Rise Above The Mark
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It’s time to make a difference in public education.

America's children need problem-solving, creativity and innovation skills to succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy, but our current legislatively mandated public school "reforms" are holding them back. It's time to change direction. It's time to return innovation and creativity to the classroom and empower our teachers to educate their students in new, proven ways. To make this happen, and to make a real difference for our children, communities and country, it's time to return trust and responsibility to our public schools and teachers.

Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond

Professor of Education at Stanford University
Education Policy and Reform Researcher

What can our schools learn from others?

Linda Darling-Hammond discusses how, while the world's best education systems focus on the future and early childhood education, U.S. schools, under direction of policymakers, implement “reforms” that undermine our ability to compete in the world.

Diane Ravitch

Education Historian
Asst. Sec. of Education, Pres. H.W. Bush

Does standardized testing really work?

Diane Ravitch explains that the standardized test promotes conformity and rewards students who can pick the right bubble. It punishes divergent thinking, creativity, originality and the student who thinks differently.

Dr Pasi Sahlberg

Ministry of Education, Finland

What are the world’s best
education systems doing?

Pasi Sahlberg speaks to how education in Finland is about equity. In Finland, teachers are regarded as highly as lawyers, resulting in only the best teachers in every classroom.

Karen Francisco

Award-Winning Editorialist on Education
Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN

When education fails,
whom should we hold accountable?

Karen Francisco has reported on public education for most of her career. She can bear witness to how response to poor-education performance, in light of current “reforms,” has been misdirected—and how, if this doesn't change, we are only compounding the problem.

Dr Marc Tucker

CEO, National Center on Education/Economy
Author, Tough Choices or Tough Times

Can our economy afford to stay on this path?

Marc Tucker, an internationally known expert on reform, speaks to the importance of producing an education system that is competitive with the systems of the top-performing countries.

Jamie Vollmer

Author, Schools Cannot Do It Alone

Should schools be run like a business?

Jamie Vollmer, businessman and author, speaks to returning our schools to a system based on collaboration, empowerment and trust—and not on business management.

Narrated by Peter Coyote

Peter is an American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator. He is passionate about public education and supports the work and success of public schools. He believes that all children should have access to high-quality public education and decisions regarding such education should be left to those in the field. Peter's speaking voice, for which he won an Emmy in 1992, will tell our story in Rise Above the Mark.