation topics are expected to occupy a great deal of Obama’s speech. The president is also expected to address the prospects of health care reform—especially in light of Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the January 19 special election in Massachusetts, which eliminated Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.

Obama is expected to touch on the budget deficit, reform of the financial industry, energy, immigration, and education—all of which are likely to be framed around a plan to rebuild the economy. But how much will Obama say about education? The president could use the State of the Union address to outline his plan for reforming the nation’s education system and reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Race to the Top, a competitive grant program designed to reward states that are aggressively pursuing reforms, also figures to receive mention during the State of the Union address. In a speech earlier this month at Graham Road Elementary School in Virginia, Obama announced that he would request an increase of $1.35 billion for Race to the Top in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget, which is scheduled to be released on February 1.

To help viewers keep track of these and other topics during the State of the Union address, the Alliance for Excellent Education has brought back its popular State of the Union bingo cards, which are available for download athttp://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/SOTUBingo2010.

By for now.

-J