Tag Archives: Jack Jennings

Jack Jennings Retires, Leaves Words of Advice

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Jack Jennings, founder, president, and CEO of the Center on Education Policy (CEP), stepped down from his roles at the organization on January 31.  As part of his retirement, he is releasing two publications.  One is the history of the CEP, the other contains some final words of advice on the future of American public schools.
The second publication, Why Have We Fallen Short and Where Do We Go From Here? summarizes his reflections on his long career in education policy, which culminate in three major conclusions.  The first is that the three reform movements of the past 50 years (equity-related, school choice, and standards-based reforms) have affected schools, but have not accomplished the broad goals intended.

Second, for major changes to occur, more focus must be placed on improving the curriculum, the teaching force, and increasing school funding.  Finally, he encourages Congress to adopt an “equal education” clause, that states no child in the US will be “denied equal educational opportunity in elementary and secondary education through the lack of a challenging curriculum, well-prepared and effective teachers, and the funding to pay for that education.”  In other words, a quality education should be a civil right.

In the end, Jennings emphasizes that the Americans have a choice.  “We can adopt piecemeal approaches that have some effect.  But if we want broad, major improvement for our nation’s schools, we have to act boldly, not just talk or try partial fixes.”

To read his full paper, please visit http://www.cep-dc.org/displayDocument.cfm?DocumentID=392

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Have We Gotten It Wrong on School Reform?

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In a recent blog post for The Huffington Post, Jack Jennings of the Center on Education Policy reflects on the current “business” of education reform.  Benchmarking, once used only in top performing companies, has tricked its way down to education, the most prominent example being the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

The CCSS were written after a comprehensive study of what top-achieving countries are doing with their education systems.  A new book, Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems, by Marc S. Tucker “takes benchmarking one step further.”  Shanghai, Finland, Japan, Singapore, and Ontario’s school systems are analyzed, mainly because their students consistently outperform American students on international exams.

According to the study, six key factors are responsible for these school systems’ students academic success:

1. Schools are funded equitably, and needy schools are given additional resources.

2. Teachers are paid competitively with other sectors.

3. Professional development, teacher preparation, and mentoring programs are invested in and maintained by government coffers.

4. Teachers are given time during each school day for collaborative planning and professional learning to improve instruction.

5. The curriculum is organized around problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

6. Students are tested rarely, but carefully, with measures that require analysis, communication, and defense of ideas.

The book concludes that high-performing school systems are “focused on building coherent systems of teaching and learning, focused on meaningful goals and supported with universally available, strategic resources.”

The CCSS are important first steps to bringing more coherence into the US education system, but they are only first steps.  However, as long as “grossly unequal funding,” low teacher pay, extensive student testing that leads to punitive actions for schools who fail, variations in the quality of teacher prep, and discordant professional development practices continue, the US will not be able to meet or surpass the academic excellence of these foreign school systems.

“Some will argue that the United States is unique—that what brings success in other countries is not relevant to our situation.  The American steel and automotive industries once also believed that.  They sank, until they realized that knowledge did not stop at our nation’s borders…Are our leaders making the same mistake?” asks Jennings.

To read the full article, you can download it here:  http://www.cep-dc.org/cfcontent_file.cfm?Attachment=Jack_HuffingtinPostBlog_11_23_11.pdf

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Higher Wages Would Attract, Keep Better Teachers

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Last month, Jack Jennings of the Center on Education Policy wrote an article refuting the contentious AEI paper claiming that public school teachers are overcompensated and under-achieving (see a summary of this study here).  Jennings contrasts the methodology of the AEI study with a study from an impartial group, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group composed of the world’s most advanced economies.

Jennings discuses OECD’s Building a High Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from Around the World, which analyzed how high-performing countries have developed their effective educators.  Among the other areas of analysis, the report included a discussion of teacher pay.  The US ranked 22nd out of 27 countries in teacher pay, meaning American teachers are paid only 60% of what the average, college-educated American worker is paid in other sectors.

Another study that refutes the AEI paper was conducted by McKinsey & Co., a major market researching firm, which concluded that the US was not attracting higher-performing college graduates to the teaching profession because the pay is so low in comparison to other industries.  To be competitive, teachers would have to be paid between $65,000 – $150,000 per year, far more than the current salaries.

“Money is never the reason why people enter teaching, but it is the reason why some people do not enter teaching, or leave after a few years,” Jennings concludes.

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Student Subgroups and NAEP

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In a blog post written by Jack Jennings, Center for Education Policy’s president, Jennings discusses achievement gains of white, Latino, and African American students on the long-term National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The blog points out that while general trends show a mixed picture of achievement gains over the last four decades, Latino and African American students have made great gains.  Accompanying the blog is a table showing the changes in long-term NAEP reading and math scores since the 1970s for white, Latino, and African American students as well as for all students.  Links to the blog and table are posted below.

Blog: http://www.cep-dc.org/cfcontent_file.cfm?Attachment=Jennings%5FHuffingtonBlog%5F050811%2Epdf

Table: http://www.cep-dc.org/cfcontent_file.cfm?Attachment=NAEPTable%5FHuffingtonBlog%5F050811%2Epdf

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Role of the Federal Government in Education

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Happy President’s Day! In honor of our federal government, I am sharing an article written by the Center on Education Policy’s CEO Jack Jennings that appeared in the Huffington Post.

“Get the Federal Government out of Education? That wasn’t the Founding Fathers’ vision” traces the history of the federal role in education and  addresses the reasons why the federal government should continue to be involved in education.

Link to Article:  http://www.cep-dc.org/cfcontent_file.cfm?Attachment=Jack%20Jennings%5F%20Get%20the%20Federal%20Government%20Out%20of%20Education%2Epdf

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