Tom Ultican left the private sector to teach physics and mathematics in a California public school.
He writes here about how setting targets for graduation rates has produced the same corruption as NCLB’s mythical target of 100% proficiency on tests. It is the inexorable workings of what is known as Campbell’s Law in social science: “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”
The corruption is by no means limited to California. It is nationwide, as Ultican shows.
It is promoted by schools eager to meet targets but also by for-profit entrepreneurs, who make easy money with inferior products.
The unanswered question in this discussion is what to do to help the students who don’t earn a legitimate high school diploma. Without it, they will have trouble getting a job. How do we restore the meaning of a high school diploma without leaving hundreds of thousands with no job prospects. The best answer is very likely career and technical training, especially if it is not forced into the same college-prep mold as other paths.
This is one of those brilliant posts that I am honored to share with you:
“A miracle has occurred. America’s high school graduation rates peaked at about 77% in 1970 and then drifted down for almost four decades to 69% in 2007. Astoundingly, even with increased graduation requirements rates have shot up.
“Many school districts in California now require all students to meet course requirements for entering the University of California system to graduate from high School. That is a dramatic increase in academic rigor. Yet, in 2016, over 83% of California’s freshman cohort graduated on time. In 2012, 81% of the freshman cohort in America graduated on time. These record setting numbers are the result of knuckleheaded political policy, cheating and credit recovery.
“What is Credit Recovery and Where did it Come from?
“In the 1990’s politicians like Bill Clinton and Jeb Bush were pushing for standards in education and accountability measures. Jeb Bush’s infamous school grading system called for 25% of a high school’s grade to be based on graduation rates. Bill Clinton wrote in 1998,
We have worked to raise academic standards, promote accountability, and provide greater competition and choice within the public schools, including support for a dramatic increase in charter schools.”
“We know that all students can learn to high standards, and that every school can succeed if it has clear instructional goals and high expectations for all of its students; ….”
“Donald T. Campbell’s 1976 paper presented a theory about social change that is now widely revered as Campbell’s Law: “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”
“Exactly as the Social Scientist, Campbell, postulated, this national push to increase the standards of school rigor and to use social indicators (graduation rates and high stakes testing) to evaluate schools has introduced distortion and corruption.
“How were school leaders going to protect their institutions and their own jobs from the ravages of horribly shortsighted and uninformed education policy? The solution was obvious; teach to the test and find a way to raise graduation rates.
“To the rescue, came both the Walton Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with many other lesser contributors. They perceived it was time for advancing the privatization of public education and accelerating the adoption of technology in education. Credit recovery was a perfect vehicle.”
Read on to learn about the roles of many other organizations that pushed the naive narrative that setting a goal and punishing those who didn’t reach it would produce great results.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Billaries LOVE Standards and testing. Worked so well in Arkansas…NOT! They made state’s write Standards and test items. I refused and will NEVER EVER participate in this kind of warped decisions from D.C. Follow the $$$$$.
Spent one day in a writing-standards meeting. Wasted time. Standards haven’t changed in in fifty years. They have been written and rewritten using different syntax. The biggest boondoggle has been moving standards for first grade to pre-school, as if that would change anything.
As a teacher, I learned how to apply what the students needed to the language of the standard.
Before there were standards, I was asked one year to teach arithmetic in a summer program (a kind of credit recovery for middle school). My pre-test was quick. I asked kids to raise hands if they needed help with addition, then subtraction,…finally algebra. Next, I prepared instruction for each student group and sent the pre-algebra student to a teacher who was a real math person.
Know the student.* Know the subject. Know the cognitive strategy.* Teach the student.
*These parts are left out of most reform plans.
Diane Unfortunately, there is a direct positive correlate between (1) reduced educational quality and (2) reducing the educational budget.
Also, as a related-coincidental point, here is an article (quoted below) appearing in the recent “Higher Ed” about the interrelationship between the National Academies of Sciences. Two links are below the article–one for the article and one for the report cited in the article. The report is free to download and is provocative for education in several respects–and apparently it doesn’t yet have Bannon’s fingerprints on it.
ALL QUOTED MATERIAL BELOW then the links
By Andrew Kreighbaum
June 12, 2017
National Academies Call for Plan on Social Sciences
The National Science Foundation should clearly state the most important questions to be addressed by the social, behavioral and economic sciences, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said in a report published Friday. The academies called for the NSF to articulate those questions as part of a transparent strategic planning process — one of four recommendations outlined in the report to assist researchers in those disciplines in meeting the challenges faced by the country.
The report also recommended that the agency continue to back the development of research tools, support scientific training and improve public communication of the results of scientific research. The study was sponsored by the NSF.
“Nearly every major challenge the United States faces — from alleviating unemployment to protecting itself from terrorism — requires understanding the causes and consequences of people’s behavior,” said Alan Leshner, the CEO emeritus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the chair of the committee that produced the report. “The diverse disciplines of the social, behavioral and economic sciences produce fundamental knowledge and tools that provide a greater understanding of why people and societies respond the way they do, what they find important and what they believe and value — which is critical for the country’s well-being.”
Leshner said although the NSF commendably consults advisory groups and the broader scientific community, it is unclear how that input is reflected in research priorities for the SBE fields.
END QUOTED MATERIAL
Link to Higher Ed article:
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/06/12/national-academies-call-plan-social-sciences?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b298658ced-DNU20170612&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b298658ced-198488425&mc_cid=b298658ced&mc_eid=f743ca9d07
Link to National Academy of Sciences report cited in article:
https://www.nap.edu/download/24790#
I think they were really desperate to show ed reform was “working” so they grabbed credit recovery and went to town.
Because they had to know. There was an expose on credit recovery shops in Chicago that came out at the same time as when Duncan/Emmanuel were claiming credit for higher rates. They just decided to ignore it.
In Ohio they are garbage online courses and probably for-profit. There’s no transparency so no one can tell if they’re for-profit. The kids themselves say they are a joke. They brag about other people doing the work for them. We had one parent here who said her son’s 21 year old girlfriend did the whole online series for him. The mother was at work. She has no idea this was going on.
I see the credit recovery kids wandering around the public library sometimes. I have no idea who is being paid to teach them. They couldn’t pass high school. Do adults really think they can direct their own credit recovery course? Of course they can’t.
Not all states and areas got rid of vocational education. We have had a vo-tech regional high school here for 30 years. It’s a big success. It’s often over-subscribed. That’s how popular it is. It serves 4 counties. They go to academic classes in the morning at their respective high schools and vocational classes in the afternoon at the central location.
They don’t have to “re-invent” anything. There are plenty of vocational schools that work and have been operating for decades. They were ignored but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Same thing here, Chiara. A number of rural districts formed a consortium many moons ago and the students attend their high school in the morning and the tech school in the afternoon. They could easily triple the number of seats and they’d be filled.
In Denver I have had teachers tell me how they have been told to make sure the kids are doing the work to “just pass” kids as graduation got closer. No wonder DPS grad rates are going up. (They are still pathetic compared to other urban districts). No wonder DPS remediation numbers for poor children and children of color are astronomical. Meaningless data. Meaningless metric. Meaningless reform. Saddest of all – meaningless “education”.
“Meaningless data. Meaningless metric. Meaningless reform. Saddest of all – meaningless “education”.”
That’s a thousand font size YEP!
For profit of the 1% ers at the cost of education for the masses. Everything this country has been doing since the get go and getting worse.
Lots of different thoughts here – First, this is a classic example of where the obsession over data leads to policy makers choosing to do anything possible to raise the numbers – including things like credit recovery. Part of this however, relates to a skewed connection to research. For example, if research sees passing Grade 9 as a key to success then anything is done to have them pass grade 9 (even if this means really passive credit recovery).
When I taught – I had students that would say they wanted to fail my class on purpose in order to take it in credit recovery.
That being said – I think that there is some positive sense behind credit recovery. We all know that there are multiple reasons that students get behind – including reasons related to poverty, not understanding the material, having other reasons. Having credit recovery opportunities for these students to reach graduation is important. However, the key should be that whatever is done in credit recovery should have a similar rigor as participating in a regular courses.
“However, the key should be that whatever is done in credit recovery should have a similar rigor as participating in a regular courses.”
It already has that rigor. That’s why they are dead end “courses”.
Sorry, couldn’t resist, jlsteach! Now if you’re talking about the credit recovery having the same curriculum, activities and assessment as a regular class then I thoroughly agree.
The promoters of “personalized” and mostly on-line learning will say that high school diplomas are a relic of the past. The future rests with stackable badges and certificates based on competencies. These competencies might be certified by many learning “agents” unaffiliated with the formal architecture of schools. For those who hope for college, Standord University and others have developed a “College Readiness Indicator System (CRIS)” that might become a proxy for a diploma. The work on CRIS is mainly funded by the Gates Foundation.
Another dimension to credit recovery is its use for discipline. Suspend a student for a semester or a year, send the child to a separate facility and plug him or her into a computer. Keeps the student on track for graduation.
Let’s not think, any of the conclusions of this post is restricted to K-12 education.
Having taught credit recovery classes, I can attest to the futility of some of it. But let us not forget the futility of teaching algebra to those who are not ready to understand it. Once you decide everybody must have a certain body of knowledge, you have denied the prevalent differences in human capacity regarding certain fields of study. I have taught gifted mathematicians who were totally unable to,see the joy in Shakespeare or the wisdom of Braduel.
In any case, it all has to,do with whether one continues to learn throughout the entire life, not about where one goes to,school or what degree is conferred.