A reader who calls himself or herself “Democracy” has written an interesting series of comments on the current attacks on public education and their sources.
Here is Part 1:
Robert Samuelson’s column is a prime example of poor-quality economics reporting. I wrote previously on this blog about about the sorry state of education reporting in the U.S.
Now comes another egregiously-bad example, linking education “reform” and economic competitiveness. Lee Lawrence at the Christian Science Monitor has the lead piece, titled “Education Solutions from Abroad,” in “cover story project” that purports to outline “global lessons for American schools.”
Lawrence’s first paragraph notes that students are heading back to school “amid an intensifying debate as shrill with urgency as the bell urging them to their desks: how to ensure that they will be able to compete in a global market when they graduate.”
Here’s the beginning of her second paragraph:
“Study after study in recent years suggests that American children fall well behind kids from Seoul to Helsinki, putting them at a great disadvantage in an increasingly knowledge-driven and global economy. The United States ranked 30th in mathematics literacy, 20th in science, and 14th in reading in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a test administered every three years by theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)”
Reading is considered to be a key to learning and school achievement. Let’s see what the data really show. Below are 2009 PISA reading scores (disaggregated for the U.S., which has an incredibly large, diverse, and increasingly poor student population:
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
[Note: data can be gleaned athttp://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2009highlights.asp ]
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And this is why so many people are afraid to release the data to people who know how to read it. Their claims fall far, far short of what can be shown to be reality.
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Last Sunday we attended a different church than usual because my son’s class was singing there. It was National Go Back to church Sunday (or something like that) and the sermon focused on why people don’t go and why they should etc. As a preacher’s daughter I am generally unphased by these type messages because I am committed to attending church (our family is) and to me it warrants no further discussion. That is our choice.
But what I did take away from the sermon was that the urgency and doomsday approach to getting folks on board with CCSS and other reform measures is the type of energy generally left for church witness or recruiting with a message to gain followers. (I have no judgement of it for religious circles, so long as the appropriate boundaries are respected), but to see this approach used in discussing education is very disappointing. I know other posts have alluded to or addressed this sense of conviction by reformers that is generally reserved for religious fervor, and that is enough to make me skeptical. In a country with our types of freedoms I expect to see this behavior when it comes to faith communities. But to see it applied to issues like school standards is bothersome. The words “settle down Beavis” come to mind. My bull—— radar has always been pretty good–maybe because I have warmed a church pew more Sundays than not, but whatever the reason I look forward to the day when more honest dialogue and less urgent propaganda surrounds public education. I appreciate “Democracy” for these honest posts. And as for the pushers and backers of secure the future of our economy and our national security by backing CCSS I agree with the question Diane has posted several times: who are these people? Even leaders I once respected tow the line of the new status quo. I don’t get it.
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You have to almost admire a “movement” that is supposedly grounded in concerns about a lack of rigorous effort and “our” (alleged) inability to interpret and use information in the workplace, but relies on inaccurate, inexpert and lazy media coverage to manufacture the political support for reforms to “fix” this.
This has become the go-to mantra in media. They all repeat it. They stick it in even where it doesn’t fit. I was listening to Melissa Harris Perry on the radio and she announced that “Americans” don’t know where Syria is, and then she sadly concluded that this was the fault of public schools. Any and all perceived or real deficits of “Americans” is directly attributable to “public schools.”
Of course this nonsense is popular among both “Americans” and media! It demands NOTHING of “Americans”, and it also completely lets media off the hook.
If “we” don’t know where Syria is, well, that’s the fault of public schools!
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Diane,
I don’t get what your “beef” is with the article, honestly. Yes, once again U.S. scores for PISA are not put in context with regard to our domestic policies that hurt students and families in terms of overall well-being. But as I continued to read the article, it seemed to point out some of these issues.
I’m wondering if your problem with it is the Common Core. Yes, I know that there has been a lot of money to be made by the “deformers” in the Common Core. Yes, I know and vehemently agree that we need to continue to fight aggressively against those who would profit at the loss of our children and schools.
But
I do not think the Common Core is the problem.
I think the Common Core and the ideas behind its origination have been co-opted by opponents of education. I think we need to take the Common Core back from the profiteers instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
One last anecdotal note: When I was younger, I would visit my Daddy’s family in the Columbus, Cleveland, and Akron areas of Ohio. I was always amazed at how much farther ahead they were than I was in terms of what they were able to do (my aunt and uncle were teachers, so of course we visited their schools, etc.). The problem? I was from Louisiana. Yes, we all know where Louisiana falls on national rankings in terms of education. And no, I don’t agree with the destruction Gov. Jindal and Superintendent White have wrecked upon our schools in my home state.
But
Had there been a Common Core in place when I was in school, would I have had the same level of academic advancement as my Ohio peers? I have always wondered about that. I’d like to work on correct implementation of the Common Core to find out.
Thanks again, Diane, for keeping us up with the actions of those who oppose strong public schools and strong communities. I so appreciate you!
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Seems like if a group of Louisiana educators came together and said (back in the day) “let’s find out what other states are doing; let’s send some folks to observe, look over curriculum, look at approaches used in, say, maybe Ohio, and see how we can improve” etc it is worth wondering if something like CCSS would have come about. But I thought states had already done stuff like that when CCSS came about. I thought most subjects already had national standards that could be adopted or tweaked. When CCSS came along, I was thinking standards were not what needed to be addressed, but rather the unrealistic goals of NCLB. Instead of taking care of those rather questionable mandates, there was CCSS brought in and even more unrealistic goals, with punishments. As a southerner I do see your point, but I am thinking it is more like NCLB put bugs in the food and rather than figuring out how to get the bugs out of the food, we brought in new silverware (CCSS); so talking about the new silverware when there is still bugs in the food is frustrating.
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Joanna,
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I’m uncertain what the perspective of Louisiana educators was in general back when I was younger. I’m in my early forties, so….
When I entered teaching about 6 years ago, Louisiana was using “Grade Level Expectations” as standards. They were supposedly based upon generally agreed upon standards for the subjects. The difficulty was in 1) Getting teachers to actually teach the GLEs instead of the units they wanted to teach (anecdotal) and 2) GLEs were too broad and students did not develop a higher “Bloom’s” level of understanding for lessons taught.
I think the biggest difficulty with the Common Core is the “gap” that older students encounter in ELA and math. My two children are in high school, and how they are assessed and how lessons are presented has been a tad confusing for them and “against the grain” in how they’ve been taught previously.
Again, thanks so much for sharing your ideas. I will continue to think about them in case I need to revise my views. 🙂
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@Joanna Best,love the analogy. I would also add that this new silverware is very expensive and requires a lot of VERY expensive polishes, special cloths, workers to maintain the special cloths and to make and manufacture the special cloths and cleaner and a large PR machine to make sure everyone knows every minute detail about the special silverware and specially approved companies allowed to open silver ware production firms and firms designed to show people how to use the special silverware.. to maintain the special silverware and even more PR firms to promote and get the word out to the non believers about the special silverware… What if a student uses chopsticks??? Not allowed. What if a teacher is more comfortable with chopsticks??? Not allowed. What if the food is finger food? Must use silverware! And so on and so forth… The lack of autonomy/professionalism given to public school educators in this time period is astonishing! A lot of people whose livelihood centers around “silverware” are getting richer by the minute while our children learn only about “silverware”!
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I enjoyed reading your response to Joanna’s comments. I like the “chopsticks” analogy.
*Agreed that profiteers have pirated our education system away from us.
*Agreed that Common Core may not have been implemented with the best of intentions.
*Agreed that some teachers are feeling they have one hand tied behind their backs and are expected to juggle 6 balls and 1 flaming torch while chewing gum and blowing up large bubbles (think Hubba Bubba)
*Agreed that the lack of respect for teachers and profession/vocation makes us question our sanity on a daily basis when we awaken to new criticisms on the morning cable news programs (Okay, Joe S.?)
BUT
If we never would have challenged our own comfort levels, we would
*still be driving around using horse and buggies
*still be stopping the day at dusk because we don’t want to have to make candles the next day
*still believe that women are tools of Satan and should not allow them to speak in places of religious gathering
Wait a minute, that sounds like a place where the Taliban would take up residence.
Perhaps we should be willing to consider change, though difficult, after all?
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If standardized tests are flawed, are test results useful for anything other than comparing how different groups of people did on the specific tests? What makes this PISA test any better as an indicator of anything when compared to other standardized tests? Do the countries with the highest test results also have the highest rates of overall literacy and innovation?
I see Luxembourg and Austria are rather low on the list. So what does that mean for these fine countries? Should they do more test prep? Are these two nations in an education crisis?
Perhaps the only issue with tests is the high stakes attached (and that would include comparing countries to each based on PISA test results) and the volume of testing.
If data is going to be pulled out for different ethnic groups in the US, shouldn’t that be done for the other countries to get a fair comparison? If poverty is the factor that is the biggest indicator of academic success, then are results available for all countries based on SES status?
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I think (but I don’t know) that you would find that the countries with higher scores than the US would be difficult to disaggregate for SES, because they probably don’t have such extreme economic disparity as we do.
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Has there been data comparison directly tied to SES… are higher income Hispanic and Black students doing better than those with lower incomes? Do lower income whites score lower than those with higher incomes?
Economic status is one key issue. Then there’s the developmental propriety of the standards and testing methods.
Then consider procedural issues… why will there be testing BEFORE the curriculum is actually in place?
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I’d expect to see that PISA breakdown by race–which is in essence saying, see? Our brutally segregated public schools look okay if you leave those low-scoring blacks and Hispanics out of it!–posted on Steve Sailer’s site or The Corner, not here. Pretty disappointing.
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