Posted on 11/21/2003 6:27:52 AM PST by boris
Dumbing down of education fightin' words?
By Richard Skidmore
IN April 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education presented to President Reagan and the American people its findings on education in "A Nation at Risk."
The findings: "The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people ... If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."
This report put education reform at the top of every state and even the national agenda. Education remains the dominant budget item.
Educators talk about standards, new standards, enforced standards and improved curriculum development. Yet over the past 20 years, story after story surfaces about education being "dumbed down." Our students perform, on a world standard, at the bottom in mathematics, sciences, national language skills, and are basically ignorant of their national history.
School superintendents and high school principals always report about the few exceptional students who go on to university education. But when asked about the normal high school graduate, they report that they are happy if their graduating 12th-graders are reading, writing and calculating at an eighth-grade level -- meaning the normal student is performing below eighth-grade standards.
It is reported that in California, 80 percent of new students entering community colleges require one or two courses in remedial English and mathematics before they are ready.
The Rand Corp. has prepared a report, "Breaking the Social Contract," stating that high school graduates of 2015 will have a purchasing power 40 percent less than their high school graduate grandparent of 1976. To put this in perspective: If the high school graduate of 1976 earned $12,000 per year, the 2015 graduate will earn only $7,200 -- a hefty pay cut!
In the marketplace, the United States Labor Department reports, statistically, that the trend for employers is to hire only college-degreed individuals for entry-level positions when they formerly filled them with high school graduates.
Popular recognition of poor educational quality control has led to calls for student testing as a condition for high school graduation, which is met with resistance from the education establishment.
In California, the passing score for the high school exit exam was lowered to 55 percent, and delayed because too many students would fail.
Now the State Board of Education voted to remove some of the more difficult math and English questions to make its exit exam even easier. But according to board member Carol S. Katzman, "I don't think we're dumbing down the test in any way."
Students will face more questions about computing averages -- a skill taught in sixth grade -- and using estimation to check whether results are reasonable, a seventh-grade math standard.
English questions will also be pared -- deleting a requirement that students write a bibliography of reference materials, develop research questions and methods to "elicit and present evidence from primary and secondary sources" and having students demonstrate proper manuscript formats, such as title page, spacing and margins.
These progressive changes were made at the request of Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, targeting the class of 2006 for quality control.
Other educators argue that testing is "abusive," "inaccurate," "meaningless," "(an) attack on intellectual freedom" and "a highly effective means of social control."
But ignorance is the most effective means of social control that I know.
When a 12th-grader receives a diploma that actually represents an eighth- grade education, and is relegated to an earning power that is 40 percent less than his high school-graduated grandfather, maybe this is an act of war requiring subjugated servitude!
Richard Skidmore is a professor at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. He may be contacted at rskidmor49@excite.com.
I help my friend's kids with their homework. I helped the 11-year-old with her math homework. After we finished, I commented: "They're not teaching you anything, you know."
"I know," she said, very seriously.
On multiple occasions, I helped kids write reports. I discovered that (at all grade levels including senior high school) they are not being taught how to research, organize their thoughts, prepare an outline, or refrain from plagiarizing. I repeatedly had to stop them from plagiarizing--copying entire paragraphs from their reference materials.
One kid, writing a 3-page report on minerals, wailed, "why does it have to be so hard?" (she was about 10). "Sweetie, this is the easy stuff; it just keeps getting harder from here...like a mountain that gets steeper the higher you go."
A colleague asked me to review two essays his senior-high son wrote. The colleague is a genius-level scientist working in computer fluid dynamics. The first essay acquired over 150 comments from me, including spelling, grammar, circular arguments, and begging the question. They don't teach rhetoric either. I told him, "It is far better to be beaten up by me than by the teacher." (As if).
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I was once on the "MIT Educational Council". My job was to interview prospective students and write a letter recommending either admission or rejection. I prided myself on the fact that every student I recommended was admitted; all attended except one boy who went to Stanford instead.
This same young man (colleague's son) asked me to write a letter for him to MIT. I spent three hours interviewing him. At the conclusion I told his parents that it would be much better if I did not write a letter because I could not in good faith recommend him. His father just nodded.
His essay for admission was the second document I reviewed and edited; it was hopeless. And this kid--I'm told--is among the best and brightest. If true, Heaven help us.
--Boris
I'm sure that this is also why the liberals are so dead-set against homeschoolers...Homeschooling parents do several things that terrify liberals: They have all their babies, they educate them at home, where they teach them REAL subjects, and they opt out of the mainstream in many areas. The liberal child, on the other hand, is deliberately dumbed down to prevent his ever realizing that the people in charge are stealing his rights, his freedom, and his birthright.
Don't miss the concealed socialist tyranny in this statement. What isn't mentioned is that employers are largely barred from testing applicants for basic educational achievement, so they are forced to hire college grads, in order to be relatively certain of getting proper high school level competence. This enables the government to define college degrees as essential (since so many jobs explicitly require them), and thus justify confiscating huge sums in taxes in order to subsidize college for students who "can't" pay for it. And of course what's subsidized turns out to be primarily 4 years of socialist indoctrination.
If employers were allowed to test for real high school level competence (without facing lawsuits about "racially biased" tests containing material not directly related to the job in question), people would find much cheaper ways than 4 years in a socialist indoctrination camp, to learn enough to pass such tests. Even public high schools would feel pressure to prepare kids for such tests.
Someone I had a co-worker who used to teach chemistry in public skool. Kids were taking his HS chemistry course who did not have the math background to do the coursework. And... get this....he blamed the University system for requiring AP classes for admission. What about all the grammar skool classes that didn't teach basic math?
In the grammar schools they slave over worksheets and commit a few steps to short-term memory to regurgitate on a test. When they successfully spew it out, everyone gets all congratulatory and declares that the child has learned something. Sure, whatever. They certainly learn that word problems are 'hard', such that when they hit a class like chemistry or physics (which are *all* word problems) their worksheet mode of 'learning' doesn't work anymore and they fail spectacularly. Of course, it's all the chemistry teacher's fault.
Ack- sore subject.
Yeah, I know.
Educators talk about standards, new standards, enforced standards and improved curriculum development. Yet over the past 20 years, story after story surfaces about education being "dumbed down." Our students perform, on a world standard, at the bottom in mathematics, sciences, national language skills, and are basically ignorant of their national history.Guys, Somebody tell me again that this is NOT the The DELIBERATE Dumbing Down of America"!!! PLEASE!!!! Reviews of Charlotte Iserbyt's book are enlightening in themselves. Peace and love, George.
School superintendents and high school principals always report about the few exceptional students who go on to university education. But when asked about the normal high school graduate, they report that they are happy if their graduating 12th-graders are reading, writing and calculating at an eighth-grade levelNow the State Board of Education voted to remove some of the more difficult math and English questions to make its exit exam even easier. But according to board member Carol S. Katzman, "I don't think we're dumbing down the test in any way."
These progressive changes were made at the request of Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, targeting the class of 2006 for quality control.
Other educators argue that testing is "abusive," "inaccurate," "meaningless," "(an) attack on intellectual freedom" and "a highly effective means of social control."
But ignorance is the most effective means of social control that I know.
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My school district detected a loss of one year's progress between the 5th and 8th grades. We found that the math books were picked by the teachers and included review work from Sept. to Jan, representing 16 months when new material is not being presented.
The summer school, intended to be remedial for struggling students, began with chapter 1 and stopped with however far they got in the 6 weeks of class.
We also found that the teacher recruitment process focused on "literacy" and creative portfolios of colorful bulletin boards and elaborate projects. Neither of the elementary hiring committees so much as asked one question about the teaching of math. Teachers whose application materials showed an interest in math and science never were screened in to the group of people interviewed. At best they were referred to the Middle School when 6th grade vacancies opened up.
The Superintendent dumped the texts and quickly put together an excellent committee to select new ones. He brought in experts to teach math to the teachers, and had the elem. teachers meet with middle and h.s. teachers to learn how the basics are the foundation for higher math. Parents were brought into all processes. Meetings had to be held when and where parents could attend.
The summer school teachers had to assess the students and shore up where the students were weak.
Hiring committees were required to present finalists who had high competence in the teaching of math and reading, and the ability to meet all the needs of students who learned in different ways.
The schools linked with the local college and with the Boys and Girls Club to create after school tutoring programs.
Test scores skyrocketed after the first year of reforms, and have continued to grow. The urban school with a high percentage of minority, free/reduced price lunch, and English as a second language students outperformed the smug suburban school that was more reluctant to change its methods.
Hiring processes need to be continually reviewed, and the participants continually educated to avoid the common pitfalls: staff clones itself (we're more comfortable with this person), staff ensures its own superiority by hiring someone they can control, staff confuses high g.p.a. in math with the ability to teach the subject to students who "don't get it," principal takes shortcuts so the process doesn't take so long (I have a neighbor who...), staff is resistant to experts from the public and/or parents who are interested in participating.
If the committee does its job well, often it has to contend with members of the Board of Education who want certain constituents to get jobs. It's an uphill struggle, but doable, and worth it.
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