Last week, Greg Toppo of USA Today solicited advice on closing the achievement gap in American education for now President Barack Obama.

Here is what CER’s Jeanne Allen had to offer:

As a nation, we are ignorant of the crisis we face in education. Use your historic achievement to convince us that education’s failure is extensive and not limited to the streets of D.C., the hills of Appalachia or the banks of the Mississippi. Pepper your every remark with the reality we face. Implore us to action. Do for education what Al Gore did for the environment. … We mandate that children attend schools we know are failing. We say we are working on it, but continue to send them because … why??

Parents and educators of students in “better” schools are comforted by grade inflation. Policymakers believe failure is a result of bad homes and communities, not bad schools. The education establishment protects this lie and challenges every solution that could make schools great. They scorn data and ignore that our achievement is an international embarrassment.

Bold solutions take only months, not decades, to implement. We lack the will because we lack the understanding that we are in crisis.

Your words can change that.

The Education Trust’s Amy Wilkins, 2007 National Teacher of the Year Andrea Peterson and the Century Foundation’s Richard Kahlenberg weighed in with their thoughts as well.

What bit of advice would you offer the new Administration for achieving education across the board? How about for teachers and parents?

Please join in the conversation below…