Recall the U.S. Chamber
Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce CEO Will Temby and Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation head Mike Kazmierski must be in shock. On page A14 of the March 4th Gazette blared the headline, "Report: Bad schools may hurt economy." Wow, what a shocking revelation. I can only imagine the amount of money spent to arrive at that conclusion. What probably has Temby and Kazmierski shook up is that the U.S. Chamber of commerce joined with a liberal think-tank, the Center for American Progress, in pointing out that our public schools are failing in their primary role: educating kids. Temby and Kazmierski believe that the Chamber and business community are to stay out of education issues. They say that they would never want to involve themselves in something so political and so irrelevant to the future of our nation, especially if there are mean people on school boards. Funny, I have yet to see them involving themselves in surrounding districts with "nice" school boards.
Of course I am being only half-sarcastic. Both Temby and Kazmierski proved me to be correct with my predictions about them and the business community. In my expanded resignation letter from the board, I pointed out how these two continue to avoid pressuring the local school districts to perform (Kazmierski is married to a teacher, so he has been ordered to stay out of school issues), but that they would scream and holler in a heartbeat about any other political issue that might effect the bottom line of the business community. Any reader of the Gazette will remember the quotes from both Temby and Kazmierski when the Democrats began pushing through their "we love the union" bill that Governor Ritter vetoed (but will allow to return in a different form). Neither of these business "leaders" was afraid to fight that political battle, yet they still refuse to pay attention to the sluggish state of education in their own community. Their excuse in the past was that Eric Christen was mean, so they had to stay away. Now that Christen is gone, what is their excuse?
Unlike the local business "leaders," the U.S. Chamber has had enough. The conclusion of the Chamber and the Center for American Progress was that, "...public schools could not produce students ready for the workforce." The president of the national chamber, Thomas Donohue, said that the report indicates a "critical national urgency." Yes, he used the word "urgency." Compare that to quotes from D11 board members John Gudvangen and Jan Tanner, who both claim that things need to move slowly, that there is no hurry to improve anything because, in Gudvangen's words, " I can't think of anything that needs to change" in D11. And people wonder why he is referred to as "The Brain." Donohue continued with his mean-spirited language by saying, "What's at stake is nothing less than the continued success and competitiveness of the American economy, without regard to political party, and the continued vitality of the American dream for every one of our children." Could you imagine if he had said something like that at a D11 board meeting? He would have been accused of attempting to destroy not only the American economy, but also the dreams of teachers and students alike.
It gets even better. John Podesta, that conservative mouthpiece (I'm kidding, of course. He was the chief of staff for Bill Clinton and now heads the Center for American Progress), said that it was "unconscionable" that "no state in the country had a majority of fourth and eighth graders who qualified as proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)." The report also pointed out that 40 percent of college students have to take remedial courses because their high school educations were inadequate. Podesta referred to a 2003 UNICEF report that showed that the U.S. ranked 18th out of 24 nations in the overall effectiveness of the education system. For the record, we reformers were not elected to the D11 board until November 2003, so chances are that we did not negatively impact this UNICEF study.
For those mediocrity apologists who keep patting themselves on the heads over the fact that D11 is "average" in an "average" state in a country that now ranks near the bottom in educational effectiveness, you are doing great work. As long as the school boards that you elect keep getting along with themselves, and as long as they don't insult teachers or administrators by demanding improvement, your little fantasy land will survive, uninterrupted by uncomfortable facts and mean people. As the chamber correctly points out, the losers will not only be the kids, but also the future of our nation. Sounds like something those radical reformers would say.
Of course I am being only half-sarcastic. Both Temby and Kazmierski proved me to be correct with my predictions about them and the business community. In my expanded resignation letter from the board, I pointed out how these two continue to avoid pressuring the local school districts to perform (Kazmierski is married to a teacher, so he has been ordered to stay out of school issues), but that they would scream and holler in a heartbeat about any other political issue that might effect the bottom line of the business community. Any reader of the Gazette will remember the quotes from both Temby and Kazmierski when the Democrats began pushing through their "we love the union" bill that Governor Ritter vetoed (but will allow to return in a different form). Neither of these business "leaders" was afraid to fight that political battle, yet they still refuse to pay attention to the sluggish state of education in their own community. Their excuse in the past was that Eric Christen was mean, so they had to stay away. Now that Christen is gone, what is their excuse?
Unlike the local business "leaders," the U.S. Chamber has had enough. The conclusion of the Chamber and the Center for American Progress was that, "...public schools could not produce students ready for the workforce." The president of the national chamber, Thomas Donohue, said that the report indicates a "critical national urgency." Yes, he used the word "urgency." Compare that to quotes from D11 board members John Gudvangen and Jan Tanner, who both claim that things need to move slowly, that there is no hurry to improve anything because, in Gudvangen's words, " I can't think of anything that needs to change" in D11. And people wonder why he is referred to as "The Brain." Donohue continued with his mean-spirited language by saying, "What's at stake is nothing less than the continued success and competitiveness of the American economy, without regard to political party, and the continued vitality of the American dream for every one of our children." Could you imagine if he had said something like that at a D11 board meeting? He would have been accused of attempting to destroy not only the American economy, but also the dreams of teachers and students alike.
It gets even better. John Podesta, that conservative mouthpiece (I'm kidding, of course. He was the chief of staff for Bill Clinton and now heads the Center for American Progress), said that it was "unconscionable" that "no state in the country had a majority of fourth and eighth graders who qualified as proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)." The report also pointed out that 40 percent of college students have to take remedial courses because their high school educations were inadequate. Podesta referred to a 2003 UNICEF report that showed that the U.S. ranked 18th out of 24 nations in the overall effectiveness of the education system. For the record, we reformers were not elected to the D11 board until November 2003, so chances are that we did not negatively impact this UNICEF study.
For those mediocrity apologists who keep patting themselves on the heads over the fact that D11 is "average" in an "average" state in a country that now ranks near the bottom in educational effectiveness, you are doing great work. As long as the school boards that you elect keep getting along with themselves, and as long as they don't insult teachers or administrators by demanding improvement, your little fantasy land will survive, uninterrupted by uncomfortable facts and mean people. As the chamber correctly points out, the losers will not only be the kids, but also the future of our nation. Sounds like something those radical reformers would say.
posted by Craig Cox | 5:20 PM
1 Comments:
Great post. And just when you think it can't get any worse, consider this: The NAEP exam referred to in the reports you cited above is questionable in terms of its rigor. It's cited, of course, because it's the only way to obtain meaningful comparisons between the different states in terms of how well our children are learning, i.e., our CSAP tests bear no relationship to state tests given in, for example, Washington or Texas.
I'm going to copy in excerpts from (and the web link to) testimony given by Dr. John Hoven back in 2001. His background is as follows: PhD economist with a bachelor's degree in math and physics and a master's degree in physics. At the time he made this presentation, he served as co-president of the Gifted and Talented Association of Montgomery County, Maryland. Here are the opening remarks of Dr. Hoven:
"My remarks are based on an examination of the publicly released NAEP Test Questions (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/). I compared these with a
published set of exam problems based on the math curriculum of Singapore.1 I chose Singapore because its TIMSS scores (Third International Math and Science Study) make it the acknowledged world leader in mathematics. My point is simple: There is a chasm of difference in expectations between NAEP and the problems used by world-class mathematics leaders. We expect too little from our children, and by lowering our expectations we lower their incentive to achieve. . . .NAEP classifies its problems as "easy," "medium," or "hard." I benchmarked the "hard" 8th grade problems, examining NAEP's highest level of expectation for 8th grade math. Most of these "hard" 8th grade problems are at the level of Singapore's grade 5 or lower."
Dr. Hoven goes on to give actual examples from the NAEP exam and examples out of the math curriculum used by Singapore. Take a look and come to your own conclusions - I predict you will be dismayed. Please take the time to read his testimony in full at http://www.edreform.com/_upload/NAEPmath.pdf.
When John Podesta comments that it's "unconscionable" that "no state in the country had a majority of fourth and eighth graders who qualified as proficient in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)," it's a much more sobering indictment of what is happening in our schools when you see what other countries expect from their kids and are able to teach them, compared to our expectations per NAEP.
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