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To kick-off last week’s LFA Leadership Council meeting, the LFA gave its first Education Visionary Award to Richard W. Riley—former Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton—for his public service, which has benefited all constituencies LFA organizations serve. While governor of South Carolina, Mr. Riley raised funding and support for education through the Education Improvement Act, which the RAND Corporation called “most comprehensive educational reform measure in the United States.” During his two terms as DOE Secretary, he stressed raising academic standards, improving teaching, and increasing education grants to help disadvantaged children. In 2008, Time Magazine named Riley as one of the “Top 10 Best Cabinet Members” of the 20th century. In his address following his award acceptance, he discussed a few major themes, including high standards, good assessment systems, diversity among the student population, and poverty—all major focuses of the LFA as well.

Rich Bagin—LFA Board Chair and Executive Director for the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA)—presented the award to Mr. Riley, noting that the latter upheld “a core pillar of our public education system,” which is “that all students deserve an equal, meaningful opportunity to achieve their full potential.”

Education Content

Mr. Riley spoke about public education reform as “not just a moral imperative—it is an economic imperative. It is a democratic imperative . . . and it is more and more a national security imperative.” As I previously noted, he discussed the need for high standards in student performance—which includes closing achievement gaps. He emphasized ensuring availability of challenging courses for all students, and providing encouragement and instructional attention so students can perform well in these courses.

He also emphasized the need for good assessment systems that include an appropriate mix of both summative and formative measures. He criticized No Child Left Behind for failing to provide a clear picture of where a child is in cognitive development and knowledge level, and he called for a better system to allow for matching student contexts with appropriate curriculum and academic support.

Catering to Student Demographic Realities

Mr. Riley went on to discuss the need to enable teachers and education leaders to cater to the increasing diversity of background within the student population. Education professionals need to accrue proper cultural competence to contextualize their approaches for their individual students. Similarly, he stressed the need for student engagement, saying schools should have appropriate funding and support to excite students through programs like art and music. He acknowledged that current budget constraints make attaining these goals difficult, and that funding for education needs to be a legislative priority.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Riley focused on the issue of poverty. He noted that many parents are unemployed, and “more and more students are coming to school each day with needs that require special support—meals, medical and dental services, housing, clothes, family counseling, mentoring, and so forth.” He stressed that in addition to academic enrichment, providing these supports is vital, and he called for “a new social compact between schools and communities.” To provide rationale for such a compact, he said that “only 10% of children in poverty will only ever get out of that status. That means that 90% will remain in poverty” and he asserted that many of our country’s problems can be solved through education.

He urged for consideration of the challenges poor parents face. He said, “The poor think about Tuesday all day Tuesday. They think about providing food to eat, rent to pay, transportation to school . . . finding a job, losing a job, drugs on the corner.” He argued that since the poor are constrained by immediate problems, often they do not think ahead. He then asked, “How can we then help these struggling parents realize that their child’s education is their path out of poverty and their path to the good life?” His answer: we need to “create environments in our schools, workplaces and public venues” that help liberate the poor from these problems, so that they are free to focus on endeavors that allow for sustainable growth.

Future

Addressing an immediate issue that can contribute to this larger aim, Mr. Riley brought up current legislative plans to present ESEA reauthorization bills. He emphasized the need for proper reauthorization, including education funding, and enabling states to have autonomy in enacting education policy.

LFA Executive Director, Cheryl Williams, said that “Secretary Riley embodies so many of the principles that the Learning First Alliance stands for.” She also said she hopes that the award will “help to promote effective models of leadership in support of public schools and pave the way for the future leaders to come.” Clearly Mr. Riley laid out some significant goals and strategies to aid this effort.