New SATs Show Education Suicide Is Working

[Hannah Bell]

The new SATs are out with some predictable outcomes for a decade dedicated to narrowing the curriculum and teaching to tests and draining any care and joy from the classrooms, yet the "bold reformers" like charterite Jeanne Allen are calling for more of the same bullshit: "we must redouble our efforts to reform an education system that continues to spend more only to receive less in return."

A bit of different take from Fairtest yesterday (my bolds):

SAT college admissions scores released today show that “Test-and-punish school ‘reform’ policies are leaving more children further behind, even when measured by other standardized exams,” according to Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing. Schaeffer noted, “The data contradict the claim that more high-takes testing improves educational quality and equity.”

A chart prepared by FairTest shows overall SAT averages declined since the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) federal testing mandates went into effect. At the same time, gaps between Whites and Asians, on the one hand, and historically disadvantaged minority groups, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics, grew larger. ACT scores, made public last month, demonstrated comparable patterns. Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) also indicate that educational progress has slowed in the NCLB era. Under NCLB, every public school student must be tested annually in grades three through eight and at least once in high school in both reading and math.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/09/new-sats-show-education-suicide-is.html


“Proponents of NCLB and similar state-level testing programs promised that overall achievement would improve while score gaps would narrow,” Schaeffer continued. “Precisely the opposite has taken place. Policymakers need to embrace very different policies if they are committed to real education reform.”


BUT THEY WON'T. BECAUSE ED DEFORM IS ABOUT 1) PROFIT & 2) UNION-BUSTING & 3) POWER & CENTRALIZED CONTROL

NOT KIDS, NOT EDUCATION.

[JCMach1]

1. Teachers have been saying this for years, but no one listened and no none will now

Politicians think they are experts on education and won't hear otherwise (left, right, or in-between).

[QC]

12. But what could teachers possibly know about this?

Few, if any, of them play basketball with the president!

[JCMach1]

17. Touche

[PVnRT]

19. Pfft. Teachers (and their unions) are just another interest group

It is not in the interest of the Democratic party to take people like them seriously anymore. Only legitimate business groups matter.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Swamp Rat]

3. k&r

[LWolf]

4. Of course it's not working. It wasn't designed to.

Because you are correct. "ED DEFORM IS ABOUT 1) PROFIT & 2) UNION-BUSTING & 3) POWER & CENTRALIZED CONTROL

NOT KIDS, NOT EDUCATION."

[Fumesucker]

5. Mission Accomplished!!

What, you think this was an accident?

How touchingly naive.

Citizens who can think for themselves are troublesome and much more difficult to propagandize by the powers that be.

Edited for punctuation.

[newblewtoo]

7. If I had a penny

for every time I heard this same thing uttered by some right wing nut I would be rich. In general the argument went like this: "The teachers unions are dumbing down the kids for a Communist takeover".

Someone please tell me how this line of reasoning does not give a black eye to our education system? I mean really, when in doubt bash education? Sorry but I am getting sick of it. Go blame someone else. Teachers have enough to deal with without fighting a rear guard action.

[Fumesucker]

11. Teachers are pushing high stakes testing?

I did not know that.

/Johnny Carson

[uncommon]

16. Do you honestly believe the public ed system isn't designed to produce workers of mediocre

intelligence?

That's naive of you.

There will always be teachers who go above and beyond to give more than this to students, but the purpose of public ed is to produce a literate populace valuable for employment, but not so valuable that they will outshine the oligarchy.

[another saigon]

21. no accident at all. By design....

"In society today the public is essentially kept distracted and uninformed. This is the way that

governments maintain control. If you review history, power is maintained through ignorance."

~ Peter Joseph

[stray cat]

6. So what are other countries doing right and hopefully we can hire their educated citizens

Instead of our illiterate ones?

[COLGATE4]

14. Most European countries have a pyramid-style system which

would never be accepted here. Basically students are assessed throughout their educational careers and at certain 'choke points' they are not allowed to continue and tracked off to other types of education. Only the best and the brightest get to college, and the whole thing continues with the advanced degrees. Somewhat like the military for officers - "up or out" - get promoted or leave, except here those who don't go to college go to vocational education, community college style careers which don't require a B.A. Should also be noted that lack of a college degree is not so frowned upon there as it is here. The social stigma is much less. Would never work here but it does produce pretty good results.

[klook]

8. The Shame of The Nation by Jonathan Kozol

tells the sad, enraging story ...

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shame_of_the_Nation

[Doctor_J]

9. School "reform" was intended to make Neil Bush rich

and to bust the NEA. Successful on both counts.

[lunatica]

10. 2 plus 2 still equals 4. This article is just adding it all up and sure enough

The obvious is still obvious.

[End Of The Road]

13. And now the "accountability" crap is infiltrating public higher ed, too

I guess the dumbed-down HS grads will eventually have plenty of dumbed-down universities to attend.


Look what's happening at Texas A&M:


Texas A&M System Will Rate Professors Based on Their Bottom-Line Value:

http://chronicle.com/article/Texas-A-M-System-Will-Rate/124280/


Texas A&M Releases Data on Faculty:

http://www.theeagle.com/am/A-amp-amp-M-releases-data-on-faculty


Makes me want to scream.

[Art_from_Ark]

20. That's taking the "publish or perish" mentality

to a whole new level

[snot]

15. K&R'd!

[indepat]

18. Notwithstanding draining any care and joy from the classrooms and declining SAT and

ACT scores, is it plunge ahead in fully implementing yet another of junior's wrong-headed policies producing disastrous results? :shrug:

[Starry Messenger]

22. k & r