It is important to hear both sides of every story. On this blog, you have often read criticisms of Common Core standards, test-based evaluation of teachers (value-added measurement), and standardized testing. So, here is an article from U. S. News & World Report that says that the failure to stick with this program will have dire consequences for our economy.
The author makes all the standardized claims about Common Core: higher standards will mean less remedial education in colleges; it will save money for taxpayers and families; it will make us strong global competitors.
Question: How does he know?
The author notes that 32 states have backed away from Common Core. He assumes it must’ve because of ignorant critics. He doesn’t note that a majority of students in every state failed the Common Core-aligned tests. Nor does he not that in 2015, NAEP scores went flat or declined for the first time in many years.
What at will our economy do with the millions of students who never get a high school diploma on www have raised standards as high as he hopes?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
He is a right-wing propagandist looking for a reason to say bad things about public education. A fact check is not worth the time or effort. See:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-newest-dark-money-power-player-american-action-network#51001
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Sourcewatch reports that Douglas Holtz-Eakin is part of American Action Network, which shares office space with Rove’s group.
American Action Network describes itself as the center right equivalent of the Center for American Progress, which is funny b/c CAP is funded by the Waltons and, was a 2013 recipient of money from the Fordham Institute (per Fordham’s, website posting, of its tax returns).
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Yet another clueless economist. I’ve heard Holtz-Eakin on PBS and he definitely adheres to a right leaning ideology. What is amazing is that someone claiming to study what he considers a science (economics) would argue for Common Core and the derived tests, being they are arbitrary, unproven initiatives lacking evidence and created by non-teachers. Economics has veered into more of a fanatical religion, indoctrinating students in business schools while failing to analyze and question why our economic system is crumbling and in shambles.
My kid is taking college economics and one of the questions on his exam went like:
“Market failures are always caused by:
B. Government policies and interference”
With B. the correct answer. Like I said, economics is less a science and more a religion.
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A recent episode of the CBS’ program “Sherlock” got the villain right. He was a economist shilling for corporations.
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I’d say it’s even more like a cult — with Jim Jones as the leader.
These nutballs are leading all of us off the cliff.
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The most interesting (and telling) thing about economics is that the correct answers (eg, financial fraud) are never on the test.
See Economics could be a science if more economists were scientists (by William Black)
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In defense of the economists, it’s pretty difficult to explain why any single person (even ourselves) does what they do or predict what they’ll do next, much less an entire economy.
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SomeDAMPoet, sometimes cult and religion are a bit too cozy.
FLERP!, yes, but they seem to think Asimov’s psychohistory is real. I’ve got no problem with studying economics, but the practitioners need to stop portraying it as hard science. Too many economists have a hammer and now think education is a nail. It’s malpractice. Common Core grated my evidence based nerves. It was like these people decided to go into a drug store, grab whatever they see, and injected into people to cure the common cold. If it works, success! If not, just wait, they say, we’ll find a solution. And if we lose a few patients along the way, just chalk it up to statistical error.
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The main problem with economics is not in its wrong predictions (abysmal as they are, on the whole)
It is in its faulty (ideologically based) assumptions and approach.
Unlike meteorology (which also deals with highly unpredictable systems and often yields predictions that well off the mark), the approach of economics is decidedly unscientific.
As Black notes in the article linked to above
“the scientific method that economists purport to embrace is frequently the thinnest of fancy veneers hiding a core composed of the cheapest pressboard. Economists who study fields beset by financial frauds, for example, are overwhelmingly betrayed by ideology and conflicts of interest.
Economists do not study fraud. They have a primitive tribal taboo against using the word. This, of course, is because economics is assuredly not “firmly grounded in fact.” Ignoring fraud is a pure ideological construct that requires economists to ignore fraud, particularly private-sector “control fraud.” Economists do not study the criminology literature on elite white-collar crimes. Economists do not study and do not understand sophisticated financial fraud schemes.”
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One could argue the entire over-valuation created by supply and demand is a root cause of irrational fluctuations, bubbles, bursting, re-corrections and all the other foibles of currency-based markets. If I have the last sheet of plywood here in Miami FL and a hurricane is coming I could charge $ 100 for it, but FL says that is “price gouging”. So, a mark-up of 1000% is illegal, but one of 100% is not? Who decides which is moral, or not. When should the State interfere with the “pure” transactions of supply and demand?
As they say, the price will tell you the value of the item, but not its’ real worth.????
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When economists like Tyson and Goolsbee sign a letter against Sanders and, only list their university affiliations, not their corporate and business associations, it sets a threshold too low for a profession.
Tyson serves as Chair of the ATT Corporate Reputation committee. Shame that the University of California doesn’t have a committee like ATT’s, then they might not have appeared in the letter.
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MIT’s grad., Levitt, at Freakonomics, has made a cottage industry out of meaningless contrived correlations. Serves no purpose except propaganda.
it amuses him to post, “Roland Fryer and Levitt Go Ghetto”.
Levitt is on the Blueprint Charter School Board, that operates in Boston. An example of high quality professionalism attaching itself to the charter industry.
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In the book “Dark Money” the author talks about this very thing that is happening in our colleges. Billionaires, aka Koch brothers, are buying the colleges off by using their “wonderful” philanthropy by offering money to colleges if they teach the curriculum that they want to be taught. The curriculum always supports free market and demonizes any regulation by government. This is a blatant indoctrination process by the billionaires to control the beliefs and thoughts of the students that go through our colleges.
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Yep. Check out how fast and far the Koch influence reaches, at the UnKochMyCampus.org site. The graphic shows it in sickening detail.
The most egregious example of Koch influence was at Florida State University. The story is on-line.
Thanks to the political influence of men like the Koch’s, in many places, state funds only cover about 12% to 20%
of public university expenses.
The goal of the richest 0.1% is for only the children, of the overlords, to get college educations. Gates’ “human capital pipelines”, where the 99% learn not expect much from their schools-in-a-box, starts the process.
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Steve Levitt is the poster boy for something that is all too common among economists: pretending to have the answers on things one knows nothing about.
Climate scientist Ray Pierrehumbert cleaned his clock when Levitt made BS claims about climate change in his Superfreakonomics book.
But as you can see from Levitt’s reply in the comments, instead of admitting he was wrong about something very basic (and something that Peirrehumbert could quickly have set him straight on had Levitt just walked a few buildings away to ask in person), he dishonestly accuses Pierrehumbert of “intentionally misreading” the chapter in his book.
Economists like Levitt are so enamored with themselves, they are just delusional.
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Some may suggest that the set of traits that the University of Chicago economists share, are sociopathic, or, described, more charitably, as social Darwinism.
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In Levitt’s case, I’d think it would be more aptly termed “Social Dimwitism”.
The guy is clueless.
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“Question: How does he know?”
He asked US News Owner/Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman, silly
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Silicon Valley moguls, need the standards-testing-analytics link, to further tap into the $500 billion dollar business sector that Rupert Murdoch described.
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Diane’s final two questions are the meat of the matter.
Truthout has a different tack on the digital education “Ponzi ” scheme, in an article posted today.
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In all of these dialogues and debates about “how rigorous does curriculum need to be”, “what do high test scores prove”, etc., many forget the story of history and empires. It is not the mental prowess that ensures a republics’ longevity, but its moral purpose. Rome fell and was defeated by peoples (that in terms of technical prowess) that were inferior to her “mental superiority”; that the knowledge base of a peoples is no guarantee that their future is bright. “Knowledge is Power” is a myth, unless it is guided by morality and wisdom. As Einstein noted “religion without science is blind, and science without religion is lame”
The “ex-spurts” (those spitting out opinions under pressure, without any pedagogic sense or experience) would have us believe that all students must be good coders in the future; that the maintenance of our empire will be based on our technical abilities and prowess.
Yet, what about the need of farmers and construction workers? Must everyone be great at math and science in order to make a decent living? I think not, and I teach math and science.
Those that claim “the sky is falling” may be right, or not. But, history shows us time and again that the technical abilities of a society and culture are no guarantee that those peoples will maintain their position in the hierarchies of global competitiveness. Maybe Karma, or judgments, have away of humbling peoples that forget the moral lessons that also must be taught and maintained?
Do we fail to teach kindness and charity, at the expense of economic conquest, expecting to succeed in the long-run?
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“It is not the mental prowess that ensures a republics’ longevity, but its moral purpose. Rome fell and was defeated by peoples (that in terms of technical prowess) that were inferior to her “mental superiority”; that the knowledge base of a peoples is no guarantee that their future is bright.”
“Rome” lasted almost a millennium, and arguably not because of its “moral purpose.”
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Good point, and agree! Interpreting history can give one varying inferences. Pharoah and Egypt fell and got “bad karma” for their oppression and tyranny of others. It seems that eventually all nations “reap what they sow” and the injustices they did to others come back to judge and overthrow their empires.
Just what is the most objective interpretation of history?
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“all students must be good coders in the future”
I had to laugh when our local schools had a “coding hour”, as if somehow students are going to learn something important in such a brief period of time.
I spent a good part of my career as a computer programmer and have grown tired of all the hype that people like Bill Gates are incessantly misleading the public with.
And make no mistake. These people are not ignorant. They know exactly what they are doing.
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I’ve written enough code to know that machines can never replace humans in tasks that require real intelligence vs. artificial intelligence. Our STEM obsessions seem misplaced.
An economy that forgets that agriculture is the most important work, for without food production there would be no computers, is an economy playing “Russian roulette”.
One facet that takes down many societies is their failure to emphasize a vibrant and sustainable agricultural sector.
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Folks who can actually code know how ridiculous this is.
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I recall hearing Rome went nuts because they used lead in their aqueducts. Maybe a historian can comment? If so, the parallel is unnerving.
Much coding today is “agile methodology” meaning produce junk quickly to make a profit. Sort of like car repairs and testing companies.
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The move today is more and more toward automated coding (eg, for websites) so the focus on “coding” is puzzling.
Besides, it’s far more important to be able to design a computer system that actually fulfills people’s needs than it is to write the computer code for it.
Any monkey could do the latter. I know that for a fact. I have seen some who did — and some of what they produced wasn’t half bad (though it certainly wasn’t Shakespeare, either)
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As a historian who had to teach math to find a job, may I suggest the causes of the fall of Rome are way more complex than the economics that spurred all the comments here. I have read that the lead came from pottery, but the theory that Rome fell due to lead poisoning depends on the idea that the ruling classes were indespensible to the Roman body politic. I figure great powers fall due to the complexity of their mission. One such complexity in our own day is the phenomenon of very smart people who know how to make money getting the idea that making a lot of money qualifies you to be an authority on education.
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“Yet, what about the need of farmers and construction workers?”
Rick, both occupations rely heavily on science and mathematics. Technology can invade practically everything we do, and I would argue may actually be making people less capable of caring for themselves. I so admire people who know how to do things with their own two hands. Is our reliance on technology reaching the point where we are accepting that people are really obsolete in too many venues that used to rely on human endeavor? Doesn’t that seem to be the goal of some in the reformster camp–to make teachers obsolete? I’m not sure I know what I am trying to say and I am wandering quite a bit. Perhaps someone else can say it better.
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2old2teach
I’ve worked around enough techno nerds to understand the mentality of some of these people. They have this idea that “technology is cool, so of course, if we can use it, we should.”
But, coolness notwithstanding, the use of technology is not always “good” or even desirable.
In a developing country with lots of unemployed people, it makes absolutely no sense to use a technological solution that displaces even more workers and requires experts to maintain when there are very simple, more labor intensive methods that work quite well and are actually better for the society as a whole.
And even in a developed country like the US, technological “solutions” (industrial scale mechanized farming that relies heavily on pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics and degrades the land, water and animals — and humans — in the process) are not necessarily the best, certainly not for the long term.
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So this discussion has bounced from the Common Core to coding. This from Politico today on the rush to increase the pool of coders and profit from doing so.
FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES BUYING UP CODING BOOTCAMPS: Capella Education Co. is the latest for-profit college to buy or invest heavily in a coding boot camp. Just this week, Capella bought DevMountain for $15 million, and agreed to pay up to another $5 million if the programming bootcamp company meets revenue and performance targets. DevMountain offers 12- and 16-week programs in Utah. [ http://bit.ly/23q6SEG%5D
That follows the college spending $18 million late last month to acquire San Francisco-based Hackbright Academy, a program for women interested in software careers. [http://bit.ly/1rdZ38S ] “The coding academies are a natural extension of where our institutions and sector have always been – offering the latest skills and services to people looking to advance their careers,” said Noah Black, spokesman for the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. “It’s only natural that as schools look to diversify, they’d look to coding academies to expand their offerings, as well as put capital and investments behind something both employers and employees want.”
– Coding boot camps, which don’t offer degrees, typically aren’t eligible to draw federal student aid, so they aren’t governed by regulations such as gainful employment. But they are a way to add new students in a time of flatlining enrollment and growing pressure from federal regulators. “You don’t necessarily need a four-year program to grasp coding,” Black said.
– Kaplan Inc. was the first institution to make this jump, in 2014, when its Test Prep division acquired Dev Bootcamp. Even before that, Kaplan launched a stand-alone boot camp, Metis, a leading provider of data-science skills training. “It was a natural extension for our Test Prep division to lead the way into [new-economy skills training], both because of the pedagogical crossover but also the student crossover as more young professionals look to advance their careers in new areas,” a Kaplan spokesperson told Morning Education. Also following the coding academy path are Apollo Education Group, which invested in the Iron Yard in 2015, and Strayer Education Inc., which bought the New York Code and Design Academy this year.
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People like Zuckerman want to also increase the H-1B immigrants to “stimulate the economy.” Just like the TPP, it will put trained Americans out of work so corporations can hire foreign stem workers for pennies on the dollar. This move will stimulate profit, not the economy. Zuckerman supports Israel. I just read there are 46,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel living in abject poverty. If he wants to help deserving people, they could use the help. We don’t need Zuckerman destroying American education for fun and profit through test and punish strategies.
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The major tech corporations in Silicon Valley, are under investigation for colluding to suppress wages.
If the boy kings and their tech elders, contribute in any way to the nation or world, it is an accidental collateral affect, from their profit-taking.
If they wanted a vital economy, they would work against concentration of wealth and, not just mouth the words, like investor, Buffett.
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“The Common Code”
The Common Code is “coding”
It motivates the Core*
It’s simply a foreboding
Of future that’s in store
*corps, too
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HACKBRIGHT Academy???? For a computer coding “school?” It sounds like you’re making that up. I know you’re not, but what a name!
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“Hackbright Academy is the leading software engineering school for women founded in San Francisco in 2012.”
That is indeed quite a name — and not a particularly good one.
traditionally, the word “hack” has been applied to someone who does a lousy job.
That’s even true in the computer programming field.
“Hackers” are something else entirely, though that group also includes a lot of hacks (script kiddies, as they are called)
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Coding bootcamps will me a moot point if the shelves in our supermarkets are empty, because we placed our economic and business emphasis upon the wrong sectors. Tell me why farm-workers make so little money, when they do the most critical work?
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This is the usual narrow minded approach to common core. First, the standardized test is not an indicator of achievement, only a second class snap shot of what children do. It has no value as the information returns to teachers up to 4 months later.
The bigger argument is the “raising the bar” rhetoric. Basically educators have two choices when passing or failing students. For those who don’t live up to the artificial standards failure begins the spiral downward toward dropping out. Remember the emphasis on graduating “on time”.
However, passing students along without developing proper skills or by “lowering the bar” causes students to leave high school totally unprepared for life or higher education.
Under the current system there is no real solution other than a ton of remedial sessions that accomplish little or nothing of value and lead to only “teaching to the test”. Memorized information learned and quickly forgotten after the test.
What is the solution?
Envision a school where education opens doors to the dreams of every child recognizing that no one will ever know where or when genius will unfold, until it does.
Envision a school where assessment is not cheapened by the narrow scope of a standardized test but broadened to fully realize the goals of the whole child.
Envision a school where, like life, learning is a constant flow of problem solving experiences with failure as a learning tool rather than the result of a devastating game built to win or lose.
Envision a school where students are taken from where they are, on their pathway to success, without grade level and other time frames to push them out of school.
Envision a school where competition is OK if what children have to lose is a game or a meet, but never when what they have to lose is their future.
Envision a school where the “high bar” is reachable based on the needs of every individual child and the importance THAT they graduate with sufficient skills, not WHEN they graduate.
Envision a school designed for children!
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It’s a perfect school for children, but you have to move to Finland to attend it.
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I am sick and tired of the whole BS of education should be geared to serve the economy. Our economy was set up by and currently rigged to benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. The moment someone’s portfolio or whatever picks up some red ink, 20,000 unwitting believers lose their jobs after blindly believing for years the cultural myths and narratives of showing up to work, doing good, and following the rules will guarantee success. My point being, why should we “train our kids to serve our economy”, the very same economy they are brought up to believe in, only to be used up and discarded? Only to see homes foreclosed upon? Only to lose their retirement savings and pensions? Again, US News is overtly respouting neoliberalism a la St. Ronnie that has gripped the American consciousness and discourse since Reagan’s time. As a teacher, I expose our system for what it is and instead of teaching them to serve some abstract notion of an economy, I use the curriculum to encourage independent thinking, engage civics, expose The System, and seek a fulfilling life.
So, with all due respect, F the economy!!!
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Rather than viewing children as a widget for the economy, a truly comprehensive education may unleash undiscovered passions or talents that may serve mankind much better than just being a “good widget.”
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Amen, to not producing “widgets”, but autonomous beings who can take care of themselves. Give me 1-2 acres and some basic resources and I can live as Aldo Leopold envisioned, free and independent, not tied to someone else’s need to sell me something. “On Walden Pond” still has its place in Americana. Give any student enough basic skills, wisdom and the desire to learn and apply more, and they too can have their own “Walden Pond”, and not be reliant upon the Bill Gs and Mark Zs of this tech-obsessed culture and economy (and in the long term by a positive contributor, not a parasitic consumer).
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I here that sound byte about taking remedial courses in college a lot. Does anyone have a historical perspective on this? It seems to me that college enrollment is increasing. And none of my students are concerned that they won’t get into a college even though their grades are mediocre. Have a certain percentage of college students always taken remedial courses or is this an artifact of the “everyone goes to college” ideology? Any effect on the increase in community colleges where students have traditionally taken the remedial courses?
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The appropriate correlation is household wealth and remediation in college.
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Here are two sources of information. The Gates-funded push for “college and career readiness” has led to some difficulty in get comparable longitudinal data on remedial course-taking. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013013.pdf
This report offers some data on remedial work needed by students who are the first generation in the family to attend college.
See also Linda’s comment. Even so, there are many efforts now, especially in urban centers, to do some early orientation to college and to mentor students from low income families who have high potential for entering and completing college. College prep charters for students from low income families are proliferating as a brand. Some, are parochial schools.
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John Campbell – Chairman Harvard Economics Dept. was asked in the documentary “Inside Job” if economists should disclose financial interests in the papers they write. He was then asked if doctors should disclose financial interests on drug reports.
See him hem and haw at 1:32:32.
http://documentarylovers.com/film/inside-job/
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We need VAM like we need a bullet in the head.
The deformers have a real street attitude. Big sticks, big carrots and crude, no-excuses decision making. Push things through by force or by hidden unethical means. Whatever it takes is the motto of these thugs. We don’t need no research is their creed. Pie in the sky for all as dreams are destroyed en masse and one by one is their ideology.
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Truth: We are D4>
We are an international Ponzi scheme that deals in intellectual crack, herbal panaceas or whatever you’ve got to dream about. Our founders and early players are in the top .001%.
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Seriously? If over 30 states have dropped out of CC despite pressure from the Federal Government to participate, might there actually be a problem with CCSS?
Or is it always those evil teachers unions which manipulate the attitudes towards education in each state?
And what about those states which don’t have unions? Who is the monster there?
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“He doesn’t note that a majority of students in every state failed the Common Core-aligned tests. Nor does he not that in 2015, NAEP scores went flat or declined for the first time in many years.”
NO! The majority of students DIDN’T FAIL those tests. The tests FAILED THEM!!
And NAEP scores belong in the trash with the rest of the standardized test results due to the complete lack of validity. THEY ARE MEANINGLESS!
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