Somersby is the most knowledgeable person writing about education issues in the USofA. Here is a must read portion of one of his recent columns. You see, the "problem" we have with education in the USofA is that we have three different nations within one nation: white nation; hispanic nation; black nation. And the needs and accomplishments of those three nations are vastly different.
Special report: Mr. Potter’s minions!
PART 5—KRUGMAN AND MINION (permalink): It’s instructive to see the types of “reform” pursued by today’s “education reformers.” The editorial board at the Washington Post provided a recent example.
In fairness, these editors’ salaries are paid by proceeds from Kaplan Inc., an educational testing concern. With that in mind, we might forgive them if their preferences regarding “reform” run in a narrow direction. But last Saturday, the editors penned an editorial, “The Worst Schools,” discussing the recent “meltdown” at Washington’s Dunbar High. Soon, they were discussing various ways to intervene at the nation’s worst-performing schools:
WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL (1/18/10): The meltdown at Dunbar comes amid new attention devoted to turnaround efforts at the nation's worst-performing schools. A report released this week by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute looked at more than 2,000 of the worst-performing district and charter schools in 10 states from 2003 through 2009 and found only about 1 percent making significant improvements. One reason for those disappointing results was the tendency of schools to make timid adjustments rather than take bold steps. That's why the Obama administration gets credit for sticking its neck out…to support places willing to make drastic changes such as replacing teaching staff and shutting down schools and reopening them as charters.
The editors favor “drastic changes” and “bold steps” as opposed to those “timid adjustments.” More suggestions followed:
WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL (continuing directly): Education Secretary Arne Duncan is devoting an unprecedented $3.5 billion to a campaign to fix the country's lowest-performing schools. The department is encouraged by reports showing a willingness to make hard decisions. The Post's Nick Anderson, for example, recently reported on 150 schools where principals and at least half of the staff were replaced. Equally encouraging is that some of these efforts were undertaken without opposition from the teachers unions.
When it comes to “bold steps” and “hard decisions,” the editors’ ideas run the gamut! Their suggestions range all the way from firing half the staff at these schools to shutting these schools altogether.
Who will teach these struggling students then? The editors didn’t say.
If this weren’t such a serious matter, an observer would just have to laugh. Forty-five years after low-income schools came center stage in our public debate, this is the best our “reformers” can do; the only approach they can even imagine involves canning boatloads of teachers! It may well be that certain teachers should be fired at certain schools, of course; it may well be that those “teachers unions” may have been less than wise on occasion. But a stunning poverty is on display in this editorial—a poverty of imagination. Much like the gods of “reform” whom they endlessly pimp, the editors don’t have a word to say about instruction or curriculum—about the ways low-income kids fall further behind from their first days in school, about the ways such kids fall “behind” their middle-class peers before entering school at all.
But then, it’s just as well that these know-nothing droogs chose to say nothing about instruction. If they had, they would have said this: Plainly, we need higher standards!
Again and again, it seems true: People who pimp education “reform” seem to know nothing about education! One such person was Chris Matthews, bellowing, wailing and playing the fool as he spoke with Michelle Rhee last week (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 12/20/10). Matthews misstated various facts about international tests—and treated Rhee like a god of reform. Needless to say, he trashed America’s public school teachers, along with their infernal unions.
Before he was done, Matthews even managed to ask the dumbest question ever asked on cable TV. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 12/23/10. Prepare to avert your gaze.
That said, Matthews did ask one important question: Why don’t American students do better on international tests? Although Matthews overstated the problem, American students don’t score at the top of the world on such measures. Matthews referred to the newly-released scores from last year’s Program for International Student Assessment (the PISA), a program which tests 15-year-old students. Last year’s testing focused on reading literacy. Just to establish the lay of the land, these are the average scores attained by the 34 member nations of the sponsoring agency, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD):
Average score, reading literacy, PISA, 2009:
Korea 539
Finland 536
Canada 524
New Zealand 521
Japan 520
Australia 515
Netherlands 508
Belgium 506
Norway 503
Estonia 501
Switzerland 501
Poland 500
Iceland 500
United States 500
Sweden 497
Germany 497
Ireland 496
France 496
Denmark 495
United Kingdom 494
Hungary 494
OECD average 493
Portugal 489
Italy 486
Slovenia 483
Greece 483
Spain 481
Czech Republic 478
Slovak Republic 477
Israel 474
Luxembourg 472
Austria 470
Turkey 464
Chile 449
Mexico 425
As you can see, the U.S. finished tied for 12th, “with Iceland and Poland,” among the 34 member nations. The U.S. outperformed such well-known nations as Germany, France, the U.K.
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A quick note: For ourselves, we think it’s somewhat surprising that the U.S. scores this high in reading. Within the American student population, we have a rapidly growing number of deserving, delightful immigrant children. Many of these deserving kids come from low-literacy, low-income backgrounds; they may not even speak English, presenting an educational challenge for their American schools. Beyond that, we have a uniquely American situation based on our brutal racial history. Uh-oh! Among those 34 OECD nations, only the United States spent centuries aggressively trying to stamp out literacy among a major part of its population. The legacy of that benighted history lives with us today, although our “reformers” work very hard to avoid such painful discussions.
We’ve sometimes referred to the “Three Americas” in this context. (John Edwards miscounted when he said “two.” For an earlier discussion of this matter, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 10/4/10.) But only a nation in rapt denial would choose to avoid such discussions when answering Matthews’ question—the question which had him directing Big Major Fury at teachers. Why don’t American kids score at the top on international tests? Our brutal history is part of the answer, as is the immigration policy we maintain so people like Matthews can pay low wages to the people who care for their homes.
Why don’t Americans students score at the top? Here are the scores from that same reading test, broken down into demographics. Warning: When these test scores are rendered this way, we’re forced to look at the painful backwash of our brutal history:
Average score, reading literacy, PISA, 2009:
[United States, Asian students 541]
Korea 539
Finland 536
[United States, white students 525]
Canada 524
New Zealand 521
Japan 520
Australia 515
Netherlands 508
Belgium 506
Norway 503
Estonia 501
Switzerland 501
Poland 500
Iceland 500
United States (overall) 500
Sweden 497
Germany 497
Ireland 496
France 496
Denmark 495
United Kingdom 494
Hungary 494
OECD average 493
Portugal 489
Italy 486
Slovenia 483
Greece 483
Spain 481
Czech Republic 478
Slovak Republic 477
Israel 474
Luxembourg 472
Austria 470
[United States, Hispanic students 466]
Turkey 464
Chile 449
[United States, black students 441]
Mexico 425
Good God! Those test scores, broken down that way, depict a vast American tragedy. They also reflect some effects of recent immigration policy, however one may judge that policy overall.
Let’s summarize: If Asian-Americans students were viewed as a separate nation, they would outscore every OECD nation. (Somehow, those infernal unions haven’t screwed them up—yet!) White students trail only two nations—Korea and Finland, whose educational output suddenly doesn’t seem quite so miraculous. For the record, Korea and Finland didn’t spend centuries aggressively trying to stamp out literacy within one part of their populations. Neither nation has a significant immigrant population—a population of delightful, deserving kids who don’t even speak the language.
Those test scores represent a national tragedy. But so does the inane conversation between Matthews and Rhee last Wednesday. When you see those test scores rendered that way, it may perhaps get harder to think that America’s international standing is caused by a bunch of sleeping teachers, with their infernal unions. It becomes easier to see where the educational disaster is actually occurring—even after several decades during which test scores by black and Hispanic kids have risen, to a substantial degree.
Here at THE HOWLER, when we look at those painful scores, we think of all the beautiful kids who will show up for kindergarten next year, already “behind” their peers. And we think of the worthless talk which tends to fall from a famous ex-chancellor’s lips. This was the star “reformer’s” reply to history’s dumbest question:
MATTHEWS: So my daughter went to a very good Catholic school in Washington, Georgetown Visitation. She goes to the University of Pennsylvania and realized she’s ahead of the kids there, at a great Ivy League school. So how come the Catholic schools can do better than the public schools?
RHEE: Well, I mean, I wouldn’t just say it’s the Catholic schools. We have lots of public schools that do a great job too. We have lots of public charter schools that do a great job. So I don’t think it’s about the sector that the school is in. I think that it’s the ability to have a great principal, to have that principal have a great staff of teachers.
And if you talk to some the best schools, whether they’re private schools or charter schools or private schools, what they’ll tell you is that it is all about teacher quality.
MATTHEWS: Yes. Is [sic] the teachers unions of America, are they for education or for the teachers?
RHEE: Well, look, you know, people want to give teachers’ unions a hard time right now and the people are saying, “Well, why aren’t the unions coming along? Why don’t—why don’t we get them to change? Why can’t they embrace reform?”
But the bottom line is, the purpose of the teachers union is to protect their members. It’s to maximize the pay and the privileges of the teachers. So the teachers unions aren’t really the problem. They’re just doing their job and they’re doing an excellent job of that.
Rhee issued a sneering assessment of teachers unions, whose purpose is “to maximize the pay and the privileges of the teachers.” Beyond that, let’s be frank: This god of “reform” had nothing to say! Asked to explain our failing schools, she said we need better teachers!
A fifth-grade child could toss off such pap—if she were given fifteen seconds to dream up some sort of reply.
Why don’t American students score better? In large part, the answer is drawn from our brutal history, a history “reformers” don’t like to discuss. Beyond that, a brutal poverty stalks the land—a poverty of imagination and insight among our “reformers” and “journalists.” Few of them show the slightest sign of having set foot in a low-income school. (Rhee herself spent three years in such schools, then fled for Harvard and Gotham.) Few of them seem to have any ideas how to serve low-income kids from the first day they show up at kindergarten. Few of them discuss the need to intervene within low-income homes, long before these deserving children ever set foot in a school.
Their “solutions” run the gamut—all the way from firing half the teachers to shutting these ratty schools down!
This morning, Paul Krugman discusses the way our corporate elites spread their various humbugs around. How do their humbugs spread through the land? Krugman describes the process:
KRUGMAN (12/24/10): The answer is that there’s a well-developed right-wing media infrastructure in place to catapult the propaganda…to rapidly disseminate bogus analysis to a wide audience where it becomes part of what “everyone knows.” (There’s nothing comparable on the left, which has fallen far behind in the humbug race.)
In our view, the left is rapidly catching up, but that’s another sad Christmas story. But at present, “everyone knows” a set of things a loud, ugly minion was pimping last week—a set of things about American schools. Here’s what everyone doesn’t know:
With all due respect, Michelle Rhee seems to be one the most clueless people on earth. She seems to have few ideas about low-income schools—much like the assortment of hustlers and fools who have taken to blaming those infernal unions for the brutal history they themselves are too lazy and dumb to address.
With that question about his daughter’s prep school, one minion reached a new level last week. But just look at that Washington Post editorial, then examine Rhee’s vapid answer.
Uh-oh! Today’s “reformers” have no real ideas—although they have a large group of minions willing to pimp their humbugs, along with their vast greatness.
Final note: “The left” will not discuss these topics. We quit on black kids long ago. Ceding the field to Matthews and Rhee, our grimy, disgraceful “intellectual leaders” refuse to discuss black children today.
Why are American test scores that low? When’s the last time a “liberal” asked?
