Excellent education nation initiative. now, some of the top minds in education reform along with teachers and parents have gathered to talk about ideas, problems, and solutions for putting america s schools back on top. there s a lot of positive, constructive discussion happening, and let s face it, a lot of rhetoric. now, one of the things that i ve learned in my travels, speaking and debating with reformers, parents, teachers, teachers union officials and children across the country is this there is no silver bullet to solve our nation s education problem. none. dumping obscene amounts of money into the public school system won t make america s children math whizzes on par with the rest of the world. handing out waivers for the federal mandates under the no child left behind act will do the nothing to help low-income children close the achievement gap. education reform that doesn t allow for merit pay for teachers or allow for the termination of ineffective teachers just will not work. now, before you decide to crawl back into bed and weep for the
The talent to succeed, but do you have the guts to fail? if you do the right things for the right reasons, good things will happen. so there you have it. humility, patience, and faith, and always a few tears from me. [ applause ] if you do push yourselves, if you build on what you ve already accomplished here, then i couldn t be more confident about your futures. so thank you. thanks for inspiring me. and if you would like more information on nbc s education nation initiative, check us out at our website, educationnation.com. today s tweet of the day from politico s michael enthat broke this news on twitter. scoop just posted, tommy thompson to open for the senate seat in wisconsin, would be strong frontrunner. he served as governor from 1987
reporter: eagle academy has its own brand of brotherhood. eagles, who now have a chance to spread their wings and soar. i am the master of my faith. i am the captain of my soul. reporter: for msnbc, i m craig melvin. well, during our education nation initiative this week, we ve talked about the many components that can change troubled schools for policy to government officials, administrators and parents. we also know from looking at the piece we just aired that teachers can certainly make a difference. it s an alternative school for pregnant teachers and mrs. rose was the teacher who changed my life. good to see you. good to see you, tamron. well, you are retiring this year after how many i m making this announcement. a lot of people aren t aware that you re retiring after how much years of teaching? 35. 35 years. in illinois. and you made a big difference in my life.
We are back with our education nation initiative. all this week we re focusing on our nation s schools and how to help our children succeed. we look now at the crisis involving hispanic students. one of the issues president obama addressed during his backyard conversation in albuquerq albuquerque, new mexico, earlier this week. african-american students, latino students, we re doing worse in science and math than the overall average. so america is 21st and 25th. if you looked at performance and of latino and african-american students it would be lower. that s inexcusable. that s the fastest growing portion of our population. nbc news education correspondent rehema ellis joins us with more on this. i imagine it s hard to target one group. you have to find the unique
todd bowers, thanks for joining me. thank you. we turn to our education nation initiative. we re looking at the education crisis in america and how to improve the schools. one issue, the shortage of male teacher ls. look at this. particularly african-american male teachers. on the about 25% of america s public schoolteachers are men. just 2% are african-american men. the shortage is most acute in elementary schools where about 260,000 male teachers versus 1.5 million female teachers. joining me now is youth advocate and author captain wes moore. also where he follows the similarities in his own life with another man, same name, wes moore, now serving a life sentence without parole. thank you for joining us. we ve been waiting to talk to yo you. thank you. tom brokaw brought this up yesterday in our town hall. white male teacher ls would have