Every time that international test scores are released, there is a predictable clamor to “do something.”
President Obama said that our ranking on an international test was “a Sputnik moment” and reason to push harder for the “remedies” in Race to the Top. We now know that Race to the Top was a failure that had no positive results. Schools were closed, teachers were fired, many new charter schools opened, and performance on the NAEP in 2015–five years after the launch of Race to the Top–went flat.
Now we have the results of the latest international test, the Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS), and the news for fourth graders in the U.S. was not good.
The United States tumbled in international rankings released Tuesday of reading skills among fourth-graders, raising warning flags about students’ ability to compete with international peers.
The decline was especially precipitous for the lowest-performing students, a finding that suggests widening disparities in the U.S. education system.
The United States has traditionally performed well on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, an assessment given to fourth-graders in schools around the world every five years. In 2016, however, the average score in the United States dropped to 549 out of 1,000, compared to 556 in 2011. The country’s ranking fell from fifth in the world in 2011 to 13th, with 12 education systems outscoring the United States by statistically significant margins. Three other countries roughly tied with the United States; they scored higher, but the differences were not notable.
What happened?
The Common Core (aka Common Core State Standards) was introduced across the nation in 2010-2011. The students now in fourth grade were the first cohort to get Common Core, starting in kindergarten.
Their reading scores went down, and it appears that the children who were likeliest to see declines were the lowest performing students.
The Common Core standards were written hurriedly, funded entirely by one man (Bill Gates), and rushed into implementation without any field testing whatsoever. Gates not only paid the hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the writing of Common Core, but he spent many more millions (some have estimated as much as $2 billion) to persuade advocacy groups and education organizations to support the adoption and implementation of the standards.
Would the FDA approve a drug for national use without field testing?
Of course not.
Our children were guinea pigs, and the experiment failed.
Almost every state in the nation has adopted Common Core. Some have rebranded it, but it is still Common Core.
What will states do now?
One of the most prominent advocates for Common Core was Jeb Bush, who is close to Betsy DeVos. They loved Common Core, because they expected it would cause widespread failure and hasten support for the privatization of public schools.
DeVos reacted to the declining scores on PIRLS by advocating for more school choice, more charters and vouchers.
In 2012, Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice wrote a report claiming that public schools were so awful that they endangered national security. Their recommendations: more charters, more vouchers, and Common Core.
Friends, we can’t let these nihilists destroy our democratic system of public education.
Schools improve when they have adequate funding, not competition. Schools improve when students live stable lives, with access to food, medicine, and decent living conditions. Schools improve when they are staffed with professional teachers, not temporary, untrained teachers.
Common Core has failed our nation and our students. So have the privatizers.
Since the passage and signing of No Child Left Behind on January 8, 2002, the U.S. has been on the wrong track.
Can the “reformers” please admit their errors and change their ways? Or are they determined to keep pushing the same failed strategies without regard to evidence?
Amen, Diane!! True differentiation cannot occur when rigid, potentially developmentally inappropriate “programs in a box” are ushered in by administrators. Guess who showed the greatest growth as a result of Common Core?? Pearson!
Perhaps they like these results? Then they can say we need to try something new and dramatic (more privatizing). If that goes through and the declines continue, then what? I suppose they could just stop reporting on PISA? Most of the public has no idea what it is or that it even exists. They certainly aren’t informed enough to know how the Chinese game their results. I’m sure the strong majority of Americans simply think the Chinese are smarter then us because they have been told so by someone coupled with stereotypical views (racist) on the mathematical/scientific aptitude of Asians. But hopefully I am just grumpy and wrong this morning.
You might be grumpy this morning….but you are NOT wrong!
PISA scores most likely dropped from the unauthentic reading comprehension in the CCSS and the widespread under funding of public education. Readers learn from reading whole texts discussed by students in a thoughtful discussion. Students learn more from a more thorough reading and discussion of whole texts in which they can see the relation of the parts of the whole, where they can have a discussion about writers’ style, voice and character and plot development. With the emphasis on STEM, students are lacking exposure to fiction and all the critical thinking that fiction reading entails. Reading whole works also allows students to develop an understanding of context. Unfortunately, the Common Core’s focus on decontextualized selections prevent students from understanding the deep structure of the the text and its connection to the whole. Students need to read both fiction and non-fiction in order to become proficient, balanced readers. Reading to perform on a bubble test is a fake task which prohibits students from making the deeper connections that are made when reading authentic texts. Frank Smith said, “Reading is thinking;” it is not about performing on standardized tests.
Well-stated!
I honestly don’t think that the Master of the Universe want the children of the great unwashed to engage in deeper, critical thinking. They do not want anyone else to have a seat at their table.
Common Core, coupled with decreased funding, more chartererizing /voucherization of public schools, plummeting enrollments in colleges of education; mass exodus of experienced teachers, and the continuing attack on the teaching profession are all leaving their mark – and it “ain’t” pretty.
Without understanding and seeing the bigger picture, young people may grow up unable to see the difference between fact and fiction. They could become low information voters that fall for the lies of someone like Trump.
That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Common Core takes the meaning away from the reading.
retired teacher,
THANK YOU. Implementing the “Common GORE” (YES, GORE) and high stakes testing have dumbed down this nation. Scary.
Test scores are just that scores. I want to know the error measurements. All scores have ERROR MEASUREMENTS.
When will people realize that TEACHERS ARE WAYFINDERS, just like
1. Sully was when he pinpoint landed the disabled commericial flight on the Hudson, and
2. the person who guides the Hokule’a on its journey (without any modern instruments).
My commercial for today is: Please GOOGLE Hokule’a. You will learn a lot and so will your students. The Wayfinder must use all the elements of nature REAL TIME. EACH journey is DIFFERENT. Besides knowing about the sun, moon, ocean currents, the winds, sea life, birds, The Wayfinder must know at least 220 stars. Stars are learned rhrough STORY. Story matters and grounds information.
http://www.hokulea.com
http://www.pbs.org/wayfinders/polynesian8.html
https://www.tourmaui.com/wayfinding-celestial-navigation/
Have fun with this one: SING! We need more song and singing in schools.
Again, TEACHERS ARE WAYFINDERS. To put teachers in another role (deliverer or Common GORE and TESTS) is just WRONG. Teachers are MORE THAN THAT. We teachers are so much BETTER THAN the curriculum of the Common Gore and testing.
Comments?
The CLASSROOM Teacher IS THE INSTRUMENT. We read REAL-TIME information in an ever-changing landscape.
Lack of depth and context in what people read is partly, if not mostly, the work of the technology industry, as is Common Core. The average American teenager spends 6.5 hours a day looking at screens. Common Core increases screen time for academics. We know that reading on a screen is associated with less concentration and memory that reading on paper. We know that increased screen time causes social friction and depression. We know that taking devices home for homework lowers grades and test scores. We know that online instruction-based charters produce poor results. We know that looking at screens physically inhibits neural development in a growing brain. And yet, we keep increasing screen time at school for online standardized tests. Common Core needs to be replaced with some common sense. And paper.
Our young people will continue to get more screen time, because it makes money for those that bribe so-called representatives. Communities are the ones that can stop this educational theft. by rejecting politicians and school board members on the corporate payroll.
And OptOut of annual testing.
Swacker:
The characteristics of truth in educational discourse can be understood as encompassing fidelity to truth in the following:
• Speech and/or writing accurately describes policies, practices and outcomes (discourse).
• Using the correct/intended meaning of a word in light of the context.
• Discourse serves to enlighten and not obscure meaning.
• Discourse is free of contradictions, error and falsehoods.
The Common Core standards were written hurriedly, funded entirely by one man (Bill Gates), and rushed into implementation without any field testing whatsoever.
Almost every state in the nation has adopted Common Core. Some have rebranded it, but it is still Common Core.
Democratic system of public education???
I recall Michael Mulgrew, the head of the UFT, stating that he would “punch anyone in the face” who opposed the Common Core standards. But of course that was before he claimed victory when the common core was lessened or removed entirely (not sure where it stands today actually since I retired 8 years ago) from a teacher’s evaluation. Which gets me to my argument of many years. The UFT/AFT is morally bankrupt. The Janus case may lead to severe damage of the union. In that case its survival will depend on voluntary contributions from members and if it is to survive members will have to see a reason to pay the dues.
The unions’ conciliatory approach has been woefully inadequate. The privateers do not want to work with teachers, they want to crush them.
Absolutely agree about the “reformers”! Regarding unions, in my view the only way to make this union or any union accountable to its members is to remove the guarantee of its survival. The union leaders couldn’t care less what members think because the dues are paid whether or not a worker such as a teacher in NYC joins the UFT.
Frankly, I see a PR opportunity in the PISA results even though most of us understand the limitations of standardized tests. We should be blasting from the roof tops that “reform” is a failure, and our students are in a state of academic decline because of the free market failure and disinvestment in public education. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Maybe we should learn from our oppressors.
That the performance has dropped is not entirely surprising because many of the activities which determine high performance for students are not in place. Teachers, although they may not say it publicly, are disheartened by mean and vicious attacks for more than a decade.
There is no teacher alive who can ‘make’ students truly improve their academic performance. A teacher can help one or two students with personal attention but that might just be favoritism. Ultimately the performance of students depends on the involvement of parents, teachers, and students themselves. Reading is one of the vital activities for students, and while many school districts take a day or so off for reading, the effect on the reading habits of students is far from lasting. It takes the effort and commitment of all adults in their lives to get the student interested in reading.
For more than a decade the word has been that the teacher is at fault; and while sensible parents will not believe that, there are many who become victims to that idea. The problem with that idea is that it takes away from parents and students the need for sustained effort throughout the life of the young person.
While reading to try and understand the issues in education I came across a document named ‘Hard Work and High Expectations,’ written by a team involving Ms. Ravitch. Here are some quotes from that book which I think are priceless.
Students who study too little learn too little, and educational reforms that do not change the study habits of students are unlikely to improve achievement.
And that is where the conflict arises. So long as we are ambivalent about the comparative importance of academic achievement, we shall continue to underwrite academic mediocrity.
They have to send students an unmistakable message that academic achievement is the students’ number-one priority, the most important thing in their young lives.
The remarks by Ms. Ravitch constitute a sine qua none for higher student performance, and as long as those things go unattended the performance of students cannot and will not improve very much. Sadly enough she is the only person who has addressed this particularly important aspect of learning.
Treating teachers with maximum disrespect will not make matters any better. It is time to alter the policies and give our teachers a bigger say in education and schools. In the book ‘Trusting Teachers with School Success’ Dirkswater and Farris-Berg show how giving teachers more autonomy in the school allows for them to meet and address the problem which occur in the schools. It is probably in the nature of people, they give more when they feel they are a part of the place where they work, and when they are respected.
In the end if we want students to perform at a higher level the wisdom of the communities, the teachers and parents have to all be directed to getting students to do what is their job; indeed they will one day take over and the last thing we want is to pass the job to people who do not fully appreciate the immensity and difficulty of the task which will be on their shoulders.
Parents are one of the variables, classroom teachers pay attention to. No Common Gore and testing provide this information to teachers.
This article nails it perfectly! Published in Forbes no less!!!!!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/12/06/how-america-is-breaking-public-education/#5b5a166a7f18
The question was asked, “What happened”… in reviewing the lowering of the reading scores on the PISA. Corporate “reform” has happened over a period of decades now. Teachers know how to get students engaged in reading and it is not BY reading FOR THE NEVER-ENDING high stakes tests. It is NOT taking passages that have been reworked out of classic literature and having students use myriad strategies to DISSECT and pick apart tortured testing language in order to answer vaguely worded questions that have 4 possible answers purposefully made to confuse. THIS TURNS STUDENTS OFF OF READING. TEACHERS KNOW THIS FOR GOD’S SAKE. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (and if the “ever-so-righteous” Bill Gates could only figure this one out) to figure this out. It is time to bring back engagement and joy in learning. Whether a student is 3 or 14, he/she deserves to enjoy coming to school because it is a place where true learning is a priority. Students are not capital… students are not students to serve the economy of the country. They are students to become lifelong learners and to be able to become independent in adulthood. College-ready standards in pre k? Really????? Still waiting for a massive education revolt by parents who are sick of their kids getting SICK from school! Betsy DeVos, Eva Moskowitz, Michelle Rhee, David Coleman, Charlotte Danielson…etc.. will not go down nicely in the history books!
I am afraid that reformers will keep on making the same mistakes over and over and over again. They want chaos. They want to manufacture a problem and then ‘solve it’. When they do not solve it then they want even more changes.
I do not care for any of these international tests or national ones, such as TIMSS, and NAEP either, while reformers in particular worship them. TIMSS has mostly do with Math and Science. There is no STEM shortage. We do not need to track it!The STEM shortage we’ve ever had was in Computer Science staring back tint e 1960s mainly because it was a fledgling discipline and Kennedy’s race to moon ate up all the programmers to the point where engineers and mathematicians were doing the programming. This left very little left for society to have. This I believe ended in the mid to late 1980s, so that by the 1990s we had no Computer Science and therefore no STEM shortage..
The NAEP’s definitions are confusing. For example when they that only about 30% are proficient in some subject and some grade level most people think that only 30% are at grade level. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Proficient level, if it were a letter grade, would be a B. Since most kids are average and C student then a B should not be expected. The letter grade of C is equivalent to the NAEP’s Basic Level, which is where most kids are and rightly so. If people would say that only 30% were at the BASIC level then we’d have a problem, but they do not say that and it is not true.
What our kids know is irrelevant. They are not our leaders. Most will never become our future leaders either. We cannot have a nation of leaders. So, why do we micromanage education, particularly when it has little to do with the economy. Education in the macro effects the economy is one of many myths that our country perpetuates.
The PISA test is given only every 3 years and only one of the three is given, so that it takes 9 years to see the results of changes made. In other words, if they give the math test one year it will be 9 years before they give another one.
I have extensively on this subject so I will stop here.
If I am not mistaken, NAEP “proficient” = B+/A-. [I gather “advanced” means A/A+]
PISA has been clear with USA. Your scores are do to poverty and concentrations of the poverty.. Finland for example has only 5% child poverty and that poverty is spread widely and thinly across the nation. USA has 20% child poverty and it is heavily concentrated.
OECD has also warned USA that privatization is not a route out of the situation.
No guess work needed.
We cannot suggest out of one side of our mouth that scores are meaningless and then use them to curse Common Corpse out of the other. I would like to solve this problem simply. The scores, like all scores, are of marginal value. Common Corpse, like all curriculum, is as good as teachers who see something good in it are able to use it. No curriculum written for all people will be good enough for each child. One size fits all is MacDonalds education. Let teachers choose what they will. Quit testing. Let Pearson compete on a level playing field for teachers’ acceptance. After all, competition is good, is it not?
Common Core no doubt has a lot to answer for. But so does NCLB [& its continuation under RTTT]. Even tho NCLB was enacted in 2001, it didn’t affect any of my kids (the 3rd graduated in 2010). I saw it sneaking into elementary in about 2005 (because I tutored an elem student) via the new– annual– NJASK tests. In 2009 the recession was in full swing & our then-new Gov Christie came out of the box swinging w/huge slashes to state ed budget. It took CCSS until 2013 to be fully integrated here w/state stds & teacher evals/ assessments. So 2013 was the watershed yr for NJ, w/all ed-reform factors in play. And we see an impact on 4th-gr reading scores w/n 4 yrs. But all these factors play a role.
PISA is a low stakes tests for American kids – it doesn’t matter to them how they score. So it’s no surprise that paying them to get questions right increased their scores.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/20/money-gets-american-students-to-try-harder.html
But I have to say it’s a bit odd when countries come out of nowhere to get on to the leader board. We all know what happens to administrators and teachers when there is pressure on teachers to get high scores while the incentive for students is low.
Each country runs their testing program (I believe) so there is lots of scope for people to meddle.
It’s hard to put much faith in these tests.
Concluding anything at all from — or even paying the tiniest bit of attention to — a test developed, administered and scored by economists is a fool’s errand.
One would be better off consulting with monkeys at the local zoo than asking economists about education.
They can’t even get their own Random House in order, having nearly crashed the world economy in 2007.
And at best, they simply postponed the inevitable with trillions of dollars in bailouts and zero interest loans to the banks.
Anyone who actually believes, as mainstream economists do, that eternal (exponential) growth (of anything) is possible in a finite world should have his head examined to see of there is anything inside.
These people are going to be the death of us all.
I posted this previously, but since it is so apt in this case, I’ll do so again
“The Age that will Bury Us”
(after The Age of Aquarius (5th Dimension) )
When the PISA’s in the Random House
And stupid is as stupid does
Then tests will guide the teaching
And cranks will steer because
This is the dawning of the Age of Economists,
Age of Economists
Economists, Economists
Ed and stats misunderstanding
Ignorance is just astounding
Tons more falsehoods and derisions
Chetty having dreams and visions
Cattle model mathturbation
And the mind’s tergiversation
Will bury Us, Will bury Us
When the PISA’s in the Random House
And stupid is as stupid does
Then tests will guide the teaching
And cranks will steer because
This is the dawning of the Age that will bury us,
Age that will bury us
Will bury us
Let the sun shine, let the sun shine in
The sun shine in, na na na na na….