The Purple Education Plan

We, the undersigned, support the following principles that will ensure all children have access to world-class schools and learning opportunities and endorse immediate implementation of the Purple Education Plan.

Principles of Education Reform

1. America’s schools should provide world-class educations.
2. All our children need access to schools offering the highest quality teaching and curriculum.
3. None of our children should receive inferior educations due to economic circumstances.
4. All our children should be free to access supplemental educational services.
5. A portfolio of schools – public, district, charter, contract, and private can serve us best.
6. Parents should have option to select type of school that is best for their children.
7. The federal government’s role is not to dictate a single education model.
8. Federal government should provide incentives to states, school districts, administrators, teachers, parents, and children, to improve education achievement.

The Purple Education Plan

1. States and localities should devise their own standards, tests, curricular materials and instructional practices, but also participate in uniform national testing so we can learn which education models work.
2. The Dept of Education should focus on research, educational experimentation, and fostering, via grants, proven new educational models and technologies.
3. The federal government would fund broader state participation in the Nation’s Report Card and international tests.
4. States making progress on the Nation’s Report Card, international tests, the SAT and the ACT tests should be rewarded with significant federal grants.
5. Support testing of teachers in K-12 on broad content knowledge and ensure that grade 5-12 teachers have strong specific content knowledge, particularly in math and science.
6. Federal government will provide bonuses to top math and science teachers.
7. Federal government will encourage states to promote schooling options and school choice.
8. Federal government develops master administrator program, master teaching, and master parenting program to improve delivery of knowledge and educational attainment.
9. Support state efforts to make third-grade literacy a pre-requisite for entering fourth grade
10. Support Teach for America with goal of expanding program to dramatically lower effective class size in struggling schools.
11. Develop grade- and subject-specific, web-based instructional videos featuring nation's best K-12 teachers. Make these videos freely available to schools, teachers, parents, and children.
12. Assist low-income parents with children in acquiring laptops and web access to permit online learning by children after school, on weekends, and in the summer.
13. Make Head Start work by expanding its scope, focusing its approach on character and motivation, not just cognition, incorporating home visits, and maintaining its links to its graduates throughout their primary and secondary schooling.
14. Provide financial incentives to children on income-related scale to go to school, read, maintain good behavior, and finish high school.
15. Support the federal government's Institute for Education Sciences, which funds education research and data collection.
16. Encourage education data collection, evidence, and experiments and evidence-based policymaking.
17. Support expansion of charter schools and other schooling models offered by providers with documented effectiveness.