"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/.