Even if you disagree with the valu the NAEP, it is the yardstick by which many folks, including many reformsters, choose to use in measuring educational achievement.
The 2017 tests were taken by students who have, for the most part, received an entire education shaped by ed reform.
The scores were not good.
Ed reform has failed.
Everything else is just details and noise.
http://educationnext.org/urban-school-districts-moving-right-direction-naep/
ReplyDeleteI think you are falling into a trap. This reaction is misguided and forfeiting an opportunity. In St. Louis last night, I spoke briefly at the ethical society(first time I had ever been there)….they had a good turnout for their effort to support a 28th amendment to limit the amount of money spent on elections…pretty open discussion. I criticized them for not having a word about public education in the goals of their effort. I mentioned Gene McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and my 1968 graduation with an education degree…more than a few chuckles when I mentioned my being drafted in 1969 with my feet being rated healthy enough to be sent to vietnam. I mentioned my decades as a teacher, and told the crowd that I did not care about Bill Gate’s test results—-the students have been impressive in their ability to inspire, along with help from their parents, their teachers, and the board members who make the effort to be elected. They have the capacity to bring a level of excitement and enthusiasm and inspiration to their efforts to restore democracy to a place where people matter. (I felt good about the reaction I got, delving into an unexpected area).
ReplyDeletePeter Greene is way off base trying to use this year’s test results to discredit refortm—there are other arguments more important to make about what they are doing—the debate needs to be whether these tests should be as important as Arne Duncan and Bill Gates tried to make them……they will be able to finesse these results in to calls for even more of what corporate foundations are interested in. I like Peter Greene. This is way way way off the mark. In my state, I have warned claire mccaskill that she is not going to be re-elected if she tries to hide from what is happening in so many states…….a casual feeling that we should give shallow attention to public education …….we have more important stuff to consider.
Like what?
kjoe,
DeleteI'd like to further discuss the ethical society meeting and your comments. Please feel free to contact me at duaneswacker@gmail.com.
(Peter, hope you don't mind me using this response to further the discussion outside the blog, Duane)
NAEP was one of the organizations, together with NCTM and NSF, who pushed for "reform math" in the 1990s. In particular, a NAEP study indicated that American children, while reasonably proficient in arithmetic, performed relatively poorly in mathematics problem solving and understanding of concepts.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia managed to fight back twenty years ago, but finally has given up by accepting integrated math as a principle of math education, and reform math programs like Connected Math for middle school and Core-Plus Mathematics for high school, both project-oriented inquiry-based nonsense with very little math in them.
You reap what you sow.