AUGUSTA, Maine — In a rare close vote that did not fall along party lines, the Maine House on Wednesday rejected a bill to require school districts across the state to move toward a standards-based education model.
The bill, LD 1422, An Act to Prepare Maine People for the Future Economy, was discussed at length, amended considerably and then approved unanimously several weeks ago by the Education Committee.
However, in recent weeks support for the measure weakened as lawmakers learned more about what it does.
On Wednesday, the bill generated significant House debate from all sides before the 76-67 vote. Since the bill had a mandate preamble, it needed two-thirds support in the House and therefore failed.
It now goes to the Senate.
In essence, the measure directs the Department of Education to develop a plan that transitions all school districts to a standards-based system of education that awards a high school diploma based on a student’s demonstrated proficiency in all areas of assessment.
Put more simply, students can go at their own pace and move on once they have demonstrated mastery of a subject.
The bill also waives age- and grade-related requirements in law. That means, a 16-year-old could graduate high school if he or she has demonstrated proficiency in all areas or a 21-year-old could be held back until he or she masters all subjects.
Critics said the mandate aspect of the bill is reminiscent of former Gov. John Baldacci’s plan to force school districts to consolidate.
“It’s the same mistake we made with RSUs, pushing it through with no buy-in from the local communities,” said Rep. Peter Kent, D-Woolwich.
Rep. Maeghan Maloney, D-Augusta, said Maine would become the first state to create such a mandate. The bill would require implementation of standards-based education by 2017, or 2020 if a waiver is granted, but would not necessarily provide funding to districts to carry out the plan.
“Why would we force districts to spend limited resources?” she asked. “If [districts] want to adopt this, they can.”
Maloney also said she’s not convinced standards-based education works.
“I would like to see test scores before implementation and after implementation,” she said.
Rep. Dick Wagner, D-Lewiston, the lead Democrat on the Education Committee, was among those who supported the bill.
“This is a change for sure,” he said. “No change is pretty; no change is nice and neat. You can’t package this and put a bow on it. But we’ve got to get started somewhere.
Wagner said he believes local control is preserved with LD 1422.
But just as Democrats were divided on the bill, so too were Republicans.
“I feel like it has come at the last minute; there is still a lot of controversy remaining,” said Rep. Kerri Prescott, R-Topsham. “All I ask is that we slow down. Sometimes the best action is no action.”
Rep. Beth O’Connor, R-Berwick, said the bill is “just another shuffling of the deck chairs” that takes away local control.
Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, likened the bill to a dating experience he had in high school. He asked a girl out on a date. He liked lobster; she liked hamburgers. Fredette told her she had to eat lobster but then made her pay, too. He didn’t get a second date.
Fredette said LD 1422 essentially was saying “You have to eat what I want to eat and then you have to pay.” He said he couldn’t take that risk with local taxpayers.
Rep. Michael McClellan, R-Raymond, who sits on the Education Committee, said he supported the bill because it puts students first.
The bill also had the strong support of Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen.
“The reality is that LD 1422, simply and very importantly, requires that a diploma have meaning and that it have the same meaning across the state,” said David Connerty-Marin, education department spokesman, on Tuesday. “There should be a measure that students are ready for success beyond high school.”
Connerty-Marin said although there is a mandate that schools move toward the standards-based system, nothing in the bill addresses instruction. In short, teachers can do what they have always done as long as their students meet proficiency goals.
Follow BDN reporter Eric Russell on Twitter @BDNPolitics
For those unfamiliar with Standards Based Education (SBE), Education Commissioner Steve Bowen gave a presentation on it last week in Rockport. You can watch a recording of it here:
http://www.dirigoblue.com/2012/03/video-education-commissioner-bowen-on-standards-based-education/
I don’t care what Bowen or other advocates say. It is a model that has CAN NOT WORK in MANY schools, especially large schools and one that SHOULD NOT BE FORCED. We already have advanced level classes for kids that are advanced, and we already have special plans for special needs kids. We also have all manner of interventions for struggling learners. But we can not just eliminate numeric grading and all grade levels and place each and every students on some separate education plan that is self-paced. It just can not work, especially in large schools. If parents want this, go to a Montessori school or homeschool your kid. This is a massive, undoable, unfunded mandate.
So could a 12 year old get a diploma if he meets the standards? What about special needs kids they may be good in some areas but not others ? Oh wait your learning disabled can not get a diploma. You will see a lot of borderline kids drop out. Seeing that like 80% of people in jail never got a diploma. It dose not look good. Keep a kid in school till he is 25 and see if he drops out first. I think it will make a lot more welfare and criminal cases. Not everyone has the same abilities or learns the same way.
It is not a perfect world. Not all kids need to go to college. Lets get real about this . Unless college is free.
Grazie Dio
We need to put government on standards=based criteria. AND we need the right to recall the failures. Maine just got an F folks.
Don’t you mean a 1?
Yes
Teachers and schools need to be held accountable for performance but, in my case, imposing testing standards caused teachers to “teach to the test”. Having two sons who suffered through a standardized testing based approach I can tell you first hand it is was a complete failure. How do you measure inspiring students, or lighting a passion for learning? Not through standardized test scores. My kids came out of school feeling like they’d just been through intellectual boot camp. They pretty much hated every subject they went through that had a standardized test (by the way, my kids were B+ and A students respectively). It was not until they got to college that their life long intellectual passions were ignited by teachers who were not measured by standardized tests.
Don’t get me wrong, accountability for performance is very important, both at the teacher level and the school level. But you have to be very careful what you base your measures on. Testing standards did not work. Perhaps a better measure for schools is the % of students accepted into the college of their choice, or employed in the career of their choice. If the annual teacher / administrator raise pool were tied to their school’s performance on this basis, then all the teachers / administrators would be focused on this set of goals. With this type of system there would likely be peer pressure from teachers and administrators to make sure all were doing their part toward these goals.
Sounds like your kids didn’t do well in school so you are looking for an alibi. The biggest problem in education today is that parents don’t want their kids held accountable for their own success of lack of it. Too many Maine kids do not go on to college for a whole variety of reasons: expense, motivation, unprepared, etc., so that is not a measure of school success. Getting a job, just any old job, is not a measure of success either. Working at Dollar General, McDonalds, etc. isn’t a measure of success in the long run. It’s fine initially but people should move on. I want my schools measured by a standard that can be compared school by school state wide and nationwide. As long as the test is measuring what should be taught, and the NECAPS do that; the SAT doesn’t, then teachers should be teaching it and kids should be learning it.
I’m not sure you read my response completely. My kids did fine (by the standardized testing measures), and I did not suggest getting any job was a way to measure.
I agree that there are other factors that affect the success of students, and that it is not all the sole accountability of teachers and administrators. It’s a good point. But, the point I making was more about being careful how you measure success. It’s not simple and if done improperly can drive unintended results.
Then we mostly in agreement. Thanks for clarifying.
I’ve seen PBL in action – I give the legislators an “A” for seeing through this “snake oil” education; its just a dumbing down of courses and a lot of new vocabulary to veil what it is – a return to deeper mediocrity.
I have taught in a performance based model and the results have consistently been better than the traditional model. If you’ve “seen” a bad model, that’s too bad, but it works and there is no excuse for this narrow mindedness.
What we need is more data before forcing a mandate on school systems throughout the state. We know that there has been very mixed success in those districts that have tried it – some have worked, others haven’t. We do know that in RSU 2, the former superintendent pushed this through without input or buy-in from parents or other community members. We also know that said superintendent now works for the Commissioner of the Department of Education, and want to push this on every school system in the state. Simply saying that we aren’t keeping up with Findland or China does not mean that SBE will be a panacea in our state. That is fantasy thinking.
I have to say the real problem is the poverty rate. Finland has like 2% . kids in poverty drop out of school at a rate of about 5 times what upper middle class kids do. School seem to treat kids like they all come from educated families in middle class. Educators seem to blame it on bad parents. most parents want thier kids to do well. just the social disconnect between the social classes poor people usually think it up to the schools to teach. maybe because they are not educated themselves. Anyway we need to address those issues . I know in some of my sons classes 50% for his grade is homework . Only 30% test scores. Well for kids in environment not conducive to doing homework the system we have now makes a larger divide. Are kids expelled If mom either dose home work or help them get the right answers. So one kid could get 100% on every test best they could hope for is a 50 another kid could fail every test have mommy do homework and still get a 91.
Finland teachers are all required to have a masters degree and their profession is superbly competitive. It is very difficult to become a teacher in Finland; the best of the best teach there. Our teachers work hard, but simply do not have the prestige or competition to get those spots that Finland teachers do. All of our teachers also do not have Masters Degrees in their subject of teaching. So, if folks want reform Finland-style, type of increase certain educational standards for teachers.
I know in Pennsylvania that once a teacher was hired they had 6 years to get their masters. If they didn’t, they were fired.
The teachers in Finland are also highly respected members of the community. Here it seems they are just numbers, and targets to be bullied by the Republican/MHPC/ALEC/Tea Party. I don’t know about you, but if I were a young person looking to go into teaching, it wouldn’t be in this state.
The degree a teacher has has little to do with it. The major point is they do not have to deal with as many problems cause by poverty and homelessness . most kids come into school a bit more equil.
Poverty is irrelevant; when the parents and community prize education. Haitians and home schoolers are relatively poor, yet their children often earn college scholarships. Many children who attend Catholic and Christian schools do so while their parents make financial sacrifices to pay for the costs, because they value the education…I believe a current Supreme Court Justice can verify that>
It is all relative. Lets say you have to do a project that cost $40 some poor family can not afford to do so. I am not saying that they can not succeed i am just saying the odds are staked against them. No internet at home make it more difficult for kids to do things that require internet. An educated mommy or daddy make help with home work a bit easier. I wonder how many parents help kids with homework. Help them get right answers . Like I said a kid could still fail every test and still pull off a 91 . Its true its not all about money its more about parental involvement . Its hard for a parent that can not read to help kids with home work. I think we should either not grade homework or seriously punish kids that get extra help. lets level the playing field a bit and have the grades reflect more on what a kid learned . I guess I do not see much VALUE in education. I love to learn things. Let go back to the 3rd grade science fair at my sons school. Kid from disfunctional family had on project stood there and cried. Get a 0 . Kid who has project at graduate school level gets and A . I will argue that was not the kids fault . The grades were more the parents in most cases . Why did the school do nothing to take this into account. Maybe could have Gave kid a failing make whos parents did the project. help the kid with a project who did not have parents to help. SO THE KIDS WHO CHEATS WINS AND IS MADE TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT HIMSELF. Most educators have no idea . Most did not grow up with parents who were not educated. Sorry it is in no way a childs fault if his parents can not or will be involved. The way I see it the system is gamed for some.
Cheating and ‘getting away with it’ is a highly valued skill in our greed ridden society that prizes winning at all costs and relishes the bloody fights in hockey games and crashes in stock car races.
Criminal notority is often a stepping stone to later success. Lindsay Lohan and Martha Stewart for starters. I think you can plea bargain your way out of nearly every crime these days….what would we do without weasel lawyers?
Like all the self esteem training in schools never bring up the negative. Criminals have a very high opinion of themselves. I just think they should be smart enough to get real about what really happens in the real world.
I am saying social class has a lot more to do with it than IQ or test scores . I graduated in the my top ten of my class with 2 uneducated parents. I had no support from the school to get into college . My parents thought I was a slow learner because the school told them so. Who were they to question that not being educated. No one said hey you did good in school you should think about college I will show you how to fill out an application. Even though I do not wright very well I seriously question how smart these educators are that told my mother I was a slow learner. The things they learned like IQ is fixed number at an early age and other BS. Maybe they are slower than I am just had more parental support. Maybe the schools should realize this and and give those kids extra support. So many things school do have little or nothing to do with how hard a kid tries or thier ability.
Republicans sat and waited twenty years before taking over state government.
Governor LePage and other Republicans were elected because they said they knew what needed doing.
Commissioner Bowen then spent a year traveling the state on a listening tour in order to figure out what he should do.
And now, what we get from them is this half-baked idea that needs further study.
I’m beginning to get the impression that these people can’t find their own backsides using both hands.
Right, so let’s just keep on doing the sh-tty job of educating kids that we’ve always done. SBE works, there is plenty of evidence and there is plenty of support from the best educators in the state. This is not a fantasy, it’s what every parent should be demanding.
SBE is a sham and test scores will bear that out. And those schools reporting “success” with it had plenty of time, small student populations and plenty of money to do it. And it still doesn’t work…
SBE’s success cannot be measured with test scores. Test scores rely on standardization–the same ages take the same tests on the same subject matter. SBE allows students to work until they complete the objective (understand and master the material). The measurement of success will be in those who graduate having actually obtained the skills to enter college, or a profession.
Yet unfortunately, the feds will require all students to take a standardized test in order to determine the efficacy of schools. I wish one of them (feds or state) would get out of dictating education policy, so the locals who actually have to do all the work and spend all the money don’t have to deal with conflicting goals.
You might want to check to see how much of your school money comes from the feds and state. I’ll bet it is well over 50%.
You can’t standardize test AT ALL if everyone is on some individualized self paced plan. It CAN NOT WORK in most schools, it is IMPOSSIBLE to put every student on a special plan, and was essentially already tried with the Open Classroom model in the 1970’s and was a total FAILURE in most schools so was killed. For certain kids who want this, go to a Montessori school, which are SMALL private schools, and pay tuition for this model. Or homeschool. In a school of hundreds of kids, it is impossible to have every one on a separate plan.
I went to a one room school and my teacher had individualized, self paced plans only it wasn’t labelled that 50 years ago. She differentiated instruction according what each kids knew and needed to go on. She also used “cooperative learning” but it wasn’t called that. If John knew something that I didn’t get, she asked John to help me while she worked with the 5 others grades.
You see, a “one room school”. That is a MAJOR LEAGUE different situation that a 400 student school with just three grades. Apples and oranges. In those little tiny situations, the teacher MUST individualize because that is the nature of the situation. That DOES NOT WORK in larger schools when one teacher has up to 100 or more students.
You obviously don’t understand analogies. In the one room school there were 33 kids in 7 grades. The teacher taught Reading, Mathematics, History, Science, and Health – she combined some of those grades and subjects but if you multiply even three subjects a day by the 33, she taught 99 kids a day. Pretty much the same load you mention above in your apples/oranges diatribe.
Individualized Education Plans are a hallmark of automated instruction. When a child masters one area, they move on to the next; if they fall behind, they are assigned conventional resources. Some will finish a course in less time and move into more advanced work; others will require remediation to keep up.
Each according to their needs; we really aren’t equal and automated delivery of most curriculum is tailored for each child.
But the testing will happen because it already is, everyone including LePage and Bowen use these scores to “rate” education, and MUCH MORE of it will happen because they also want every teacher of every subject at every level to be evaluated based on test scores. It is a MASSIVE mixed message and contradiction. And LePage says he needed STRUCTURED education himself and to be PUSHED (not “self-paced”) when he went to Catholic school as a kid. Then he says he wants this plan which is “self-paced.” He of course is masssively contradicting himself, as he and Bowen are doing by going against what is supposed be their own philosophy of allowing local control and not foisting huge unfunded BIG GOVERNMENT MANDATES on local communities and local school districts.
LePage ‘inherited’ a school consolidation scheme which would have created a much smaller number of large districts, designed along the Canadian provincial model and so that, in Gendron’s words, she could meet with all the superintendents once a month and tell them what to do.
Ah, the joys of socialized public education!
Pure snake oil – the PBL (or SBE if you like) folks say it will take eight years before it is effective in a school system; btw, my Masters is in educational theory and this is simply a politically motivated smokescreen with a hard core group of supporters forcing their educational philosophy on everyone else. My experience with its proponents demonstrates they reject criticism, and simply attempt to intimate dissenters and open discussion.
Most schools in RSU 20 (Belfast/Searsport area) are having great success with this approach. They’ve been described as being “ahead of the curve” and test scores (NECAPS/MEA’s) seem to be improving. Might be worth checking out if you haven’t had much experience with the approach.
Too bad. The NCLB fiasco has proven it was useless. Standards-based is being used in my district and our scores, while not the highest in the state, are easily in the top 15%.
It is a massive failure in many other places. It can not work in large schools. Maybe your district is doing parts and pieces of this model, but in its full form, you can not have a high school teacher in a large school with 100 or more students provide an individualize curriculum to each and every kid. NOT DOABLE.
Bowen appears to be a member of the happy hands club.
I thought conservatives were supposed to be against attacking local control and unfunded mandates. That is exactly what this bill does. Another one size fits all mandate, forcing every school to adopt this model, and UNFUNDED. Then, at the very same time he wants to standardize test the hell out of kids in every single subject. The SBE model can not jive with that since it is a self paced model and kids would be in all different places in the curriculum. Just NOT DOABLE unless done in SMALL private settings like Montessori schools.
You forget this goes along with an expanded school choice reform that would enable parents to select a different school for their children. CHARTER SCHOOLS provide the alternative educational universe to counterbalance the uniformity of the SBE model.
Don’t want to be tested??? forgetaboutit and start studying.
“School choice” would favor kids with more wealth, and that is not fair. Haves and have-nots would be even more pronounced. Many charter schools are not better or are worse than traditional schools. What works? Parents who value education. Good parenting. Structure at home and at school. Order in the schools and classrooms. And good classroom management and instruction. All these schemes are not necessary. And some kids will simply be unwilling to engage no matter what is done. Everyone is always looking for some silver bullet that does not exist. We put people on the moon without “Standards Based Education.” This is a bunch of nonsense.
Graduate from high school, not graduate high school. Maybe that should be part of the test.
KILL THIS RIDICULOUS BILL ! KILL IT ! It is a MASSIVE unfunded mandate. It destroys local control. It is foisting Montessori type education on EVERY school, and that CAN NOT WORK ! You can not have large classrooms and an individualized education plan for every single student and get through a curriculum. This pie in the sky nonsense about having a special education self-paced plan for each and every student that would eliminate grade levels and numeric grading is a load of CRAP. Some kids NEED to be pushed by good teachers who know how to do that the right way because they don’t get pushed by themselves or by their parents. If it is all self-paced, the LAZY ones will remain LAZY. This kind of a model in large classroom teaching WILL NOT WORK, and it has already been tried, essentially, at earlier times like back in the 70’s with the Open Classroom model which was a FAILURE in most cases. There is just no way to manage this especially in larger schools and classrooms and in more financially challenged districts, it would be a school management nightmare, and it is just not a model that can work in MANY schools. If you want a Montessori model, then pay tuition and send your kid to a Montessori school or homeschool your kid. As a parent, I want some WHOLE CLASSROOM dynamics going on as well. You just can’t have an individualize self paced education plan for each and every student. NOT POSSIBLE AND NOT GOOD.
Thank you for noting that error. I wasn’t going to say anything after reading, ” to develop a plan that transitions…” Even with the current, stupidly lazy practice of verbalizing nouns, the word is completely wrong.
Let’s see — …to develop a plan that requires all school districts to adhere to a standards-based system of education that awards a high school diploma….
I thought we already had a standards based diploma and assessment called Maine Learning REsults. What was all that work for the last decade that the state FORCED districts to do worth? I’m so tired of education re-inventing the wheel. We have no data to compare with anything because NOTHING has been measured consistently enough to make the comparison. All I know is that most of our stuff these days is “made in china”, our computer tech and help desks are in India, or some other asian company, and most of my food from the grocery store has some component derived from corn in it (that’s not directly pertinent to the discussion, but it does have meaning in the deeper issues).
Yes, we have the Maine Learning Results which have been in place for about 15 years and were updated just a couple of years ago. Most school systems do two full batteries of standardized testing per year in math and literacy, each of which takes about two full days to do. We have new Response To Interventions mandates to improve interventions for struggling learners. We have individualized plans with modifications and accommodations for special needs kids. We have advanced classes for advanced level kids. We have vocational programming at the high school level for kids who want a vocational track. And on and on and on. We DO NOT NEED MORE MANDATES AND SCHEMES LIKE SBE which will not work in MANY schools. If you want an SBE model, either homeschool or send your kid to a Montessori school.
A new flavor of the decade that’s all. The ONE good part of it is that kids don’t have to sit there for 13 years if they want out. If a student learns easily and can move on then by all means they should be able to do so. Other than that, “much ado about nothing.”
I love how a dead bill now goes to the Senate. Shouldn’t it go in the trash instead? Seems like a little rule rewriting could slash the “business” of our legislature in half…but that wouldn’t happen as they are a make-work operation designed to keep themselves “busy.”
You can bet your bottom dollar on this one…any piece of legislation with a screwy “feel good” title, such as “An Act to Prepare Maine People for the Future Economy” is nothing more than a bunch of special interest foolishness which will not benefit YOU one bit,
Finally, elected officials do something intelligent!
The odd thing is that we already have standards-based grading. They are called grades. Where the system has broken down is that administrators, guidance counselors, department heads, and teachers, have been beaten down, BY PARENTS, STUDENTS, COACHES, BOARD MEMBERS, AND COMMUNITIES, that grades are pretty much meaningless. In the “good old days” of when I went to school a “C” meant that I had average mastery of a particular subject. That meant that I knew all of the basic information required to grasp the subject. “B” meant above average-it meant that I applied myself and went above and beyond that required for a “C”. An “A” meant not only had I mastered the basics, it meant that I had gone above and beyond and mastered some of the more complex skills and knowledge associated with the subject. On the other hand, a “D” meant that I barely knew enough to get by, and an “F” meant I didn’t even get that far. Now, in today’s world of eligibility requirements, college admission requirements, etc. students are much more grade conscious but they have not mastered the concept of what those grades mean. A C still “means” average, but with students want to be on sports teams, pad their resumes to get into college, etc., that C becomes a “black mark” that will “penalize” them. And so they, their parents, their coaches, their guidance counselors, administors, and anybody else they can convince will advocate for the grade to be changed, the course made less challenging (because Johnny/Suzy isn’t a science/math/history/languange/music/art person), or to let them “do a poster for extra credit.” Yes, I got that request repeatedly from SENIORS! And I was chastised by administrators for not giving in and not going along “with the program.” So along comes Bowen who want to reinvent the wheel. Again. Since I came to Maine 20 years ago, the wheel has already been reinvented 5 times. None of those iterations has been givent the t ime to work and yet within a year or two they are discarded, and the “next great thing” is presented. Once again, if you want to fix education, GET OUT OF THE WAY AND LET TEACHERS DO WHAT YOU HIRED THEM TO DO—TEACH!
I’m delighted that I do not have to suffer through this “new improved” school system. If I were a child today, I probably would never graduate.
I agree with you on this harry 100%. Too bad most educators have no idea of what kids go through . Very little is done to level the playing field for all. I can not help but wonder how many of these so called expects and school board member came from families that had parents that were functionally illiterate . If a few more did maybe they would understand things a bit better.
Two decades ago, LEARNING STANDARDS was created with the goal of awarding a high school diploma based on mastery of various Learning Standards, instead of the usual way based on class attendance.
That mean’t that a lot of children wouldn’t get a high school diploma, and their parents sent political waves that still wash over the Legislature.
I commend Governor LePage for holding up the banner of Learning Standards and what it implied for graduation, despite the firestorm of opposition generated. What good are they, if they don’t mean anything, where’s the incentive to attain them?
Good points- Some Maine high school teachers seem to be spinning in their desk chairs at the idea of having to give more meaningful assessments and grades. The ones that have been paying attention, know the difference between formative and summative assessment, and aren’t too close to retirement to learn new tricks will be just fine.
http://fu.gy/20Y
Wake up Maine; the vast majority of our children are not being equipped to function, let alone thrive, in a 21st century economy and world. While I am all for local control, does anyone really believe that the plurality of dolts that cling to their positions on local school boards really have the backgrounds to a lead an educational revolution that will prepare our children for the future?
Apparently many parents in this state subscribe to the Lake Woebegone standard where all children are “above average” (a mathematical impossibility). Another issue is the pedagogical quagmire that is the Education Establishment. Until, parents come to the realizations that their children’s teachers are the bargain basement products of the university academic hierarchy there will be little room for change. In my experience, all parents “adore” the teachers in their school systems and the children absolutely love them. Unfortunately, while this may satisfy a child’s current self esteem, it is not preparing them to compete in a world economy where students in Singapore are learning calculus in middle school and our children are learning about “hurt feelings”.
As for the “unfunded mandate”, how much of that is hype and how much of it is real cost. How expensive is it for a volunteer committee in the town to develop standards for graduating from high school? Before we had School Superintendents most schools had comprehensive exams that students had to take before being certified as a graduate. In fact, please go the following website:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/saline/society/exam.html
and see the exam that students had to take in Kansas in 1895 to graduate from the 8th grade. Give that exam today, and I suspect most of our teachers will not pass it. But that is not the issue. Why shouldn’t we educate and expect our 21st century students to meet minimum standards set for the this century, and then educate them to those standards? Instead we march smartly, or rather ignorantly, towards mediocrity.
You are painting with some broad brushes here. There are some amazing things going on in the schools that you are not recognizing (awesome advanced placement education, accelerated classes, etc. etc.). I’ve heard parents say just the opposite: that standards are too high, that there is too much work, that kids are expected to learn things at lower levels that they never learned until high school. Also, ok, in Singapore you say kids are learning advanced math in middle school. Alright, that is SINGAPORE. A much more homogeneous population, and one with a very different CULTURE. Do ALL parents of underperforming kids give their kids structure, discipline, HIGH EXPECTATIONS, and a VALUE of learning and education? No. All too often they give them text messagers and poptarts and video games. Who is failing the kids? The schools or the parents? Let’s be fair.
Why are politicians, who have no training in education, making the decisions about how our children are educated? I wouldn’t ask the local plumber to decide how to do the job of an OBGYN.