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…

Just as Jimmy Stewart’s Jefferson Smith did upon his cinematic arrival in Washington, this year’s Capitol newbies will encounter the three major political “food” groups – The Know-It Alls, The Pessimists and The Relativists.  If they are lucky, or smart, or just plain good, they may find themselves associating with a lesser known but more effective commodity – the more principled drivers of change, The Reformers.

Unlike the Reformers, the Know-It-Alls are the Washington establishment, which on the whole believe that everything being done now in the federal government is as it should be, is being done for a reason and must simply be sustained and grown - not changed one bit. It’s good, it’s comfortable and it all seems to work for them. Don’t worry about effectiveness or review. That’s for the pessimists.

The Pessimists don’t really believe things are working well, but they require hard, fast proof before they accept anything new.  They complain that things aren’t funded enough and that the government needs more regulation, not less (indeed, they are pessimists and believe the people cannot really govern themselves).  They believe that our rights have been taken away by various agencies and public bodies. The Pessimists cast a dark cloud over anything that may suggest more choice and freedom – particularly in education.  How can you trust them, afterall?

The Relativists are on everybody’s side.  There is no deal too compromising for them.  You have your opinion, I have mine. They are all equal. There’s really no right or wrong (except in the opposite political party).  If you really believe in a cause, the relativists are at the ready with their idea of reality – that you simply can’t win at all so don’t even try. Relativists tell reformers to relax, to not sweat the small stuff.  “Just take the best deal and move on.”

More “Welcome to Washington’s Food Fight, Mr. Smith”

At one point in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the legendary film by Frank Capra, the lead character (played by Jimmy Stewart) arrives as a new Senator from Illinois and finds himself sitting with his senior peer and the state’s political bosses. They tell him how Washington works, that for the good of his career he must get in line and feed the machine. His political mentor tries to soften the blow by saying,

“You’ve got to face facts, Jeff. I’ve served our state well, haven’t I? We have the lowest unemployment and the highest federal grants. But, well, I’ve had to compromise, had to play ball. You can’t count on people voting, half the time they don’t vote anyway. That’s how states and empires have been built since time began. Don’t you understand? Well, Jeff, you can take my word for it, that’s how things are … Now, when the (bill) comes up in the Senate tomorrow you stay away from it. Don’t say a word. Great powers are behind it, and they’ll destroy you before you can even get started.”

Translation: Vote like we tell you, not how you think you should.

This, not the famous filibuster scene, is actually my favorite. It’s not made-up Hollywood stuff. It really happens this way, amidst a long cast of characters that descend on the new Member of Congress. And every two years, when a new Congress is created from the hundreds of districts our leaders have sprinkled throughout the land to represent us, it’s our job to remind them why we sent them there.

(Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 - Welcome to Washington’s Food Fight, Mr. Smith)

You’ve been called a “great guy” by democrats who think you will help them grow school reform.  You’ve “made a lot of progress,” say university types.  You’re the “compromise candidate,” because the unions have endorsed you.

Now comes the hard part.

Frankly, you’re one of the few national education leaders I do not know, which gives me some rare objectivity in the matter. That, and the fact that my organization has no horse in the race, no member group to protect, no current ties to you at all.

So, let me offer some fresh advice about what you can expect – and what might take you by surprise.

1) Everyone will want to claim you as his own.  Allowing them to do so will compromise your efforts.

More “Letter to Arne Duncan, Next Secretary of Education”

(from CER’s 2008 Education Reform Voter’s BLOG)

In response to our Candidate Scorecard released earlier this week to assess the degree to which candidates for the U.S. Senate support education reform, we have received a landslide of commentary from across the great state of Colorado suggesting that we were too hard on Bob Schaffer. Citing his strong record as a school choice advocate, the role he played in the formation of Colorado’s original charter school law, and the fact that “all five of his children have been educated in charter schools,” many have gone so far as to demand that we revise our scoring in his case and “correct your mistake in a public forum.” First, a quick overview of the facts:

More “Our take on Bob Schaffer”