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I am posting a large portion of this since this comes from a government official.
But the question remains: why, after all the good intentions, the worthwhile goals, the wealth of expertise mustered, and the billions and billions of dollars spent, are students still unprepared?
With No Child Left Behind, the general consensus among federal policymakers was that greater accountability would lead to better schools. Highlighting America's education woes had become an American pastime, and, they thought, surely if schools were forced to answer for their failures, students would ultimately be better off.
President Bush, the "compassionate conservative," and Senator Kennedy, the "liberal lion," both worked together on the law. It said that schools had to meet ambitious goals... or else. Lawmakers mandated that 100 percent of students attain proficiency by 2014. This approach would keep schools accountable and ultimately graduate more and better-educated students, they believed.
Turns out, it didn't. Indeed, as has been detailed today, NCLB did little to spark higher scores. Universal proficiency, touted at the law's passage, was not achieved. As states and districts scrambled to avoid the law's sanctions and maintain their federal funding, some resorted to focusing specifically on math and reading at the expense of other subjects. Others simply inflated scores or lowered standards.
The trend line remains troubling today. According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress data, two-thirds of American fourth graders still can't read at the level they should. And since 2013, our 8th grade reading scores have declined.
Where the Bush administration emphasized NCLB's stick, the Obama administration focused on carrots. They recognized that states would not be able to legitimately meet the NCLB's strict standards. Secretary Duncan testified that 82 percent of the nation's schools would likely fail to meet the law's requirements -- thus subjecting them to crippling sanctions.
The Obama administration dangled billions of dollars through the "Race to the Top" competition, and the grant-making process not so subtly encouraged states to adopt the Common Core State Standards. With a price tag of nearly four and a half billion dollars, it was billed as the "largest-ever federal investment in school reform." Later, the Department would give states a waiver from NCLB's requirements so long as they adopted the Obama administration's preferred policies — essentially making law while Congress negotiated the reauthorization of ESEA.
Unsurprisingly, nearly every state accepted Common Core standards and applied for hundreds of millions of dollars in "Race to the Top" funds. But despite this change, the United States' PISA performance did not improve in reading and science, and it dropped in math from 2012 to 2015.
Then, rightly, came the public backlash to federally imposed tests and the Common Core. I agree – and have always agreed – with President Trump on this: "Common Core is a disaster." And at the U.S. Department of Education, Common Core is dead.
On a parallel track, the Obama administration's School Improvement Grants sought to fix targeted schools by injecting them with cash. The total cost of that effort was seven billion dollars.
One year ago this week, the Department's Institute of Education Sciences released a report on what came of all that spending. It said: "Overall, across all grades, we found that implementing any SIG-funded model had no significant impacts on math or reading test scores, high school graduation, or college enrollment."
There we have it: billions of dollars directed at low-performing schools had no significant impact on student achievement.
... Perhaps the lesson lies not in what made the approaches different, but in what made them the same: the federal government. Both approaches had the same Washington "experts" telling educators how to behave.
The lesson is in the false premise: that Washington knows what's best for educators, parents and students.
Her solutions...
First, we need to recognize that the federal government's appropriate role is not to be the nation's school board. My role is not to be the national superintendent nor the country's "choice chief" – regardless of what the union's "Chicken Littles" may say! Federal investments in education, after all, are less than 10 percent of total K-12 expenditures, but the burdens created by federal regulations in education amount to a much, much larger percentage.
The Every Student Succeeds Act charted a path in a new direction. ESSA takes important steps to return power where it belongs by recognizing states – not Washington -- should shape education policy around their own people. But state lawmakers should also resist the urge to centrally plan education. "Leave it to the states" may be a compelling campaign-season slogan, but state capitols aren't exactly close to every family either. That's why states should empower teachers and parents and provide the same flexibility ESSA allows states.
She calls for empowering parents and teachers. Finally, it's time to rethink school...
It's past time to ask some of the questions that often get labeled as "non-negotiable" or just don't get asked at all:
Why do we group students by age?
Why do schools close for the summer?
Why must the school day start with the rise of the sun?
Why are schools assigned by your address?
Why do students have to go to a school building in the first place?
Why is choice only available to those who can buy their way out? Or buy their way in?
Why can't a student learn at his or her own pace?
Why isn't technology more widely embraced in schools?
Why do we limit what a student can learn based upon the faculty and facilities available?
Why?
We must answer these questions. We must acknowledge what is and what is not working for students.
If it were up to Ms. Devos, there would be no public education. Everyone would get their “education” at church.
can't say I agree with everything she said, but common core and no child left behind is wrong....all it does is teach children how to not be able to lose. If parents cannot figure out common core, how the heck do they expect the kids to.
Common core has never been more than a bureaucratic quagmire wherever it is implemented.
The concept makes sense. Ideally 7th graders in IL are learning the same thing that 7th graders in AL are learning. Not only would it provide a level playground for all students, but it would make it easier for students to move and adapt to a new classroom setting.
The issue is that rural schools and inner city schools rarely perform the same as the middle and upper class suburban schools.
Common core was common mediocrity and common brainwashing.
But don't worry, such measures will return. Liberty is temporarily and begrudgingly allowed. But repression will return. For those of you who believe in liberty, enjoy your vacation. So far, I've been enjoying mine. But I also know that nothing lasts forever. And when the repression returns watch out. You'll be living under an incarnate of Pol Pot and Idi Amin in the not too distant future. Once they get their power back, they will not let it slip away so easily next time around.
I trust nothing of what this vile piece of wealthy trash says, she should not be anywhere near a government job.
Now come on, at least she is smart enough to realize that guns on campus would keep all those attacking bears away ! It is such a Yuge problem, we hear about bears roaming school hallways every day !
I love DeVos, she is such great comedy relief, and a perfect fit for this administration.
If it were up to Ms. Devos, there would be no public education. Everyone would get their “education” at church.
Education is a good thing, but it shouldnt be confused with what takes place in govt schools.
"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else"- H.L. Mencken
I am posting a large portion of this since this comes from a government official.
]
Hmm, you open with
"regardless if it's from the left or right"
and then post an extreme right wing anti education bit of propaganda.
the questions at the end are mostly bull, most of that is already being done in PROGRESSIVE blue states.
All she is really interested in is defunding public schools to fund her religious cult...
the age stuff, the standards stuff is all about De Vos getting little religious indoctrination schools where educational standards are dropping and faith rules the day.
why? because a faith based low education culture keeps the proles in their place and makes them easy to control... why else do you think religion is foisted on the bottom 2/3 of the pop. it is about control.
the last thing this nation needs is for its people to put religion in school, what we need to teach critical thinking, hard science and rigor. with only 325 million people the pool is TOO SMALL to provide the numbers needed by industry. there are just not enough folks with the requisite IQs..
Common core, has just done too weakly. What we need is national standards, and to shift emphasis to test based education. continual assessment is breeding mindless grinder drones and is not providing the creative science based thinkers needed to maintain our status in STEM industries.
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