Educational "reform" in NYS: read this and weep.

[Smarmie Doofus]

Why isn't there more liberal outrage about ... or even *interest* in.... educational "reform"? Don't liberals have children? If Diane Ravitch can be trusted ( she almost always can be) NYS gov't is scamming the public as it has never been scammed before. The irony is : it's not a particularly sophisticated scam.

Ed Secretary Duncan says he wants more emphasis on testing data; in fact, states will be rewarded as they have never been rewarded before with federal $$$ ( talking many hundreds of millions of $$$$) for producing statistical progress resembling NYS stats ( analyzed below). MYC mayor Bloomberg is trumpeting the stats in question as proof that his educational "reforms" have come to fruition and says be deserves a third term for that reason. Duncan says to look to NYC as a model of how to run an urban school system.

But it's all based on nonsense and statistical double talk.... or so it certainly *appears*.

The president's children attend private school in Washington... as they did in Chicago. My guess is that this topic is not an emotional priority in the WH. Sec Duncan... though certainly bright enough... is lightly experienced and one senses an emotional detachment to the realities of public school education. Stats are much cleaner and simpler to deal with.

Even if they are bogus? Again: don't liberals have kids?


Here's the analysis by Prof Ravitch:

>>>>>>In 2002, when the No Child Left Behind program became law, the federal government required every state to promise that every student would become proficient by the year 2014 -- a utopian goal that no state or nation has ever accomplished.

The feds left each state free to define what "proficient" meant. Like other states, New York made it easier to become "proficient."

Thus, the phenomenal test-score gains that New York has reported in recent years resulted not from students suddenly becoming smarter -- but from the state lowering standards.

In 2006, students in all grades had to earn around 60 percent of the points to reach Level 3 (proficiency) on the math test. But by 2009, they had to get only about half the points on the math test to meet state standards. In 2006, a seventh-grade student needed to get 59.6 percent of the points on the state math test to become proficient (Level 3); by 2009, it was just 44 percent. Remember the old days when 44 percent was a failing mark? Not any more.

In baseball, if you bring the outfield fences closer to home plate, you'll produce more home runs. In education, if you drop the number of points that students need to earn on the tests, you'll get more students passing.

The lowering of the bar may explain why the state has seen such phenomenal results on its math tests. In Buffalo, the proportion of students who met state standards leapt from an abysmal 29 percent in 2006 to an incredible 63 percent in 2009, in Syracuse from 30 percent to 58 percent and in New York City from 57 percent to 82 percent.>>>>>>>>>

In its entirety:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08132009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/toughen_the_tests_184289.htm

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Kick. Read it. It's not that long. nt

[LWolf]

2. I wish liberals cared about education reform.

While it's possibly more critical, having much longer-term effects, than the general hot topic of the day, education generates little interest.

There are always people who are anxious to criticize. There are more people, now that the federal weapon of education destruction is being wielded by Democrats, who are willing to jump on the right-wing privatization bandwagon.

Talk about authentic school reforms, though?

Yawn.

:grr:

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Should I have called it "school" reform?

Is it the word "education" that induces somnambulence? Or maybe it's the word "reform": it's bastardization over the years to imply any kind of change... good or bad?

Jeebus. What are they waiting for? If they don't have kids, they have grandkids, or they *were* kids themselves or they are aunts and uncles.

They think this doesn't impact them? More thinking required, I'm afraid.

[LWolf]

6. Put in a thread title bashing your local school, or a teacher,

and you'll get lots of hits.

Unfortunately.

[QC]

7. Teachers hold the #1 position in the DU Demonology now,

since this place took its hard rightward lurch. Teachers and the "far left" are responsible for everything wrong with the world, you know.

Add to that the fact that criticizing Arne Duncan is seen as attacking Dear Leader, and you can see why there will be no meaningful discussions of education in this forum, or most of the others on this site.

We just don't so substance here anymore.

[Sentath]

4. Ok, read it

It seems that they took a loophole out of the NCLB mess.

Grade inflation is serious and sucky.

But is the NCLB test test test scheme any better?

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Not at all. But, far as I know, NYS is now testing every grade....

... level , every year in both ELA and Math.

Isn't that "test, test, test"?