Sage Advice: How Would You Save Public Education?

1. Raise Teacher Salaries

I am entrusted with guiding the minds and futures of hundreds of students each year, and society wants to make me accountable for students' performance like a manufacturer is responsible for the quality of its products. However, the system doesn't want to compensate me in any reasonable way for the sometimes sixty-hour workweeks or the six figures I spent, and am still spending, on my own education.

Mike Williams

Professor

New Mexico Junior College

Hobbs, New Mexico

The babysitting service teachers provide is worth $150/hour: thirty students per hour @ $5/hour.

Virginia Malone

Retired teacher

Hondo, Texas

Level the playing field by paying all teachers, regardless of the district where they are employed, the same salary as the highest-paying district in the state. Only then will you attract well-qualified teachers to the lower-performing schools and districts.

Yvonne Moulton

English teacher

Thornton Junior High School

Fremont, California

Pay teachers better. Society does not balk at paying lawyers, dentists, and doctors what they deserve, and by the way, how did those professionals get to be what they are? Teachers taught them.

Theresa Mcabee

Social studies teacher

Lewis County High School

Weston, West Virginia

2. Reduce Class Size

1. Reduce class size.
2. Reduce class size.
3. Reduce class size.
4. Reduce class size.
5. Reduce class size.

Steve Freese

Sixth-grade teacher

South View Middle School

Edina, Minnesota

The best, most thorough education cannot be done by one teacher in a class of 150 (or more) students. If those were betting odds, you'd look for another horse.

Clay Wright

Principal

Graham, Texas

Reduce class size to less than twenty for grades K-3 and less than twenty-five for grades 4-12. Teachers would be able to spend more one-on-one time with students and have more time to evaluate student work and assess progress. This would also alleviate overcrowding issues and classroom management challenges. I think this is the one change that could remarkably improve our public school system (and test scores, if that's the current measure).

Aura Smithers

Edendale Middle School

San Lorenzo, California

Smaller class size allows teachers to know their students better, and hence teach them better. In a class of fifteen, a teacher will know her students' individual needs much more than in a class of thirty. Children fall through the cracks more easily when teachers and administrators don't even know their names.

Sarah McMane

English teacher

Tappan Zee High School

Orangeburg, New York

3. Decrease standardized testing

Stop teaching the students how to take standardized tests. There are no 'standard' problems in the real world. Students need to know how to understand and solve real-world problems using basic and advanced skills in the areas of math, science, language, and history.

Billy E. Smith

North Harris Montgomery Community College District

The Woodlands, Texas

Stop the nonsense of high-stakes testing. Using only test scores to determine overall school effectiveness is ludicrous. The emphasis of high-stakes testing is on reading and math, while other subjects are being neglected.

Dr. Irving Leung

Coordinator, Project Pipeline

Alameda, California

Educate the whole child. Accountability and testing is just one facet of a child's total education. America has become so crazed with test preparation, teaching to the test, standards and benchmarks, grade-level equivalents, school report cards, and district report cards, that we have lost the joy and creativity that engages young learners.

Jackie Daniilidis

Principal

Estelle Elementary School, Louisiana

4. Increase Parental Involvement

How do the two groups of people that care the most about kids -- parents and teachers -- end up in hostile and unproductive relationships? Schools that value parents reap a win for everyone. With students expected to achieve at higher levels and schools having to do more with less, parents are greatly needed as allies and supporters.

Carol Edelen

Community support coordinator

Prichard Committee For Academic Excellence

Lexington, Kentucky

While our teachers are human and far from perfect, most of them are very dedicated. The big problem is parents. We need a law that demands parental involvement in education. The law would require school districts to offer workshops on parenting a student, understanding the curriculum, the role of the parent, and the role of discipline in a student's life. If parents had some understanding of what goes on in school they may be more motivated to assist in the education of their children. Remember, students spend about eighteen hours a day at home and just four to six hours in instruction at school.

Ben Casados

Educational consultant

Huntington Beach, California

Parents must understand first and foremost that they are the most important teachers of their children. They need to realize that they are a central force in their childrens' education.

Monica M. Sajn

Language arts teacher

Scott Middle School

Hammond, Indiana

5. Educate the Legislators About The Schools

Put education back in the hands of education professionals. Get rid of bureaucrats who have themselves created the idea of "saving public education."

John C. Davidek

Social studies teacher

Flint Southwestern Academy

Flint, Michigan

Require school board members to participate in training so they can understand how school systems are run and how the education process in their classrooms actually works.

Jerry T. White

Superintendent of schools

North Haven, Maine

Require legislators to spend a month teaching before seeking public office.

Beth Bauchman

Seventh-grade social studies teacher

Texas

Make it mandatory for all elected officials to send their own children to public schools.

Gloria Piraino

English teacher

Benjamin Cardozo High School

Bayside, New York

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More

1. Highlight the best in public education and champion it: Education is enriching.
2. Understand that families move frequently, then plan for a transient population: Education is flexible.
3. Make the neighborhood school an active center of community life: Education is pervasive.
4. Find an equitable cause and fund it: Education is expensive.
5. Give teachers time to plan, and give students time to play: Education is joyous.

Michael McVey

Clinical associate professor

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Have thirty to forty percent of the curriculum occur outside the school building. Use life experiences to teach and enforce concepts: The easiest way to learn and understand trigonometry is to build a house. The best way to learn about nature is to observe it, measure it, and capture it with your own two hands.

Steve Smiley

Computer science teacher

Seguin High School

Arlington, Texas

Public education must focus on high-quality preschool programs or, better yet, prenatal programs. These programs need to include family-support services that include child psychologists and social workers. Often, well-meaning parents need direction and support as much as their children do in order to stop perpetuating generations of education failure.

Kenneth Kay

Instructional-learning specialist

Widener University

Narberth, Pennsylvania

De-emphasize school athletics to give equal if not greater emphasis to performance in music, art, math, writing, and reading. The team concept is just as important in music, and creative skills are more useful in life than athletic skills.

Walter Lowe

English instructor

Green River Community College

Auburn, Washington

Remove the connection between local property tax and local funding of schools by providing money through statewide pooled property tax (or through income or state taxes). Associating funding with local property tax automatically leads to inequities and to a vocal constituency against both teachers and education funding.

John J. Hetts

Assistant professor

Washington University

St. Louis, Missouri

Shut down every public school in the nation and reconstitute them as follows:

One. Bulldoze every building not architecturally designed as a proper twenty-first-century place for learning: that is any building that can house more than 400 students in four grades and has traditional classroom space. The concept of school needs to be totally redesigned from the ground up. Then, build the new structures.

While that is taking place: Two. All teachers, principals, curriculum specialists, superintendents, and professors need to learn how to really teach by learning from those who can model good instruction. Parents can get reacquainted and develop a meaningful relationship with their children.

Three. Reconstitute the places for learning with a balance, reflecting the community the school services and avoiding missionary or limousine-liberal approaches. While this change is occurring, reverse the blatant segregation found in most communities.

Four. Hold every student, parent, teacher, and principal accountable for the most rigorous program by demanding that students demonstrate the value-added knowledge gained in their learning. Do this while making the learning relevant, interesting, fun, and exciting. Create a thirst for new knowledge in everyone involved in the process.

Five. Celebrate Every success with joyous activities while learning from the setbacks and turning them into successes. I say this as a retired high school principal and teacher with more than thirty-five years of wonderful experiences in education and twenty-plus years of hell as a student.

William Pollock

School-improvement specialist, coach, and adviser

Somerset, New Jersey

Do away with tenure. The teachers I would hire would have to pass through an intense screening. If they did not believe in problem-based, project-based learning, they would not be hired. The schools would be run more like a company: if you are not doing your job, based on several evaluations, you would be fired. If there were teachers at any school who did not like their jobs, they would be out of the building.

Susan McConville

School consultant and educator

Raleigh, North Carolina

Commend top teachers who go beyond the regular responsibilities of the school day. Schools need the best, and they need to keep the best.

Monica M. Sajn

Language arts teacher

Scott Middle School

Hammond, Indiana

Involve students with the community. Whether it's building Web pages, giving tours for historical visits, or inviting businesses to work with classrooms, don't close the door!

Karen Thompson

Instructional technology facilitator

Springfield, Illinois

Create a nationwide twenty-four-hour cable television network that gives English as a second language, literacy, and basic skills instruction.

Victor I. King

President, Board of Trustees

Glendale Community College

Glendale, California

Put more emphasis on the arts -- not less! The arts are a wonderful tool for teaching the standards. An art-infused curriculum based on project learning and the multiple intelligences is motivating and challenging, and reaches every child.

Cathie Middleton

Assistant principal

Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School

Charleston, South Carolina

Require all administrators to teach at least one class per day at some level.

John Stallcup

Founder

APREMAT/USA

Napa, California

Teaching the guidelines of the academic content standards is a MUST; it’s how it’s done that can be the difference of retention with students. As a music teacher I believe in cultural education through music performance. Students need to be challenged and realize learning can be fun.

Charles Ferrara

Turpin High School Bands

Teacher, instrumental music, grades 4-12

Forest Hills School District

Cincinnati, Ohio

Let the children laugh and play more.

Tonya Anderson

Director of Trinity After School Program

Williamsport, Pennsylvania

Make parents more accountable for student attendance, and encourage parents to show respect to the teachers. Unfortunately, when parents don’t find attendance important, then neither do the students. The same goes with respect. Most parents today immediately get involved if a teacher tries to discipline a student but normally feel their child is in the right and the teacher is wrong.

This is a big shift from the ’60s and ’70s, when, if you got in trouble at school, you could be sure to get in trouble when you got home. Teachers don’t seem to be viewed as the authority figure that they once were. It is great that parents are more involved, but that involvement should include respect for the teacher’s authority in the classroom. Many parents refuse to believe that their child could do anything wrong.

Theresa Jackson Pierce

Staff development/technology associate

Microsoft Office 2000 master instructor

New Castle Community Schools

Find more ways to communicate and celebrate the incredible number of things teachers are doing well and are already doing right. Discouraged, battered, and demoralized teachers will severely limit the effects of even the best reform ideas.

Robert Hermann

Principal

Sonoma Mountain High School

Carpe Diem High School

Petaluma, California

Do not allow corporate contracts with school districts, e.g., Coke or Pepsi, and do not allow soda or junk food sales. This theory of letting kids ‘choose’ is just plain silly. You wouldn’t expect a child to ‘choose’ between reading and playing video games, would you?

Kelly Haarmeyer

Parent and California Department of Education employee

Sacramento, California

Reduce class sizes! And hire more assistants!

Lona Sepessy

Substitute teacher

Shoreline, Washington

I would increase the number of welcome letters from school to home and keep schools open until 9:00 P.M. Offer classes to parents on parenting and how to help their children in school and in life.

Mary Dismukes

Technology teacher

Arizona

Have a full-time counselor at each school for dealing with emotional problems of students. These problems get in the way of learning.

Jackie Costanzo

Second-grade teacher

San Jose, California

Involve the community. The African proverb "It takes a village to raise a child" still holds true. Community involvement in the form of volunteers and mentors can go a long way. This is especially true in urban and impoverished environments where children often go unsupervised after school. After-school arts and homework programs, job internships, and community-sponsored all-age events can do a lot to keep children on track and in school, as well as build understanding and camaraderie between generations.

Sarah McMane

English teacher

Tappan Zee High School

Orangeburg, New York

Put some responsibility back on the students and parents! As test scores slide, we teachers bear the blame. In reality, we are dealing with an increasingly apathetic and lazy student body that won't do the work. If students don’t read the text or the literature, and don’t do the homework, of course their test scores are going to go down. What’s wrong with failing the kids who choose to fail? Our high schools should not be diploma mills. If the student doesn’t graduate, he should have to deal with it, not be babied into passing every year by an administration afraid of lawsuits. It’s ridiculous.

David Wright

QHHS drama teacher

AVTA site captain

Quartz Hill, California

Ask network and cable news stations to have educators explain in detail where the education dollars are really spent, and what is really going on in education.

Margot J. Nitzsche

English and math teacher

Indio Middle School

Indio, California

Create a 1-to-1 computer-to-student and computer-to-teacher ratio.

Steve Taffee

Director of technology

Castilleja School

Palo Alto, California

Make a daily planning period sacrosanct -- just as much as core subjects are -- at ALL grade levels. If there is an assembly, the teacher gets another period that day for planning. Provide music, art, and PE during the planning periods. If they are not available, the para or assistant teacher should read to the students from appropriate literature.

Rhonda Browning

Severe disabilities/intermediate

New Orleans Public Schools

I teach art to 450 students, some of whom I see only once per week for twenty-five minutes, so I find it useful to send out monthly “art newsletters” with general information. I also send out a portfolio/progress report at the end of each quarter with more specific information about individual student progress. I give bonus participation points if this is signed and returned the next day. I’ve found this to be a good way to keep parents informed of their child’s progress. I also try to let parents know if their child’s works are shown on our art Web site.

Mary Jo Bell

East Carter County R-2 School

Ellsinore, Missouri

Promote teacher Web sites. My Web site, myschoolonline.com/nh/mrs5st, is very successful. It motivates students to be the best student they can be, and rewards them by posting their names for awards as well as displaying their projects (via digital pictures) on the site. Students can practice current subject matter on the site in the quiz lab, which increases learning and raises grades.

Wendy Schmid Tetrault

Retired teacher

Manchester, New Hampshire

Survey students to find out what their goals are in life and have them go out and find someone doing that thing and work with or observe that person (or group) enough to get an idea of what it takes to do that thing. Example: Wanna be a rap artist? Find a local rapper who is actually earning income (doesn’t matter how much or how little) and find out how he/she rehearses, gets gigs, and chooses material.

Caralyn Percy

Executive director

Dianetics Foundation of Inglewood

Los Angeles, California

Focus on a positive work environment for teachers. Happy teachers want to come to work and do their best. They create happy, achieving children. Let teachers evaluate principals, and have their evaluations contribute at least 50 percent to the decision about whether the principal retains her job. Raise all pay to the current national average immediately. Favor veterans in pay scales. Create job ladders. Require all teachers to earn an M.Ed. within five years of employment and encourage national certification. Pay for these as well as more advanced degrees up front, not by reimbursement, with the expectation that the teacher will remain as an educator in the state for a number of years.

Rhonda Browning

Severe disabilities/intermediate

New Orleans Public Schools

Attract more male teachers.

Dr. Richard Kimball

Professor

University of the West

Rosemead, California

I would return urban school districts to their owners -- the parents -- by dividing big districts back into small neighborhood schools where if parents needed to be in touch with their children’s teachers, they could walk to the school building. Also, teachers and administrators could make home visits to ensure that the lines of communication remain open.

Eva O’Mara

Principal

Highland Drive Elementary School

Brecksville, Ohio

Increase beginning teacher salaries so that the most able scholars are attracted to the profession. Annual increases would be based on merit, as determined in annual reviews of effectiveness, not on longevity.

David W. Kramer, Ph.D

Assistant professor of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal biology

Ohio State University at Mansfield

Reduce the size of schools and number of students in the classroom, particularly at the secondary level. A high school of 4,500 teenagers in overcrowded classes of forty-plus students is not conducive to the nurturing of learning.

Mary B. Stephens

LD specialist, DSPS

School of Continuing Education, Santa Ana College

California

Make school year-round, with no break of more than two weeks.

Mark Westerfield

Alternative program coordinator

Collins Alternative Programs

White River School District

The school calendar is a reflection of times past when students were needed to plow the fields and harvest the crops. Students lose valuable educational concepts over the months of summer. It may be dangerous and often a financial liability for families to have students unsupervised for the weeks of summer. Year-round calendars may be more appropriate to the modern student, with a four-quarter option aligned with institutions of higher education to allow taking advanced courses and to encourage interage activities and recreational or educational opportunities.

Carol N. McKegney, M.Ed.

Resource specialist

San Antonio High School

Petaluma, California

National compulsory education to age sixteen only. Then an informed, counseled choice would be made: two years of college prep, two years of vocational ed, or two years of conscripted public service.

John Lupini

Principal

Los Banos Unified School District

Los Banos, California

We have seen increasing and unfortunate denigration of the educational establishment, with recurrent calls for radical educational ‘reform.’ No Child Left Behind is an example of a politically based pitch for corporation-driven educational reform as an alternative to public education. It is unrealistic to expect widespread or rapid change in educational practice without parallel steps at preserving the best of current educational practice and increasing respect and remuneration allocated to teachers and practitioners.

We must somehow work with the best professionals who are in the schools and gradually inculcate openness to new values, techniques, and pedagogical approaches. New technology approaches are integral to such efforts, especially those that can facilitate project and collaborative learning approaches, where teacher/student roles are flexible and dynamically reversible.

I suggest a Carnegie Corporation–funded study prepared by a well-selected cadre of educational researchers and practitioners. They would develop an agenda process for public education in our increasingly diversified society. Such a study might also proscribe new options and recommendations for participation of parents, retirees, and senior citizens as tutors, coaches, counselors, and mentors for students and possibly teachers.

The study would lead to pilot programs established in different geographic, ethnic, and economic sectors in order to test the fruitfulness of the new approaches.

Federal funding would have to be diverted from bellicose foreign military adventures for this purpose.

Robert S. Runyon

Literary advocate and promoter

Omaha, Nebraska

Design smaller high schools to give individual students ‘a name with a face.’ They are more than a number. School size can be determined upon a formula combining financial efficiency and academic achievement. Student-to-teacher ratio between 18:1 to 22:1 and no class over thirty. Size based upon reliable research.

Larry Kromann, Ed.D

Principal

Napa Christian

Innovative building use/design. Too many buildings exist that don’t meet the needs of today’s students and teachers. Projects need space and flexibility; people need comfortable furnishings and spaces.

Turtle Moore

Kindergarten teacher

Oakland Elementary

McDonough, Georgia

Open high schools later in the day than elementary schools. Repeated research studies have shown that this would improve attendance rates and reduce after-school mischief, thereby increasing productivity and completion rates.

Essie East

Reading and English teacher

Nimitz High School

Houston, Texas

Ban creation science (intelligent design, etc.), which is the antithesis of public education. These are faith-based ideas/subjects that should be taught in a purely religious environment, not in public schools.

Billy E. Smith

North Harris Montgomery Community College District

The Woodlands, Texas

We need better teacher training. University professors need to get off their high horses and come back to public education and see what we really have to deal with. Why should a college professor put so much emphasis on lesson plans and not teach prospective teachers how to deal with a rowdy, if not dangerous, student? What do you do when the student openly defies you? Our new teachers are being trained for classes in the 1960s, '70s, even the '80s. We have totally different students who have been exposed to so many different things. Universities and colleges need to keep up and quit sending us teachers who don't know what is going on. Too many new teachers leave the profession because of this -- and no, not all people can teach.

Theresa McAbee

Social studies teacher

Lewis County High School

Weston, West Virginia

Ongoing mentorships for all teachers to refine instruction, and paid summer institutions for them to plan together with cross-curricular colleagues for the following school year.

Ginny Gallagher LaRowe

Literacy administrator

Gompers High School

San Diego City Schools

Limit K-6 classrooms to a uniform twenty-five students per teacher.

Lynn Jones

Fourth-grade teacher

Garden Grove, California

Use heterogeneous grouping (in small classes) at the elementary level and homogeneous grouping at the secondary level. This is being done more and more as research seems to indicate this is the best mix for learning. It is patently unfair to secondary students to make them progress at a faster or slower rate than they are able and ridiculous to expect a subject teacher to develop three or four lesson plans for a single class of mixed-ability students.

Barbara Paciotti

Library teacher

Barbara Bush Middle School, C-FB ISD

Irving, Texas

Expose preservice teachers to only accomplished teacher leaders in their field experiences and internships.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Virginia Beach City Public Schools

Virginia Beach, Virginia

As a professional in the field of education for twenty years, I have seen many cyclical changes occur in the field of public education, some good and some bad. What I currently believe would be most useful in the long term to successfully meet the needs of all students would be to instruct all teachers, both pre- and in-service teachers, in how to differentiate instruction to better facilitate learning.

I would create ongoing professional development for teachers rather than periodic onetime workshops. I would provide mentors for all levels of teachers for support and encouragement, and to increase retention. I would mandate standardized tests only for those for whom the test was normed against and mandate curriculum-based assessments for everyone. My last change would be to increase the salaries of all educators in order to infuse the public education system with people who have the greatest educational skills and background in content-area knowledge.

Barbara Schwartz-Bechet

Assistant professor of Graduate Special Education

Bowie State University/University System of Maryland

Reward teachers who opt to teach in underperforming schools.

Steve Taffee

Director of technology

Castilleja School

Palo Alto, California

Have all teachers put homework assignments on the Internet so that parents can monitor the work expectations of their children (and reinforce them).

Victor I. King

President, Board of Trustees

Glendale Community College

Glendale, California

Increase funding for schools. At present most corporations are required to make grants to nonprofit corporations, and they often do so for educational purposes. Pass laws that would allow corporate giving to go directly to schools instead of the current practice requiring schools to apply for those grants, which is time-consuming for school administrators and brings in funds only in small amounts, $1,000 to $5,000.

Dennis Deliman

Rolling Hills Charter School

Paulden, Arizona

High school graduation should not be a right but rather an accomplishment. Those who do not want to conform to the requirements of academic success, or sadly, do not have the innate skills, should not be getting a high school diploma. Further, those who lack the skills should not expect that there is a place in higher education for them to absorb more tax dollars.

Charlie Hoff

President

Federal Way School Board

My biggest pet peeve has been the teacher's focus on what's wrong with the student and how to fix it versus what are the student's natural abilities, talents, and interests and how to enhance them. In a discussion with my five-year-old son's teacher, I heard all the things he couldn't do. When I asked her what he could do well and enjoyed, she gave me a strange look like "You have to be kidding" and said, "Well, I guess he's good at computers and math." Develop the teachers to help develop the potential of each student versus forcing them to fit into the perfect-student mold.

Celia Szelwach

President

Creative Collaborations Consulting

Bradenton, Florida

1) Fund it. Why are we trying to run school districts on a shoestring budget? If we really want all kids to get to a standard level, we need to make sure the have-nots get what they need to make progress. If you are a political candidate claiming to be for education, if you are a baby boomer and want good health care, if you are a parent or grandparent and want the best for your children, then put your money/votes where your mouth is!

2) Improve facilities. There are schools out there that opened in the 1920s and they've got the infrastructure to prove it. We wouldn't run a business that way, would we? There should be minimum standards for school buildings and their capacities to accommodate technology, and states should fund the renovations.

3) Overcome the "fear factor." Obtain more technology for instruction and teach teachers how to use it instructionally.

Clay Wright

Principal

Graham, Texas

I don't advocate sudden federalization of our education system. Yet the total balkanization of education has failed. High-stakes testing is a poor solution to this problem. The issue here is finding a way to enforce widespread best practices without destroying innovation. Constant reevaluation of local versus district versus state versus federal control of each aspect of the system by independent evaluators will help.

Harry Keller

president

ParaComp

Smaller class size Smaller class size Smaller class size Smaller class size Smaller class size.

Julie Spradley

Assistant director of financial management

University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Denver, Colorado

(1) Reduce the compulsory segment of public education to nine years. Our children are being taught so slowly that we lose their attention -- a major contributor to a 25-35 percent attrition rate. (2) Focus on depth of learning rather than width. Children are forced to learn material that will never be used outside of school by 95 percent of the students rather than encouraged to pursue an in-depth exploration of the subjects used by everyone. (3) Replace high school with technology/career/college-prep academies, mostly privately funded, for those individuals who want to continue their education after their compulsories are completed. Some young adults will move directly into the workforce through contacts. Other 'graduates' must decide what is best for them and choose the appropriate path.

Steve Smiley

Computer science/technology applications

Seguin High School

Arlington Independent School District, Texas

How to save public education? Declare it an enemy of the state and throw money at it just like we are doing in Iraq. Lower the class sizes and pay competitive salaries. The insurgents (private schools) will try to sabotage the effort, but in the end, public education will prosper and prevail. Current teachers and methodology are sufficient to do the job if the environment is supportive and conducive to learning.

Albert Alfasso

Teacher

Northridge, California

1) What five things are needed to save public education? I am not sure that is the question we should be asking. In fact, isn't public education working quite well? Maybe the question should be, How we can support, recognize, and celebrate public education? I think the new question should be, What five things could we do as Americans to help support public education?

2) Consider what public education would be like if it were privatized. Ask legislators how they could develop policy that is purposeful, respectful, timely, and funded, before passing legislation. Five let the president know what you think about education after a real look at what is truly going on each and every day in our schools.

Bob Winter

Assistant principal

Pioneer Elementary School

Parker, Colorado

Avoid the broken-windows phenomenon. School maintenance programs should quickly and efficiently remove or repair unsightly graffiti, vandalism, and decay. This would forestall both more expensive fixes down the road and a decay in respect for and enjoyment of the institution.

John Hetts

Assistant professor

Washington University

St. Louis

What’s all the pressure for every kid to go to college? Academia is not for everyone. Some people just want to fix cars or write code, or even learn plumbing! Why the push for the UC system? Put back vocational education (or else, someday, there will be nobody to fix your car or your toilet!).

Kelly Haarmeyer

Parent and California Department of Education employee

Sacramento, California

I would allow the teachers, those trained in curriculum and methods and not the political bureaucrats, to choose the curriculum which is to be taught in the public schools. I would give the teachers much more input in running the school.

Mary Young

Teacher

Sacramento City Unified School District

1) Make parents more accountable for their children -- accountable for their behavior, for the school property they are lent, for doing their homework, for being in school, and for their learning. Many parents demand that schools be made accountable for the behavior of students, yet these same parents refuse to grant these institutions the necessary authority or to reinforce and support any disciplinary actions taken by schools.

2) Let the teachers teach. About eight years ago, my mother retired from almost thirty years of teaching elementary school reading. Her normal teaching day consisted of spending twenty minutes of each fifty-minute 'hour' filling out required forms and other paperwork. Conservatively subtract another ten minutes from each hour for dealing with behavioral problems, and that leaves just twenty minutes for teaching and learning. What kind of productivity could your business get from its employees if it required them to spend more than half their time doing something other than their jobs?

Mike Williams

Professor

New Mexico Junior College

Hobbs, New Mexico

Obviously, money, which could come from luxury taxes, liquor taxes -- even a penny tax on downloaded songs, CD sales, movie rentals, or movie tickets. And speaking of tickets, all proceeds from speeding in school zones should go to schools.

Judd Shapiro

English department chair

Gulliver Schools

Miami, Florida

I believe that we sometimes teach the wrong things based on the right motives. The general dictum is that we send our kids to college so they can get good, high-paying technical jobs. In fact, we send kids to college to learn to think -- everything else is an excuse.

Raymond Costa

Director of business

Beach Park School District #3

Beach Park, Illinois

This question is inherently flawed because it does not say why education needs saving or (if it in fact does need saving) from what. Posing this kind of question suggests to readers that all public education is either flawed, failed, doomed, in crisis, at risk, etc., without demonstrating that it is. Are there some problems with public education? Sure. But not all of public education is going to hell in a hand basket the way this question suggests it is. If all of public education needs saving, the question should state specifically what it is about public education that needs saving.

Eric J. Anctil

Assistant professor

Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology

Washington State University

Fail students. This sounds very harsh. However, in some school districts, teachers are not allowed to fail students. What message does this send? Students and parents need to know that failure is a real possibility if the work is not completed in an appropriate manner. Sometimes, the kindest grade to award is an F.

Dr. Victoria E. McLure

Professor of English

South Plains College

Levelland, Texas

We cannot expect students to respect their teachers when it is so obvious that, as a society, we do not. It is difficult to attract the best and brightest to a field so badly maligned and so poorly recompensed. Many teachers are passionate advocates for children, and their altruism shines; however, some are just passing time in a field that rewards longevity over creativity.

Carol N. McKegney

Resource specialist

San Antonio High School

Petaluma, California

1) I would put a referendum on the ballot in every state asking whether we really want to have a public education system any longer. And if so, what should it look like? It seems to me that we are really deciding by not deciding that we no longer hold a free and equal education for all citizens as one of our core values. So let’s give up and put our energies into something else if education isn’t important. Then the people who value it can pay for it and the marketplace can determine what is a successful school.

2) I would take the profit out of textbooks. Textbook publishing is a scam perpetrated on school districts and students. Education should not be done to make a profit for anyone, as long as we are still claiming to offer all citizens access to free public education.

Sandra Rotenberg

Librarian

Solano Community College

Fairfield, California

Give teachers only one job: to teach (no more than four classes a day). Hire others to coach, tutor, etc. Give teachers a budget each year that allows them to decide what to buy for their students/classroom. Require a small percentage of this to go toward meaningful professional development -- again, allowing them to decide which workshop or class would benefit them the best. Provide an individualized professional development plan for each teacher, to which they have given input. For new teachers, this plan would place them with a suitable mentor teacher and plenty of planning time.

Chelsy Hooper

Computer teacher

Nashville, Tennessee

Make education meaningful. Tap into students’ prior knowledge and experiences so that they feel as though they want to learn the content. Make education authentic so that content is relevant and transferable to real life. Students should feel as though they need to learn it. Make education equitable. Give the same quality of education to all students regardless of income status/geographic location. Make education adaptable. Schools should be proactive, geared up for cultural change before change is necessary. Properly fund education so that schools have the money needed to bring content to students.

Jeff Giddens

Educational innovator in residence

First District RESA Educational Technology Training Center

Brooklet, Georgia

Follow the example of the banks during the Depression. Close everything down and reopen with the caveat that administrators run the school (in collaboration with) the teachers who teach (in collaboration with) the parents who support the educational needs of their children. Give the schools back to the professionals and demand (don’t ask for) parent cooperation. Public education in the twenty-first century requires teamwork, and that includes more than the teacher. Parents can always send their children to other schools. Public schools need to be more competitive (think bottom-line business mentality) and build a better mousetrap or at least a better environment in which learning can take place.

Judyth Lessee

Library manager

Catalina High Magnet School

Tucson, Arizona

Save public education?! It may need help and improvement, and maybe some buildings or districts are really in trouble, but overall, people want and support their public schools in this country. Please think about changing the wording of that question. Wording it that way is an insult to the teachers, students, and their families who make our public schools great.

Pamela T. Nichols

Director of communications

Delaware State Education Association

Dover, Delaware

1. Raise more revenue. Although money is not the solution to all of our problems, it costs more than $8,000 a year to hire and retain skilled, qualified teachers and pay for all of the other elements in a quality education.

2. Equitably distribute resources. Make sure that the students with the highest needs receive the most resources. Students from poor black and brown families that speak a language other than English at home should have the best facilities, the most highly skilled teachers, all the necessary supplies, and the best curriculum and textbooks.

3. Work toward deinstitutionalizing racism in public schools. Schools have been failing our black and brown children for dozens of years. We need to stop making excuses and find ways to change our schools to really meet the needs of all children.

Bruce Simon

Washington Elementary School

Berkeley, California

Provide high-quality professional development for all teachers -- veteran and new. Build time within the school day, along with compensation, for teachers to engage in reflective dialogue, develop cycles of inquiry centered on studying a problem and working toward a solution, and learn how to compile and use data to improve teacher practice and student performance. Demand that all school administrators improve their management skills by taking courses equivalent to management coursework required of those in private industry (e.g., budgeting and accounting, personnel). Public education is a business, and it needs to be managed that way. We should NOT be overspending our budgets, and when faced with a budgetary crisis, should have the tools and training we need to determine where the problem is and how we can fix it.

Once we have leveled the playing field for teacher pay and benefits, THEN implement a bonus plan to encourage teachers to go above and beyond the call of duty. As it is now, many of us go above and beyond the call of duty only because of our dedication to our work, and it is difficult to bear the criticism of the public and our government officials when we are already doing as much as we can.

Yvonne Moulton

English teacher

Thornton Junior High School

Fremont, California

1. I would revamp the leadership so that those in leadership positions actually are good leaders.

2. I would have the federal government fund education more fully. It should be expensive to government and free to the people. Just like the military.

3. I would have the teacher unions turn more toward being teacher associations, where they monitor the profession and sanction those not fulfilling their professional duties.

4. I would have teachers coming in to the profession better trained, with a system of internships, much like doctors and other professionals, before being allowed to handle the classroom alone.

Alisa Hunt

Graduate student

San Diego, California

1. Restructure the Department of Education so that educators are actually running the program, instead of politicians who only "know of" teachers.

2. Give teachers more legal support. Right now they are sitting targets for whoever decides to take a shot. Allow teachers to do their job, and quit trying to "fix" the teachers -- they aren't broken! There are hundreds of in-service programs for teachers. Many of them are wonderful, but it often appears as if the administration were looking for a quick fix to problems beyond its control. It sends teachers to get "fixed," when in reality, the problem lies elsewhere.

Melanie Hendrix

Fourth-grade teacher

Hawthorne Elementary

Hampton, Georgia

We know that different students need different amounts of time to learn things. To save public education, we must help school districts transform themselves from a system that forces some students to move on before they have reached the attainments and holds other students back until the class is "ready," to a system that allows every student as much time as needed to reach each attainment.

The transformation process must be districtwide and must focus on helping all stakeholders evolve their mental models about what education should be like by engaging them in an ideal-design process. This kind of process [1] has been under way and under study for several years in the Decatur school district in Indianapolis, with facilitation from Indiana University.

Charles M. Reigeluth

Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana

First I would proclaim myself Queen of Education with an annual operating budget of $1 billion. I understand that money does not solve all problems but it’s a good start.

1) I’d change the school day to 9 A.M.-4 P.M. Before and after care would be 8 A.M.-9 A.M. and 4 P.M.-7 P.M. and free of charge. However, families would have to be approved on a case-by-case basis to get both. Every child would receive a free breakfast, lunch, and snack. Instructional time would end at 1 P.M. Classroom teachers would then have planning time and professional development and a decent lunch hour.

After lunch and recess, students would participate in special classes including art, music (vocal and instrumental), physical education, foreign language, and character education (that includes team building, peer mediation, anger management, and conflict resolution). These activities would be carried out by special teachers who had their planning period and professional development in the mornings. There would be a cadre of paraprofessionals for lunch and recess duty.

2) Every school in this nation would be entitled to a makeover. No more dingy, dank, and dark restrooms and faulty plumbing. Full-spectrum lights. Large windows that open and close. State- of-the-art play areas with age-appropriate equipment for all children, from tiny three-year-olds in prekindergarten to sixth graders who at age twelve are 5 feet 8 inches tall and weigh 170 pounds. Gardens with benches and observation booths

3) Instructional and behavioral professionals and paraprofessionals. An aide in every classroom. A supernanny in every school. High-caliber workshops and tuition assistance.

4) Each member of the school staff, from the principal to the janitor to the lunch server to the nurse, would get professional development and a mini-grant of $1,000 that could be carried over for up to three years. Each would design a project to benefit the school from buying books to children to purchasing environmentally friendly cleaning supplies or chalk.

Seledia Shepherd

Parent volunteer

Amidon Elementary School

Washington, DC