Education in Focus: A Moral Imperative

By The White House on 03/08/2010 – 9:42 am PST -- Headlines

This week, we launched “Education in Focus” on Whitehouse.gov to shine a spotlight on what we are doing across the administration to improve our education system. And what a week it was:

You joined Alma and Colin Powell, the President and myself in launching GradNation, an initiative to give more students the opportunity to go to college.
You learned about the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, which gives schools the opportunity to have the President speak at their graduation.
You engaged in a live web chat with Melody Barnes and me about how the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) can help students like you go to college.
You heard from Dr. Jill Biden about the importance of community colleges.
You read about Secretary LaHood’s experience as a teacher and his involvement in Teach For America Week.
You joined our web discussion around the question: What does a 21st century education mean to you?
You read along with the First Lady as she commemorated Dr. Seuss’ birthday by reading “The Cat in the Hat” aloud at the Library of Congress.
You learned about the Education Department’s Investment in Innovation as they launched their Open Innovation portal.

Though this feature comes to a close today, our work is not done. The urgency to improve our children’s schools has never been greater.

Whether you’re still a student or your days in the classroom have long been over, we all have a moral and economic imperative that requires us to act. Go to www.ed.gov to learn more about what we are doing, and ways you can get involved.

Arne Duncan is Secretary of Education

http://www.intuition.org/ktk.pdf Larry

Regarding the Open Innovation Portal that the Department of Education launched this month, there are several concerns that I would like to see addressed that might make it more functional and true to the stated intentions. In the spirit of open innovation in government, I would like to see discussion on these issues.

1. It isn’t really open. While people can register to access it, the general public has no access to the discussions or proposals. Educational improvement can come from any citizen anywhere, so why eliminate the 99.999% of the population that might contribute?

2. It is censored. Yes, comments posted in response to Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education (in support of educational reform and improvement) were deleted and commenting to public officials’ comments was turned off by the moderators (who are they?).

3. There is no accountability on the site with no contact info, and it is unclear exactly who is administering the site. No one working on it seems willing to talk on the phone, citing administrative policy that their judgment would be compromised and they might show favoritism if they talked to an actual person. So, we have an open innovation platform that won’t hold conversations with people.

4. The software was designed to show off companies trying to get funding and has been re-purposed for this effort, and it is not the best, most flexible application available.

5. The connection between the company operating the site and the Dept of Education is unspecified. It makes me wonder if anyone from the Department of Education is even involved.

That said, I applaud any effort toward open, citizen involvement and active listening by the administration. I would like to see these minor issues addressed to maximize the value of the effort being made by the Department of Education.