Last month, Education Sector, a nonpartisan education policy think tank, launched a new report, Eight for 2008: Education Ideas for the Next President. The report presents some interesting, and innovative, ideas for reshaping education policy over the next five years. Let’s take a closer look.

First, like an increasing number of education policy reports, Education Sector embraces pre-Kindergarten for poor and middle-class kids. It’s shocking that so many experts agree that pre-K is a no-brainer for improving education in America and that we still don’t have it.

Second, they want a “new deal” for teachers that will invest money in states and school districts that reward teaches working in shortage fields or tough schools; in districts that provide performance-based rewards; and in teacher preparation and mentoring programs. And they’d create peer review programs to remove low-performers. As the report notes, this plank is probably not politically viable, though they then (and quite inexplicably) comment that it could “find a very receptive audience.”

Third, Education Sector proposes a national corps of SuperPrincipals. They’d fund a national leadership institute that would train and teach principals who could manage the toughest schools with the greatest need.

Fourth, they’d create more public schools in low-income neighborhoods through a new School Creation Fund.

Fifth, they’d create a Virtual Schooling Innovation Fund that would provide grants for developing new technology for teaching and learning.

Sixth, Education Sector tackles the question of immigration. They seek a fast-track citizenship program for undocumented students who graduate from high school. This idea is based on the U.S. Military’s fast-track program for undocumented citizens, and about 65,000 students would qualify each year.

Seventh, they want to provide a guide for kids to learn more about colleges, and thus be better able to pick a college that works for them.

Finally, they’d forgive loan that remain for students who work in low-income jobs for fifteen years.

In all, Education Sector has presented some interesting ideas that will, at the least, spark debate. Some of the ideas are better than others: for example, the SuperPrincipals corps seems like an excellent way to improve the management of underperforming schools and share best practices among principals. But it’s hard to see the reasoning in the federal government providing students with a guide to colleges and universities. Measuring “how much students at a given college learn” seems problematic unless Education Sector wants to create standardized testing for college students, and if they're not willing to go that far, then they're guide wouldn't be any different than the many guides and booklets put out by schools and private college-prep companies.

Despite the flaws in this report, Education Sector has presented some interesting thoughts on where education in America should go. And these ideas are certainly worth debating.