A sage comment by a reader:
“The chief purpose of the Common Core standards –– one cited by the Common Core initiative, and repeatedly echoed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Business Roundtable, and Arne Duncan and the like –– is that the standards are necessary to enable American students and the American nation “to compete successfully in the global economy.”
That’s demonstrably false.
American economic competitiveness is not tied to test scores; it is inextricably linked to stupid decisions made by politicians and corporate America.
When the U.S. dropped from 2nd to 4th in the 2010-11 World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, four factors were cited by the WEF: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) suspect corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt.
More recently major factors cited by the WEF are a (1) lack of trust in politicians and the political process, with a lack of transparency in policy-making; (2) “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits and debt accrued as a result of boneheaded economic policies; (3) gross income inequities; and (4) political dysfunction.
The fact that the most ardent avid supporters of the Common Core are also
those most responsible for our nation’s economic problems is not very comforting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
… Cheap Labor
That is really well written. I like the points.
It makes me so uneasy when I get the emails from Achieve (which I signed up to get) promoting the Common Core like it’s a religion, and demonizing anyone who speaks against it.
Another thought I had about test scores is how unfair it is to individual students to look at their schools as a composite of everyone’s test scores. Schools are not sports teams (that’s why public high schools have sports teams. . .to have areas where they do function as teams; but as for academics, that measure should occur only for individuals, and if the achievement gap stands out, then help the ones who need help—but don’t generalize about the whole operation). Schools are not supposed to be working as a team to “win.” They are supposed to function to serve individuals. It’s a frustrating mindset to see prevailing.
“Global competitiveness”. WHAT A JOKE!
I have to wonder why our economy is in the dumper – jobs outsourced, nothing manufactured in the U.S. anymore, a trillion dollar deficit, politicians bought and sold by corporations.
I doubt if the Common Core in schools will bring it back- another brainchild of some corporate person, who wants Americans turned into cheap labor for the sake of “global competitiveness”.
If Americans were to really “critically think”, there might be another revolution in this country against those corporate masters. Instead, we go along to get along, and give up our rights to our own destinies.
Unfortunately, schools have turned into Gilded Era factories- mass produce students, via standardized test scores, so that they will be turned into willing and cheap laborers for the corporate masters.
To be globally competitive, our workers must accept $2 an hour
And living in tin shacks with no water available except a mile away down hill to the polluted river.
Actually we manufactured a little over 10 million motor vehicles in 2012. That was less than in China, but more than any other country. The 10 million motor vehicles manufactured in 2012 was about 2 million more than were manufactured in the US in 1950, in 1960, in 1970 and in 1980. It is about half a million more than we manufactured in 1990.
All those jobs paying more than $2.00 an hour.
Yes, GM currently starts (Union) at $12.50/hr. Just about poverty level for a family.
Shell Game (1997) by Clinton Boutwell quote: from pp. 84 Bearing False Witness: Blaming the Schools Business had found the scapegoat it needed to deflect he political heat their actions were engendering. Opinion formulators began to assert that America was losing its ability to compete on a world -class level bemoaning that economic prowess of Japan and Germany …” (yes the misnomer of “world class” enters in and “beat the Japs ” was the way the 80s sold it)
Continued from pp.87 “In essence, America’s corporate elite charged that their incompetence was not responsible for the loss of America’s advantage; the real reason was the U.S. did not have a highly educated world-class (note: misnomer) and the schools were causing this economic decline….” [and sp] “educators contritely responded by tooling up to produce a world class workforce (those critics never defined clearly what was meant by world class)
Computer is trying to autocorrect Japs and yes it is pejorative , and in the 80s I called it to the attention of a Title I official in Washington….that was not a decent way to be gathering political support for education (using Winston Churchill depictions of “Gathering Storm” or “Beat the Japs” from World War II)
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse.
When we all decided that the corporations were the ones that “knew how to get things done” then stood aside while they insinuated themselves into every available nook and cranny in Washington, we poisoned the well. Bottom-line thinking is destroying America.
Our public schools have ALWAYS been the whipping boy for political and corporate ineptitude. When sputnik went up, our schools were to blame but when we put a man on the moon, no mention of the part that schools had played.
When Deming went to Detroit to try to get them to produce better cars, they turned their backs. He went to Japan, sold them on the idea and as they say, the rest is history
but
again our schools were the culprit. To improve, save our economy we must emulate the great Japanese schools. Now that the Japanese economy has been in the doldrums for a decade or better, does one hear of the great Japanese schools?
Where would we be had we emulated the great USSR schools which politicians told use we absolutely must emulate and where would we be had we emulated the great Japanese schools? It was stated, not very broadly at the time that Japanese students going through elementary school learned two things: 1. to hate schools and learning and 2. how to pass tests. [Sound familiar.] The Japanese students had not even learned the material, just passed tests.
When “A Nation at Risk” came out and EVERY teacher was incompetent ad nauseum and EVERY school system a failure and to save our country the public must rush in to save the schools, the public bought it and rushed in where angels would fear to tread and again, the rest is history.
Our country is now in the grip of corporate CEO mentality which brought us within HOURS of a global fiscal meltdown yet few seem to realize the enormity of what almost happened yet that pervasive mentality stifles government action, debilitates our schools ad nauseum yet again.
Excellent response, Gordon.
UK to use Soviet school model for mathematics !!!
I couldn’t listen to this whole report. the reporter had no idea what he was talking about and seemed to be gushing about all the stereotypes he had ever heard about effective instruction. Apparently, if we stick the brightest academicians in front of the brightest students that all sorts of wonderful things will happen and Britain will be saved from its recession. Huh?!
You mean this?
STOP MAKING SENSE.