Karen Pittman

Ready Thoughts: Ready, Willing and Able

Anyone who has kids knows that 5-year-olds get up earlier than 15-year-olds. Still, many schools ignore that basic reality: Bus schedules often have sleepy teens on the corner as early as 6 a.m. to start classes between 7 and 8 a.m.

Once again, young people are bearing the brunt of our failure to monitor effectively the institutions they go to for help. You only need to read one story about students amassing huge college debt, which some will never repay, to believe that something has to be done, now....

November is in full swing and so is the Forum's mission that all young people be Ready by 21 - ready for college, work and life. Take a look at how Ready by 21 is already making an impact in the southeast with presentations from the Southeastern Council of Foundations Annual Meeting in Mobile, Alabama.

It is one thing for the poet Alexander Pope to suggest that “hope springs eternal in the human breast.” It is another for the leading pollsters to prove it.

In this article, Pittman looks at the recent results of the Gallup Student Poll.

“It’s all about the talent.” This is the conclusion that Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other education reformers have come to after years of focusing on everything from class size to charter schools.

In this article, Pittman looks at what defines a teacher.

May 2010
By Karen Pittman

Column time: I reached for the “recent research” inbox and pulled out five studies – three national surveys, two major evaluations – and started to read, looking for common themes. Good stuff.

States are struggling. Children’s lives, too often, are truly in the balance as states and localities decide where to make cuts, often sacrificing long-term investments to achieve short-term cost savings. And a new National League of Cities report, City Fiscal Conditions 2009, suggests that the situation will worsen over the next two years.