"Zero to Five" - 5 Pillars of Reform

Just recently released has been President Obama and Vice-President Biden's projections for improving and reforming education in America. What problems do they recognize within the American educational system? How will they so confidently attempt to implement these 'changes'?

The Obama-Biden Administration has drafted the "Zero to Five" plan and outlined their 5 main tennets of reform which can be read below.

1) "Investing in early childhood initiatives" like Head Start;

2) "Encouraging better standards and assessments" by focusing on testing itineraries that better fit our kids and the world they live in;

3) "Recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers" by giving incentives for a new generation of teachers and for new levels of excellence from all of our teachers.

4) "Promoting innovation and excellence in America’s schools" by supporting charter schools, reforming the school calendar and the structure of the school day.

5) "Providing every American with a quality higher education--whether it's college or technical training."


Early Childhood Initiatives

Belonging to this pillar are the plans to expand the number of Head Start Programs and increase their funding, in addition to increasing the access to affordable and high-quality child care. Obama and Biden will quadruple the number of Head Start Programs and improve the quality in both the already existing and newly created.


Encouraging Better Standards and Assessments

Obama and Biden propose to reform NCLB. Although their method and specifics on how to carry out this proposition have not yet been stated, the Obama-Biden Administration "believe(s) teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests." A main objective to reforming NCLB is to insure that schools that need improvement are supported instead of being punished. Revision to NCLB is an extremely hot topic for educators and may lead to alternative methods of assessment that will touch upon various learning modes.


"Recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers"

This pillar, as so evidently indicated in the header, primarily focuses on the recruitment, development, and retention of highly qualified teachers. In order to recruit teachers, Obama and Biden will "create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location." Similarly new measures such as the creation of a voluntary national performance assessment will be implemented to ensure that new educators are well trained and ready to walk into a classroom to teach effectively. New mentoring programs will be expanded upon which will pair new teachers with a more experienced teacher-mentor. Innovative ways to increase teacher pay and encourage further teacher development will also be created.


"Promoting innovation and excellence in America’s schools"

This pillar touches upon many areas of reform and development already mentioned above and includes plans to expand high-quality afterschool opportunities, provide more support for English language learners,redirect attention to developing stronger students in the content area of math and science,etc.


"Providing every American with a quality higher education--whether it's college or technical training."

The Obama-Biden Administration "will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service."

The "Zero to Five" outlines many reforms to resolve some of the major problems present in classroom. Most interesting to me are the reforms being made to NCLB which I hope will lead to alternative methods of assessment and greater recognition of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In addition to outlining the 5 pillars of reform in his opening speech at the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Obama also had a message for the youth of America regarding the responsiblity they have to show up for school, pay attention in class, seek extra tutoring if needed, and stay out of trouble. This speech can read and watched at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/10/Taking-on-Education/.

Shakira Shakira

At this moment I would to call your attention to a spectacular human being not only known for her musical talent on the stage, but also for her support and advocacy for universal education around the world, especially for disadvantaged children in Latin America.

After achieving her international success in 1995 with the album Pies Descalzos , at the young age of 18 Shakira created a foundation that provides education and food for poor Colombian children who do not have access to these resources. This foundation, Pies Descalzos , which is named after her successful album was headed by her parents William Mebarak and Nidia Rippol de Mebarak until 2003 when Colombian Minister of Foreign Relations and Minister of Education, María Emma Mejía, took control at the request of Shakira. Since 2003, Shakira’s Pies Descalzos Foundation has opened six schools in various parts of Colombia which serve disadvantaged children and their families through education, nutrition, income generating projects and counseling. In 2008 Shakira founded the U.S. based non-profit organization Barefoot Foundation which advocates for universal education world wide.

Equally astonishing is the message this "star" is projecting through the media. With her fame Shakira has full-heartedly committed to spreading the notion of every child's basic right to an education. According to Shakira in her interview given by BBC World News, it is only through education that a child "can break the cycle and chains of poverty..." in order reach their true potential and achieve their dreams. It is not possible to educate a child when he/she is starving; a child's brain requires adequate nutrition in order to function and develop properly. For this reason, the aim of both Pies Descalzos and the Barefoot Foundation focus on improving "...the education, nutrition, and quality of life for the millions of boys and girls denied a chance to fulfill their true potential (Barefoot Foundation)."

It is imperative that we, as (future) educators, are conscious of the events going on around us, and pay attention to ways that we can get involved in changing a child's life. Please search the websites below for more information. You will be amazed to see how you can get involved. My next blogg will provide more information about programs educators can get involved with to make a difference.


Other Links

Barefoot Foundation - http://www.fundacionpiesdescalzos.com/pages/about/about_main_en.php?PHPSESSID=8a96951e0bf7bd3a9f216c78a3b58402

Aids & Education - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF4MFzKEe_s&feature=related

Barefoot Foundation - YouTuve video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AILwEStUd0&feature=related

Shakira speaks about Poverty - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3iWbpPa0Bo&feature=related

Shakira speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1GsiDB2Vz4&feature=channel_page

Shakira at Columbia University - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAYZEkDPrlI&feature=channel_page

World Health Organization -http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/nutrition/en/index.html

Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching can be a key strategy for integrated learning and comprehension. This technique allows students to become more active in their learning, and provides an opportunity for teachers to implement scaffolding in the classroom. Even more, reciprocal teaching allows students to share information and ideas, complete different learning tasks, use divergent thinking and decision making, and leads students to develop their own understanding of concepts (242). Reciprocal teaching is a "great educational technique to facilitate a group effort between the teacher and student as well as among student in the task of bringing meaning to the text (NCREL).”

The structure of reciprocal teaching requires the teacher to break the students up into groups of four for classroom dialoging. Each group of four students assigns a person one of four different tasks within their group:

-Summarizing - The student assigned to this role identifies and integrates the most important information in the text.

-Question generating - This student generates and proposes questions about the text that was read. However, to do so, he/she must first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the substance of a question.

-Clarifying - The student who assumes this role addresses the confusing parts of the text and attempts to answer the questions that were just proposed by the question generator.

-Predicting - This student hypothesizes what the author will discuss next in the text. In order to do this successfully, the student must assess the knowledge already possessed about the topic. Likewise, the students also have motivation to read further in order to check if their hypotheses/predictions come true.

Reciprocal teaching touches almost every level of Bloom's Taxonomy as well. Students assume the responsibility for the planning within the group and manage the various student roles themselves (242). The students are also provided with an opportunity to present their work to the entire class. More important, reciprocal teaching shows students how to become engaged in the text and provides them with learning techniques they can use when reading outside of the classroom, thus creating more autonomous learners.

Works Consulted
Callahan, Joseph et.al. Teaching in the Middle and Secondary Schools. New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc., 2002.

“Reciprocal Teaching.” North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. 1995. 6 March
2009.