Yesterday the New York Times published a bizarre editorial about remedial classes in college.
The editorial says that former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was right when he said that the students who opt out are poorly educated, and their parents are “white suburban moms” who were disappointed to discover that their children aren’t so smart after all. Duncan always liked to say that America’s children had been “dummied down,” and no one was willing to tell the unpleasant truth but him.
The Times‘ editorial said that large numbers of suburban students need remediation when they get to college. This conclusion, it said, was based on a study by an advocacy group called Education Reform Now.
The editorial referred to Education Reform Now as a “nonprofit think tank.” ERN is nonprofit but it is certainly not a think tank. ERN is the nonprofit (c3) arm of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), the organization of hedge fund managers that loves charter schools, high-stakes testing, and Common Core. It has a vested interest in saying that American public schools are failing, failing, failing so as to spur its campaign to privatize public education.
ERN sponsors “Camp Philos,” an annual affair where important political figures meet in the woods with hedge fund managers to figure out how to reform public schools that none of them ever sent their own children to. In 2014, its star education reformer was Governor Cuomo. At its 2015 meeting on Martha’s Vineyard, Mayor Rahm Emanuel was a keynote speaker, sharing his knowledge of how to reform public education by closing public schools en masse.
The staff director of ERN is Shavar Jeffries, who ran for mayor of Newark and lost to Ras Baraka. Jeffries was supported by DFER, which hired him after his loss.
Consider the board of directors. Every one of them is from Wall Street.
The authors of the report are staff members at ERN who come from public policy backgrounds.
Curiously, the editorial has a link to the words “Education Department,” but no link to the ERN policy brief.
The New York Times‘ editorial board has been a tireless advocate for the Common Core and for high-stakes testing. It has been a reliable cheerleader for the corporate reform. Its editorials show little understanding of the opt out movement or of the opposition to the Common Core standards. It is sad that the nation’s most prestigious newspaper so consistently distorts important education issues. It must be very distressing to the Times’ editorial board that the New York Board of Regents is now led by an experienced educator who does not share their zeal to tear down the nation’s public schools and abet privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Once upon another time the NYTimes was the most prestigious newspaper.
Next stop, a merger with the Wall Street Journal?
Alfie Kohn has a response for this, written in response to the same stupid argument, as it keeps popping up. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B85WmKENp4dSU2E0WHl6VUN1bWs/edit
Julie Borst:
Thanks for the link.
😎
Thanks for offering the truth!
“Self-Reverence”
Reform is a whine
In bottle of Klein
The fruit of a vine
With Möbius twine
I genuinely don’t understand why all labor-union backed advocacy is dismissed out of hand yet all ed reform lobby backed advocacy is treated as disinterested.
What is the difference between a labor lobby and an ed reform lobby like DFER?
Doesn’t one have to examine ALL lobbying and not just public schools lobbies if the starting point is “lobbying groups are self interested and biased” shouldn’t that apply to both?
Are ed reformers just better people? More ethical and noble? What else could possibly explain this difference in treatment?
“The Race at the Top”
Ed Reformers
Superior race
Supra-normers
Exceptional case
PR Watch reported that Rupert Murdoch and the Waltons are ERN financial backers.
The NYT reported yesterday that, in 2015, the top 10 hedge fund guys took home $10 bil..
$10 bil. taken out of the economy, coupled with the amount that the Silicon Valley moguls are extracting, tightens the noose on future national economic growth.
The financial sector has resorted to taking taxpayer money, intended for kids, and the elderly (privatization off Social Security) in desperation for returns. A dangerous situation of growth decline in demand for consumer goods and services, is reflected in the theft of public service revenues and common goods.
Goldman Sachs’ social impact bonds, aimed at the “low hanging fruit” (as proponents of ed reform describe them), exemplifies depraved greed and it is a harbinger of the nation’s future social and economic instability.
Linda, ERN was originally founded by Joel Klein.
Raise the top marginal tax rate, if not what it was under Eisenhower, to at least what it was under Nixon, and make the hedge fund guys pay taxes on their income as though it was actual income, not capital gains.
There, more money for the social good.
Oh, and stop letting companies “offshore” their corporate “headquarters” in order to avoid paying taxes here, while we’re at it.
Whatever happened to the “promote the general welfare” part of the Preamble to the United States Constitution?
” We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Yes, Zorba, after the fortunes of those who have worked to subvert democracy, are nationalized.
The author of this editorial is obviously out of touch with reality. These “white suburban” schools are being strong armed to change their curriculum to follow CCSS and eliminating nearly everything else. Math and ELA rule the school day. Parents are now paying for art classes, music classes, and other activities that were once part of a school day. So let’s look at the big picture. If our students are given a well-rounded education within the public school system, the end result will be a strong citizenry.
I read info on the Camp Philos site you posted link to as well as the Board of Directors site and decided they needed to change their Mission Statement to read:
OUR MISSION Camp Philos convenes an influential group of ‘stakeholders’ (aka stockholders) in the education reform movement: the thought leaders, philanthropists, and local, state, and national elected and appointed officials fighting for our nation’s schoolchildren, from classrooms to Capitol Hill. Participants attend Camp Philos to connect, share experience, exchange policy ideas, and gear up for what’s next in the changing landscape of American public education.
If teachers unions are lobbying my state lawmakers and the online charter industry are ALSO lobbying at my statehouse (as they are this past month) can someone explain to me why the labor union is “self interested” and the charter lobby is not?
The lobbyists from K12 and ECOT love kids? They’re smarter? I’m baffled by this distinction.
Those of us who are critics of wind turbines, because of the harm they do to families when sited too close to homes (from noise, infrasound, strobing), are well aware of the mainstream press’s unwillingness to dig deeper. Clean energy incentives are a money-maker for already-big corporations, no need to worry about consequences like physical harm and grid disruption. I have yet to see an editorial in major newspapers (or even The Nation) that look at the issues under the macro, philosophical level. It could be called “energy reform” and operates much like “education reform.” Where’s the free press when we need it?
It’s pretty amazing to me that the Obama Administration, who have focused almost exclusively on expanding “choice” and putting in elaborate measurement metrics to (supposedly) “empower” parents completely dismiss the judgment of “moms” regarding their own kids if those kids happen to attend the disfavored “public school sector”.
Ed reform is incoherent. It doesn’t hang together. The reason it doesn’t hang together is it’s agenda-driven. Duncan came in with a rigid free market theory and he’ll tie himself into knots to promote it and justify it.
You know what the most amazing part of that Duncan gaffe is? He thinks “the moms” are motivated by property values. He has the absolute hubris to believe that THEY’RE self-interested versus their own kids!
EXACTLY!!! And people like Arne Duncan have no comprehension of how that can be since they hang out with people who believe kids are simply pawns in the game of how to make the most money.
It’s actually a good thing that Mr. Duncan and his billionaire friends didn’t understand this. It’s why their “reform” movement has so utterly failed and the opt out movement has succeeded. Talk about hubris.
Right, Chiara. Reformers want parents to have school choice but don’t respect their choice about taking or not taking pointless tests
” He thinks “the moms” are motivated by property values.”
I believe you have made a fatal mistake by assuming that Arne Duncan “thinks.”
They are neoliberals. And don’t confuse “neoliberalism” with actual “liberalism.”
From Wikipedia:
“Neoliberalism (or sometimes neo-liberalism)[1] is a term which has been used since the 1950s,[2] but became more prevalent in its current meaning in the 1970s and 80s by scholars in a wide variety of social sciences[3] and critics[4] primarily in reference to the resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism.[5] Its advocates support extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Neoliberalism is famously associated with the economic policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States.[7] The implementation of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s are seen by some academics as the root of financialization, with the financial crisis of 2007–08 one of the ultimate results.[13][14][15][16][17]”
It’s Reaganism. Don’t forget, Obama said years ago that he admired Ronald Reagan.
It’s all about profits.
The term “neoliberal” obfuscates. Neoliberal politicians and government do not use the term to describe themselves. MSM does not use the term. Clarity can be achieved by stating, as it applies the situation in the U.S., “corporate right wingers” have infiltrated and largely taken over the opposition party.
“Reform” is built on house of cards’ lies and faux “research.” Unfortunately, the ‘NY Times’ stoops so low that it is willing to repeat those lies for mass consumption. Who could imagine this once impartial acclaimed newspaper now engages in yellow journalism? Money corrupts!
I’m just curious if we’re ever going to look into the college end of these “remediation rates”.
Is anyone looking at that? if remediation rates exploded why is it assumed that is the fault of public schools?
More blatant bias and blindness from the ed reform echo chamber.
“if remediation rates exploded why is it assumed that is the fault of public schools?”
I think you have to ask not only why but also when did this explosion begin to happen? Both answers might be linked back to the implementation of No Child Left Behind policies.
There is research. Anecdotally, based on a small sample, with which I’m familiar, when the high grades, given for remedial courses, were taken out of student GPA’s, the remedial students’ GPA’s, were not good. I don’t speculate on what it means.
Studies have shown that if a college forces an enrolling student to take a high level mathematics “placement” test, many will fail. Fortunately, the private colleges that Arne and his pals send their children will happily allow a student to figure out another way to meet their math and science requirement if there even is one. Rocks for Jocks? check.
The bottom line is that each student enrolling in a community college has to prove their strong mathematical ability while this requirement is waived for most students whose families can pay high private college tuition.
Quite correct Chiara in your questions!!
Perhaps those remediation rates have to do with post secondary institutions admitting students whom they wouldn’t have allowed in before. It doesn’t take a large percentage of the “lower end” (I hesitate using that term) students to raise the need/rate of remediation courses.
NYC public school parent is right. The situation is similar to the reformers’ kids, at schools that reject Common Core testing and, the admittance of W, to a prestigious ivy league, when his SAT score was 1100.
Of course! No need to “test” the schools that educate Bill Gates’ kids! At least with those supposedly meaningful state tests that those private schools are allowed to “opt in” to. Nope, their precious kids get to take specially designed tests that pretend that every private school student is above average. Funny how the easiest way would be to have them take the SAME test but of course, the billionaires know those tests are a joke.
Is this the study they’re referring to, cosponsored by Education Post? http://educationpost.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/EdReformNow-O-O-P-v7.pdf
We know that college tuition costs are insane– why are media reports so credulous about the “need” for (profit-making) remediation in subjects that may have no bearing on a student’s career or connection to their area of interest? Does it occur to them that remediation, almost always taught by underpaid adjuncts/grad students, etc = almost free money for colleges/universities?
Ted, yes, same study. You can find it on ERN website
My favorite part about ed reform is how the echo chamber is always in synch. They plant the ‘studies” and then the lobbyists fan out to promote the message.
Here are their plans for suburban schools:
“Our new paper reviews the trends around these changing student populations and the accompanying demands facing suburban public school systems. For example:
Between 2000 and 2012, populations living below the federal poverty line grew nearly three times as fast in suburbs as in cities.
In Highline Public Schools, just outside of Seattle, the number of students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch has increased by over 25 percentage points since 1998, and ELLs grew from 7% to 21%.
In neighboring Kent, Washington, in the past decade the ELL student population grew from 3% to 14% in a system of 27,000 students.
In Minnesota’s suburbs, half of the ELL population are refugees, which brings challenges beyond just navigating language barriers.
In Prince George’s County, Maryland, FRL students grew from 44% to 59% between 2003 and 2013 (just two percentage points lower than nearby Washington, D.C.).
While some might argue that suburbs have been lucky to avoid battles over education policy, teacher strikes, and state interventions, many suburbs are economically distressed and not well equipped to handle the new challenges associated with disadvantaged students.
The authors have suggestions as to how suburban leaders and others can support smart changes to help their school systems address the risks and opportunities associated with these rapid population changes.
Related Research:
Portfolio Strategy
The Portfolio Strategy! In other words, exactly what they do in every other place they parachute into to save the huddled masses from their own mediocrity and ignorance!
Just posted below:
“Smart changes” means to allow a charter school to open that picks off the cheapest to educate kids and leaves an increasing percentage of high needs students for public schools to educate with fewer dollars.
Overall it won’t change a thing, but that way the charter school can claim to work “miracles” (while profiting handsomely) and have plenty of money to fund new studies like this.
It’s kind of like Tim — this blog’s biggest DFER and “high suspension rates of at risk and low-income 5 year olds are fantastic” charter supporter — trying to justify why very wealthy District 2 Manhattan needed more charter schools to serve the 27% of low-income kids but not give those kids priority in the lottery. Kids are doing poorly in public schools! We refer to them when we demand a charter school, but suspend them when our charter school opens and make sure most of the students we serve are affluent! And of course, we won’t even let them in unless their parents agree to all the conditions we demand and the child pass a placement test to see if he is worthy of a 1st grade spot and not told he can’t come to the school unless his parents agree their 6 year old is a failure who didn’t “learn enough” in Kindergarten to make him worthy of a 1st grade spot.
Those are the kind of “smart changes” that people who want to profit from privatizing public education pay good money for Ed Reform Now to come up with!
Read the study. Notice it does not say that these affluent students underprepared for college were educated in PUBLIC schools. Those parents have plenty of money for private school tuitions. Or religious school tuitions (remember, the students who attend NYC Yeshiva schools perform shockingly poorly on tests).
DFER and the charter school industry have failed terribly in their attempt to help at-risk kids. They’ve been financially supporting charter schools that educate only the strivers among the low-income students and can’t get rid of the non-strivers fast enough. And recent article have shown how easy it is for charters to get rid of the low-income kids who don’t achieve high test scores. High suspension rates? Approved and check! High attrition rates? Approved and check! But those charter schools are running out of “acceptable” low income kids, despite there being tens of thousands in failing schools. Most of them simply won’t do as worthy students. What to do?
Charters need middle class and upper middle class kids whose parents have college and graduate school degrees in order to keep their suspension and attrition rates down. And darn it they will spend any amount of money necessary to convince those suburban parents that their public schools are failing their kids. They’ve invested heavily in the testing industry — buying politicians and hiring test companies who will make sure the tests are appropriately confusing enough to insure even suburban kids struggle. But the suburban parents took at look at those idiotic tests that so much of their child’s education funding was spent to develop and revolted! Oh no!
So we see this new attempt. Charters want middle class kids, not poor ones. I mean, they will take a few poor kids as long as they are easy to teach but as soon as money needs to be spent, out they go. How can they profit if they have to spend money for the education of the unworthy students?
It’s far better to spend money to promote faux studies like this to continue their desperate attempt to convince middle class parents their public schools are failing. No amount is too small! Better it be spent on PR and advertising than for “wasteful” things like providing small class sizes or making sure charter schools aren’t targeting too many at-risk kids for removal to the trash heap where the unworthy kids are sent.
Truly despicable. And the NY Times editors should know better.
Our management faculty just had a meeting on this topic. What we see is that students are coming to college with little or no ability to critically think. This is a result of the reformers agenda, not for lack of testing. Our faculty is challenged to figure out how to remediate when we have so little time. We are spending so much time trying to help students communicate critically, that it is becoming overwhelming. They do not know how to write or formulate and defend their ideas. They will be highly challenged when they get in the business world, that is why we are investing so much time into this, this that we do not have. Diane you predicted this. From a faculty perspective you are spot on. BTW my international students do not seem to have this problem. I would say over 50% of my students are highly challenged in this way.
John
John Inman, Ed.D., M.A., DDPE Management Lecturer Communications Manager, MBA Program Milgard School of Business University of Washington Tacoma jinman2@uw.edu http://faculty.washington.edu/jinman2 541-497-3774 mobile and text
Essentials of Management Certificate
Milgard School of Business Executive MBA
+10
I can teach kids to critical think, reason, and analyze. But I am not allowed to. It’s all about the test, now.
If you want a real sense of how much contempt the Obama Administration had for the people who run public schools, follow the money.
These are a sample of the Duncan grants:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/i3-grants-findings-from-the-first-round.html
Duncan and Co apparently believe they can’t award grant money directly to public schools- it has to go thru a university filter. KIPP and TFA? They get huge grants directly. The Best and the Brightest are the only folks trusted to administer tens of millions in tax money. Public schools need an ed reform oversight committee.
Thanks for your posts, Chiara.
And, the incisive summaries.
Also notice the “studies” evaluating this grants!
When they are by Mathematica, these grants have had remarkable effect! They make sure to only look at the kids who remain at charter schools to see their effect.
If only pharmaceutical companies could hire Mathematica to do their drug study research! I’m sure Mathematica will use similar “scientific” measures to find out if the drug works for the people who remain in the study for 2 years, while completely ignoring who and how many people drop out and if they are pushed out because the drug isn’t working! Obviously, the people in the pharmaceutical industry aren’t as savvy about how to influence public policy to allow “friendly” evaluators who will only look at what you want them to look out.
Don’t forget the new NY Times editorial page editor is James Bennet, brother of forever Denver Public Schools superintendent and reformer extraordinaire, Michael Bennet.
Thanks for that info Jeannie!!
It would be really nice if the NYT would interview an actual teacher. If that miracle would ever happen, here is what I would tell them:
For the past ten years, teachers have not been able to teach what we know our students need. We have been micro managed in what to teach and how to teach. We have been subject to every charlatan’s new elixir that is touted to improve this skill or that skill. We have been diminished to a data point on nonsensical tests. We have been rubriced into establishing a classroom of robotic parts.
Here’s what I would tell the NYT – Let us teach!
If I may add to your thought: “For the past ten years, GGG* teachers have not been able to teach what we know our students need BECAUSE WE HAVE LACKED THE COJONES TO ‘JUST SAY NO’ TO THE ADMINIMALS AND HAVE PUT PERSONAL EXPEDIENCY OVER JUSTICE, CAUSING MUCH HARM TO MANY OF OUR STUDENTS.”
*GGG = GAGA Good German
To be fair, Swacker, I have said just that to my administration. Now, I’m being brought up on false charges and may lose my license. What would you have me do?
“Toast Reading”
To read the NY Times
You need to do it close
And read between the lines
To see the Times is toast
The primary reason for students that are not ready for college is because those students are not readers, and in fact, most if not all of them hate to read as much as many children also hate drinking water because they were raised to drink sugary sodas like Coke.
Parents, for whatever reason, that do not introduce their children to books at a very early age, years before kinder garden, are the ones that often start out behind and never catch up, because they DON’T like to read, and there is very little teachers can do to instill a love of reading in a child that was not raised to love books and enjoy reading.
In the film, “Won’t Back Down”, that was clearly propaganda for the corporate public education reform movement, the producer/director got one thing right and probably didn’t know they were doing it. There is a scene in the single mother’s apartment, the mother is played by Maggie Gyllenhall, where her child is watching TV. There is never a scene that shows the child reading anything and not once does the mother turn off the TV and tell her daughter to read a book.
All parents have to do is stop using the TV as a babysitter and be there sitting beside their pre-school child on a regular daily basis reading a book to that child and eventually helping their child to read on their own. The same thing goes to raising a child that drinks water instead of soda. Parents that use sugary sodas as a pacifier will raise a child that hates water because sugar is more addictive than cocaine.
Once a child is addicted to reading, a healthy addiction by the way, that child becomes a life long learner.
“There are numerous studies showing that the most successful students are those whose parents are actively involved in their education.”
http://www.care2.com/causes/parents-or-teachers-whos-more-important.html
The charter school industry understands this.
That’s why if a charter school values results over teaching, they will not accept a student whose parent will not be actively involved in their education.
Of course, the reason for failing public schools is that public schools can’t tell a parent not actively involved enough to find another school because their child is no longer welcome. And they can’t tell a parent who IS actively involved but the child has a learning issue that makes it a bit more expensive to educate him that their child is not welcome.
If public schools could do that, I guarantee that you would see that same remarkable improvement. Statistics 101. If you get rid of the lowest 25% or 50% of the students, your “average” will jump sky high.
It’s called stacking the deck.
I thought the primary reason that kids are not ready for college was that they don’t read (and buy) the NY Times.
I don’t read the NY Times and I’m certainly not ready for college.
QED
LOL
As a child I read the comics in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. I followed the Prince Valiant comic series. Then I grew up and eventually, after a long story, earned a BA in journalism and learned, from my college professors that all had worked in the media as professional journalists, how flawed the media really is and I stopped reading newspapers but I still read books for fun. If you trust, without question, what the media reports and prints as news, feature and opinon, then you are by definition a fool.
Though not surprising, since they are governed by money, it’s actually sort of bizarre that news outlets like the NY Times have actually become the least reliable news sources..
In fact, the only thing you can rely on is that what they print will almost assuredly not be the truth.
I actually prefer the National Enquirer because I know that there is at least some chance (no matter how small) that what the Enquirer prints will have some truth to it. Big foot might be married to Taylor Swift, for example.
In China, most if not all of the people think the opposite on hot button reports coming out of the CCP’s media machine. Even the President of China doubts what he reads from Party’s media. I read a story that he slips out on his own in street clothes looking like everyone else to go around and listen to what the people are saying to get a better perspective of what is really going in his own country. Too many Americans blindly trust what they hear and read without fact checking.
I became a real reader my sophomore year in college. It comes. It takes time. The real scam is the notion that somehow students should go to college and already know how to be a scholar. Nope and students never will be with all the testing, baloney standards, starting the academic day at 7:25 am to accommodate sports, no music, art etc. The college’s job is to teach students how to become scholars. It always has been.
I read and read with my children and they loved books. However, my youngest got stuck in endless DIEBELS in third grade. He hated how fast they wanted him to read–so fast he couldn’t understand what he was reading. He scores well in reading now, but he HATES to read, because DIEBELS ruined it for him. I did what I could, but the standardized crap sucked all joy of reading out of him. And I’m sure he’s not the only one.
The most recent report on remediation statistics for the University of Wisconsin system is here: https://www.wisconsin.edu/reports-statistics/download/educational_statistics/2015-Remedial-Report-final.pdf.
We can see that there are students identified for remediation in all groups, but the placement rates for remediation are higher for students entering later, lower income students, lower high school GPA, and historically disadvantaged groups. If you are interested in a detailed description of who is identified for remediation and their undergraduate outcomes in one state’s public system of higher education, you may find the report of value.
I have not looked for the ERN report, but it looks to me as if the NYT editorial board were artful in their use of statistics. Their claim is that 45% of students needing remediation come from middle class, upper middle, or high income families. While that may seem shocking on its face, the fact is that well more than 45% of undergraduates come from middle class, upper middle, or high income families so the actual percentage of remedial placements from suburban high schools is much lower. In Wisconsin, the remediation placement rate for Pell Grant recipients is 30.5% and 16.9% for non-recipients.
I don’t mean to dismiss the significance of the problem presented by the number of undergraduates placed into remedial, non-credit bearing courses. There is a significant time and some persistence impact on the student and a financial cost to the students, their families, and all of us who contribute toward the cost of higher education. However, in the process of playing fast and loose with counts vs. rates the NYT editorial board is getting very close to the line between artfulness and deception.
“. . . the NYT editorial board is getting very close to the line between artfulness and deception.”
You mean they are lying, prevaricating bastards??? (Perhaps self deceived, but still lying, prevaricating bastards, eh???)
Stiles,
Follow the child back to birth and the odds favor that the child grew up in a home without parental and/or guardian roll models that introduced that child to reading years before kindergarten.
When children do not like to read and in many cases hate to read, they often do not become life long learners.
And, does the U.S. really need every child to go to college for an academic education when there are almost three college graduated for every job that requires a college degree?
Regardless of the ratio of children needing remediation when they enter college in America, the U.S. is still ranked 4th http://www.neit.edu/blog/index.php/2015/01/most-educated-countries-in-the-world/in the world compared to about 200 countries for the ratio of college graduates. Why are the for profit, autocratic and often fraudulent public education reformers ignoring those facts?
http://www.neit.edu/blog/index.php/2015/01/most-educated-countries-in-the-world/
But beware of the reported high school graduation rates in this list. The U.S. only offers an academic track geared for college for high school graduation while most of the countries on the to ten most educated list offer both a vocational or academic high school track. For instance, Japan reports that 92% of its high school students graduate on time but there is no mention that about a third of those students graduate from vocational high schools that do not prep them for college and after HS graduation most of those students enter the workforce.
Did you notice that the U.S. has a higher HS and college graduation rate than Finland and South Korea? In addition, college graduated in Canada and Japan are also having a hard time finding jobs in their field and often end up working in jobs that do not require a college education. The same goes for South Korea. It has been reported that only Israel doesn’t seem to have a problem placing its college graduated in jobs that require a college education, and what is the population of Israel? 8 million versus almost 320 million for the U.S. In fact, the U.S. has about 12 times more college graduates than the entire population of Israel.
The NY Times crossed the line between artfulness and deception long ago.
“Mess ed in their Badness”
There’s method in their madness.
And madness in their method
A mess ed kind of badness
The baddest kind of mess-ed
Lloyd, I agree with you on this. The gaps are largely due to environmental and inequality factors. You also make an important point that we currently do not give enough attention to career pathways and often prioritize college prep before more applied vocational learning. One of the challenges in suburban communities, at least, is that some parents do not easily buy into the possibility that their child’s most promising future path for them as an individual does not involve a four year degree.
When I look at the Wisconsin data, I see that only 24.8% of students placed into remediation for math who do not complete it in their first year earn a degree in six years. For English it is 17.9%. These are themselves a relatively small portion of admitted freshman but perhaps there should have been some counseling with these young adults regarding whether a four-year college or university was the right match for them.
There is also the question of whether higher education placement practices over-identify students for remediation, especially in community colleges.
In Wisconsin, at least, math remediation is a larger issue than remediation in English. In addition to the issue of math remediation, there is also the issue of students aspiring to a STEM major where calculus is required who encounter problems with college level calculus and shift plans. The Mathematics Association of America has been studying this and some of their finding are covered at this link. http://www.macalester.edu/~bressoud/talks/2015/Minneapolis.pdf
And due to the one link rule, here is a reply stub with another link regarding the MAA’s study project.
Click to access AMS-CoE.pdf
Duncan got a standing ovation from the New Schools Venture Fund crowd.
The Obama appointees who leave and head off immediately to ed reform orgs must be relieved they don’t have to deal with the pesky and ungrateful “public” in public schools anymore 🙂
The echo chamber is much nicer than the dumb “moms” and those icky labor union types who all probably went to “non selective” colleges 🙂
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2016/05/morning-video-snippets-from-nsvf-including-standing-ovation-for-duncan.html#.VzSi9NUrLnA
NewSchoolsVenture Fund exists to create and multiply charters. Duncan hired its CEO Ted Mitchell as Deputy Secretary of Education.
“Broaden the reform coalition: Cultivate political support among parents and teachers who are better off today as a result of centrist reform. Help blue-collar whites in suburbs, towns, and rural areas see that the existing system contribute to their problems and can’t adapt to their needs.”
Also- ‘blue collar whites’ are the newest fashionable group in ed reform. You can tell because they’ve all fallen in love with “skilled trades” and specifically, “welders” 🙂
I think it’s hysterical they refer to people they’re trying to “help” as ‘blue collar whites”- you, your children, your community and your public school are simply a demographic that needs “targeting”. Once you dopes realize how bad your public schools are you’ll be clamoring for a Rocketship chain!
I’m sorry, where does it say “moms” in the editorial?
Dan, the reference in the editorial is to a famous comment Duncan made about the opt outs. He said the parents opting out were “white suburban moms” who were disappointed to learn that their child was not as brilliant as they thought
If I have time, I will find a cite
Dan Speller: as per the reference by dianeravitch, go this blog—
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/11/17/arne-duncan-to-white-suburban-moms-your-kidsare-not-as-smart-as-you-thought/
On the above posting on this blog, you will get a link to WaPo and the Arne Duncan quote.
😎
Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" and commented:
The New York Times published an incredible, non-sensical editorial about remedial college classes. Read Dr. Diane Ravitch’s thoughts on this hooey.
Remediation in college is a fake issue. More high stakes standardized testing will not solve it and is a HUGE waste of resources. The Data shows this. If you believe in the FREE market make college free. Open up the chances for all students and we will see huge gains. Stop subsidizing greedy banks and putting debt on our children’s future.
Reblogged this on rjknudsen.