The State of Education: a graphic of the USA at a glance

[TalkingDog]

[NYC_SKP]

1. I can't wait to print this tomorrow, at...

...school!

Sad but true, but there's hope...

K/R

[madfloridian]

17. Consider the sources. This is pretty bad propaganda done by reformers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

59. Yes it is. I unrecced.

Really tired of this crap.

[femmocrat]

2. K&R Very cool!

Love the doodles.

[Peregrine]

3. But of course

There had to be a blame the unions portion.

[TalkingDog]

4. ya... we just have to keep fighting the good fight...

n/t

[sense]

10. The teacher's union is different

than every other union. The damage to the entire country by an organization devoted to retaining the jobs of unqualified teachers at the expense of the education of entire generations of future contributors to our society is incalculable.

I'm for all other unions.

[The Midway Rebel]

12. That is an usupportable and bogus claim.

And you have no evidence to back it up.

[sense]

34. You cannot name another union

where an adult is protected at the expense of children. Teachers are alone with our children for hours on end and many of those children are harmed and bullied by bad teachers. Where else would a union support the adult at the expense of the child? Teachers and their ability to keep their jobs is their only concern. If that were not the case, the bad teachers would not still be in our schools.

My child was bullied mercilessly by teachers, because he wanted to learn and they refused to teach him. One went so far as to stand him in front of the class, force him to sing and encourage the children to laugh at him until he cried. Cruelty should not be tolerated and this woman as not even disciplined! The union protected her, instead of my son.

[The Midway Rebel]

40. And you cannot come up with a more unbelievable anecdotal story to support you bogus claim.

Sorry that your son had a bad experience with a union teacher but millions more students have had positive experiences. You do not get throw the baby out with the bath water for millions of other students because of your singular bad experience. I can easily find many accounts of bad non union teachers to counter you specious argument here.

[sense]

41. My son had bad experiences

with almost every teacher because they were unwilling to teach him, they simply insisted they were only going to teach the curriculum they planned for that year and refused to treat him as an individual. Although, they were happy to individualize the teaching of the kids on the opposite side of the spectrum. My experience is not singular, I simply cited one incident as one singularly deplorable action by one teacher. I could cite at least one experienced for each awful day he stayed in school, but I cannot write a book here. The bullying that was allowed and the punishment for him when he told, the looking the other way, the beatings on the playground (witnessed by teachers who did nothing and told him after that he needed to try to fit in if he wanted them to stop), the dumbing down of absolutely everything......

Specious and bogus. You are part of the problem. My example happened, was reported, is documented and nothing happened to that teacher or anyone else who cheated him of his education and abused him.

How about the other teacher who wrote a report on how he was ruining her marriage (he was 8) by asking for work that he didn't already know. He was supposed to sit for 6 hours a day in silence as he was endlessly taught to add and subtract (in third grade!) as if that were reasonable. He wanted and needed algebra and she didn't know how to teach it so he was being punished. This was put in his file, as though this were reasonable.

This isn't acceptable behavior and when a gifted counselor finally saw what was happening she said he had to be removed from the toxic teacher, but that teacher is still teaching! Unions protected everyone, but never my son,

He was not the only one treated this way, of course and others removed their children to save them too. Unions should exist for the benefit of workers, but the teacher's union harms children. Not all children, of course, but far too many. Children are too vulnerable.

[The Midway Rebel]

42. Your story is all over the place.

First it was one "toxic" teacher, then it was many, then it was the bullies, then it is the dumbing down of the curriculum, then your apparently abused and gifted child is forced to sit in silence for 6 hours a day. I've met very few if any 8 year olds gifted with algerbra skills. Too bad you could not help him at home or had the where with all to get him into a gifted program that most public school districts offer along with highly qualified and trained union teachers.

Of course, the over arching blame for ALL of this falls on the evil self serving teachers union. If what you say is true and documented as you claim, it sounds like a good case for a law suit. I suspect it is not and that is why you don't.

I do not doubt that you and your son may have had bad experiences with A teacher but, to lay the blame of it all at the feet of a teachers union is just short of troll-ish.

Finally, a gifted counselor saved your son. Any chance that counslor was a memeber of a teachers union, because most of them are?

[sense]

43. You're not listening and trying to

obfuscate.

I gave one example, which you called bullshit on for some unknown reason. It wasn't ever one teacher, I first gave one example and you called bullshit, in ignorance. The bullies I first spoke of were teachers, if you were paying any attention. Yes he was bullied by teachers and students. Many teachers and many students, over 4 years time.

Your next obfuscation was to try to say I said too many things so none could be true. Then you changed what I said to "my child was forced to sit in silence for 6 hours" and I didn't say that. My child was forced to "learn" things he already knew for 6 hours per day. Imagine being in a room for 6 hours a day (we'll bring it down to a level you can understand, since you've apparently never met any smart kids.) having to relearn the abc's for years and years and never being allowed to progress. That's what it felt like to him. He was very excited to finally be able to go to "real school" as he termed it. Unfortunately for him, "real school" was set up to cater to the other end of the spectrum through normal. It was also a language immersion school (in my silly attempt to make sure there was a challenge for him) so half the day the subjects were taught in another language. Unfortunately, again, the instructor was from Japan, teaching in the japanese way... which means that no one is allowed to stick out in any way... all must conform, so his needing to learn at a higher rate and level resulting in her bullying him to try to make him conform, ie, dumb it down.

The fact that you know very few 8 year olds ready for algebra is of no consequence. They are out there and in fact my son was ready for that at 5. Yet, he was forced to "study" addition and subtraction for many years because that is all that was being taught. Yes, he's very different. If we can accept that we are all individuals, why can you not accept that children are all individuals too? He was doing addition and subtraction in his head as we drove around before he was two. Yes, he's different. He taught himself to read at 3. Yes, he's different.

You are very ill informed about gifted programs if you think they're available everywhere. They are not! You're assuming that I didn't look for that. My state mandates that every child is to be taught at their rate and level of learning yet that is absolutely ignored if your rate and level is higher than normal. The districts in this state have been sued endlessly by parents like me to try to force them to educate the gifted and nothing every changes. I tried public and private schools and was finally forced to take him out entirely and facilitate his education from home. We called it home schooling, as many do, but what actually happens is that we're out in the community every day, all day, accessing programs, co-ops, libraries, classes, etc. that he would not normally have access to if he was locked away in school all day.

You should educate yourself before assuming you have any knowledge at all about what happens outside of your purview. The teachers union assured that those bad, punishing teachers remained in school and my child was forced out to find an education elsewhere. I was told by the district superintendent that the only way to I could affect change was to sue them and they'd drag it out forever so it would never benefit my son. Nice.

Why would you assume that I didn't fight for him? Why assume that I didn't try everything possible to get him an education in the usual way? Ah, because we cannot place the blame on your precious teachers or their union. There are good teachers and bad and many in between. No one should be guaranteed employment in the way teachers are, at the expense of children.

I found the gifted counselor at the local University. She was a gifted student herself (and obviously a gifted adult) who understood the damage that could be done if I left him with the teacher he had. She had a brother who committed suicide because the bullying never ended... yes, feel free to call bullshit on that too. So, no, she was not a member of the a teacher's union, although she may have been at some time earlier in her career. She convinced the school to skip him two grades. It took him only 3 weeks to be at the head of the class, again, as that didn't resolve the rate of learning issue and only boosted the level almost imperceptibly, due to the last 30-40 years of dumbing us down.

My child entered college at 16 knowing 5 languages and beginning a 6th. (I speak one. I didn't teach him all that he knows, I simply facilitated his education because the public schools, with the help of the union denied him the right to learn). And yes, he knew more than just many languages. Yes, he's different. We are all different. You cannot deny the existence of people just because they do not fit into your mold. School is broken, and the teachers union is not contributing to fixing that, they're holding onto the status quo with everything they've got. It's not ok.

[The Midway Rebel]

45. I am not trying to obfuscate. I'm trying understand your hatred of teachers unions.

I see now that the depth of your feelings is profound and that you despise the entire education system and not just the teachers unions. You obviously feel that whole system failed you and your son and I feel for you but, I do not think you have a fair case for suing or even an argument for ending the teachers unions.

[sense]

47. I and every other parent of a gifted child in

this state has every reason to sue. We don't want $$$. We just want to ensure that the purveyors of education do their jobs for all children. Our children are entitled to be educated at their rate and level just as the other children are. I was not advocating suing or in any way thinking that was a good idea. I simply told you what the superintendent of schools told me I'd have to do to illustrate how far they were willing to go to NOT do their jobs. They were willing to waste all sorts of public funds to fight lawsuits over and over rather than simply teach. What sort of people do that???

I don't hate the teacher's unions. You're putting words in my mouth. I think they're not serving children well, just adults. That's why they're different than any other union. I think they should be required to consider the children that their actions have such an enormous affect on, not just the adults.

[The Midway Rebel]

48. The accumulated data disagrees with what you think about teachers unions.

In most cases, most kids do pretty well in school districts with teachers well represented by their unions. Apparently, it did not work out for you and now you think teachers unions are all bad and only protect bad teachers. Sorry for that.

[sense]

49. The accumulated date shows.... none cited.

Discrimination is ugly no matter where you find it. "In most cases"...... in all cases children are entitled to a public education. It's discrimination when they're told they don't deserve what the majority get. Just like any other type of discrimination. It's really very, very simple. You cannot defend what happens to many, just because you believe "in most cases". No.

All children are entitled to a public education without bullying by teachers and the defense of that by their unions. You just keep repeating your mantra as if somehow that will wipe out what teacher's unions are. Solely for the benefit of adults. Not ok. Never going to be ok. The public education system is supposed to benefit all children, regardless of color, religion, culture, orientation, iq, disability, etc. How can something so simple as the fact that we are all individuals be a barrier to that education? It's not simply supposed to be employment for adults. That's a completely secondary benefit and should be treated as such.

You don't have an argument, you're just repeating union talking points.

[The Midway Rebel]

50. Again, if you could prove discrimination you should do so, in a court of law.

But you can't so you didn't. And, fortunately, a teacher, protected by a union, did not lose thier job just because you said so.

[sense]

51. At the expense of my child?

I should have left him in school and sued? You are a tool. And now you've revealed the truth as I told it. You're exactly right. The union protected the abusive teachers from the little boy.

None of this happened in a vacuum. It happened in a public school with witnesses who backed up the little boy.

Good job outing yourself.

You proved my point.

[indurancevile]

55. speaking of abusive....your language is.

[indurancevile]

56. ...

[madfloridian]

14. Oh wait, all unions are ok except teachers unions?? Did you really say that?

That's pretty pathetic, and it just got you a big good bye from me. Life is too short to listen to bullsh** like that.

[sense]

35. Yes, I get that you're an ex-teacher.

Children are not to be sacrificed so that you can be employed. That's sick.

[indurancevile]

57. and it's pretty clear who you are, too.

[proud2BlibKansan]

61. She's retired after a long successful career

How dare you insult her.

[sense]

36. self-delete

[roxiejules]

18. Education has been hijacked by big business, not unions

Education no longer focuses on “serving the public good. Education is “big business” and privatization is being pushed by neoliberals and social conservatives.

Teachers are the punching bag.

[sense]

37. The unions are still protecting the

cruelest. Our entire system of education is broken and I do not blame the teachers, but I do blame the unions for protecting them at the expense of children. No other union works in that way.

[LWolf]

44. My union does not protect me at the expense of children.

It's never had to.

After 28 years, you'd think I'd have seen a single example of my union protecting a co-worker at the expense of students.

Two states, huge district, small district...never seen it.

I HAVE seen an abusive teacher fired. When someone reported him, we all, every last one of us union members, and our elected reps, who were called on, testified against him.

I HAVE seen a criminal union member be fired, lose his license, and be convicted and sentenced when an undercover sting caught him meeting teenage girls online and attempting to meet up in real life. HE WAS OUR UNION PRESIDENT. We supported his fall.

I HAVE seen an abusive teacher keep his job. It wasn't a union action, though. He was a friend of the admin, who protected him until he finished his required few years in the classroom, and moved on to become, you guessed it....an administrator.

I HAVE seen a coworker, an otherwise sound teacher who was respected and liked by years of families, be counseled out of a classroom position and into an administrative position when he laid hands on a student. He didn't hit, push, or shove, but he allowed the student to push his buttons, lost his temper in the face of blatant public defiance, and grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the classroom door.

He was wrong. He was the adult, and he knew better than to let his buttons be pushed, or his testosterone take over. He didn't want to leave the classroom. The parents didn't press charges, but did sit down with the superintendent. He didn't lose his job, but the incident is part of his permanent file, and he won't be back in the classroom again. The Union didn't protect him from the consequences of his actions.

They don't. They won't protect us for violating our contract or the law. They won't protect us from the consequences of our own mistakes or actions. They don't protect us from poor evaluations, and the consequences of those evaluations, that are based on poor teaching or classroom management. They WILL protect us from attempts to discipline, counsel out, transfer, etc., if we've done nothing wrong. Politically motivated actions.

And they should.

[roxiejules]

53. What are your sources for this claim?

I noticed similiar claims to yours coming from a Washington 'interest' group, Center for Union Facts run by Richard Berman, who was formerly employed with the US Chamber of Commerce, received funds from Phillip Morris to campaign against laws to prevent smoking in public and is opposed to a minimum wage.

[proud2BlibKansan]

62. The teachers ARE the union.

You insult a union, you're insulting its membership.

Kind of like when Rod Paige called teachers terrorists and then backed down, claiming he meant unions. His argument didn't fly and neither does yours.

[indurancevile]

22. sure you are.

[sense]

38. You have no idea.

[indurancevile]

58. no, i have a pretty good idea.

[roody]

27. Who told you that?

[proud2BlibKansan]

60. Oh bullshit.

You're repeating crazy talking points.

[roxiejules]

5. Phony alarm

If the fear mongers can scare you sufficiently (how many times have you heard the phrase "failing schools" in the last five years?), you might permit them to do to your public schools things you would never allow had they not frightened you into submission.



A Test Everyone Will Fail:


The National Assessment Governing Board defined the "proficient" level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as the level that "all students should reach" (the other levels are "basic" and "advanced;" the proficient and advanced levels are often reported together as "proficient or better"). Given that and given that Sweden was the top-ranked nation among 35 in the most recent international reading study, answer the following questions.


1. If Swedish 4th graders sat for our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test, what proportion of them would be labeled "proficient or better?"


2. If Singaporean 8th graders sat for our NAEP science test, what proportion of them would be labeled "proficient or better?"


3. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study of 1995, where did American fourth graders rank in science among the 26 participating nations?


4. What percent of American fourth graders were labeled as "proficient or better" in the NAEP 1996 science assessment?


5. What indicators of achievement have been rejected by the Government Accounting Office, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Education and the Center for Research in Evaluation Student Standards and Testing?



THE ANSWERS

1. 33%


2. 51%


3. Third


4. 29%


5. The National Assessment of Educational Progress achievement levels--basic, proficient, and advanced.

[madrchsod]

6. sponsored by online universities........

[Fearless]

7. Still waiting for one of those jobs I'm qualified for to show up.

[lonestarnot]

8. Excellent. Bookmarking!

K & R!

[roxiejules]

9. South Korean teachers are guaranteed a position for life

and their country exhibits a deep prestige for teachers.

They do not blame lack of funding for schools on teachers' salaries or benefits.

They are supportive of teachers, not punitive.

It is highly likely that these conditions attract the top college graduates.

[exboyfil]

28. One number to keep in mind

Spending per student in South Korea is $6,000/yr while in the United States it is $10,000/yr (statistics from 2007) (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_ifn.pdf)

Other statistics show $12K versus $8K for the U.S. versus South Korea for more recent spending.




http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/09/117_72698.html
"Under purchasing power parity (PPP), the conversion index used to compare price levels for different countries, Korea’s per student public education spending stood at $5,437 for elementary schools, lower than the OECD average of $6,741 — for middle schools this rose to $7,860, compared with the OECD average of $8,267."

The U.S. is near the top of per pupil spending in the OECD. The 2007 report shows the average being around $7K while we spend $10K.

I did a calculation where I added up all the local, state, and federal spending on K-12 education and divided by the number of students in public school. The figure came out to be $14K/yr.

A big question is how can South Korea do so much more with so much less including attracting better teachers. Do you have some more information on South Korean teachers such as their pay, living standard etc? I would be very interested.

[roxiejules]

30. S. Korean students are miserable - ranked unhappiest in world

Because education is a pressure cooker for them - just like it is becoming here.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea


South Korean students routinely score at the top in international academic tests. But unhappiness over education’s financial and psychological costs is so widespread that it is often cited as a reason for the country’s low birthrate, which, at 1.26 in 2007, was one of the world’s lowest.

South Korean parents say that the schools are failing to teach not only English but also other skills crucial in an era of globalization, like creative thinking.

South Koreans now make up the largest group of foreign students in the United States (more than 103,000).

[roxiejules]

31. US ranked 10th in education spending as a percent of GDP

http://www.oclc.org/reports/escan/images/edpercent.swf


In 2001, the 29 countries covered in this report spent approximately $1.1 trillion dollars on education or roughly 4.1 percent of their collective gross domestic product. The United States spent the most on education in 2001 at roughly $500 billion, followed by Japan, Germany and France at $139 billion, $89 billion and $82 billion respectively. While the U.S. spent the most in absolute dollars, it ranked tenth in education spending as a percent of GDP at 4.8 percent. Saudi Arabia ranked first investing 9.5 percent of GDP in education. The top five include Norway, Malaysia, France and South Africa. All five countries spent in excess of 5 percent of GDP on education. The United Arab Emirates came in 29th at 1.9 percent of GDP.

[TexDevilDog]

11. 1 is a big number

My church partnered with local elementary school in the poor part of Fort Worth. Each of us that volunteered spent 1 hour a week with 1 kids. I spent time talking about his life, getting to know him, helping him in school, mentoring him in life. I have been his mentor for over 2 years. He has gone from always getting in to trouble to and AB student. I tell him all the time that he is going to college. He looks forward to it.

Just imagine what would happen if everyone cared about a kid like I do for my mentee.

[The Midway Rebel]

13. This data is as misinformative as it is informative.

If anyone thinks these numbers tell a complete and accurate picture of the "State of Education" they are being duped.

[madfloridian]

16. Amen to that...quoting Waiting for Superman.

[roxiejules]

19. Double Amen to that

It is Propaganda from the corporate 'reformers'.

[Fumesucker]

29. The description is never the thing itself.

There really is no such thing as "a complete and accurate description" of anything in the physical world, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle tells us that.

I suspect this sheet is deliberately misleading in one way or another or perhaps several ways, no one without a fairly explicit agenda would go to that much trouble.

[Starry Messenger]

52. And no link to this image either.

No way to see what the context is. It looks like BS though.

[madfloridian]

15. You are quoting Waiting for Superman....a movie pushing charter schools...

and ridiculing public schools and teachers.

Read the whole thing.

[indurancevile]

20. unrec for false information.

[FourScore]

21. Do your homework before you post something like this. n/t

[zappaman]

23. +1 n/t

[Odin2005]

24. This is Corporate "reform" propaganda. Unrec.

[roody]

25. I have only unrecced twice ever. This is the second time.

[roxiejules]

26. This is my first time: Unrec

for false and distorted 'information' via the corporate oligarchy.

[Brickbat]

32. Had me going until the union-bashing and teacher-bashing.

It pays to read all the way to the end, I guess.

[Earth_First]

46. +100

I was on board too, until then...

[demmiblue]

33. Unrec. n/t

[Bluebear]

39. revolting.

[saras]

54. I find the tone so offensive it's hard to care about the contents, let alone trust them

It takes a lot of reading to undo well-done cherry-picking. I'm not convinced this document is worth the effort. As it comes to so many conclusions I know are bogus ("as a result of teacher's unions, it is practically impossible to fire inefficient teachers"), I wonder how much effort it's worth.

Someone familiar with Tufte's work on honest and dishonest graphing could tear every pore in this thing's body into a new asshole, but it really isn't worth the effort unless this becomes a major piece of anti-education propaganda. The random confusion of units alone indicates a systematic attempt to skew the data. Why not compare percentages to percentages, and quantities to quantities if you want people to see the relationships clearly?

Dropouts aren't eligible for 90% of jobs? Ever heard of a GED? Both my stepdaughters got one, because they were homeschooled (progressive, not fundamentalist), and got into the universities of their choice with them. One's a city attorney. The cartoon seems to be deliberately conflating the effects of poverty, various different kinds of dissatisfaction with the public schools, and a general devaluation of intelligence in our society and blaming schools, and teachers in particular, for all of it. If the school isn't funded - the teachers aren't responsible. If there's no place to go once you graduate - the teachers aren't responsible. Teachers can't fix those sorts of things except in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-nirSq5s">movies like this.

Okay, I've emptied one wheelbarrow of shit out of the swamp. It's someone else's turn.