Reuters recently asked U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about inequality – and cited Massachusetts, a national leader in education, in a provocative question. Here’s what Reuters asked and what Duncan answered:
Q: Does Massachusetts show the limits of education as the great equalizer? It has seen one of the biggest increases in inequality in the past 20 years.
A: I think it shows that … this movement towards quality, toward access and toward early-childhood education has to reach every child and every community who needs it. And that is simply not the case yet in Massachusetts and around the country. So it’s not a reason to back off. It’s a reason frankly to double down and to accelerate the pace of change.
Read the full interview, in which Duncan also talks about K-12, higher education and workforce development.
Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.
Related: http://t.co/LBkB4YNF
Yes, we need to “double down”; but where will the funding come from and how do we, as a society, focus on background knowledge and experiences as what may be key factors in the “achievement gap”? Can we control for that? If not, let’s really focus on how children learn and allow for the needed “time” to catch up as opposed to “standards” and curricula that value only a few aspects of what make us who we are as individuals. If we really believe in “high standards”, we would see that for some, it may be music and the arts, for others science and math, and for others, providing for a family. So, yes, let’s double-down on our investmests in Early Education and recognize the Infant Educator and Family Child Care Educator as much as we value the High School Science Teacher.