Education
Related: About this forumNYT Sunday Dialogue: An Excess of Testing, Improving Our Schools
Last edited Sat Jul 21, 2012, 03:12 PM - Edit history (1)
Univ. of Southern California education professor Stephen Krashen writes:
The mediocre performance of American students on international tests seems to show that our schools are doing poorly. But students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in the world on these tests, which means that teaching is not the problem. The problem is poverty. Our overall scores are unspectacular because so many American children live in poverty (23 percent, ranking us 34th out of 35 economically advanced countries).
Poverty means inadequate nutrition and health care, and little access to books, all associated with lower school achievement. Addressing those needs will increase achievement and better the lives of millions of children.
How can we pay for this? Reduce testing. The common core, adopted by 45 states, demands an astonishing increase in testing, far more than needed and far more than the already excessive amount required by No Child Left Behind.
(updated) Here are the letters where readers have expressed such ideas as:
elleng
(131,107 posts)Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)>>The mediocre performance of American students on international tests seems to show that our schools are doing poorly. But students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in the world on these tests, which means that teaching is not the problem.>>>
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002968823
LWolf
(46,179 posts)who has been pointing this out since I was a YOUNG teacher.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)On the for profit side begin with Pearson and work your way down the food chain toward charter schools (these include so-called non-profits run by private management companies) and outfits like Teach for America. For tax exempt, private foundations start with the Gate's Foundation. Then check the revolving door between the DOE and these folks, and don't forget educational junkets and PAC money for politicians at the state and federal level. Add it all up and the sum is "education reform" a.k.a vulture/disaster capitalism or euphemistically called venture philanthropy.