There sure is an eerie silence emanating from the U. S. Department of Education these days. When NAEP reading trends appeared earlier, Margaret Spellings told everyone (over and over and over) that "scores for 9-year-olds have risen more in the last 5 years than in the previous 28 years combined." She claimed NCLB as the cause. The fact that NCLB didn't exist for most of that time didn't figure in her claim.
But more recently, a new round of PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) has appeared and while American kids scored the same as they had five years earlier, a number of other countries had advanced and whereas the Americans had been 8th in 2001, they were now 15th (of 39 nations). Some of the scores are suspect. Do you think Russian kids are the best readers in the world? Me neither. But there they are atop the ratings. The official explanation is that Russia has added another grade at the beginning of school (starting at age 6, not 7), but still, their 37 point gain since 2001 is, well, unusual.
"Clearly, as the world becomes flatter, it's becoming more competitive. We need to do better than simply keep pace." That's Spellings statement on the matter in a very brief press release. Wait. These are 9-year-olds. We should judge our competitiveness on the reading test scores of 9-year-olds? The World Economic Forum doesn't do that and in its latest Global Competitiveness Report, the U. S. jumped back to first place, a position it has held most of this century. Education is only one of 12 factors ("pillars," the WEF calls them) that go into the 131 rankings (Amazon advises that the latest report won't be shipped until mid January--it appeared December 1--but you can see the rankings here). But as I haven't written often, and to little avail, schools are the whipping boy for any perceived problem, and facts are irrelevant.
The press release also says, "the U. S. score has not changed measurably from 2001. While we're seeing progress under No Child Left Behind, we can do better." Is the sound you just heard the Department of Education building a massive wall against reality? If we're making progress, how come it doesn't show up on PIRLS?
I imagine that Spellings and other NCLB advocates must also be wringing their hands over the gaps among ethnic groups in this country. In addition to having 100% of all children reach proficiency, NCLB was supposed to reduce or eliminate these gaps. Yet, 4 years into the law (the tests were administered in 2006), the gaps remain large. The scores:
Whites 560
Blacks 503
Hispanics 518
Asians 567
Am. Indian 468
(International Average = 500)
It is true that the largest 4 ethnic groups finish about the international average, but this is not as hopeful a sign as it first appears. The highest scoring nation scored 64 points above the average, the lowest scored 198 points below. The extreme low scorers pull the average down. A nation that actually scored 500 would rank 29th out of 39.
(None of my analyses include the scores for Canadian provinces. Typically, not all provinces participate so that there is no national Canadian score, but it seems inappropriate to use one unit of analysis (the nation) for most scores and another unit of analysis (the province) for some.
We can get further idea of the size of the gaps by imagining the various groups as nations and seeing what ranks they would hold matched up against the 39 countries that took part in the study:
Whites 3rd
Blacks 28th
Hispanics 25th
Asians 1st
Am. Indian 35
From this table of ranks we can see that any document that speaks about the performance of "American Schools" is addressing an institution that does not really exist.
For some reason, NCES abandoned its usual procedure of reporting scores by the level of school poverty and reported a grosser indicator on whether the schools had no children receiving free lunches, some receiving or all receiving. Albeit not a very refined measure it shows huge differences, too: None = 586, Some = 543, All = 486. The proximity of the "Some" category to the overall U. S. average (540) reflects the fact that this category contains the overwhelming bulk of the schools.
The trumpeting of NAEP and the shushing of PIRLS makes USDOE look like an organization of cherry pickers.
The best study on schools that are high performing and high poverty and/or high minority was conducted by Doug Harris at Florida State University. He was challenging the Education Trust's notion that about 10% of these schools are high performing. The Trust used liberal criteria--high scores for one subject, one grade, one year. Doug found that if you make the criteria stand for two subjects, two grades and two years, only about 1.2% of high poverty schools do well. And, if you add in high minority, it's well below one percent.
Bracey
During a Florida Governors race, the money allocated per student was a topic of debate.
Florida and Texas at the time allocated less than many states. However, I wanted to see where the bang for the buck really was. Among the states, Connecticut and D.C. spent the most and Utah among the very least. Connecticut and Utah both placed very high re student test scores and the D.C. school system failed miserably. I found two variables that contributed to help explain the disparity, those being: causian and non-caucasian student ratio, and the percentage receiving free or reduced priced meals.
Although Brown vs. the Board of Education occurred many decades ago, not as much has been done as should have occurred. Yet, as I learned in a Sociology class on Social Stratification, the class system in America (for the most part) does perpetuate itself.
It also is advantageous for children to have the income and love of two parents as they grow. This phenomenon is more prevalent among certain ethic groups.
It seems from my own experience that there is an attempt by corporations and their owners to dummy down Americans so they will vote for and promote those who will act in the best interests of otheres, not their own. Given what I've seen over the last four decades I think they have suceeded. Having studied the sociology of education it is clear that it is not that we don't know how to educate, it is that we lack the desire to do what it would tkate to see that everyone needs a college education and the system needs to change.
I did a 6 month stint as a substitute. I was appalled at what passes for education these days. What we are producing is not educated, creative young adults but mindless robots. All these computerized video games only makes it more bearable for the future workers of America.
More people need to speak out but unfortunately parents are too under educated to do so!
well deserved end to what's been offered
before in the way of education, miseducation,
social promotion, and the rest of the crap
that's combined to make our national schools
basically a farce.
A computer's an awesome tutor. You could set up
great programs for the kids, keep the testing
under human supervision, but get the kids
studying via computer. They've got this
thing called Bart PE, which basically lets
you test whether a computer's working right
and stuff, you could develop something like that
to trim the machine down to a bare-bones
study machine. Lots of possibilities...
and portable, too, so if your family bounces
around you can keep on truckin' with your
studies no matter where you go.
I personally can't imagine a Bush appointee wringing their hands over any cold hard fact. They have no idea how to distinguish truth from the talking points issued from the White House.
Besides, if we teach our children to read, they may actually develop the skills and intellect to question the actions and motives of Bush and his ilk. Its alot easier to keep them dumb and award a diploma for saying the pledge of allegiance and waving a flag.