Promise
Education in the United States has been a story of promises broken and unevenly fulfilled. We need to renew the promise of public education for all – a promise that fosters a public education system where every young person, in every community can learn in a high-quality and meaningful environment. The time is now for us to come together and make a pragmatic public investment in the future of learning.
In 1965 your family’s wealth, your zipcode, and your race were determining factors for the kind of education you experienced. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was passed as an effort to make real the promise that every child would receive a quality public education. A civil rights commitment, the law is a signpost of a time when there was a belief that we could do big and hard things with purposeful and pragmatic investments.
Let’s revisit the purpose of education and reflect on what promise we are making to each other and to future generations. Promise makes a rapid tour through the last 50 years of American education – and sets out a pathway to reimagine education while keeping a public commitment. The video is rooted in the vision and values of the Partnership for the Future of Learning.
Promise is a creative effort of Hairpin HHD.
Resources:
- The Partnership for the Future of Learning offers a vision of American education (PDF). It is an ambitious but practical vision. It is a vision grounded in longstanding and widely shared values: we want and need our schools to cultivate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for young Americans to craft meaningful lives, build a strong economy, steward a vibrant democracy, and foster equity and justice.
- A new report by the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access at UCLA considers the state of teaching and learning in U.S. High Schools in the age of Trump.
- In 2017, ESEA was reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This infographic gives a quick overview with links to learn more.
- This video series provides a comprehensive review of the intent of ESEA, the role of ESSA, and what it means regarding some important questions about equity and educational opportunity.
- With ESSA, there is an important opportunity for states to broaden the definition of student success to include measures of students’ social-emotional, as well as academic, development. This report from the Learning Policy Institute looks at the importance of Social and Emotional Learning.
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