The Center for Education Reform’s (CER) campaign to Take America Back to School on Education Reform continues with a web-based guide to candidate positions on education reform. Educationfifty.com is a dynamic tool that empowers voters to educate themselves about which candidates are real education reformers and which ones merely pay lip service to the idea.

Educationfifty.com compares candidate positions on three key reform issues: 1) strong charter school laws, 2) meaningful school choice, and 3) strong teacher evaluations with performance based rewards.

Currently Educationfifty.com contains information on the nation’s gubernatorial races and state superintendent races as well as the incumbent governors who are not up for election. Comparative information on the presidential candidates will be available in October.

The site, which is based on thousands of data points and comprehensive research, will be updated in real time – providing up-to-the-minute research to voters craving the truth about candidate’s plans for fixing education systems.

“Education is only as strong as its weakest link. Bold, substantive reform happens when the public holds policymakers – both present and potential – to their promises and demands answers on specific policy proposals,” said CER President Jeanne Allen. “When Governors and other state policymakers embrace real reform, great things happen. Educationfifty.com arms voters with the information they need to elect reform minded leaders who will take on the status quo and support real solutions that lead to better – and more — education opportunities for kids.”

CER is going all out this election season to educate voters about the nature of true education reform. In addition to Educationfifty.com, the Field Guide to Education Reform: How to Spot a Real Education Reformer provides voters with those important education policy questions they should be asking their policymakers. Those policymakers (present and potential) will soon be receiving their own toolkit on real education reform from CER.

a. Change the word “choice” to “options”?
b. Use accountability fifteen different times but never define what it means?
c. Say there is no silver bullet and we simply have to “do it all.”
d. Advocate for “early childhood education” without mentioning that existing schools that don’t work can’t do a better job just by having the kids early and neglect to discuss how low-quality is an issue in most public pre-schools as well.
e. Banter on about the dropout rate, the state of joblessness, homelessness, foodlessness and more as excuses for poor performing schools?
f. Frequently use the words “non-profit solutions?”

For more about How to Spot a Real Reformer go to look here.

Earlier at the same event, on a panel of state legislators, OH State Senator Nina Turner described the need for education reform in Cleveland: “if your hair is on fire, then you better act like it’s on fire”

Jeanne Allen talks everything from elections to teacher quality and pay to higher education.

Super Tuesday is upon us, and voters are likely nearing the selection of a GOP candidate to oppose President Obama in November. As people go to the polls in ten states on Tuesday, what should they be looking at in choosing their candidates?

We hear that the voters of 2012 care only about things like “jobs and unemployment,” “retirement security,” “housing” and “debt” — those things that make up the “Big E,” what we commonly refer to as “the economy.”

But there’s another “E” missing from the equation that actually feeds — or starves — even the best economy. It’s called Education, and its reform is the imperative for a nation that continues to lag in achievement and finances.

In every state and community, education reform is the battle cry for those most afflicted by the nation’s 2,000 failing high schools, and for the approximately 70 percent of kids who are not learning at either national or international benchmarks. There are solutions to these true economic deficiencies (yes, education is vital to a healthy economy!) ranging from more choices in public and private education, teacher and parent empowerment, higher standards, better content, online delivery, tenure reform and more.

I don’t know why the candidates don’t seem to recognize, or discuss this. Where are the media pundits on the candidates’ positions on K-12 education? Is it fatigue? Apathy? We have heard for so long how terribly broken our education system is. The problems seem intractable, and perhaps voters are simply tired of hearing about it.

If that’s the case, I suppose it’s understandable. After all, the most recent Nation’s Report Card was particularly grim, showing that barely 40 percent of our 4th- and 8th- grade students are proficient in math and reading. SAT and ACT scores have remained flat, demonstrating that a majority of our students are not ready for college. And globally, the United States has slipped to 16th in college education attainment, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That’s why the candidates should be asked the hard questions, and why they should talk about the most controversial answers. We must insist the candidates use their public positions to address the issues most connected to the economic mess we are in: education.

“Choice” and “accountability,” once not even in the vernacular, are now the watchwords of education reform, but in many places they are still just that: words. We must continue to demand schools and teachers be held accountable for better results. As students in communities across the country are being offered more and better choices where their own schools are failing, we must remember that far too few are empowered to do so.

If you are in one of the ten Super Tuesday states, make it clear that education is not some “other” thing — a luxury issue that we can only afford to consider when times are flush. Tell your friends, your media and your candidates that education reform is fundamental to our nation’s economic success.

Tucked away in a corner of every candidate’s website lies a position paper that describes his solutions to a problem that desperately needs fixing. Voters should find it, read it, and consider it when making their decisions — on Tuesday and in November.

It’s basic math, really: A vote for real education reform = a vote for an improved economy.

MEMO TO THE HOSTS OF MORNING JOE: ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS

From: Jeanne Allen

Dear Joe and Mika:

Tomorrow you will host what appears to be another important show on K-12 education in America. Because we have been toiling in the education reform vineyard long enough to remember when the words “choice” and “accountability” were not even in the vernacular, your openness to airing these issues is welcome, indeed.

We’re pleased that CHOICE and ACCOUNTABILITY now appear to be mainstream watchwords of reform. Yet the opponents of reform are smart, so it also means the words are occasionally cheapened by overuse and misuse.

Perhaps tomorrow’s Town Hall meeting can tease out the real reformers from those who are simply waxing rhetorical. From our on-the-ground involvement in states, we know some of your guests are offering real leadership on reform, while others …, well, not so much.

Here are some questions to help you separate the wheat from the chaff – to tease out the real reform from the empty promises:

CHOICE: As we speak, African American policymakers and educators are gathered at a meeting in Washington to advance the goal of ensuring more and better options for children of color, who graduate at vastly lower rates, barely score “basic” on proficiency tests and are more likely to go to jail than go to college.

Despite this deeply dismaying picture of US education, NJ Governor Chris Christie’s Department of Education has rejected dozens of strong charter school proposals while hundreds of NJ schools are beyond failure. He has been very effective at getting folks off the beach in a storm. But Governor Christie has not succeeded in twisting enough arms to give vouchers to the poor so that they can escape from the state’s worst performing schools. This is doubly sad, since doing so would do much to stem the tide of closing Catholic schools.

Delaware Governor Markell’s Department of Education has discouraged applicants for charters in his state, putting them through the bureaucratic challenges that charters were created to escape.

How will Governor Christie’s plan get beyond the rhetoric? How will Governor Markell ensure new and better opportunities for children when so few charters are permitted or encouraged to start?

ACCOUNTABILITY: Teacher evaluation is the policy du jour. From Governor Malloy of Connecticut to Governor Jindal of Louisiana, state leaders are finally addressing the issue of teacher performance. But is it enough?

Will policies like those endorsed from New York to New Haven by the AFT really transform teacher quality? Or will this lead to a mere rhetorical gain and do little to move great teachers up and ineffective teachers out? How do evaluations by themselves ensure that only great teachers get retained and rewarded? (Hint: Performance Pay)

PERSONALITIES OR POLICY? Joe, since we worked together on the Hill, I have been witness to your passion and commitment to education. And I continue to see it in your resolve to showcase great successes, like Harlem Village Academies, as well as in your willingness to call out people like AFT president Randi Weingarten when their views clash with the needs of education.

If Ms. Weingarten joins you again tomorrow, I urge you to ask her to define what teacher evaluation really means when a teacher fails to demonstrate her students’ progress.

And if Reverend Al Sharpton joins you tomorrow, or at any time in the future, will you ask him if he supports real school choice? In reform forums across the country, he has been willing to talk tough. Yet to date, he has endorsed only one solution to help schools: more money. He has not favored school choices to help arrest educational decline. We would love to have Reverend Sharpton have a look at the work of the real grassroots, –such as the leaders of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) who are meeting in DC today. BAEO and others like them are working tirelessly to influence changes in policy that would ensure kids real, quality educational choices today.

For all your guests, we urge you to ask what measurable increases in educational quality and educational opportunity will come from their efforts? How many new quality choices have opened or will open? How many bad public schools are getting closed in their state? Which ones are saying “enough” to the teachers unions when it comes to pay for performance, not time in the classroom? Which evaluations really have teeth, and which can be easily spun?

These are the issues we are faced with today. Yes, we have a movement that is uniting many different voices, but we are also in danger of making it sound far better than it really is.

As Morning Joe fans, we salute your efforts to shine a spotlight on these real issues in reform.

Well, get ready to go backward … again. Today’s SAT Breakdown for college-bound seniors shows that student improvement is going nowhere and that Hispanics and African-American students continue to face a wide achievement gap.

When you take into account this year’s SAT analysis and recent ACT scores, which reveal that only 25 percent of the 2011 class could meet the benchmarks for college readiness in all four core subjects, it’s no surprise that we’re dropping back.

The United States has slipped from 12^th to 16^th globally in college education attainment, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report released this week.

How much more writing needs to be on the wall before we reach a consensus that how we continue to educate our kids is not working?

We’re not adequately preparing our K-12 students for college and therefore we’re falling behind other nations around the globe both educationally and economically. It’s time that we all step back, admit its not working and then work to reform our education system to emphasize student achievement.

We, and especially our kids, need a system that puts them first and rallies against the backward trends evident in our education system.

“Learning is like rowing upstream – to not advance is to drop back.” – Chinese proverb.

Well, get ready to go backward … again. Today’s SAT score analysis for college-bound seniors shows that student improvement is going nowhere and that Hispanics and African-American students continue to face a wide achievement gap.

When you take into account this year’s SAT analysis and recent ACT scores, which reveal that only 25 percent of the 2011 class could meet the benchmarks for college readiness in all four core subjects, it’s no surprise that we’re dropping back.

The United States has slipped from 12^th to 16^th globally in college education attainment, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report released this week.

How much more writing needs to be on the wall before we reach a consensus that how we continue to educate our kids is not working?

We’re not adequately preparing our K-12 students for college and therefore we’re falling behind other nations around the globe both educationally and economically. It’s time that we all step back, admit its not working and then work to reform our education system to emphasize student achievement.

We, and especially our kids, need a system that puts them first and rallies against the backward trends evident in our education system.

Says the press propaganda:

“Unlike our neighbors in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, stakeholders here worked together to craft an aggressive bill that makes our state the leader in education reform. At a time when many teachers understandably feel under attack, this bill celebrates effective teachers, recognizes their accomplishments and helps keep them in classrooms.”

We’re so glad that no one had to flee a state to keep from voting on major changes to education. Maybe that’s because there was nothing really to flee about, no controversy, no major changes. Time will tell, but a rose by any other name is not a rose. And this bill is not reform.