“In the 21^st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education,” he said. “And in this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than on their potential.”

Of course, most of the details will not be available until the White House budget proposal is released Monday. NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant noted after Obama’s speech that the federal government must deliver more funding to help public schools meet the challenges they face.

“We agree with the president that the best anti-poverty program is a world-class education, and hope that his budget to be presented to Congress on Monday will reflect his commitment to pre-k through 12^th grade education,” Bryant said. “Without the resources to deliver on this promise, we will fall short. With states in recession, with districts cutting staff, and increasing class size just to make break-even budgets, it will be hard to deliver a world-class education for every child. But with federal government support, we in public education can rise to President Obama’s challenge.”

In a conference call shortly before the State of the Union, Education Secretary Arne Duncan stressed that Obama is committed to education—“from cradle to career” –and sees it as crucial to the nation’s long-term success. Duncan threw out a few budget teasers, including a 6 percent increase and up to $1 billion to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Six programs – all deemed duplicative or ineffective — will be eliminated and 38 programs will be consolidated into 11. Expect more measures to improve underperforming schools and a big push for prekindergarten and college access and affordability as well.

What concerns BoardBuzz is the discussion of a shift from discretionary funds to competitive grants for much of the proposed increase. Obama already has announced plans to add $1.35 billion to the Race to the Top program, and Duncan indicated that the White House sees competitive grants as the best way to leverage a relatively small amount of money to maximize reforms.

All of that is good, but what about struggling school districts that can’t hire sophisticated grant writers or don’t have the resources to try out new programs? With districts across the country in dire financial straits, those that could most benefit from innovative ideas may not be able to participate, and even a significant percentage increase won’t go far given the current state of school budgets.

BoardBuzz will ask these questions when Duncan speaks to representatives at NSBA’s Federal Relations Network conference on Monday, just after the budget is released. (And be sure to check School Board News Today for complete coverage of the Leadership and Federal Relations Network conferences).

National Public Radio’s This American Life program did a piece on Mr. Canada last fall, to add to the long list of spotlights from major media outlets.  Last night, 60 Minutes’ Anderson Cooper showcased Mr. Canada again and provided some evidence from Roland Fryer (a Harvard EdLab professor) about the dynamic changes already taking place within the Harlem Children’s Zone.  If you didn’t catch it on TV, the video is below.  And if you want to see Mr. Canada in person, check out NSBA’s Black Caucus luncheon in Chicago (part of NSBA’s Annual Conference), where he’ll be speaking April 11.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Thanks to NSBA’s grassroots members who contacted their House of Representatives urging them to support the bill. NSBA is now working with the Senate to pass the same initiative.

I believe that the best preparation for teaching is a combination of pedagogy and a strong apprenticeship — a marriage of traditional preparatory and alternative certification programs. All new teachers would benefit from a year of full-time work in the classroom beside an experienced and effective teacher. We learn by practicing — even the best surgeon in the world is useless until he has proven his skill on the table.

And in a related story, Jay Mathews at the Washington Post spotlighted a well respected teacher who teaches social studies in Prince George’s County, Md., and practiced law until he “got sick of it” and wanted to teach at his alma mater.  His tale is strikingly similar to many who posted on the New York Times story, and we can’t help but wonder how many thousands of similar stories could be told around the nation.  Does an education degree really mean a good teacher will follow the piece of paper?  In a society that is changing jobs more often than ever, and teaching a generation of students that will likely change jobs even more often than that, how do we teach today’s teachers well?  Are methods from the 1960s (or before, even) the best way for 21st century teaching, not to mention learning?  If we expect that from the students, it starts with the person leading them, doesn’t it?

As school leaders, what do you think?  How can we alter the way teachers are taught to prepare students well, teach effectively, and not be forced to brow-beat prospective teachers into strigent rules that are often difficult to follow.  Leave a comment to tell us how you would change teacher prep.

NSBA sent this letter  to the House Committee on Education and Labor, which marked up the legislation today,  to support facilities funding in the bill; increase federal investments in early learning programs; and to ensure local school districts are involved in developing and implementing quality programs.

Thanks to preschool advocates on NSBA’s Pre-K Legislation Committee who helped  contact Committee members urgining them to increase federal investments and strengthen school districts’ role in early learning development.  We will continue to need a strong voice from school board members when the legislation goes before the House floor.

Click here to read an analysis of the bill.

Two years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics, endorsed creative and spontaneous play as a vital, but endangered cause, and recently free-play advocates are stressing the seriousness of the issue, as the article mentions.

Among the speakers at last week’s Wonderplay conference was Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a Temple University psychologist who contends that lack of play in early childhood education “could be the next global warming.”

Without ample opportunity for forms of play that foster innovation and creative thinking, she argues, America’s children will be at a disadvantage in the global economy.

“Play equals learning,” she said. “For too long we have divorced the two.”

Compared to the 1980s, the average American child is receiving eight to 12 fewer hours of free play time a week because of factors including parents’ reluctance for their child to play outside alone, the shortening of recess at school, and a stronger emphasis on formal lessons and learning in pre- school.

The demand for play time is not just for added fun. As psychologist Michael Thompson mentions in the article, “Diminished time to play freely with other children is producing a generation of socially inept young people and is a factor behind high rates of youth obesity, anxiety, attention-deficit disorder and depression.”

So why, are pre- K teachers acting like a cavemen or playing around in music class? To lead by example, of course, so children will follow suit and learn the important lessons of fairness and kindness through social interaction.

BoardBuzz thinks free play time is great for developing pre- K students and wants to remind you to check out the article and the Center for Public Education’s Web site for more information on the importance of pre-K learning. You should also check out the Center’s report on recess. So, who wants to play? We know we do!

This is good news for NSBA’s Pre-K Legislative Committee, which will gear up for a potentially exciting session in Congress. Some of the new Senators mentioned in the blog include: Virginia’s Mark Warner, who expanded the state’s preschool initiatives as governor; Nebraska’s Mike Johanns, who as governor increased funding for pre-K; New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen, who voiced support for more federal funding for state preschool programs. Her advocacy could be boosted by the fact that New Hampshire is one of only 12 states with no publicly funded pre-K programs.

“By their co-sponsorship of today’s briefing, Senators Clinton and Bond underscored their commitment to reintroducing the Ready to Learn Act, in the next Congress. The bill aims to improve the quality of and expand access to voluntary preschool programs by providing funding for states through a competitive process and allowing governors to build on pre-existing early childhood systems.”

In kicking off the briefing, Governor Bredesen of Tennessee emphasized that the most benefit conveys from pre-kindergarten programs that have high quality. He stated that an appropriate role for the federal government is to co-fund state-designed programs, but only if they meet specified quality indicators. We also heard from Jerry Weast, superintendent of Montgomery County schools in Maryland, who attributed his system’s notable success at narrowing achievement gaps in large part to their investment in high-quality pre-K.

Certainly the most emotional punch came last when we heard from the 2006 National Teacher of the Year, Kimberly Oliver Burnim, who many BoardBuzz readers may recall was a great hit at NSBA’s 2006 annual conference in Chicago. Burnim related the heartbreaking story of one little girl who came to her kindergarten class so full of hope and excitement only to see her spark snuffed as it became apparent that she was not on par with her peers. The reason, according to Burnim, was that this child had not had the same experiences other children had coming in. Her remarks reminded us that, yes, communities and schools all benefit in the long-term when we invest in pre-kindergarten, but at the heart of the issue is doing what is good and necessary for children.

School board members get the connection between getting kids ready for school and their own success as education leaders. For two years, the Center for Public Education has been working in partnership with three state school board associations — Kansas, Ohio, and Texas –to help school boards become engaged in early education in their states. The Center’s pre-K initiative, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, was recently renewed for another two years and has expanded the partnership to include state associations in Alabama and Kentucky.

Among other pre-K resources, the Center sends out a monthly e-newsletter that addresses very practical pre-K policies and implemetation issues for those working to expand high-quality pre-K in their states and districts. You can sign up for the Pre-K Primer here.

Also check out NSBA’s early education advocacy page and its Pre-K Legislative Committee to keep up on what’s new in federal early ed activities. See here for some of the pre-K bills introduced by members of Congress.

Since 1933, Jumpstart has worked toward the day that every child in America can enter school prepared, but the current reality is that many children in low-income communities do not have appropiate books in thier homes to begin to succeed.

Read for the Record aims to fix this inequality; Because the number of books in a home is the strongest indicator of a child’s future reading ability, the campaign asks individuals or groups to buy a book to open the world of reading for children. All proceeds go directly to the Jumpstart program,which matches adult readers with children for a full year before they enter school.

This year’s book is Corduroy by Don Freeman, and the Pearson Foundation, both a founding partner of Jumpstart and a sponsor of Read for the Record, is providing more than 100,000 copies to children in low-income communities.

BoardBuzz encourages you to learn more at the campaign’s web site. Are you reading for the record and incorporating time to read with children? Let us know and leave us a comment… we’d love to know how you are taking part!

New York is one of eight states (and D.C.) in the country that has adopted some variety of a universal pre-kindergarten program. In 1997, New York passed legislation to provide Pre-K classes for all four-year-olds,but ten years later only 38 percent of the state’s four year-olds attended Pre-K classes.

But, while Pre-K offers an opportunity for cognitive and personal development and the chance to level the playing field for children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, it seems that some districts aren’t finding it necessarily practical:

Few school administrators dispute the benefits of pre-kindergarten, but many say it is impractical to provide it to every child.
In Smithtown, for example, Mr. Ehmann said that even if his district could find the money, it would have to contract with community groups to provide pre-K classes because there is no room in the schools, which would mean hiring administrators to oversee those locations, adding costs.

And…

In Westchester County, the affluent Bronxville district decided not to pursue a pre-kindergarten program for about 100 students because, as Superintendent David Quattrone put it, “the vast majority of parents prefer to use the private programs in our community.” He also cited financial and space constraints.

Despite these challenges, BoardBuzz knows that the benefits of early childhood education can’t be ignored, and the article does show the positive impact Pre-K can have:

“I’m disappointed by the slow progress, especially since over the last 10 years, there’s been even more evidence of how useful universal pre-K is in closing the achievement gap,” said Maria DeWald, president of the New York State Congress of Parents and Teachers, which has long advocated for universal pre-kindergarten.

Time, money, and space are all challenges for making Pre-K an available priority, but it’s great to see some states working on it. For more information on the benefits of early childhood education, be sure to check out the Center for Public Education.