Education

Amy Wilkins, vice president of The Education Trust, a non-profit advocacy group for low-income and minority students:

The American education system consistently shortchanges the students with the greatest need on almost everything that matters when it comes to academic success. You need to discard the policies that cheat these students.

This is especially important when it comes to quality teaching. Nothing is more important to high achievement than strong teachers. But the very children who most need our best teachers are least likely to get them. Through personal leadership, the use of federal authority and strategic funding, the president can help change this.

You can't back away — not even an inch — from efforts to raise standards and improve accountability. We must ensure that educators and students get the support they need to reach higher levels of performance.

Too many states and districts have demonstrated that they can't — or won't — do these things on their own. Presidential leadership is indispensable.

Mr. President-elect, I hope you evaluate every federal education policy and program based on its impact on students … And when powerful protectors of the status quo stand in the way, you must unflinchingly stand up for what's right for kids.

Andrea Peterson, music teacher in Granite Falls, Wash., and 2007's National Teacher of the Year:

"We need a generation of new teachers." I couldn't agree more.

We need a generation of new teachers in our classrooms who will motivate children to learn; work hard, focus, and think critically. We need teachers who will demand rigor from students because they know that every child can learn.

We need a generation of new teachers in our homes who will make sure that their child gets a good night's sleep, three square meals and a lot more fresh air.

We need a generation of new teachers in our communities who realize that every child needs a role model to show them the way to achieve.

But most of all, President Obama, the children of America need a recruiter; someone who will inspire our nation to teach our children. If you can recruit this generation of new teachers, not only will you close the achievement gap — your job will be a whole lot easier.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington, D.C., group that supports school choice and charter schools:

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.

Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a leading advocate for economic integration of schools:

Closing the achievement gap requires answering a basic question: Are childhood poverty and economic school segregation the primary causes or are teacher union contracts? Most "hot" education reforms — merit pay for teachers, charter schools and school vouchers — see teacher unions as impediments. But research has consistently found that the biggest predictors of academic achievement are the socioeconomic status of a child's family and of the school she attends. In math, low-income fourth graders who attend more affluent schools are two years ahead of their colleagues in high-poverty schools.

The solutions? High-quality pre-K programs to blunt the effects of family economic disadvantage; and choice programs to allow more children to attend good middle-class public schools …

Compulsory busing is a non-starter, but suburban schools should get financial incentives under No Child Left Behind to take in reasonable numbers of low-income students. Meanwhile, more federal funds should support magnet schools to attract middle-class students into urban schools. … A continued policy of "separate but equal" shouldn't be good enough for this president.