Education Reform

Operation Student Success

The Boyd Doctrine supports the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top Education Initiative.  The Obama Administration has committed $4.35 billion for education reform through the Race to the Top Program.  This program represents one of the largest investments of the government into education.  Race to the Top will allow states to compete for funding.  In order to be eligible to compete for funding, states like Illinois will need to remove “firewalls” that prevent performance of students from being used to evaluate teachers.  Sadly, Illinois has not yet passed requirements to be eligible for Race to the Top Funding.  The following key measures of reform will hopefully reach a point in order for our state to become eligible with funding:

  • Commitment to setting higher standards and better assessments to prepare students to succeed in the twenty-first century
  • Commitment to putting effective teachers in the classroom and principles at the helm of schools
  • Tracking programs of students and tutors to make sure graduates are ready for college or a career
  • Focus on transforming the lowest performing schools

As outlined by President Obama, in order for our state to compete domestically and internationally, our educators and administrators must:

  1. Ensure we are not teaching to test but properly assessing students to ensure they are prepared for higher education or job acquisition.
  2. Recruit and prepare teachers for teaching effectiveness.  President Obama stated that this preparation may involve creative training such as coupling aspiring teachers with the best educational mentors for periods of residency.
  3. Collect information about students in a timely manner that teachers can use such information better teach in the classroom as opposed to receiving standardize test results long after the students have left their classrooms.
  4. Work to improve the schools which are failing even if it means replacing the worst performing teachers and principles.

Alongside President Obama’s Race to the Top Education Initiative, I seek to deploy his education initiative for Illinois, Operation Student Success.  Having served as a Dean of Student Success for a private college, I proposes that State educators in primary, secondary and postsecondary schools partner together to:

  • Identify ways to better engage all students and parents through targeted electronic messages or social networks such as Facebook
  • Find ways to help the financially at-risk successfully persist to graduation
  • Help students discover their strengths or areas of interest sooner
  • Provide psychological counseling to students who willfully disrupt the learning experience or purposefully do not engage in the classroom
  • Deploy satisfaction inventories even in high school to ensure that schools are able to meet and exceed student expectations
  • Create special summer college prep programs for first generation college students
  • Help college students take charge of their learning experiences
  • Connect college students to the right people and resources within their community to improve the chances of job acquisition in the State of Illinois
  • Benchmark test performance against similar sized communities in the state in efforts to provide continuous improvement and hire the best teachers and administrators.
  • Assist colleges and universities in creating “One Stop Shops”
  • Provide Career Services support to all juniors and seniors in High School and College (i.e. resume and cover letter training, graduate school and career advising, transportation to job fairs, and access to internship/job posting databases)
  • Create a nonprofit State Board of Education Counselors similar to the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) dedicated to education and career advising

Through these collaborative efforts, I believe Illinois will see:

  • Improved communication between schools and parents (especially for the purpose of identifying unexcused absences sooner and making parents aware of all school activities, including unforeseen closings due to severe weather, and creating opportunities for teachers to talk with parents who may find it challenging to make parent/teacher conferences as they work second or third jobs or usually second or third shift jobs)
  • Identifications of ways the state can close the widening gap between cost of living and cost of education (According to the Bureau of Labor, college tuition and fees rose 439 percent as median family income rose by only 147 percent between 1982 and 2006)
  • Students will be able to sooner discover the places they can go with their interest, hobbies (ultimately leading to a more satisfied workforce)
  • A decrease in class interruptions and fewer altercations with teachers and other students (on and off campus, including  gang-related activities)
  • Students/Parents finding it less needful to seek out private schools outside their own communities
  • Less need/cost for colleges to provide developmental mathematics and English courses for incoming freshmen with lower SAT and ACT scores (primarily first-generation college students)
  • More responsible students exiting high school and college
  • Improved networking skills for graduating High school and college students
  • Elementary, Middle and High School educators gaining a better understanding the effectiveness of their teaching pedagogy, perhaps even better understanding the educational challenges for students in a geographical region
  • Improved retention (and satisfaction) of students attending community, private and public colleges as there is less “run around” required to register for classes or gain access to services needed on campus
  • Better prepared job seekers (while unemployment has passed 10%, employers have a larger pool of labor to select from; therefore, the best prepared are likely to acquire the best paying jobs)
  • Improved retention of students who would not traditionally be admitted to public or private colleges
  • Improved retention of Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities
  • More students enabled to succeed after high school or college as alumni are able to model success (“Oh’ The Places You’ll Go”)