TABE Keynote 2014

Supported by Research or Not Supperted by Research? Keynote TABE 2014, S. Krashen
EARLY LITERACY IS THE ANSWER (early phonemic awareness and phonics)
Very early: phonemic awareness

1. PA training > better in PA, not better in reading
   
2. Low PA can read OK.
   
3. Develops on it's owm – comparison groups of training studies improve
   
4. The result of reading
   

Phonics
A. Intensive systematic phonics/basic phonics/zero phonics
B. intensive better than lighter? But only for tests of pronouncing words outloud presented in a list; tiny or no impact on reading comprehension
Garan, Elaine. (2001). Beyond the smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel report on phonics. Phi Delta Kappan 82, no. 7 (March), 500-506.
Garan, Elaine. (2004). In Defense of Our Children. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Krashen, S. Does Intensive Decoding Instruction Contribute to Reading Comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74, 2009 (http://sdkrashen.com/index.php?cat=4)
C. rules yet to be described/many complex/different programs teach different rules. Predictors of later literacy attainment
PIRLS. Early literacy = percentage of parents who report that their child can do the following "very well" before entering school “very well”:
A.Recognize most of the letters of the alphabet./B. Read some words./C. Read sentences/D. Write letters of the alphabet/E. Write some words.
Tasks have little or nothing to do with reading comprehension.
NEGATIVE Relationship to reading comprehension at age 10: r = - .38 (p = .011) Similar results from Senechal, M and LeFevre, J. 2002.
Early lit (emergent lit) the result of "teaching"
Beginning of grade 1
Not a significant predictor of reading at grade 3
THERE IS A SEVERE STEM CRISIS
"... the impending shortage of scientists and engineers is one of the longest running hoaxes in the country" (Bracey, 2009).
There is a surplus: Two to three qualified graduates for each science/tech opening.

Emerg Lit	r2	Sig
Par print	0.05	0.05
PA	0.35	0.001
Receptive	0.35	Ns
Storybook	0.37	Ns
Teaching	0.41	0.05

RC gr 3	r2	Sig
LC	0.56	0.001
Emerg Lit	0.57	Ns
Book Exp	0.64	0.01

Salzman, Hal, and Lowell, B. Lindsay. 2007. Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1034801
Salzman, Hal, & Lowell, B. Lindsay. 2008. "Making the grade.: Nature 453 no. 1: 28-30.
Salzman, Hal. 2012. "No shortage of 1ualified American STEM grads" (5/25/12) http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-foreign-stem-graduates-get-green-cards/no-shortage-of- qualified-american-stem-grads.
Teitelbaum, Michael. 2007. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation. Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, November 6, 2007

The US is producing more Ph.D.s in science than the market can absorb. Weismann, Jordan. 2013. "The Ph.D bust: America's awful market for young scientists—in 7 charts." The Atlantic, Feb. 20. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young- scientists-in-7-charts/273339/
About 1/3 of college-bound high-school students take calculus. David Bressoud. Calculus in high school: Too much of a good thing? www.macalester.edu/~bressoud/talks/2011/portland-apcalc.pdf
Abour 5% of jobs require this much math. Handel, M 2010. “What Do People Do at Work? A Profile of U.S. Jobs from the Survey of Workplace Skills, Technology, and Management Practices (STAMP)” (OECD, forthcoming).
WE MUST TEACH ACADEMIC LANGUAGE DIRECTLY, USING WONDERFUL NEW APPROACHES SUCH AS FLOCABULARY AND SIOP Flocabulary: rap songs, "Educational Hip-Hop":
Study 1:14 words in 20 hours, compared to doing nothing
Study 2: exposed ot 540 words in one year, only 135 learned
Study 3: Flocaboulary students do better on state tests. Sample sizes small. Previous
years' tests not included in analysis.
SIOP: Mixed bag – make input more comprehensible, but output, correction focused on.

1. Validity study. r2 = .22, 12 teachers, not enough subjects
   
2. Studies comparing SIOP-trained teachers with non-SIOP trained teachers.
   

(1) small effect sizes,
(2) only 2/4 produce significant results,
(3) 3 of 4 done by SIOP creators;
(4) information missing on students, activities of comparison groups,
(5) SIOP teachers sometimes specially selected.
Krashen, S. 2013. Does SIOP research support SIOP claims? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. 8,1: 11-24.
Reading and Vocabulary
Review of research: Krashen (2004)
UK Study: Sullivan, A. & Brown, M. 2013. Social inequalities in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London www.cls.ioe.ac.uk
more reported pleasure reading of books at ages 10 & at age 16 significantly related to scores on vocabulary, spelling and math tests given at age 16.

Predictors of vocabulary test scores at age 16

V ariable	beta	p-value
SES: higher job status	-0.012	0.613
Parent has degree	0.255	0
Higher income family	0.02	0.542
Read to everyday at age 5	0.115	0.01
Reads books often at age 10	0.313	0
Visits library often at age 10	0.009	0.791
Reads newspapers more than once/week at age 16	0.183	0
Reads comics/magaines more than once/week at age 16	-0.074	0.021
Reads books more than once/week at age 16	0.353	0
Reading proficiency at age five	0.039	0
Pictoral vocab at age five	0.091	0
Reading proficiency at age 10	0.117	0

From Sullivan and Brown (2013), table 7, model 4, based on 3,424 subjects.
SES job status: Levels 1 to 3 in the Goldthorpe Schema, which consists of seven levels. 1 inclues "higher grade professionals", 2 includes higher-grade technicians, managers in enterprises, 3 includes routine non- manual jobs, 7 includes semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
WE NEED TO FOCUS MORE ON NON-FICTION
Argument: students need to learn to read real-world demanding texts (1) Can light reading supply enough academic vocabulary?
Light reading as the bridge: Krashen, S. 2012. Developing academic proficiency: Some hypotheses. International Journal of Foreign Langauge Teaching, (2): 8-15. (available at ijflt.com)
(2) ALL FVR/SSR studies involve fiction!
WE NEED BETTER AND MORE PRECISE WAYS OF EVALUATING TEACHERS, SUCH AS VALUE-ADDED MEASURES
1) VAM is unstable, unreliable
Teacher-rating plan flawed (Chicago Sun-Times, April 2, 2012)
The Chicago Public Schools have decided that student test scores gains will be used as part of
teacher evaluation [“Teacher ratings overhaul forges on despite lack of union approval, March 31]. Everything is wrong with this plan. A number of studies have shown that rating teachers using test score gains does not give consistent results. Different tests produce different ratings, and the same teacher’s ratings can vary from year to year, sometimes quite a bit.
In addition, using test score gains for evaluation encourages gaming the system, trying to produce increases in scores by teaching test-taking strategies, not by encouraging real
learning. This is like putting a match under the thermometer and claiming you have raised the temperature of the room. We are all interested in finding the best ways of evaluating teachers, but using student test-score gains is a lousy way to do it.
Stephen Krashen,
Different tests produce different ratings: Papay, J. 2010. Different tests, different answers: The stability of teacher value-added estimates across outcome measures. American Educational Research Journal 47,2. Vary from year to year: Sass, T. 2008. The stability of value-added measures of teacher quality and implications for teacher compensation policy. Washington DC: CALDER. (National Center for Analysis of

Longitudinal Data in Educational Research.) Kane, T. and Staiger, D. 2009. Estimating Teacher Impacts on Student Achievement: An Experimental Evaluation. NBER Working Paper No. 14607 http://www.nber.org/papers/w14607; http://www.suntimes.com/news/11611740-418/city-officials-plan-to-tie-teacher-ratings-to-stu dent-test- results.htm
2) Is there a crisis in teacher quality?
International test scores near top of world when poverty is controlled. Products of our schools do very well: The U.S. economy is ranked fifth most innovative in the world out of 142 (2013 Global Innovation Index), based in part on the availability of education, new patents, publication of scientific & technical journal articles.
TECHNOLOGY THE ANSWER: FLIPPED CLASSROOMS, ONLINE TESTING
Flipped Classrooms & Khan Academy Fever:from a supplement to the core
No research but we should do it anyway? http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational- leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/Evidence-on-Flipped-Classrooms-Is-Still-Coming-In.aspx
Kahn: "In the description of his forthcoming book, he is described as having “established himself as an outsider, with no teaching background to tie him to
broken models."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-well-does-khan-academy- teach/2012/07/27/gJQA9bWEAX_blog.html
Online testing: all students must have access to the internet, up-to-date; constant upgrading and replacement. Untested and VERY expensive, with no end in sight.
SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION ARE DOING A LOUSY JOB OF TEACHER EDUCATION: TFA IS THE WAY.
No evidence of a teacher quality problem. Student attainment is good, products of educational system do well.
TFA – the evidence for math: very small effects, unusual sample of TFA teachers. Comments by Rubinstein and Vasquez at: http://dianeravitch.net/category/teach-for-america-tfa/
3. Veteran teachers are vital.
In the Austin Statesman, in response to an essay on how new teachers are the best because they
are more enthusiastic & work harder, that we only need teachers for a couple of years.
Re: Sept. 6 column, “Rookie teachers provide energy, fresh approaches.”
When Esther Cepeda describes all the committed work and sacrifices of rookie teachers, doesn’t she realize that these same responsibilities apply to career teachers? Experienced teachers must continually rekindle enthusiasm to be effective, but their experience is invaluable.
For instance, one of the founders of KIPP, Dave Levin, was an intern at Teach for America. He was failing miserably in his high- poverty, Houston school with only six weeks of summer training. One day Levin visited the classroom across the hall and met Harriet Ball, a master teacher in her forties. He studied her techniques and incorporated them into his practice, as well as those of master teacher Rafe Esquith. He and Michael Feinberg later founded the KIPP schools on those principles.
The success of novice teachers depends on the experience and wisdom of career teachers. The ideal school blends the expertise of the master teachers with the enthusiasm of the best newbies. We learn from each other. If teaching becomes a rotation of two-year novices, as Cepeda advocates, we are in trouble.
Sara Stevenson

A CONJECTURE The .01% want as much of the (at least) 500 billion we spend yearly on education as they can get. One way to get a lot of it is replace teachers with temps, and technology > no more benefits, retirement pay, etc.
1.Keep pressure on teachers by making their lives as difficult as possible and their task totally impossible. The common core standards and tests are a major part of this.
2. Continue to attack the teaching profession: The message will continue to be that the US is in economic trouble because of bad education, which is because of bad teachers.The public, media, and politicians will then have no sympathy for teachers’ pointing out how difficult teaching has become, This will be seen as "whining," and teachers will then resign/quit in greater numbers.
3. Continue to stress the importance of teacher evaluation, This sends the message that teachers are not doing their job & that there are a lot of bad teachers out there who must be identified and fired.
4.Continue to push the idea that TFAs as just as good or better than experienced teachers.
5. Do not reward teachers for experience, for years of service. This will also encourage more experienced teachers to retire/resign, creating more room for lower-paid temps in the system. 6. Gradually increase the percentage of teachers who are temps as teachers retire and as they leave the profession because of frustration, This releases money because experienced teachers cost much more than temps. The result is more money for technology.
7. Continue to convince the public that all technology is wonderful. Use this to push flipped classrooms and glorify the Khan Academy. The role of teachers will then be diminished to the equivalent of TA’s. This reduces time spent in classrooms (lowers salaries even more), and lowers the status of teachers even more, as well as saving more salary money and increasing teacher frustration. Hire part-timers (no benefits) to serve as supplements to virtual teaching. This will be promoted as expanded opportunity for jobs, no teaching credential required. The public will accept this because they will have lost all respect for teacher credentials.

Invest in libraries, not more tests

Sent to the Houston Chronicle, October 9
Lisa Falkenberg ("Cutting libraries shows warped priorities," October 9) is right: Spending money on increased testing while cutting libraries and librarians is like investing in precise scales to weigh the animal, but neglecting to feed it. 
Decades of research show that the most important factor in developing literacy is self-selected reading, or reading because you want to. For children of poverty, the library is often the only place they have access to books. 
We hear pious pronouncements from politicians about the importance of reading, while their actions prevent it from happening. 
Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

Cutting librarians shows warped priorities
By Lisa Falkenberg
HOUSTON CHRONICLE, OCTOBER 9, 2013
Schools without librarians. Schools without any library at all. What are we doing to our schools?
Maybe I'm having an existential moment. Maybe I've spent too much time with Diane Ravitch's new book, "Reign of Error," which explores the disastrous implications of the "reform" movement pushing testing, privatization and punitive teacher "accountability."
But Ericka Mellon's front page story Tuesday on disappearing librarians and libraries struck a chord with me - an eerie, piercing, minor chord that is still ringing in my ears.
And although the loss of certified librarians is tragic, it was the mention of library-less schools that hit hardest. There are 35 schools within the Houston Independent School District that haven't reported to district officials the name of a staff member responsible for checking out library books to students, according to spokesman Jason Spencer.
That likely means there's no functioning library at those campuses, although Spencer said a clerk or volunteer could be keeping things going.
As a kid who grew up with few books in the home, the school library was a wonderland, a refuge, an All You Can Eat buffet for the mind. It was inspiration and independence; I could read what I wanted, not what I was assigned.
The library, and the librarians, taught me how to search and research, how to analyze, how to find things I didn't know I was looking for. That giant dictionary on the swivel stand was as addictive as any video game. Obsolete today, maybe. But its lessons are still with me, even when I'm typing my inquiries into MerriamWebster.com.
Life rafts for the poor
For poor children, many of whom live in homes with no books and neighborhoods with few public libraries and bookstores, libraries are life rafts. Studies have shown that less access to books means lower reading achievement, and more access can actually mitigate some of the effects of poverty.
Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California who writes about linguistics and language acquisition, has argued that books are as essential as a healthy lunch and health care. Although, the latter is at risk, too, not only for lack of insurance in our state. Principals are cutting school nurses as well.
Access to health care and books are two things Ravitch puts forth in her book as "solutions" to better educating poor children. "We know what works," she writes. All we have to do is look at the things advantaged kids have in their homes and schools - exposure to arts, sports, dance - and try to provide them as best we can in poor schools.
Ravitch's "solutions" can seem downright elementary: "Every school should have a library with librarians and media specialists," she writes.
Well, of course. But she knew something I didn't when I read those words. Librarians and libraries aren't a given anymore. They're not a priority. They're a luxury.
The quote in Mellon's story from Michelle Schmidt, a leader of the Pershing Middle School parent group, said it all: "In an ideal situation, all public schools would have librarians and art programs and P.E. every day, but no public school has it all," she said.
Books, art, exercise
In my day, which wasn't too long ago, books and art and exercise were the basics, what a kid needed to survive, to stay healthy and inspired and interested. They still are.
But some educators in our society, many of whom wear the "Reformer" cape, have other priorities. They have swallowed whole the mantra that our schools are in crisis, our children are in danger and our national security is at risk as a result.
As Ravitch suggests, they have come up with "solutions" that seek to undermine traditional public education, the foundation of our democracy, and replace it with a system of "choice," code for privatization, and "accountability," code for punishing and firing teachers whose drill-and-kill skills are wanting in this chilling dominion of the Almighty Test.
Here at home, HISD just received the coveted Broad Prize. The $550,000 in college scholarships that comes with the award is a wonderful thing. The reform-minded zeal behind the award is something else.
To some extent, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier is just following state laws that require certain amounts of testing, but he has chosen to continue tying teacher bonuses to student performance on standardized tests in a program known as "ASPIRE." So-called "merit pay" has been around for nearly a century, but there's no compelling evidence it works.
Yet, it is a priority for taxpayer dollars. And, thanks to the Texas Legislature, so is testing.
Merit pay = 20 Marians
Since 2007, HISD has paid out about $200 million on merit pay. Earlier this year, it paid $17.6 million in ASPIRE awards, about $12.3 million from local general funds and the rest from grants. If you're curious, those general funds are enough to pay 200 librarians.
Then there's the money for testing. HISD last year approved about $3.3 million for testing tools known as "formative assessments," which track what students are learning. In an alternative, test-free universe, that amount is enough to pay for about 55 librarians.
Principals' choice
Spencer, the HISD spokesman, stressed that the decision to cut libraries lies with principals, who are ultimately responsible for student academic achievement: "In HISD, we've decided for better or worse principals have this discretion," Spencer said. "If the board decided they wanted to make that nonnegotiable they could."
And what are the board's priorities? We'll get some idea of that on Thursday, when members consider a four-cent property tax rate increase. It would be the first since 2001. And HISD would keep its proud distinction of having the lowest tax rate among 24 of Harris County's school districts.
But then, if it passes, there's no guarantee any of it would go to libraries. Priorities are elsewhere: tests, data, teacher assessments. Everything else gets stuck on a shelf.

The Cy Young argument for increased testing.

NEA president Dennis Van Roekel has made this argument:

"Under the No Child Left Behind law, states have released test results that supposedly tell us how many students are proficient in math and reading. The problem is, each state sets its own benchmark for proficiency, and different students are held to different standards.

Imagine if the batting average of one baseball player was based on at-bats against Cy Young winners, while another average was compiled from plate appearances in the minors. You couldn't tell much by comparing the two numbers."

http://www.good.is/posts/the-end-of-one-size-fits-all-learning

My response: We already have a test that allows us to compare states: The NAEP. In fact, the evidence for differing standards on state tests comes from comparisons with the NAEP.

Do educators support the common core?

Last month (September) the National Education Association announced " that a "Majority of Educators "strongly" support the Common Core State Standards" (headline of an article that appeared in NEA Today).

 

I have been unable to find the details of the questions and the results on the internet, but the NEA's own report of the results are not consistent with their headline.

First, the poll, done by the NEA, only surveyed NEA members. Second, we are told that 26% were "wholeheartedly in favor of the standards," 50% supported them with "some reservations" and 11% were opposed. Also, 13% didn't know enough about the standards to have an opinion.

In other words, only 26% strongly support the CCSS.  The headline could easily have read "Most NEA members polled have reservations about the common core or are opposed."

The NEA has strongly supported the standards, and the media is constantly filled with cheerful pronouncements about the common core from the US Department of Education.  My interpretation of the poll results is that many teachers are not convinced, thanks to their own experience.

http://neatoday.org/2013/09/12/nea-poll-majority-of-educators-support-the-common-core-state-standards/

Phonics Debate in The Austrailian.

The (limited) impact of heavy phonics instruction
Published in The Australian, Oct 1, 2013 as "Foster Love of Reading"

In "Bad teaching kills reading skills," (Sept. 30) Jennifer Buckingham claims that failing to include "explicit, systematic and structured" phonics is bad teaching. This means phonics instruction that teaches all students all the major rules of phonics in a strict order.

Published scientific studies show that students who have experienced intensive systematic structured phonics do better only on tests in which they have to pronounce lists of words presented in isolation. This kind of heavy phonics instruction has only a microscopic influence on tests in which children have to understand what they read -- tests of reading comprehension given after first grade.

Study after study has shown that performance on tests of reading comprehension is heavily influenced by the amount of self-selected free voluntary reading that children do, not whether they have had explicit, systematic and structured phonics.

Stephen Krashen
Brian Cambourne


Some Sources (not included in published letter)

Definition of explicit, systematic and structured phonics:
Ehri, C.L., Nunes, S.R., Stahl, S.A., & Willows, D.M. (2001). Systematic Phonics Instruction Helps Students Learn to Read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel’s Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 71, (3) 393-447.

Limited impact of phonics:
Garan, E. (2001). Beyond the smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel report on phonics. Phi Delta Kappan 82, no. 7 (March), 500-506.
Garan, E. (2002) Resisting Reading Mandates. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Krashen, S. 2009. Does intensive decoding instruction contribute to reading comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74.

Self-selected reading and reading comprehension:
Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Heinemann Publishing Company and Libraries Unlimited.
Sullivan, A. and Brown, M. 2013. Social inequalities in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London   www.cls.ioe.ac.uk


original article: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/bad-teaching-kills-reading-skills/story-e6frgd0x-1226729534319#.
This letter posted at tinyurl.com/my4sjxe
Letter published: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/letters/foster-love-of-reading/story-fn558imw-1226731109304


RESPONSE TO OUR LETTER:

Some children need rote learning to succeed at reading
IT appears there has been a breakdown of communications between schools, teacher training and curriculum requirements.
Phonics is taught in primary schools for the purposes of learning to read and spell. Each student learns in their own way and good teachers employ multiple strategies to teach them.
I have taught in primary schools for more than 40 years and have noticed that phonics, whole word and other ideas are implemented, but what is missing is rote learning. It has been some time since I saw daily repetition of spelling.
Top students may learn quickly but for others, constant repetition is necessary to achieve high levels of competency. A musician has to practice constantly. So do children learning to read and spell.
Augusta Monro, Dural, NSW
TIM Mahar, Stephen Krashen and Brian Cambourne (Letters, 2/10) do not seem to appreciate that children can be immersed in literature but still be unable to read since they cannot crack the code of written language.
Your editorial ("After years of studies and fads, Jaydon still can't read", 1/10) sums up the deplorable and inexcusable state of literacy teaching in Australia.
Good phonics-based teaching has ample scope for discussing meaning. The children and adults I treat each day as a special education therapist do not self-select books, because they cannot read. So many parents complain to me that their child won't read, but when I do an assessment I find the child does not know the sounds of the letters nor how to blend them.
It is a false dichotomy to argue that the choice is between reading great and enjoyable books or lists of mind-numbing words. Indeed, structured phonics ensures that children can access any book in English to pursue their own interests.
Antonia Canaris, Ashfield, NSW
published at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/letters/some-children-need-rote-learning-to-succeed-at-reading/story-fn558imw-1226732514169#sthash.Mh1kr6nt.dpuf

OUR RESPONSE, Published October 8. 

AUGUSTA Monro and Antonia Canaris's letters (4/10) commented on our letter on the limited effect of phonics (Letters, 2/10). The research does not condemn all phonics instruction, only extensive, systematic phonics, an extremist position that demands that we teach all the rules of phonics in a strict order.
A knowledge of basic phonics, straight-forward rules that can help make texts more comprehensible and that children can easily learn and remember, is helpful.
Not all reading results in improvement in reading ability. The texts that help are those that are comprehensible and interesting. These texts will provide all the repetition that Monro feels is important.
Canaris is correct in saying that self-selected reading is not for beginners. Beginning readers need to hear lots of stories, read easy texts and, as mentioned earlier, learn some basic phonics.
Stephen Krashen
Brian Cambourne

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/letters/a-child-who-cant-read-is-disabled-for-life/story-fn558imw-1226733249567

National priorities: which comes first, improve economy or improve education?

On Oct 3, ASCD Smartbrief featured the results of a poll.

(http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/eMfCCemyuAggwvsIfDfIfYcOjQkk)

ASCD did not provide details, only the results.

The question: What do you feel should be the most important U.S. national priority or goal?

Among the choices were:

(1) Increasing jobs and economic growth.

(2) Improving the quality of our public schools.

Arne Duncan has said that the key to improving the economy is first improving education.  I assume this means that he would choose option (2).

Martin Luther King's position is different: "We are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished” (Martin Luther King, 1967, Final Words of Advice). I assume this means that Dr. King would choose option (1).

Here are the results of the ED Pulse poll:

What do you feel should be the most important U.S. national priority or goal?

Increasing jobs and economic growth: 51%

Improving the quality of our public schools: 11%

The complete results: note that total = 100%, indicating that respondents were asked to choose one answer among the alternatives.

Increasing jobs and economic growth: 51.58%

Making sure children get a strong start through quality early education: 15.18%

Improving the quality of our public schools: 11.15%

Improving access to quality heatlh care for low-income families: 9.04%

Reducing the tax burden on families  8.46%

Securing our borders 3.85%

Making sure working parents can find quality, affordable child care for their young children: 1.73%

NOT included:

Increasing testing in schools and making sure children are tested on all subjects every year.

More rigorous standards in schools.

More up-to-date news about Miley Cyrus.