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You're barking up the wrong tree as far as my efforts are concerned. I changed IL State Law to unshackle the restrictions the ISBE placed on highly achieving students. In one of the most contentious ILGA sessions, ever, I got a unanimous yea vote for this:
Education advocate. Could be considered a lobbyist, however, none of my pursuits cost extra money. They're just about freeing the restrictions placed on highly achieving students so they can learn at their own pace instead of being shackled into underachievement by the Illinois State Board of Ed.
Education advocate. Could be considered a lobbyist, however, none of my pursuits cost extra money. They're just about freeing the restrictions placed on highly achieving students so they can learn at their own pace instead of being shackled into underachievement by the Illinois State Board of Ed.
Well good for you. My school did a pretty good job of separating the high achievers from the low achievers, the top 10% had AP classes and went through the school day together without distraction from the others.
Well good for you. My school did a pretty good job of separating the high achievers from the low achievers, the top 10% had AP classes and went through the school day together without distraction from the others.
AP classes don't start in Kindergarten. Some kids are already reading at an 8th grade level in K. What's done for them?
Top universities (even public) use selective admissions. U.S. public K-12 does not. BIG difference. You can be in denial all you like, but facts are facts.
U.S. K-12 public schools only educate 1/3 of all graduates to basic 12th grade proficiency in math and reading: NAEP - Mathematics and Reading 2013
The emerging ugly fact that the public (and elected officials) are pretending not to see is that more than likely, only 1/3 of the population is 12th grade material. This wasn't so evident a couple of decades back, when we didn't have this silly notion that "everyone is college material." When the top 255 of each class went on the college, the mediocrity of the middle and below wasn't exposed.
I always smile inside when someone blames schools for the presence of dummies in our midst. The schools didn't make them stupid. The schools don't make the ugly ones attractive or the short ones tall, either. And please don't take this comment as if it's aimed at you. It's a sentiment that I see expressed in almost any discussion of education, which is why I brought it up here.
But we're in agreement that K-12 education has taken a hard turn in the wrong direction. I see it as the overemphasis on standardized testing and the fallout from that poor policy.
The emerging ugly fact that the public (and elected officials) are pretending not to see is that more than likely, only 1/3 of the population is 12th grade material.
I sincerely doubt that since 2/3 of the population isn't poor.
You're just making excuses for our country's crappy public school system.
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The schools didn't make them stupid.
Actually, they did. And it has been intentional:
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"While students in the bottom quartile have shown slow but steady improvement since the 1960s, average test scores have nonetheless gone down, primarily because of the performance of those in the top quartile. This "highest cohort of achievers," Rudman writes, has shown "the greatest declines across a variety of subjects as well as across age-level groups." Analysts have also found "a substantial drop among those children in the middle range of achievement," he continues, "but less loss and some modest gains at the lower levels." In other words, our brightest youngsters, those most likely to be headed for selective colleges, have suffered the most dramatic setbacks over the past two decades--a fact with grave implications for our ability to compete with other nations in the future. If this is true--and abundant evidence exists to suggest that it is--then we indeed have a second major crisis in our education system.
...The other key factor in preserving academic quality was the practice of grouping students by ability in as many subjects as possible The contrast was stark: schools that had "severely declining test scores" had "moved determinedly toward heterogeneous grouping" (that is, mixed students of differing ability levels in the same classes), while the "schools who have maintained good SAT scores" tended "to prefer homogeneous grouping."
If attaining educational excellence is this simple, why have these high-quality schools become so rare? The answer lies in the cultural ferment of the 1960s.
THE INCUBUS OF THE SIXTIES
In every conceivable fashion the reigning ethos of those times was hostile to excellence in education. Individual achievement fell under intense suspicion, as did attempts to maintain standards. Discriminating among students on the basis of ability or performance was branded "elitist." Educational gurus of the day called for essentially nonacademic schools, whose main purpose would be to build habits of social cooperation and equality rather than to train the mind."
In my view, chief among them is the overemphasis on standardized tests.
It seems you have a deep interest in the schools serving top students. In particular, this group has been underserved because the emphasis has shifted to getting the bottom students to pass an easy test. And this is because the only measuring stick that really counts these days is what % of students pass that silly test. The top students see it as a joke. The average students don't struggle with it. So, the lowest performers are who get the attention.
Besides, all these test results do is illustrate the obvious fact that individuals differ in their intellectual capacities.
In my view, chief among them is the overemphasis on standardized tests.
You and many others don't like tests (the ones states can't manipulate, like the NAEP, SAT, and ACT) because they expose the systemic failure of our country's public school systems.
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It seems you have a deep interest in the schools serving top students. In particular, this group has been underserved because the emphasis has shifted to getting the bottom students to pass an easy test. And this is because the only measuring stick that really counts these days is what % of students pass that silly test. The top students see it as a joke. The average students don't struggle with it. So, the lowest performers are who get the attention.
That's happening because schools won't group students in classes by ability/skill level and aim the instructional level appropriately for each group. And that's because public educators in general believe that allowing anyone to excel is elitist and therefore socially unjust.
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Besides, all these test results do is illustrate the obvious fact that individuals differ in their intellectual capacities.
Yes, so why not educate ALL students to the best of their ability/motivational level? Why only attempt to educate the strugglers, and insufficiently at that?
I agree perhaps 60% of what he said. But he missed the point that labor markets in science and engineering differ greatly across fields, time periods, and even industries. It is obviously easy to cherry-pick specific specialties that really are in short supply, at least in specific areas and time period.
New advanced technologies, price changes, or sharp shifts in the labor market can create rapid rises in demand in a particular occupation, when that happens, the market will adjust the changes accordingly. Today, If you are a specialist who can fix high end exotic European cars, you perhaps have more job securities compare to average software engineers. Many engineering projects have been moved overseas.
There is a very obvious shortage of *good* programmers. There's no shortage of mediocre ones. ** This is not an insult to the mediocre engineers at all, without them, there will be no genius engineers. However, it is the mediocre ones whose job get replaced by foreign workers. **It is not like we don't have brilliant or talented scientists or engineers, part the problem, I think is that there is no drive to invent anymore.
Large numbers of genius scientists can not invent or create without R&D money, but the price of the CEO and Board of Directors stock options are more important, it seems like. If you have a choice to become an engineer or an investment banker, what would you choose?
You have to raise the status of science in your society. No PAY, no gain.
You and many others don't like tests (the ones states can't manipulate, like the NAEP, SAT, and ACT) because they expose the systemic failure of our country's public school systems.
I'm not saying don't use the tests. I'm saying that they shouldn't be high stakes for students and schools.
And again, what they've done is expose the mediocrity of the public. Which is something that really shouldn't surprise anyone. Intellectual ability, like athletic prowess or musical giftedness isn't a trait that the majority of us are endowed with. Expecting everyone to be above average seems to be some kind of collective psychosis here in the USA.
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That's happening because schools won't group students in classes by ability/skill level and aim the instructional level appropriately for each group.
Now you're talking. Tracking worked and it worked well.
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And that's because public educators in general believe that allowing anyone to excel is elitist and therefore socially unjust.
Public educators respond to the demands of the public. And too many parents griped endlessly about tracking.
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Yes, so why not educate ALL students to the best of their ability/motivational level? Why only attempt to educate the strugglers, and insufficiently at that?
Exactly!
Let's go back to what worked.
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