Our educational system is serving the government, not our students.

Today, our democracy and our schools are in poor health. It is no coincidence that the principles of our Democracy are suffering at the very time research in curriculum development and implementation of best practices so often pushed aside under an authoritative political climate that treats teachers like mechanics and stifles creativity, higher level thinking, and challenges to the present way of doing things. Teachers are being told what to do by the government, and many teachers in turn tell students what to think, what to memorize for the test, instead of teaching them how to think. There is a fear of curriculum reform because any reform might rock the boat and lower next year's test scores. All change requires some degree of adjustment, but there is no room for adjustment, only tweaking the machine. The emphasis on testing has made it impossible for the system to improve.

As professional educators we have visions based on sound research of what schools can be, but they are mostly only visions. The only thing that can turn the vision into reality are we the educators, united and speaking with one loud, clear voice, not cowering in a corner worrying about how our students will do compared to the classroom next door, or the school next door, on an assessment tool over which we have no control.

The changes needed are revolutionary in nature. We need an educational system of the people, by the people, and for the people, not for the test. The government must serve the people, and any test must serve our students.

Enough!

Unfortunately, with everything else this administration has destroyed, the destruction of our educational system is too often ignored - along with its importance in shaping the future of the nation.

:kick:

:thumbsup:

There was a study done in Britain that showed that testing actually reduces morale and motivation. Maybe that's the goal?

teach for these tests.

I had no trouble with standardized tests as a student, even though I received a normal, non-test-geared education.

I think there are a lot of problems with the system that have absolutely nothing to do with testing.

calteachergirl, now teaching in the state to the north.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

cover more of the curriculum than I did five, ten, twenty years, thirty years ago, then I remember those two terrible weeks when all learning comes to a halt, and testing begins. The kids are told they won't get homework this week, and that is the end of it. Usually about the time testing starts, my 8th graders have really engaged in the subject, but after the two weeks of testing, they are ready for spring break & shut down. I really resent that testing takes so much of my teaching time.

I've said it before, it is the publishing companies that pay the bucks to purchase Congressional votes so that schools are forced to use their money to pay for the testing ($$$$$). It all goes back to who really controls the government, corporations. When I vote, I check out where a candidate's money is coming from, and make my decision based on that. I suggest you check to see who Hillary's and the other candidates money is coming from. I mention Hillary because of where Bill's finances came from.

Interestingly enough, the Bush family has a long-term relationship with an established educational publisher. A heavy-weight publisher; not Neil Bush, lol.

I posted about that back in '02 or '03; long lost in the archives of a previous incarnation of DU. I think that one deserves a post of it's own. I'm tired and ready to be done for the night, but I'll toss that one out and come back to check on it in the morning.

What they want is a population of sheep willing to be led wherever the authorities wish to take them and never questioning anything. They do not want us to learn anything, they want us all to be a bunch of fox noise watching zombies. And they really don't have to work awfully hard at accomplishing this, the educational policies they have adopted almost guarantee that it will happen in a generation or two.

My hat is off to you and every other educator who gives a shit. You must feel like the guy who kept rolling the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down just as he got it to the top. I'm amazed you as a group are not more cynical than you are.

The corpoRATes don't need an educated population- jobs
that require thinking have all been outsourced and therefore
they could care a less if Americans can do little more
than work in service jobs for minimum wage.
In fact, that is the PLAN.

BHN

...to be cynical. :7

Despite sound research that students who take music, art, and/or theater, during their high school years perform higher on college entrance exams, the districts are cutting those electives for more rote drilling for the tests. Rote learning is the lowest rung on Bloom's Taxonomy, but that is the level we now strive for.

The schools will never achieve 100% proficiency by 2014. NCLB is a gigantic pitfall to destroy public education so the for-profit instruction mills can take over. The fact that one of the Bush boys and Bill Bennett are involved in for-profit schooling is the writing on the wall. There are big bucks in it for fat cats. To hell with the kids.

they are out to destroy them.

NCLB
Vouchers
And starving them for tax dollars

Thank you for posting this.

I am not disagreeing with your post. I just don't have any familiarity with that aspect.

But what I do know is that instead of teaching, I felt we were being prepared. I could get specific, but I'll leave it at that.

And having just seen the Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo campus, I was absolutely appalled. Since I graduated they have thrown up so many structures that the place isn't even recognizable. They have so much money coming in from corporations, they simply have to follow their commands.


Edit- I also wanted to add that I believe a significant force behind what we are seeing is also due to cultural and social values. College is not for getting an education, but a job. In fact, I look past this whole discussion and see that there are very few people, if any, who are actually doing nothing but their own interests and pursuits. Everything is so expensive now, people don't have the alternative to just drop out and sit in their garage and pursue pure research of some kind, or artistic venture. These things all add up to the seriousness of the situation. In fact, take the Tour de France as a parallel example of this. It used to be individuals in a simple but grueling race. Now it's a corporate dominated, extremely competitive race. There are even rooms where the racers go after each stage to be intubated with rehydration liquids. It's sick.

I would like to add that the reason our schools are in poor health is our government. NCLB is ruining education in America. And it's way past time for a revolution.

Yeah, yeah, "people" pay taxes, but the money comes from the government. Then of course there are private schools.

The students are not important. The only important part is "the machine". It can be no other way as long as we have an educational "system". Systems are centralized. They serve the authority. One size has to fit all. There has to be order. There has to be predictability. If you have a thousand kids doing a thousand different things, what would get done? Yeah, they might learn to think for themselves, but what would they do with it? There would be too much diversity. They could never agree on how to do anything.

"united and speaking with one loud, clear voice"

Well there you go. United. One. An ordered message. It's predictable. Easy to manage. It's centralized. It serves the educators(As professional educators we have visions based on sound research of what schools can be), who are the authority.

"We need an educational system of the people, by the people, and for the people, not for the test."

Should it be of the person, by the person, and for the person? The traditional way(of, by, and for the people), is just replacing one system(the test) with another(the people). Then again, "the person" can also be a system, like Stalinism.

Good topic.

I'm saying that standardized testing is what is most convenient for the government and politicians; it's the easiest way to appear they are trying to do something to improve education. Standardized testing as it is practiced today serves only political goals, not educational goals.

Yes, of course the money for the government comes from the taxpayers. Have you noticed of late the myriad ways the government is so wisely spending the dollars of the people? The people need to reclaim their government, and then they can reclaim their schools.

it could have been posted in the UK forum, and everyone would have thought it referred to the system here!

I have also heard of similar things in Australia.

Where did all this educational managerial-itis come from? There needs to be an international revolt against it!

Tired of NCLB. Simply tell the Feds that you school district will no longer participate. Tell them that they can keep their money, that you district citizens will foot the bill for their childerens education.

There are a number of things wrong with the pubilc schools today.

1. There is a general dumbing-down of America that extends to the schools. My mom is 70 and never went to college. She learned more in public high school (in the '50's) than most people learn today even after four years of college. We actually taught serious subjects back then. Of course, this was also back in the day when popular magazines actually carried short stories and literary essays. No more, my friend. It's Paris and Anna Nicole 24/7. So I would recommened a more advanced curricula. When you expect more of kids, instead of less, they will raise to the challenge. Look at the studies where even college students can't answer basic questions about our Constitution or history. It's hard to prevent misuse by the government when you don't know enough to question it.

2. Stop all this Federal control of local schools. Let the local communities run their schools the way they see fit. Scrap the NCLB act altogether.

3. Forget about requiring certified teachers. Hire people who know their subject matter, and then work with them to refine their teaching. That's what private schools and colleges do. The way it is now, schools hire some young kid straight out of teaching college who may know nothing about the actual subject that he/she gets assigned to.

4. Oversight of the spending of Union money. Washington, D.C. sticks out in my mind because of the flagrant misuse of union dues recently. There has to be proper accounting of dues to prevent such fraud and misuse. Teachers work so hard. We can't allow their money to be wasted.

5. Better pay for teachers. There has to be a way to encourage top-notch talented people to want to become teachers. When teacher pay is low, you automatically eliminate many inteligent people who believe they can earn more money in the private sector or by being a professional. I want qualified people teaching my kids.

I'm fine with public school for my kids up to 5th or 6th grade. Then it's going to be private schools because I just don't have the confidence in the school system right now. We have to scrimp and save a lot to prepare for that expense, but it's worth it for my kids.