Obama ties funding, student performance

by Christi Parsons

Declaring that there should be "no excuse for mediocrity" in public schools, President Obama this afternoon pledged to push for recruitment of better teachers, better pay for those who succeed and dismissal of those who let their students down.

When principals are trying to determine which teachers are doing well, he said, they should be able to consider student performance as part of the evaluation.

And when schools are failing, "they should be shut down," Obama said. "But when innovative public schools are succeeding, they shouldn't be stifled, they should be supported."

The president's tough words - fighting words, for some union officials - came as Obama spoke to students and teachers at a charter middle school here.

But as he announced the criteria by which states can win grants from his Department of Education's $4.35-billion "Race to the Top" fund, Obama spelled out standards that depart from conventional Democratic dogma.

For one thing, Obama called for the abolition of "firewall" rules, which presently prevent many schools from judging teacher performance based on student performance.

To win the grant money, hey'll also have to develop internationally competitive standards, find innovative ways to recruit educators and track progress of students to make sure every child graduates ready for college.

"If a state wants to increase its chances of actually winning a grant, it will have to do more," Obama said. "It will have to collect information about how students are doing in a particular year - and over the course of an academic career - and make this information available to teachers so they can use it to improve the way they teach. That's how teachers can determine what they should be doing differently in the classroom. That's how principals can determine what changes need to be made in our schools."

The president delivered his remarks at the James C. Wright Middle School, on the one-year anniversary of his election at president. The address came as national Democrats are trying to read the results of a more recent set of elections, those held Tuesday, and to figure out how the party should move forward in preparation for the 2010 mid-term elections.

Obama made it clear how he thinks they should proceed. He underscored an argument about improving the American economy, and folded in his pre-planned speech about education as part of his argument about how to achieve sustainable prosperity.

In an unusual step for the president, he also went off-script for a few moments, telling of a C-grade that his older daughter Malia brought home from school recently. It didn't meet the standards at the Obama home, he said, and Malia knew it.

More recently, she came home with a score of 95, as the president told the story.

"What was happening was, she had started wanting it more than us," he said. "Once you get to that point, our kids are on our way."

The president challenged parents to set a high bar at home, but he also pledged support from the government in demanding the same of public schools.

"In the 21st Century, when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow," he said, "there is nothing that will determine the quality of our future as a nation or the lives our children will lead more than the kind of education we provide them."