America’s President Barack Obama is all set to bring about major changes in the education system. Throughout his campaign, Obama had said that he plans to take a new, objective look at education issues. Now, the House has passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package that includes $150 billion for education, more than doubling the budget for the Department of Education.
Obama outlined some general areas in which he wants to bring about major changes. The idea being to ensure that truly ‘No child gets left behind’ and the quality of education is maintained.
- An impetus to early childhood education– The comprehensive ‘Zero to Five’ plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Research shows that early learning programs give children an edge in Reading and Math. The stimulus bill gives the Head Start program additional funds and an additional 110,000 students access to the program, based on need.
- Getting world-class in Math and Science – Realizing that Math, Science and problem solving skills are imperative to get ahead, an added emphasis in being given to these areas. As Obama pointed out, by twelfth grade, most American students are scoring lower on Math and Science tests than most other kids in the world and in a connected world like ours, good education is going to be ‘the big’ differentiators.
- Ensuring that no child truly gets left behind - Obama wants ‘No child Left behind’ to live up to its name by actually working to ensure that every child gets educated with an excellent teacher. It is also imperative that schools get the funding they need, but there will be performance metrics tied to the money.
- Performance based compensation for teachers – More accountability in the classroom and teachers who are go the extra mile get rewarded for it. This also aims at moving non-preforming teachers out of the classroom.
- More Charter schools - Obama called on states to lift caps on the number of charter schools, but also to shut down those that aren’t working. Obama also proposed the idea of a longer school calendar, in a bid to prepare U.S students for the 21st Century economy.
- Lets see more graduates - America is seeing an ‘a sharp rise’ in drop out rates which needs to be urgently addressed. As Obama rightly said that a college degree has never been more important than it is no. He proposed increases in Pell grants and also announced a $2.5 billion program to help college students “persist and graduate”.
Obama has called for ‘A truly historic commitment to education’ with new resources and new reforms. Looks like America is set for a new and exciting journey in education.
Tags: education, obama, online tutoring
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: education, obama, Online Tutoring