It’s a good thing the tea party started in 2009 . . .
… because it sounds like a much smaller percentage of Americans will even know what the Boston Tea Party was by, say, 2029. Reports the Associated Press:
Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, called the Nation’s Report Card, showed a solid grasp of the subject. Results released Tuesday showed the two other grades didn’t perform much better, with just 22 percent of fourth-grade students and 18 percent of eighth-graders demonstrating proficiency.
The test quizzed students on topics including colonization, the American Revolution and the Civil War, and the contemporary United States. For example, one question asked fourth-graders to name an important result of the U.S. building canals in the 1800s. Only 44 percent knew that it was increased trade among states.
Historic literacy and illiteracy were already in the news after Sarah Palin stirred up controversy by saying Paul Revere “warned the British” during his famous ride. The debate largely focused on whether Palin had accurately described an incident in which British soldiers captured Revere along the way. But even to have a debate presupposes a recognition of who Paul Revere was in the first place — knowledge today’s students may or may not have.
More alarming than the lack of a basic understanding of history is an apparent lack of basic reading comprehension. Check out this excerpt from the New York Times article on the NAEP test:
Students were given an excerpt including the passage, “We conclude that in the field of public education, separate but equal has no place, separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and were asked what social problem the 1954 ruling was supposed to correct.
So, the students weren’t even asked the name of the case from which that passage comes (Brown v. Board of Education), just what “social problem the 1954 ruling was supposed to correct.” And, even given the context about “the field of public education” and “separate but equal” and “separate educational facilities,” just 2 percent of 12th graders answered correctly.
Given all that, more than 2 percent should have been able to guess correctly even if they didn’t already know the answer!
Does anyone still want to argue that all our public schools really need, in order to give students even a passable education, is more money? Folks, the system is cracked and broken all the way to its foundation. Or would some of you prefer to wait until too few Americans recall that education in this country used to be good?
– By Kyle Wingfield
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94 comments Add your comment
Bart Abel
June 15th, 2011
10:59 am
RE: “Does anyone still want to argue that all our public schools really need, in order to give students even a passable education, is more money?”
The best education systems in the world are PUBLIC education systems. There’s no evidence in this country or anyplace else in the world that the solution to our education woes is to expand into private alternatives (vouchers, tuition tax credits) or privately operated alternatives (charters) at the expense of public education.
No reasonable person should conclude that the question is public or private? The question is what works and what doesn’t?
For the answers, perhaps we should make a phone call to our friends in South Korea, Finland, and Canada. Let’s find out what they’re doing right, and then do that.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading
LeeH1
June 15th, 2011
11:01 am
All thisd is stuff and nonsense. If the elite kids still keep getting agood education, that is all that matters. No one really cares what the blue collar and below kids learn or not. There will always be jobs in the fast food industry.
Those who want to learn and plan ahead will do well. Those who don’t care and plan to live a life of poverty won’t. Let the parents and thek ids make up their own minds, and quit plugging up schools with kids who have already decided to fail.
Whacks Eloquent
June 15th, 2011
11:13 am
Bart,
The 3 countries you mention have a mostly homogeneous demographic and most homes there still have a strong family structure. Comparing them to the United States is just not proper, we are one of the most multicultural nations in the world (not to mention much larger in population than those nations). They have the luxury of being able to set up relatively simple models based on a common heritage of the majority of the people. Cultural expectations are about the same nearly across the board. Here, we have three large demographic groups (and several other minor ones) with totally different cultural and family structures.
Public schools can work here if we let them go to a local regulation (i.e. charter) status. Then the communities can decide how the curriculum and structure of the schools can best be set up for the region’s demographics.
UGA1999
June 15th, 2011
11:22 am
Isn’t amazing what they elect to teach and not teach in our school systems? Absolutely amazing!
Hillbilly D
June 15th, 2011
11:24 am
Our students are not stupid. They have seen how the system works and have adapted beautifully. We have failed as a system because we have the backbone of a chocolate eclair.
Good point.
Over the years, I’ve had several people in the 19-20 year old range who worked for me. They weren’t stupid, far from it, but they didn’t know how to do anything. They had never been taught how to do anything and in their cases, most of that failure was at home. I don’t know how you fix that.
d
June 15th, 2011
11:30 am
I have to laugh about the thought that we’ve been throwing money at our schools. During his 8 years in office, Sonny Perdue cut QBE funding by billions. BILLIONS. Throwing money at the schools? Hardly. Another poster mentioned that teachers are earning between $60 and $100k in salary alone. I wish. I wouldn’t be struggling trying to figure out which bills get paid and which get put off thanks to furloughs and pay cuts for each of the last three years (and making the same salary as a brand new teacher despite having 6 years of experience).
What I can say is that there are principals motivated by a lack of job security due to the huge flaws in NCLB that are telling teachers to focus on nothing other than math and reading. If Congress does not get off it’s rear end and get ESEA fixed, virtually no school in this country will make AYP in 3 short years. That is when the goal is 100%, so when the student with an IQ of 80 can’t do advanced algebra or read at the 11th grade level in 11th grade, even if every other student in the school can, he alone will cause the entire school to “fail” AYP.
The schools would be fine if the schools were left to the professionals in the classrooms rather than the clueless individuals under the Gold Dome. If I could hold a student back who needs to be held back and not have to worry that it will make the school look bad, we would see greater results. I had one student fail my class last semester and, as a result, did not graduate with his peers in May. Guess what, that’s a knock at our graduation rate which could affect the school’s AYP. Should I have passed him regardless? I would hope the answer is no, but if we miss the graduation rate by 1 student, then the whole school is failing, right?
Don't Tread
June 15th, 2011
11:32 am
We have too many people having babies who have no business having babies. This (and the growing prison population) is evidence aplenty.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 15th, 2011
11:33 am
The current “State of American Education” is the logical end when government assumes a monopoly over use of funds.
UGA1999
June 15th, 2011
11:35 am
Dont Tread….no kidding. Do you realize that there are more black men in prison today than were every enslaved?
Joe Mama
June 15th, 2011
11:36 am
Dave R — “do not EVER try to speak for me or my positions. You are not qualified to do so.”
Physician, heal THYSELF.
UGA1999
June 15th, 2011
11:36 am
ever not every
UGA1999
June 15th, 2011
11:37 am
Uh oh, Joe Mama is upset hahaha……I love when people make threats on a blog…..tough guy eh?
Rob Woodall visited the troops last week, to brag about his free healthcare and to remind the troops that their healthcare will suck once they come home
June 15th, 2011
11:42 am
For those interested in a single example as to whether the private sector can do a better job of educating students than traditional public education, take a look at Chelsea, Massachusetts public schools.
Chelsea gave governing power over its schools to Boston University in 1989. “In Chelsea, school board members realized that the city’s widespread corruption and cronyism had gotten so bad that the schools couldn’t serve their students.”
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2008/06/30/chelsea_schools_hit_crossroads/
“But not all challenges proved as easy to tackle. Despite two decades of involvement and $27.9 million in supplemental funding from the university and private donors, BU officials have not been able to overcome the obstacles of poverty, language, and mobility that affect so many of Chelsea’s students.
Though test scores there have improved over the past decade, Chelsea remains classified a “low performing” school district by the state. The city has the second-lowest four-year graduation rate in the state, with 53 percent of students.”
“BU and Chelsea officials say that student mobility is a major contributor to the problem. Each year, roughly a third of Chelsea’s students leave the district and many are replaced by students from other countries who don’t have a full command of English, and who may not have had consistent schooling.”
Dave R.
June 15th, 2011
11:45 am
Ahhh, I see my yappy little tea cup poodle has migrated over from Bookman’ blog . . .
Education spending
June 15th, 2011
11:48 am
Quit stripping education of funding, ya think? Finn McCool
Finn, we spend more on education than we ever have and more than practically any other nation. We are getting less for more money. Is that the liberal solution to everything- thrown more money at it?
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
11:50 am
Dave R.,
Back off man! That’s MY little tea cup poodle! Are we gonna have to thumb wrestle over who own’s him?
Joe Mama
June 15th, 2011
11:53 am
UGA — “Uh oh, Joe Mama is upset”
Not at all; just pointing out hypocrisy.
“hahaha……I love when people make threats on a blog…..tough guy eh?”
I think you should ask Dave if *he* was issuing a threat.
BTW, UGA, didn’t you get banned for a while?
Dave R.
June 15th, 2011
11:54 am
You can have him, Thulsa.
I no longer deal with those who deflect when unarmed.
Joe Mama
June 15th, 2011
11:54 am
Hush, Doom, and get back on your leash with Dave.
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
11:56 am
And which president gave science the middle finger by politicizing global warming and evolution?- Aquagirl
Aquagirl,
Politicizing global warming? Or is it climate change today? So how much has Al Gore made on politicizing global warming with his books, movies, etc on this BS topic? 100 million by many estimates?
Aquagirl do you still believe as Al Gore’s book points out that if temperatures keep rising that much of Florida and all of Cuba will be underwater?
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
12:02 pm
Well if it isn’t little Joe. Yep. I went back when I got home late last night and read over your last response to me. One of your first points was that there is no inflation. I was laughing so hard that I just couldn’t take anything else seriously.
Now the CPI doesn’t include gas and food prices in its basket of goods so technically there hasn’t been much inflation. But we all know better. Sooooo lets look at the rise of just some basic foodstuffs and of course gas over the last 2 years. I put gold in there because it tends to rise in inflationary times.
Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.44 84% 1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43..48 $99..02 127.7% 2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38..74 $91..38 135.9% 2
Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,369.50 60.5% 2
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13..75 42.3% 2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob $13..37 $35..39 164.7% 2
Coffee is up substantially also as well as grocery store items in general.
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
12:07 pm
Dave R.,
Did he start playing his semantics games again and writing 2 page responses disputing every 3 words said about who said what, where, why, when, how? Yeah. I know what you mean. He thinks everybody has as much time as he does to sit on their ass all day and write essays to 1 single poster at a time. I’ll still respond to him cause its fun but it then quickly gets tiresome when he gets into the essay stage and you don’t have time for it.
Dan Quayle
June 15th, 2011
12:09 pm
Joe is just happy he does not have to sit thru summer school this year!
UGA1999
June 15th, 2011
12:10 pm
Joe Mama, only because Bookman is an extremely biased fool.
Joe Mama
June 15th, 2011
12:19 pm
Doom — “One of your first points was that there is no inflation.”
You lie. From that thread:
“Inflation is low, but not zero.”
You may apologize now.
I don’t know what it is with you, but you *frequently* misstate and misinterpret what people write, and then try to pass your misunderstandings off as factual.
“Did he start playing his semantics games again and writing 2 page responses disputing every 3 words said about who said what, where, why, when, how?”
“Words mean things.”
–Rush Limbaugh
“Yeah. I know what you mean. He thinks everybody has as much time as he does to sit on their ass all day”
Can you teach me to read minds like you can, Mr. Doom?
“and write essays to 1 single poster at a time.”
I’m sorry that you can neither think nor write as fast as I can. I promise not to judge you harshly for it, K?
“I’ll still respond to him cause its fun but it then quickly gets tiresome when he gets into the essay stage and you don’t have time for it.”
Translation — “Joe makes my brain hurt with all the big words he uses.”
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
12:26 pm
UGA1999,
You were banned from Bookman? Odd that you should say that because I was blogging last night on his blog about all the conservatives who had been banned from there. I didn’t even know you were one if in fact you had been banned from there. He’s never banned a lib to my knowledge. I think he just gets mad when the libs start getting pounded by the conservatives.
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
12:36 pm
Doom — “One of your first points was that there is no inflation.”
You lie. From that thread:
“Inflation is low, but not zero.”
You may apologize now.- Joe Mama
Bravo Joe Mama. You took the bait. Shore enough you did in fact say little inflation. I just wanted to see if you were going to go back to playing semantics and shore enough you did. Soooooo predictable. I just knew it!
Uh-oh. You pulled the Rush card. Never seen you do that before.
Yeah. I know what you mean. He thinks everybody has as much time as he does to sit on their ass all day”Can you teach me to read minds like you can, Mr. Doom?
Yes. Joe. Its called a reasonable observation and belief based upon your writings. And the fact that you are sooooooo predictable. Like when I knew you would respond that you stated little and not zero inflation. I just knew you would do that.
“and write essays to 1 single poster at a time.”
I’m sorry that you can neither think nor write as fast as I can. I promise not to judge you harshly for it, K? – Joe
No Joe- I’m at warp speed while you’re at school crossing zone speed. I’m driving an aircraft carrier and you’re down there in a little rubber dinghy. You’re no match son.
Translation — “Joe makes my brain hurt with all the big words he uses.”
Whatcha got there Joe? All of maybe 3 four syllable words in that last post. Check on the big brain on Joe.
UGA1999
June 15th, 2011
12:40 pm
Thulsa, he gets upset when repubs can prove points and the libs cannot back up there claims. I never once made a threatening or racist remark but yet he banned me and will not respond to my emails. He is a child that cannot support his own beliefs.
Progressive Humanist
June 15th, 2011
12:44 pm
Dave R.,
I don’t think you understand what indoctrination is. You may want to consult a scholarly paper entitled “The Psychological Processes and Consequences of Fundamentalist Indoctrination” (2008). It’s probably over your head but you might learn something about yourself before it’s too late.
Joe Mama
June 15th, 2011
12:46 pm
Doom — “One of your first points was that there is no inflation.”
Doom — “Bravo Joe Mama. You took the bait. Shore enough you did in fact say little inflation.”
Make up your mind, Doom. No inflation or little inflation? Please try to keep your lies and misrepresentations straight.
“Uh-oh. You pulled the Rush card. Never seen you do that before.”
You should read what I write more closely, then. Some of us pay close attention to what your opinion leaders have to say.
“Yes. Joe. Its called a reasonable observation and belief”
You mean a ‘guess.’
“No Joe- I’m at warp speed while you’re at school crossing zone speed. I’m driving an aircraft carrier and you’re down there in a little rubber dinghy. You’re no match son.”
Whatever you say, Mr. Doom. I recognize that your ego needs to be fed. (laughing, pointing)
“Whatcha got there Joe? All of maybe 3 four syllable words in that last post. Check on the big brain on Joe.”
Having a big brain is something to which I hope you aspire, Mr. Doom.
I’ll be glad to meet you elsewhere; there’s no need for us to collide any further on Mr. Wingfield’s blog.
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
12:52 pm
Joe Mama,
You beating a hasty retreat over to the Bookman blog where Jay can try and protect you? Why yes. I believe you are. See ya over there. I would respond to the rest of your blog but I consider your answers to be largely non-responsive. Please delete and try again.
Bart Abel
June 15th, 2011
12:56 pm
RE: “The 3 countries you mention [South Korea, Finland, and Canada] have a mostly homogeneous demographic and most homes there still have a strong family structure. Comparing them to the United States is just not proper, we are one of the most multicultural nations in the world (not to mention much larger in population than those nations). They have the luxury of being able to set up relatively simple models based on a common heritage of the majority of the people.”
The level of ignorance in this statement is immeasurable.
First, there’s no evidence to conclude that cultural diversity leads to poorer educational outcomes and lack thereof leads to better educational outcomes. On the other hand, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the opposite is true.
But the suggestion that people living in South Korea, Finland, and Canada are “mostly homogenous”, simply because they look alike or have the same skin color is bunk. I know that many Americans believe that “all Asians look alike”, but yes, South Korea has illegal immigration problems from other parts of southeast Asia. In addition, a French-Canadian province has actively been seeking to secede from Canada for decades (and they have a significant Native American population), and Finland, along with the rest of Europe, is struggling with immigrations problems from eastern Europe and the Middle East.
If somebody can support this argument with facts, then I’d love to hear it. But as far as I can tell, this argument is race-based make believe.
Dave R.
June 15th, 2011
1:12 pm
Progressive, I understand what indoctrination means, and anyone that uses the term “Progressive”, especially in their blog name, has been indoctrinated.
Rob Woodall visited the troops last week, to brag about his free healthcare and to remind the troops that their healthcare will suck once they come home
June 15th, 2011
1:15 pm
……….”have not been able to overcome the obstacles of poverty, language, and mobility”………….
You want to improve the schools? Fix these.
Progressive Humanist
June 15th, 2011
1:18 pm
Then you just proved you don’t know what it means.
Dave R.
June 15th, 2011
1:27 pm
Says the blogger who deflects rather than debates.
Bye, bye!
Progressive Humanist
June 15th, 2011
1:32 pm
I accept your surrender.
Thulsa Doom
June 15th, 2011
1:41 pm
Progressive Humanist,
Exactly what does progressive stand for in your view? Not being snarky. Just curious as to how you define yourself. I believe I just saw a post from you on Bookman’s blog where you ridiculed anyone who believes in in an infinite intelligence as being “cult worshipers” simply because they believe in a God. As Josef stated that is indeed nothing more than arrogant intellectual pomposity if it is indeed your view that anyone who believes in a God is somehow stupid or a cult worshiper, etc.
Joe Mama
June 15th, 2011
2:57 pm
Doom — “You beating a hasty retreat over to the Bookman blog where Jay can try and protect you? Why yes. I believe you are.”
No, Mr. Doom, I’m still here. I’m simply suggesting that we not air our grievances against each other on Mr. Wingfield’s blog as well as Mr. Bookman’s. It’d be different if you knew how to comport yourself with decorum.
“See ya over there. I would respond to the rest of your blog but I consider your answers to be largely non-responsive.”
I’m not surprised, given that you managed to contradict yourself in fewer than five posts. It’s par for the course with you, to declare victory and run away.
“Please delete and try again.”
Your plaintive request is denied. I will entertain further bleats from you, however.
Progressive Humanist
June 15th, 2011
3:08 pm
Doom- Religious believers are, by definition, cult worshipers. They believe in supernatural myths and base their lives on those myths. They reject all credible evidence to the contrary in order to continue to believe preconceived, unsubstantiated falsehoods. That is one of the primary characteristics of indoctrination and all religious believers display that characteristic.
But I would expect that ignorant people would see the other person in a debate as arrogant or pompous when they are confronted with their own ignorance. I mock religious people because they are worthy of being mocked. I would also mock someone who sincerely believed in fairies, leprechauns, the tooth fairy, Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the continued existence of Elvis or Tupac. It’s all the same and equally laughable.
Unfortunately, your two degrees didn’t cure you of that ignorance. Fortunately, I rejected that type of superstition by the time I was in undergrad and have spent some of the time since then studying the curious human trait of believing in the existence of a magical monkey who created the universe. I’m sorry if that’s too intellectual for you, but religious belief is not intellectual enough for me. It’s just plain dumb.
Liann
June 15th, 2011
3:08 pm
The Revolutionary era TEA PARTY was a TAX REVOLT, protesting a TAX CUT!
The King had just lowered taxes on Tea imports to America and the colonists hated that! They threw the King’s tea in the harbors to protest the TAX CUT!
The protesters were smugglers who sold lower-priced tea than the King’s official tea. The king lowered taxes to under cut them, and put them out of business, typical monopolist behavior.
It just goes to show how ignorant the Tea-Klux-Klan of today is, letting monopolists use them as toy pawns in a faked up army created to stir up commotion while the monopolists gain tota control of all levers of power in America.
The Koch-Klux-Klan sure is stupid.
Harvey Schock
June 15th, 2011
4:13 pm
Who was the ignorant poster that said that students are learning about black lesbian poets? I don’t think Audre Lords is part of the high school curriculum seeing that Tennessee and other states are forbidding teachers to talk about homosexuality.
As for the history part, let’s be honest, most kids today find it boring. They feel that they can’t relate to something that happened that long agi. The trick to get them to learn is to apply the Boston Tea Party to what is going on today. Teenagers and young people are still caught up in their own worlds.
irisheyes
June 15th, 2011
11:04 pm
If you’ve read Diane Ravitch’s latest book, she spends quite a bit of time discussing this very problem. NCLB has forced schools to focus exclusively on reading and math in order to make AYP, and middle schools, especially, are cutting back on history (and science and art and music and civics and pretty much anything else not testes). I don’t have the book in front of me right now, but she talks about one middle school where the students spend 4 1/2 to 5 hours of their 6 hour school day just on reading and math. (And when I say reading, I don’t mean the classics. It’s basically test prep.) What do we expect? We’ve forced schools to prove that they are “good” by using the results of a multiple choice test that only tests math and lower-level reading comprehension and said that no matter what else, if your kids don’t pass this test on this day you are a failing school. And, all of this data is going to require an enormous number of paper pushers that will never see a student, but when schools struggle, it’s not the overbloated central offices that may be the cause, it’s always going to be the teachers’ fault.
irisheyes
June 15th, 2011
11:06 pm
And that’s what I get for typing while watching the Stanley Cup finals:
“pretty much anything else not testes”
should read:
“pretty much anything else not tested”