The U.S. Department of Mis-Edjukashun
First, the U.S. dropped out of a major international math competition this summer. Now comes word that our student’s test scores on a major international reading exam have been rendered invalid because the contractor who printed the tests misnumbered the pages–and the Department of Education failed to proofread the booklets:
In an episode that has embarrassed the Department of Education, thousands of flawed testing booklets forced the invalidation of United States reading scores on an international exam administered without major mishap in 56 other countries.
The contractor that printed the faulty exams for the government is reimbursing it $500,000, government officials said yesterday. But the department admitted it had not proofread the tests.
“I’m really upset about this,” said Mark Schneider, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics at the department. “It’s a big embarrassment.”
The problem came on a test known as the Program for International Student Assessment that allows students’ proficiency to be compared with that of their international peers. It was administered to 5,600 American 15-year-olds last fall, as well as to students in the 30 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and in 27 less developed countries. Scores are scheduled for release next month.
The error appeared to be the first major mishap leading to the invalidation of American scores on an international test, Dr. Schneider said. But a string of similar incidents brought flawed results on other standardized exams, including the SAT’s and the state math and reading tests used to judge schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Gotta love our federal educational bureaucracy: No Dunce Left Behind.
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Oh, the irony…
C-Rus: I’m hard core when it comes to local control over schools. And when it comes to anything federal in education I am for the abolition of the Department of Education.
There should be Education and Training components in each of the cabinet departments at the undersecretary levels.
Sole job: nation building resources for each of the 50 states to develop related aspects of work-related education and training programs administered by school districts.
The vocational and technical education movements in the USA of the early 20th century gave this country the “measureable objective”.
We need to revitalize this and get people into the US work force *where they are needed*.
Bear, Agreed again..
One of my issues as an employer, the kids come in here without knowing how to think. The kids who did well in school, can do the math, the science stuff – but basic cause/effect, reasoning seems to be sorely lacking. And this lack seems to exist pretty much across the board – trade school kids, college and university kids. Maybe I’m not remembering well, but it seems to me, reasoning and logic were skills brought by new employees 20 years ago.
I should mention I was a teacher in the public schools for 2 years and would never go back! I think there are plenty of good teachers out there who really do want the best for their students but their hands are tied by the school board and the government telling them what to teach and how to teach it. I love teaching, I just don’t like all the political crap that goes along with it.
One of my biggest issues with our public school is that they were teaching my 2nd grader about Hinduism and Buddhism. And I don’t mean a casual mention that there are other religions (which is fine with me) but I mean an in depth study. Way too in depth for the mind of a 7 or 8 year old. I understand giving kids a broad education on other cultures but at the age of 7? Our school was using this as “enrichment” and going above and beyond the social studies requirements from the state. We chose to take my daughter out of class that week (just during social studies which was at the end of the day) I was just not comfortable with how it was being taught.
Thanks to everyone who commented on homeschooling. I really believe that may be what we start doing for next school year. I just have to really be prepared to take my kids education upon myself. Actually, those few years as a teacher have probably prepared me. If I can handle a class of unruly 4th graders, I can handle my 7 and 5 year old.
#72, I too graduated around your time, but I alas was required to have passed the same 2-3 years math, 2 years science and 4 years english and 1 foreign language courses as my children did in High School as well as it sounds like your students. This was, however, back when California really did have a leg up on educating their students. Now, they are just teaching them English and babysitting. You will not find good schools in the larger cities, have to go to the suburbs in California, now.
My Children went to elementary and some High School in Jenks, Oklahoma. A very good public school, same requirements as your students. So you see, it depends on the district and the state. The problem is that is not the norm, it is the above norm.
As I said, in California and probably most of the border states they are teaching English language and babysitting. Sad and pathetic state of education.
Ever notice it’s always a contractor that is blamed and not a government employee?
20 years ago I was placing engineering and industrial technology students in cooperative education and internship assignments with Fortune 500 firms throughout the midwest.
The fruit of that experience for most of the students involved was they were able to get into the work environment where their basic logic and reasoning skills (not to mention spelling, grammar, and human relations skills) were put to the test in an evaluated work-learning experience.
These programs are still going strong, and in many areas, are pre-reqs for getting hired in engineering and technology careers.
The undergrad business students have a harder row to hoe. Accounting is a pretty rigorous discipline and Finance is getting that way– but it is still a cousin to the brass accounting degree. Marketing etc is not the best preparation for business. All in all, the business undergrads needed an MBA to be marketable in jobs that paid real money.
My own training was in the classics and humanities, including the history of science. The goal: learn to read, study, debate and give oral reasons, and be able to transfer what was in my noggin onto the page/screen. That was the 4 year degree.
The next degree was in agricultural studies in power mechanics, hydraulics, electrical systems and electronics, cropping systems, agribusiness accounting, finance, banking, and enterprise planning.
That led to a graduate degree in employment training and curriculum development.
I managed to work closely with different industries as a consultant which allowed me to hybridize my experience between industry and education. That is very old school: those who could do did both back in the day— they taught and invented things or made companies or built stuff that worked.
Not anymore. The specialist is tracked and seldom can crossover into education or into industry to make a contribution.
We need more of that. And there is a way to educate and train people to do it. That keeps the classroom real and exciting to kids.
Some, not all, of these public school teachers are real knotholes when it comes to making a contribution to society other than showing up to teach.
It’s a real problem. But we don’t, as a nation, have a nation building mentality. We are living off our past glories.
The strategy was 1) learn how to learn; and then, 2) learn how to teach and train human beings to function in a multi-faceted employment environment.
My kids have been educated the same way. The generation before me went to camp schools as migrant working families in the California agricultural valleys. But even they learned how to learn and have never stopped.
Lots of folks confuse the reasons why kids should go to school. It’s not the content so much as the process. The kids are given ridiculous “learning strategies” that would confuse anybody.
We had to re-teach our son basic arithmetic because the “strategy” he was taught was pulled out of somebody’s hind parts. Basic arithmetic works.
Go figure
When I went to school in California it still had some of the best schools in the nation. Then Wilson Riles came in, and the rest is history. He’s a huge African-American hero but his legacy to the school system is a myth. The dismantling of academic standards may have been the result of the incoming Boomers but Riles was there first. If you ever get the chance, take a look at the content and rigor found in a 1930’s vintage McGuffey Reader, then look at a textbook from the ’70s, then check out what they’re using today. It is pathetic. The downward trend is nearly perpendicular.
Thanks for providing it. There are many schools doing a great job. By and large 80 per cent of public high schools are just like your 3rd period class.
From time to time I go into a nearby district as a sub. I get to give something back and support some of the good teachers who take some days off.
What you describe is real. And it is endemic.
The product of the parenting that comes to your classroom is the result of a failed generation of policymaking and Presidential vision, low expectations and involvement by communities, and mass media culture’s impact on the young.
Not all bad. Not all good. I agree. And the endemic problems, if they were addressed, would be met with alot of resistance by the very people who are in need of a solution other than jail, low wages, underemployment, and welfarism.
Nation building requires tough love and making dead beat behavior- which you describe so well- UNTHINKABLE.
Get busy living and working or get busy dyin’. There’s some modified “Shawshank” for ya.
Thanks for providing the balance.
Bear, do you know WHY it changed? Why did the methods change? Just curious?
Great post, but why would they fix it if it wasn’t broken to begin with? (I am assuming its changed since the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s…I know its been carp in the 80’s)?
Feebz:
Three main ingredients-
1) How teachers are trained to teach their specific levels;
2)Educational psychology and medication strategies to regulate the behavior of kids in schools;
3)Textbook industry
The educating process of kids in public schools is a meat grinder. Kids are taken apart to fit those three models.
Research funds were spent to “prove” the existing models are “better” than the others, that educational psychology models have anything to do with human children; and that Textbook Model a is better than Textbook Model b.
The students and the learning are secondary to “systems” “tools” and “models”.
And “they” have the “science” to prove it.
The system is rife with damaged adults who are still reacting to their childhoods and don’t want “any child” to have to go through what they went through.
Reactionary political beliefs that are predominantly liberal in nature and anti-capital, anti-military, anti-gun, anti-business, anti-male, anti-meat, anti-memorization, anti-running, anti-boy, anti-heterosexual……the same marxist stew oozing out of the university environment is pre-dominant on school boards, district offices, teacher leadership councils in schools, and in many classrooms.
Education is the most political activity in our Nation. And we are losing the fight to Marxists.
Bottom Line: The products of the 80s and 90s are now running the show.
The dumbing down was in full swing by the early 80s. 25 years later that garden of mediocrity is in full bloom.
The high school education of Americans during the mid 19th and early 20th century required a higher aptitude to complete than your average Bachelors degree at a state college/university of today in America. Don’t take my word fer it- lookitup.
No argument here, bear.
Governmental Universal Health Care! Who’s with me?
We are in the process, nearly as I type, of transitioning two more of our kids to homeschooling. Our first we started homeschooling a month ago and it’s been a fantastic experience.
I have several friends who are teachers in the public schools. They do what they can with what they are given. Sure, there are a few teachers I know simply taking up space, but the majority are committed to their kids.
The tipping point was two months into the school year, we get a note from one teacher. “Did you know your child had a studder?”
Yes, the teacher wrote “studder” and if the teacher spent any time speaking with my child, the teacher would have realized early on that yes, he does stutter.
The next week he was homeschooled. That same week, the principle was hounding us to have him come back to school for the standardized testing. All in the name of money for the district….