‘America’s Schools (continue to) Flunk’

George Rebane

Speaking of ownership of public policies and government operations, the Democrats own America’s public schools.  They have had title for fifty years to what our children are taught, as they are subjected to somewhere from 12 to 16 years of leftwing ideologies, by unionized teachers and administrators who have laid waste to our school systems from coast to coast.

RR has carried the torch for school choice and public school reform during its entire existence.  I have worked with local public schools here and in SoCal to see firsthand who is doing what to whom, and witnessed their resulting work product.  In this regard, our local schools’ performance, along with what has been happening in California over the last decades, is faithfully recorded in the longitudinal data archive of the National Center for Educational Statistics, and they aren’t pretty.

Today we have the results from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which consist of tests administered to students around the country every two years.  A report on this is found in the 31oct19 WSJ (here) with the tagline, “Despite more spending, test scores fall and the achievement gap grows.”, which about says it all.

Digging into some of the more important results, we find that the smaller cohort of smarter students are pulling away from those not so smart, whose performance continues to degrade.  These latter are prime fodder for the progressive pabulum that extols the virtues of bigger government, more transfer payments, and dunning the existential benefits of individual enterprise, capitalism, and minimally regulated markets.  These cohorts of the poorly educated continue to feed the reliable Democrat voting blocks, whose subsequent existence is denied as they become (unemployed) adults – if you’re an American leftist, what’s not to like?

As examples, only 35% of the country’s fourth graders rated proficient in reading.  Overall math and reading scores are about level, save that the top students’ scores increased slightly less than the drop in the scores of the bottom decile.  The black/white learning gap remains dismally large.

Surprisingly (or not), 4^th grade scores increased only in Mississippi, but the real success story comes from Washington DC where charter school enrollments increased 60% since 2009, much to the chagrin of unionized ‘educators’ who felt the pressure to then increase performance in other public schools.  The unions’ answer to every such report of education deficits is to demand more spending for schools.  But spending increased 15% per pupil between 2012 and 2017 from its already (globally) rate, and the result has been no improvement as cited.  “Spending has been growing at an even faster clip over the last couple of years as government revenue has recovered from the recession.”

California, the state of the double-dummy educators, increased its education spending by $102B (more than 50%!!) since 2013 with absolutely no increase in student performance from its already bottom-barrel lows in the nation.  There it is joined by the other Democrat-dominated states – drumroll please – yes, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey.  Along with California, these states have also raised taxes for schools, all to no avail – the teachers’ and administrators’ pension funds suck up the new cash like a sponge.  The report concludes with – “Much of the money has gone to fund teacher pensions and administrative positions that pad union rolls. Maybe parents should go on strike to demand more accountability from the union-run public school monopoly.”

[Exit assignment - pay attention to the number and content of comments from our liberal readers.]

Comments

[fish]

[Exit assignment - pay attention to the number and content of comments from our liberal readers.]

The progressive narrative must be defended on all fronts, at all times with never an admission of any error or policy failure.

(shhhhhh....it's why they're going to lose)

[Bill Tozer]

Well, this is a no brainer.

First Common Core High School Grads Worst-Prepared For College In 15 Years

This is the opposite of what we were told would happen with trillions of taxpayer dollars and an entire generation of children who deserve not to have been guinea pigs in a failed national experiment.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/31/first-common-core-high-school-grads-worst-prepared-for-college-in-15-years/

[George Rebane]

[Administrivia - Mr fish, I'm doing an awful lot of work cleaning up after you comments this morning. A bit more care please, before you hit that 'Post' button.]

[Bill Tozer]

From the NY Post

“One thing Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council are good at is banning things.

It’s foie gras one day, football for children the next. The mayor is doing his best to kill off the iconic horse and carriage industry, and his wannabe successor, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, has declared war on the motor vehicle.

They spend a lot of time telling us what we cannot do and kowtowing to tiny interest groups that want to control our lives, but they’ve forgotten how to do their actual jobs.

How about doing something useful for a change?

Here’s a good suggestion from reader Michael for city pols who have run out of ideas: Enact a law requiring children in public schools to learn to read and do math at or above grade level.

These kids need advocates as noisy and determined as the vegans and cyclists.“

[fish]

👍

[Gregory]

It seems to be common knowledge that "learning gaps" would be reduced with better schools and teaching.

Common Core holds the most able students down more than it hurts the least prepared.

[Walt]

Those smart kids are making us look bad.... IT AIN'T FAIRRRRRRR!!!!!!!
https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/31/honors-classes-math-racist-activists/#disqus_thread
Local school systems across the country are proposing radical changes in the name of reducing demographic-based achievement gaps.
Parents who support Democrats at the federal level have recoiled at what they view as identity politics gone too far.
School systems in Washington state, Maryland, New York, Minnesota and Virginia are among those where radical agendas have become a flash point in schools, with parents fearing their children’s educations will suffer.
Students will be asked to “identify the inherent inequities of the standardized testing system used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color” and “explain how math dictates economic oppression.”

[Scott O]

Walt 7:23 - Funny how none of this is used in sports.
Just wait until these 'woke' folks get sick or get sued or face prison.
Suddenly they'll want a smarty-pants Asian or Jew boy to get them well or get them off a rap. They won't want no affirmative action special for that kinda stuff.
This will just accelerate private education and home schooling.
And the wealth gap will increase even more.

[scenes]

"Exit assignment - pay attention to the number and content of comments from our liberal readers."

lol. Ain't that the truth. There's always radio silence when the funniest 'progressive' concepts get brought up.

Personally, I just love this kind of thing:

K-12 Math Ethnic Studies Framework (20.08.2019)
https://www.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/public/socialstudies/pubdocs/Math%20SDS%20ES%20Framework.pdf

Sometimes there's a kind of nihilist joy in watching the whole shebang auger in. There's no guarantee that civilization arcs ever upward and there's a certain aesthetic to a slow motion crash.

It's pretty obvious we should honor modern values by introducing the new US three dollar bill. The art work for it draws itself:

https://www.pride.com/sites/www.pride.com/files/2017/10/18/xochi-mochi-x750.jpg

[scenes]

Good heavens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mathematics_pedagogy

[Barry Pruett]

Damn it fish. I am one day late to the shitshow apparently. Charter schools are where it is at. Competition. Families have more control over their children’s education. Definitely the future and the future looks good.

[Gregory]

Barry P 733am

Charter schools are no panacea; in Grass Valley, some of the worst performing schools are charters. The two "Expeditionary Learning" charters, for example: the Grass Valley Charter that used to be Hennessey Elementary, and SAEL.

[Bill Tozer]

Circling the barn one mo time.

“Harvard professor Paul Peterson writes that “in the first decade of the 21st century, white, black, and Hispanic student performance was on the rise, but in the second [decade], those gains have ground to a halt, with even hints of decline in reading.”

For students who are among the lowest 10% of performers on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, their scores have dropped significantly since 2009, as Brown University professor Susanna Loeb points out.

The Urban Institute’s Matthew Chingos notes that, although the national assessment scores rarely fluctuate more than one or two points, eighth-grade reading scores declined four full points this time.

Ten points on the national assessment is the equivalent of roughly one grade level worth of learning......”

“From the Great Society to No Child Left Behind to the Common Core national standards advanced under the Obama administration, Washington’s intervention in education has been a failure for students and taxpayers alike.

It’s time to try a different approach..”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/11/01/nations-report-card-shows-why-we-should-get-washington-out-of-education/?