Six PAC

"Think about every problem, every challenge, we face. The solution to each starts with education."

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:56:20 -0400

““Think about every problem, every challenge, we face. The solution to each starts with education.””

- President George H.W. Bush, 1991

Do Big Political Donors care about Education reform?

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:45:08 -0400

Do Big Political Donors care about Education reform? :

Take a look at some fundraising data from the FEC for Super PACs and ask yourself if how many of the donors are interested in pushing for real solutions for education?

High finance is heavily represented, as are many other varieties of business interests, but groups whose focus is education are few and far between. The irony of this is that business, government, and non-profit groups need an educated work force equipped to move America forward.

Want to see Education put back on the agenda? Help Six PAC fight for meaningful student centered reform by supporting our #Educat3 campaign!

Visit www.sixpac.org/educat3 for details.

#FlexingForTheFuture

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:36:09 -0400

Our Twitter event #FlexingForTheFuture is going on now. Tweet @SixAction to join in the conversation on Education reform or interact with us via another social media platform.

Arne Duncan on State Centered Education Reform

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:37:00 -0400

Arne Duncan on State Centered Education Reform:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote an Op-Ed for the Denver Post back in February in which he highlighted Colorado’s education reform efforts as a model for other states.

Do you agree with his assessment of Colorado’s efforts to move beyond No Child Left Behind? Does the Federal Government play too small or too large of a role in providing accountability in education?

Share with us your thoughts on these or any other education related topics during #FlexingForTheFuture, a Town Hall event on Twitter hosted by @SixAction. It will begin at 7pm EDT, Tuesday July 31st.

Check out more information at http://www.facebook.com/events/343653675715255/

We hope to hear from you!

Survival of the Most Educated

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:09:00 -0400

In the 21^st Century, education is the fundamental driving force of our species continued evolution. Possessing a solid educational foundation and growing and adapting one’s body of knowledge to changing environments are both key to remaining fit.

Charles Darwin foresaw this growing trend: he emphasized, “In the long history of humankind, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Collaborate with Six PAC at a virtual Town Hall next Tuesday, July 31st on Twitter to discuss ideas to improvise and grow America’s intellectual muscles. #FlexingForTheFuture

On July 31st, join Six PAC for a Town Hall Meeting on Twitter...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:20:18 -0400

On July 31st, join Six PAC for a Town Hall Meeting on Twitter with Executive Director Forrest Richardson and Social Media Director John Banister on how to bulk up America’s education system for the future.

Tweet @SixAction with #FlexingForTheFuture to join the conversation. If you don’t use Twitter, you can also connect with us by writing on our Facebook wall or connecting with us on Tumblr!

We look forward to interacting with you to come up with innovative ideas to build our body of knowledge to compete globally!

The Enormous Influence of Teachers

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:33:12 -0400

Teachers have a profound influence in the lives of their students. Not only do they instruct, but they also serve as role models and inspire young people to pursue college and careers. A good teacher can literally change a student’s life for the better, whereas a bad teacher can cause someone to lose interest in his or her education.

Share with us about how a teacher has influenced your life?

Also take a look at Six PAC’s position paper on teacher quality. It is sourced with this post.

No Child Left Behind Waivers Granted To 33 U.S. States, some with strings attached

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:56:46 -0400

No Child Left Behind Waivers Granted To 33 U.S. States, some with strings attached:

Granting waivers to states is a start, but it isn’t a long term solution: America needs comprehensive education reform.

While it was well-intentioned, the No Child Left behind experiment has failed. It is time for policymakers to go back to the drawing board and make real changes.

thanks for replying to my q, what politicians are you looking towards donating to ?

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:31:57 -0400

We’re in communication with several groups and some candidates running for election this cycle, but have not made any formal endorsements yet. When that happens we’ll publicize it on social media and on our website.

In addition, part of our work is to raise awareness, to create grassroots support and make education an issue people are talking about.

Taking Math and Science Seriously

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:16:45 -0400

Math and Science education in America is severely lagging behind the rest of the world. We need to recruit and retain motivated high quality teachers and provide them with adequate resources in order to get back on track.

Without putting a real focus on these disciplines, future generations of Americans will fall farther behind their counterparts abroad, which will have a strong negative adverse affect on our ability to compete economically as globalization accelerates. We need creation and innovation: this requires a solid educational foundation, especially in STEM disciplines.

Check out the linked story in Scientific American about this very issue and stand with Six PAC for placing an emphasis on increased quality and quantity of STEM instruction to build a stronger future for our country!

how do you plan on making your legislative goals happen?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:29:37 -0400

Thanks for the question.

Because we are a political action committee, our fundraising allows us to donate to political candidates that support our positions. By financially supporting individuals that no only agree with us in office, but will bring education to the forefront of their campaigns, we gain access and relationships with these individuals that allow us to work on meaningful policy changes.

If you have any more questions, let me know - feel free to email me at forrest.richardson@sixpac.org .

Forrest Richardson

Executive Director, Six PAC

Cicero on Education

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:17:09 -0400

The great Roman statesman and scholar, Marcus Tillius Cicero felt strongly about the importance of teachers.

He said of them “What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of a man who instructs the rising generation.”

Pass on this this quotation if you want to stand with us in favor of incentivizing our best and brightest citizens to pursue teaching and treating our educators with the respect they deserve.

Your Voice

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:24:00 -0400

We asked: What can be improved in our education system?

And you answered. Check out a message we received on Facebook:

“More positive teamwork between parents and teachers to help students. Parental involvement, no matter what the socioeconomic situation or age of the student, is a game changer. Re-establish high standards of behavior in all classes. Fair and consistent expectations for all students and teachers. Re-examine testing. Some is good, too much is too much. One size does NOT fit all.”

Have you sent us your thoughts on what can be changed in American education yet?

Tell us your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Google+.

Check out and follow our Twitter for more on what people are saying.

#EducationNow!

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:33:00 -0400

Are you happy with American public schools?

We aren’t either. Our education system is on the edge of the abyss - and if significant reforms aren’t made now, the future of our country is at stake.

Unfortunately, education reform isn’t even on Congress’s radar. It’s time to make our legislators listen to the demands of their nation’s youth.

Help us send a message to our legislators - tell them, what reforms do you want to see made to our education system?

Send us your answer on Twitter by including “#EducationNow @SixAction” in your tweet.

Not on Twitter? No problem - you can tell us about the changes you want to see here on Tumblr, on Facebook, or on Google+.

After you send us your message, turn your frustration into action. Find out what you can do to make your impact on American education.

A Youth-Led Movement

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:19:14 -0400

A Youth-Led Movement:

Featured on the Huffington Post:

“Not only does Six PAC present realistic and pragmatic reforms, but it also brings a new voice to the table: the voice of the students themselves. Six PAC’s leaders are not Washington insiders, Congressional aides, lobbyists or businessmen with ulterior motives — they are students, the very people who are directly impacted by education reform. Its launch has created a new conversation about meaningful education reform in our country.”

Click here to read the full article!

"Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:49:28 -0400

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”

- Malcolm Forbes

National Standards - Our Response

Fri, 25 May 2012 18:48:00 -0400

In response to the first couple of emails about our policy on national standards, we released this public letter a week later to address the senders’ concerns. You can download the letter from our website at www.sixpac.org/featured-work/

- - -

Friends,

Since our website’s launch, we’ve received a great deal of feedback – some praise, some criticism. We appreciate your questions and comments and are happy to provide detailed responses explaining our positions.

One position that garnered some mixed reviews this week was our stance on national standards. In order to best respond to these concerns, we chose to release this public statement further explaining our support for national standards.

There are a number of problems with our current education policy, but one of the greatest problems is the flawed system of incentives under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). NCLB dictates that in order to receive federal funding, states must write their own standards and create their own standardized tests in order to reach certain test results by 2014.

There is an obvious flaw in this system. Imagine that a teacher tells her students that they can write their own test. Each student now has a choice between mastering the course material or making an easy test for themselves. Both choices will get the student an A in the class – but making an easy test for themselves requires much less effort.

Students who desire an A in the class will not write a difficult test for themselves, as that would merely hurt their chances at receiving a good grade in the course. Instead, the students will purposefully write easy tests for themselves in order to get the highest grade possible, even if that means not learning the material.

Under NCLB, the states began doing the same thing with their state standardized tests. In order to meet the requirements set by NCLB, states gradually lowered their standards and made their tests easier and easier. As a result, students began to receive ‘higher’ scores on their exams, but were learning less and less since the standards were in such decline. This decline in performance was made evident by student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Low standards pave the way for a myriad of other problems, including “teaching to the test”, where teachers begin to abandon creative methods of teaching and instead drill their students to prepare them for standardized tests. Teaching to the test isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it is something all teachers do in order to prepare their students for upcoming exams. Teaching to the test becomes problematic when tests are easy and standards are low. Since standardized tests gradually become easier and easier, the students of teachers who “teach to the test” do not learn as much as they should, and thus perform poorly on the NAEP.

A recent article in TIME clearly illustrates the problem.

“In 2005, 89% of fourth-graders in Mississippi were rated proficient in reading–the highest percentage in the nation. But when Mississippi youngsters sat for the rigorous NAEP–the closest thing to a national gold standard–they landed at the bottom: just 18% of fourth-graders made the grade in reading.”

Opponents of state standards are united in their dissent of the current system, but fragmented when it comes to proposing an alternative. There are two popular alternatives: one is to eliminate standards entirely, and the other is to implement a system of national standards. Six PAC supports the latter solution.

Picture a typical classroom. For every unit a teacher covers in his or her classroom, the teacher has a list of topics that must be mastered in order to pass that unit’s exam. These topics are the metric upon which the students will be graded – or, in other words, the standards for the exam. Nobody objects to such a system as long as these topics are comprehensive and function as a good metric to evaluate a student’s understanding of the material. For the duration of that unit, the teacher will teach these topics to his or her students – or, in other words, the teacher will teach to the test. When test day finally arrives, the students will take an exam written by their teacher to measure their understanding of the topics covered in class – the equivalent of a standardized test. Again, nobody objects to this system as long as the standards are rigorous and tests comprehensive.

A system of rigorous national standards mirrors the situation described above. As long as standards remain high and tests remain difficult, schools will be pushed to improve their teaching techniques and find new, innovative ways to teach their students.

A system of national standards also solves other problems. Under our current system where states set their own standards, states tend to choose a curriculum to match their political affiliation. This results in a red-and-blue checkerboard where liberal states pursue a liberal education and conservative states do the opposite. This polarization has also affected textbook publishers, which now cater the material in their textbooks to the political interests of the states they serve.

In 2010, Texas lawmakers made headlines when they approved an increasingly conservative set of teaching standards. These standards shifted the focus of teaching in Texas classrooms away from a more moderate education in subjective courses such as history. The new standards removed the study of prominent Democratic politicians and liberal or minority movements from the curriculum and increased the focus on Ronald Reagan and conservative movements. The new standards also encouraged students to study the First Amendment and debate whether or not it truly demands a separation of church and state, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled that church and state must be separate. Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller explains, “Political agendas – from the left or the right – simply have no place in our kids’ classrooms.” National standards effectively solve this problem by removing a state’s political affiliation from the classroom.

What about the political affiliation at the federal level? Much like how the Supreme Court is composed of both liberals and conservatives, a similarly composed federal education board would be able to craft meaningful, moderate standards.

Now let us discuss the alternative solution: eliminating standards entirely. Proponents of this system claim that standards hinder both student and teacher creativity, and that eliminating standards will allow both parties to flourish. In order to replace standards and standardized tests, they suggest replacing standardized test scores with a graded portfolio of every student’s work. Some proponents of this system even suggest using these portfolios in the college admissions process as a replacement for all types of standardized tests.

It is important to note that the complaints listed in the paragraph above are contingent on a system of poor standards. These same complaints do not apply to a system of meaningful, comprehensive standards and rigorous tests.

There are a number of reasons why a system without standards cannot exist in the United States. First is a complete lack of objectivity. Without a unified metric upon which to judge students, grading becomes completely subjective. We’ve all had ‘easy’ teachers and ‘hard’ teachers – the way each teacher evaluates his or her students is both subjective and unique. The same applies to schools – when comparing two schools it is common to find that one school may have much more difficult courses, a different grading scale, more qualified teachers, etc. Such variability makes it impossible to meaningfully compare the GPA of a student from Oregon with the GPA of a student from Georgia. These factors make GPA a relatively subjective method of evaluating students.

Second is accountability. How are governments expected to measure student progress without any unified, objective metric of doing so? How can an administrator evaluate a teacher based solely on subjective evaluations? An education system without meaningful metrics of measuring student growth eliminates all accountability from the system.

Replacing standards and standardized testing with the use of student portfolios merely aggravates the problem. How does one compare the academic success of an entire state with another when the only metric is graded portfolios? The state will simply hand out high scores to their students – there is no incentive not to do so. Although a system based on the use of student portfolios may work on the micro-level, it is impossible to implement on any large scale.

Finally, eliminating all standards and standardized tests would be impossible to implement in the United States today. Imagine if the College Board were to disappear, and to replace it, the college admissions process now mandated that each student submit a portfolio of his or her work. How would a university like UCLA sift through 90,000 applications, with no way to eliminate weak candidates that normally would have received a low score on a standardized test such as the SAT? Expecting such a system to work is idealistic and it would be impossible to implement in the United States today.

We at Six PAC accept that national standards are not a perfect solution to today’s problems. However, national standards present significant gains over our current system by providing us with comprehensive standards and rigorous national exams. Meaningful national standards will challenge students to learn and teachers to find creative new ways to teach, as opposed to incentivizing states to repeatedly lower their standards as they do now. National standards will also provide the objectivity and accountability that a system without standards completely lacks. Six PAC advocates for replacing our current system of state standards with a system of national standards.

We welcome all of your questions and comments at contact@sixpac.org.

National Standards - A Critic's Perspective, Email #1

Fri, 25 May 2012 18:43:04 -0400

The following is the first email sent to us by a critic of our policy on national standards.

- - -

Hello,

I’m a high school student who’s been reading your solutions. I don’t really know enough to have a strong opinion on the charter schools or vocational programs or the Joplin plan, so I won’t comment on them.

What worries me is the focus you guys have on standards - for example, you recommend using standardized tests as a way of measuring teacher performance. There are two main problems I have with this.

Firstly, any increased focus on standards comes with an increased amount of “teaching to the test” and therefore a decrease in actual education (more on “actual education” later.) Suppose we do institute national standards - then, either there is some incentive for teachers/states/schools to follow them, or there isn’t. If there’s no incentive, then the national standards are worthless and have no effect.

But suppose we do include an incentive. How is this incentive then carried out? The only way to measure success at meeting standards is through a standardized test. So if teachers have an incentive to increase standardized test scores, they have an incentive to “teach to the test.” I hope you can agree with me that this is a bad thing.

A much deeper problem with this is that without a complete overthrow of our current system of standards (and I mean creating a system of national standards that looks absolutely nothing like anything in any current state’s system), these standards aren’t actually benefitting education at all.

The subject I know most about, and thus can best argue this case for, is in math. As a two-time USA Math Olympiad competitor and having completed the undergraduate curriculum in math, I think I have as much of a right as anybody to argue for what math is and what skills from math are important. Quite frankly, (and literally every math person with similar credentials I’ve talked to agrees with this), the standards-based system of teaching math is completely worthless - and my friends with passions in other fields assure me that this is the case in other forms of education as well.

Let me explain why. (For a more in-depth explanation of the problems with standards-based math education, see http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf). The goal of mathematics education should be to teach students to be creative, critical thinkers. Students should be taught to think logically while learning how to approach problems they don’t already know how to solve - these are skills that matter in the “real world.” But how does one go about making standards that represent this? Do standards read “students learn to approach problems they don’t know how to solve”? Of course not, because such a standard is inherently impossible to measure. The same goes for asking students to be creative or critical or free-thinking - you can’t measure these skills, even though they’re the ultimate goal of education.

So what sort of things do standards include? They include things like knowing how to solve linear equations or to integrate by parts. Notice, of course, that these skills are completely useless on their own. Most students will never use math again, and those that do will take advantage of tools such as Wolfram Alpha to do the “grunt work” for them. Notice furthermore that every one of these tools is a form of rote memorization. The only value that comes from learning these skills is when a student makes creative connections and insights about these skills, which builds the student’s mind, making them more intelligent, analytical, creative people.

Therefore, we see that a balance exists in education (and not just in math) between rote memorization and real intellectual development. The rote memorization of certain things is necessary to intellectual growth to occur, but is not an end in and of itself. Therefore by trying to establish more rigorous standards and/or incentivize teachers to follow these standards, we increase the amount of rote memorization occurring in our classrooms, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to be increasing.

You guys want “to deliver a new generation of thinkers, innovators, and leaders” – people who can make connections that other people don’t necessarily see. Innovation is a skill that can be fostered, but it doesn’t work in a stifling environment of standards and standardized tests. You guys are doing a lot of great things, but I’m really scared that you’re going down the wrong path here.

Respectfully,

[Name]

Both Sides of the Story

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:12:00 -0400

One of our goals at Six PAC is to present to you both sides of the education reform debate. Only by seeing the whole conversation can you truly make an educated decision regarding your positions. As a part of that effort, we will be posting comments we have received from critics that disagree with our positions, along with our responses to their messages. Having seen both sides of the debate, people like you can then make informed decisions about education reform.

Meaningful discussion is the only way for parties to compromise and find real solutions to our education problems. We love having these conversations - we hope you enjoy being a part of them as well.

Everything that we post that has been sent to us from a critic will be anonymous. Any personally identifying information will be removed. We will not post anything that has been sent to us unless the critic/sender has explicitly given us permission to do so. Feel free to contact us anytime at contact@sixpac.org with any questions.

Welcome!

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:26:00 -0400

It’s been nearly a month since the launch of our website on April 23rd. Since then, we have received a lot of interest from people just like you. On launch day we numbered just over a dozen prospective chapters, but as of this writing, that number has almost doubled. Our network of prospective chapters now spans from coast to coast. But the real adventure has yet to begin. When chapters start their operations on college campuses in August and September of this year, our nation will finally see the power of its youth - and our legislators will not be able to ignore us.

During the past four weeks, many people have contacted us with their questions and concerns. We value your opinion and enjoy engaging anyone and everyone in a meaningful conversation; Six PAC believes that real solutions to the problems in our current education policy can only be reached through respectful discussions and true compromise. Six PAC will use this blog to keep you in on some of the key conversations we have with our supporters and critics alike, along with updates about our progress.

Welcome to the Six PAC Tumblr. We invite you to take a look around - we’re sure you’ll like what you see.

(Tumblr is the fourth social media site through which you can connect with us. You can also find Six PAC on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Remember to check out our website at www.sixpac.org).