After 41 years in education I can look back and see that the reason I fell in love with education was because these children also loved education. They loved to come to school to learn! Their eyes shined with hunger for knowledge, something that is missing in the eyes of many of our American children and has been missing with the “No child left behind”.

I would love to see a balance of parent eduction and childrens education. What I mean by this is that the new generation is growing up without parenting skills (so they need to be educated in being better parents.) Better parents make better aliances of eduction with teachers! Parents also need to have the time to spend with there children. People have to work two jobs to make ends meet and it takes time away from their families.

In schools children need to learn to love education again. Pre-schools and elementary schools need to do away with grading. Just grade if the student has dominated the work or if he is still in the process of doing so (NO Letter grades)! These are the ages to build selfesteem, high achivment, and the love for education.

Last I would love to see a new programe added to the educational system. It’s always been my dream to lead this program. A multi-Cultural awarness class. In this class every school (pre-K to High school) would be set up the same and have the same guidlines to follow. The classes would teach diffrent Cultures, How these people, play, eat, dress, the music and arts, how they educate thier children … I believe that knowing others will help break the chains of pregudicim! Less fights in High schools, less name calling in Middle school and less bad looks in Elementary. Also knowing how other children are educated would bring an edge of competition to American children and they would do better in school. The Americans thrive on competition, so lets use it to cater pulse education into the next century!

My last and most important point is that it is time to stop teaching for the test! We are making puppets out of our children, they are not learning how to figure things out on their own. They are only learning how to memorize lessons and the bottom line is that teachers will not be standing next to each adult student as he or she trys to make decisions in the real world. Can you just picture a high school graduate in and the job interviewer thinking “I did not memorize that in school, so I can not give an answer”! Lets get back to hands on teaching at all levels Elementary, up to College. We need to let our studnets think for themselves and what a great feeling when you do know the answer to something you yourself have figured out, what a sence of pride, and how eger you are to continue to do more and learn more! Students also need to be recognize for their achivements as well as their teachers that are working hard to guide students in achivig thier maximun potentials. Recognition in their schools, in their locale communities and at a National level is imperative! Recognition and awards boost encouragement to continue high achivment and motivates those that have not reached that level of accoblishment yet!

We all want educational reform, but it is time not just to want it but to make it happen! It’s time to say we are not going to let another generation go down hill! I am still a teacher, teaching ELL students and will continue to do so for another 15 years. I hope I can spend my last 15 years in education, making a diffrence in the development of a new generation of thinkers! I have the hope that the next president will find real people to advice him in the reform of education. I not only have the hope but I believe that he will see the urgancy to this matter!

Under No Child Left Behind, data is disaggregated in several ways: gender, ethnicity, poverty, age, attendance, grade level; however, mixed heritage students are miscalculated skewing the data in one way or the other. I have seen some school administrators ask parents if the school can classify a mixed heritage student as one race, essentially manipulating the data to make sure the student makes adequate yearly progress (AYP).

Ensure that high standards apply to all students via a National Curriculum and National Standards. Leaving this up to the states has contributed to the steady downfall of education in the United States. Go back to the constructivist approach to teaching. I would also encourage the next President of the United States to strengthen teacher preparatory programs to lessen the number of minorities that are being incarcerated although most are able to receive academic instruction while they are “serving time.” This is a great intervention tool to capture students that were previously not taught in the “traditional school setting”, but also can act as a detriment stigmatizing this population as they overrepresented in jails and prisons.

Learning must be relevant, engaging, and meaningful from Pre-K to 12, so if the next President of the United States could provide some type of universal monitoring and enforcement for this endeavor, both teachers and students would benefit tremendously. From my experience as an educator, the status quo will remain with widening learning gaps between minorities and the majority without universal monitoring and enforcement. Poverty is not always the issue as I have taught students that live in poverty that are quite bright and perform in the gifted and advanced levels. It is society that perpetuates this prevarication.

I have had the pleasure of teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages but recently discovered that not all of my students have documented status. Many have walked from Central America to the United States. Illegal immigration is a grave problem in the U.S. that not only affects education but the economy as well. All illegal immigrants need to be legal taxpaying citizens of the United States or they need to be deported, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter whether they are African, Hispanic, Asian, or European illegal is illegal.

All schools should have a Physical Education teacher, Music teacher, Art teacher, Librarian, and Media Specialist in addition to content area teachers to provide the enrichment that is needed for all students. There is great inequity in staffing,class size, and planning in schools throughout the country.

Lastly, making schools the pillar of the community, forging school-family-community partnerships is critical. Teachers cannot do it alone. We need more parental involvement and community support.

2. Create incentives for districts to use open-source digital content instead of expensive and heavy 20th century textbooks, saving districts thousands of dollars and bringing our schools into the 21st century.

3. Consider alternatives to multiple-choice assessments that allow us to measure achievement and hold schools and teachers accountable in more “authentic” ways. Invest R&D into valid, un-biased, and fair assessments using portfolios and other authentic work that teachers and students can embrace and support. Ask unions to participate in this R&D.

4. Encourage the use of Web 2.0 tools to design teacher professional development experiences that leverage modern technology and teacher work-hours.

5. Consider creating a set of national standards for what students should know and be able to do, and national criteria for teacher certification instead of the state-by-state system that currently exists. Create a committee of Chief State School Officers to develop these national standards to ensure that each state has input in the process. The current system is good for assessment companies but causes wasted time and money for educators, families, and CMO’s doing work in more than one state.

6. Create incentives for states to increase the numbers of charters granted to qualified schools.

7. Explore ways to overhaul the property-tax-based school funding system to find more equitable ways to fund schools so all children have access to a high-quality education.

8. Ensure that our schools observe the Constitution’s provision of a separation of Church and State, providing that schools do not engage in the teaching of any specific religious doctrine, such as so-called “Intelligent Design” and “Abstinence Only.” Religious teachings such as these may, of course, be discussed as options and their role in our society analyzed in a social science context, but have no place in a biology or health classroom.

To be effective, these grants must be large enough to support meaningful programs and stable enough to ensure multi-year implementations.

As you take office, it would be in the nation’s interest to pursue legislative and executive actions that would make sure every child has access to teachers who are knowledgeable in the content, highly-skilled in teaching that content so that children learn in rich and meaningful ways, and who are disposed never to give up on a student. What is learned in a teacher education program provides only a solid foundation for growth. But we could do more. Teachers need to be learners and education reformers, and school districts should be encouraged to devote significant resources to develop their own teachers to achieve their school’s goals. Right now, most teacher professional development is left to each teacher to purchase individually. Some do and some don’t, and even if they do the quality, and therefore the value, varies widely and is focused on developing the teacher and not the school. Teacher development should encourage teachers to become better at the art and science of teaching, but even more importantly, to become the agents of change who improve the quality of the school for the children in their collective charge.

A fan from the Options in Education days.

Gary Galluzzo
George Mason University

2) Early education..First Five or Preschool for under served communities is necessary

3) Pass state and even federal legislation that recognizes teachers as Highly Qualified state licensed teachers. As such we should not forfeit any years of experience ( pay scale-step or column when transferring to another school district.) Teachers who find it necessary to move for family obligations, job opportunities and housing opportunities are constantly losing pay (tenure and pay scale demotions as they enter into new districts.) Often veteran Highly Qualified teachers have more experience and can enhance the district or Title I School with their previous training and expertise and yet we are financially demoted for making a CHANGE of district. . This type of financial demotion does not happen to other state employees such as Policemen , Firemen, City Officials who relocate for job promotion or opportunitiy.
This is the CHANGE I most desire for California teachers. We are traveling 2 hours commutes in Silicon Valley
because teachers can not afford to live where we teach. Married teachers who move /change school districts for spouse job relocation are demoted financially in California. Is this the case nation wide ? Teresa teresarhernandez@gmail.com