G.F. Brandenburg, as you would expect, has a pithy and wise commentary about the PISA scores.
Here are his first three observations:
“1. There is a lot of evidence that being a good test-taker does not necessarily overlap with other desirable properties, either on the individual level or on the local or national or international level.
2. A lot of silly things are read into comparing how many questions they get right in one country versus another.
3. The United States has now TEN FULL YEARS in which it has based essentially ALL educational decisions on test scores, with a small but well-funded and powerful group claiming that it would produce miracles in raising American students’ test scores on every level that they can be measured.”
And here is his most brilliant, unforgettable, unassailable point:
“Arne Duncan and his ilk say that the fact that the same approach has failed for 10 straight years, means we need to keep doing it harder. Sensible people would say no, let’s forget about measuring with stupid standardized tests. Let the kids learn, remember that humans LOVE to learn stuff — it’s what we do as a species. And precisely nobody knows what knowledge of today is going to be the most useful or fun tomorrow. So let’s get rid of the idiotic focus on standardized tests and Big Data, and stop wasting so much money and time and energy on them. We’ve got all sorts of art and sports and drama and dance and music and technology and building stuff and real science and history and psychology to learn and to perform.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The definition of insanity is said to be doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
I can only conclude that the powers that be are no longer thinking with their brains.
What they *are* thinking with – well, I shudder to think.
They’re thinking with their bank accounts. Who cares if the children learn as long as the testing companies, tech companies, charter operators, consultants, politicians, etc. get paid.
My annual tuning in to all the media outlets when these scores come out finds all the pundits supporting A. Duncan’s approach to school reform — forgetting that we have been doing this strategy for ten years. It is too bad that in none of these media outlets is an educator asked to comment on scores. Instead we watch media pundits (e.g. the morning Joe group) go on and on about charters, unions, tenure, etc. with no educational voice that the table to confront these tired “reform” ideas. What I found ironic today, was immediately before the media rant about low test scores, these shows were presenting charts on the growing disparity of wealth in our country. I long for the 60’s and 70’s where we were able to bring into the conversation the impact of poverty on student achievement.
There’s an old story that business people tell. You’ve probably heard it. I’ve heard it many times and have no idea where it came from. (All these stories end up being attributed to Warren Buffett, who is, of course, a masterful storyteller.) A grocer buys a hundred watermelons for $8.00 apiece. He puts them on display for $10.00. No one buys. He lowers the price, first to $9.00, then to $8.00, then to $7.00. The watermelons sell out. Wow, the grocer thinks, if only I had bought a hundred more of those melons! The moral is clear: When something isn’t working, doing more of the same is a stupid mistake.
But that is precisely what we are doing with the new Common Core State Standards, high-stakes tests, and teacher evaluation systems being rolled out around the country. We’ve had ten years of failed mandatory state standards, high-stakes tests, and evaluations of educators based on test scores, of an accountability policy that has turned our K-12 schools into test prep factories. In schools across the nation, now, a third of each school year is spent doing test prep, taking practice tests, and taking high-stakes tests. That’s failed. It has clearly, utterly failed. And so we’ve decided to do a lot more of that.
Years ago, I had on office in a building with plate glass windows looking out on the Essex marshes. I heard a loud thumping and went to investigate. A large seagull was banging its beak against his own reflection in the window. He would rear back, bang the “bird in the window,” recoil from the blow, and then do it again, harder. I had to drive him away to keep him from killing himself.
Well, we’ve been doing the equivalent of banging ourselves in the head for over ten years now. The policy has been disastrous. And like that seagull, Arne Duncan and the rest of the deform crew think that the answer is to do a lot more of what hasn’t worked.
With apologies to seagulls, I must say that I’m sorry, but that’s just about as stupid as it gets. Seagulls at least have an excuse related to their particular cognitive and perceptual apparatus, which evidently does not allow them to distinguish a reflection from an intruder on their territory. What’s Duncan’s excuse? Perhaps having NO EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER as an educator–except for a brief stint working for his mother–has something to do with it.
I hope people note that in that blog I thank YOU, Dr Ravitch, for articulating, much faster and better-written than I can hope to match, pretty much what I wanted to say these past few months about the failures of today’s Corporate Reform and Educational Exploitation Policies (CREEP).
Are those the same bunch of creeps that were involved were involved with Nixon’s CREEP?
No, I was just trying to come up with a goofy original acronym for the toxic, bipartisan cabal of hedge fund managers and billionaires and bankers and oilmen and ivy-league opportunists who are running our educational system today. No direct connection to Nixon’s Committee to RE-Elect the President. I obviously failed because It wasn’t very funny and obviously confused at least one reader (8% of them?)…
not at all, gf. CREEP is a superb acronym for the deform movement!
GFB,
And my attempt at connecting the two (in a “spiritual” sense) obviously didn’t work. I was just pointing to the same “creepy” thought processes that one needs to justify such behavior.
I like your acronym!
Taking into consideration the Bell Curve (have you heard of that Arne?), if the majority of kids fail a test, it’s not the kids, it’s the test.
If you are going to give a test, make sure it has some validity and matches the child’s ability and grade level.
Easy, squeezy, lemon peezy.
“If you are going to give a test, make sure it has some validity. . . ”
Well, considering that Noel Wilson has blown away the idea that any standardized test has any validity whatsoever, the continuing reliance on such “instruments” (of destruction if I may add) falls in the realm of the absurd, the insane, the irrational, the illogical, etc. . . .
Pisa’s Andreas Schleicher: Greater school choice doesn’t raise standards
http://news.tes.co.uk/news_blog/b/weblog/archive/2013/12/03/uk-shows-great-school-choice-does-not-equal-higher-standards-according-to-pisa.aspx
But there is hope. Just get ready to pounce when Common Core crumbles, and be able to recognize when it does. Here’s the plan http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/is-stumbling-and-bumbling-good-thing.html