Posted on 06/02/2014 3:34:44 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
According to the latest international rating of education in 65 countries, American public schools are in a free fall. The overall rank of the U.S. is 29th in the world — behind the Slovak Republic, Russia, and Vietnam. Asia dominates the top 10. Shanghai, China, is the international leader, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, South Korea and Macao. Including Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, four of the top six are Chinese.
These are some of the results of the educational research division of the Organization of European Cooperation and Development (OECD) called the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which issues its report every three years. The test population is 15-year-old students who are tested on their critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities in mathematics, science and reading. The OECD has found that student achievement is the best indicator of a nation’s future economic health. By that measure, the United States is on a downward economic trend in the near future. Looking at the American economy of the past few years, some observers believe that this trend is already in evidence.
Another measure of educational success is the dropout rate for high schools. According to the Center for Educational Statistics (U.S. Department of Education), 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year. That is an average of 7,000 students every day, 25 percent of the entire population. Most of these students were in the PISA test range since most states’ truancy laws apply only until the age of 16. They surely did not help the U.S. averages.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Gee, what a surprise:
In 2010, Barack Obama called for fixing the public education system by giving us the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and “Race to the Top,”
which he said would fix the education system already fixed by the 2001 GW Bush and Ted Kennedy legislation called “No Child Left Behind,”
which was supposed to fix a system supposedly already fixed by a 1994 piece of federal legislation called “Goals 2000,”
which was supposed to fix a system already fixed by “America 2000,”
which was a 1991 response during the Bush administration to a 1983 federal report on education called “A Nation at Risk,
which was published a full four years after Jimmy Carter first fixed the nation’s public school system by establishing a cabinet-level Department of Education in 1979.
The test population is 15-year-old students who are tested on their critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities in mathematics, science and reading.
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We’re well on our way to promulgating a population of “low info” everything. This is what happens when ‘education’ has become indoctrination and the heavy hand of big government and unions are shaping what the kids get at school, even intruding down to the level of their food amount/choices, which is ridiculous. The only upside I see is that kids who are home schooled do exceptionally well and and their numbers are growing as public education is failing. Perhaps they will end up flourishing, excelling, and eventually “in charge” at which point the morals, values and ethics they’ve been taught by their parents, along with their critical thinking skills and common sense, might do some good in trying to turn the country around.
If you have ever watched Watters’ World interviews, you know America is in trouble. I think a lot of African countries have better educated students than America.
American public schools ARE abysmal, but PISA comparisons are very misleading.
This is the only country that places (essentially) all 15 year olds in an academic track school.
If you compared white and East Asian honors track students with these other countries (which is the proper comparator group) we would score much higher.
They’d rather belong to their chosen gangs than stay in school. But the government will reward the good students by taking money out of their paychecks to support the numerous offspring of the irresponsible drop outs. Drop outs vote Democrat. Some reward.
I have watched it, but don’t any more because it is SO uncomfortable, even painful, to see how stupid and truly “uneducated” people are. People laugh at the segment, but it’s gotten beyond “funny” when ignorant, uninformed people like that are responsible for the disaster that is in the WH and will likely think the “first female president” is a great idea as well.
Of course they are. Education and a keen awareness of history are essential to freedom where ignorance is the abyss of slavery and essential to the socialist democrat party.
More kids are going to college than ever. Many have to take remedial classes. The fact that colleges/universities even have remedial classes says it all.
The intense pressure from above to pass students who absolutely do not deserve to pass also enforces the correct perception that they really DON'T have to do much in the way of work to get a passing grade.
The CAPITULATION to laziness and "inevitable failure" results in the extreme lowering of the bar and dumbing down of courses.
Failing schools? Failing students? No mystery there.
I am friends with a retired teacher. She has told me about being told by the principal to pass a student who should have failed. Schools are a big joke.
Excellent historical summary for recent/modern events in education. ESEA dates to the 1960s in my memory and probably has predecessors that set the stage, especially as the space race began in 1957. This arena was probably the first use of “you must federalize in order to professionalize” argument that shows that position to be hollow and without merit.
See my previous comment about the “education industry.” A person who arrives in college as an 18 year-old and needs extensive remedial classes is a college’s ideal student.
Will illegal immigrants remedy this problem? /s
Government schools have been an amazing success because they have achieved EXACTLY what they were set up to do.
The decline continues apace.
Nothing new here, move along.
Consider today's Common Core as a repeat of the New Math from the 1960s.
As I prepare to go teach Math to high-schoolers that don’t know what 3 time 6 equals without electronic aids, I thought I would drop a note congratulating you on your perfect understanding of the problems we face - they are me and my ilk.
Thanks for reinforcing my point. Behind every electronic aid is a business and industry that has lobbied government heavily for the privilege of selling millions of dollars of electronic equipment to school districts ... for kids who can’t even do simple multiplication.
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