Saturday, October 06, 2007

A progressive agenda for public schools

Presentation: The Crisis of Our Democracy. Progressive Forum 2007. Oct. 4, 2007. CSU Sacramento

We gather at a very interesting time.
We are witnessing the apparent collapse of the conservative agenda which has dominated U.S. and often California politics for the last two decades. We are witnesses to the exhaustion of Imperialism in Iraq.

A question for us:
What can we do, what can we create to move a progressive agenda.

The U.S. is one of the most capitalist nations in the world. And, we have the highest level of child poverty of modern nations. And, we are the only modern industrialized nation without a system of health care for all.

My argument is to include a Progressive Economic Agenda within the struggles of the various anti war and political movments.

There are a number of issues for a Progressive Agenda. ( handout)
In the 2: 40 PM session we will hear about health care.

Until we get our democracy back, we will be unable to improve our schools.


I am going to focus on creating a decent public education system.

Currently we have a crisis in some of our schools. K-12.


Quality public education for all is a cause well worth fighting for. We have inherited our present schools from the efforts of prior generations to provide all children with the preparation needed for economic opportunity and active citizenship.
Critics of public education repeat and repeat a message of school crisis. And there is a crisis, but some of our schools are working quite well. More and more of our citizens are completing high school and college than ever before. The percentage of high school graduates completing a core academic curriculum – including four years of English and three years each of math, science and social studies – grew from 14 percent to 57 percent from 1982 to 2000. And, many students in high schools are completing for advanced math and science courses.
The percentage of high school graduates completing advanced math courses climbed from 26 percent in 1982 to 45 percent in 2000. A similar growth has occurred in the sciences. (CEP, 2005, The Condition of Education, 2004.NCES)

Schools are working reasonably well for the middle class and many schools serving the poor and ethnic minorities are in crisis (Kozol,2005). Most urban schools, and some rural schools, as currently organized and funded, are not able to offer an education which will overcome the problems of poverty in our society.
Students in low income areas often have fewer qualified teachers, fewer counselors, inadequate textbooks and teaching materials. Although teaching conditions vary from state to state and district to district, the drop out rates are high and the college attendance rates are low for African American and Latino students. With only a few exceptions, these conditions have remained the same for over thirty years.
We have a crisis in some schools- not all- and it is precisely these low income schools where there are the most openings for new teachers. Lets look into this crisis.
Inadequate funding is a major issue in the school crisis in low incom areas. Governments spent $426.6 billion on public education k-12 in 2005. The problem of funding is well illustrated in the following case from California:



Governors, Senators, and Assemblymembers , and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction have given many speeches, but as of last year they had not provided more funds for the schools. This makes for large class sizes. The results of their budget decisions are in.
The NAEP Reading Scores for California give an average score of 209; we rank right along with Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and the District of Columbia.
The NAEP results are important because schools and teachers can drill for the state tests, but NAEP measures against a national standard of whether children can actually read (NAEP, 2007). California has remained with these poverty stricken states for the last 12 years. Remember when the ideologues all claimed that by switching to phonics reading scores were going to go up? Or, others claimed that by eliminating bilingual education would produce dramatic gains. Well- where is the data?

Scores are similarly shameful for 8th. Graders with even Alabama out scoring California.

So, what do you do if you are an elected official, responsible for providing adequate resources but failing to do so? Well, you change the subject. You talk about state tests, where teaching to the test is possible, and the “achievement gap”. Stressing the achievement gap –which is real- places the responsibility and the blame on teachers and parents and shifts the focus away from the resource gap created by inadequate budgets.

This year new money began to be sent to low performing schools. It will take several years of consistently improved funding to overcome the reading deficits imposed upon our children in the last decade.

On the national level, the reading scores are essentially stable for the last decade. That is, there was no progress produced by No Child Left Behind. (perhaps because in part it was under funded by 52 Billion). You have to read the scores carefully since the U.S. Dept. of Education has become skilled at the process of claiming great progress for a one or two point gain. But, compare the scores over the last ten years and you will find very little change.

Duane Campbell

2 comments:

BigDon said...

If you want the truth about something, don’t ask your friend, minister, local politician, activist group (or consulting company looking for big bucks contracts). Instead, consult the peer reviewed literature where professional reputations and careers are on the line, big time. Any flawed reasoning is quickly challenged and exposed.

It is uniformly found in the literature that cognitive performance potential has genetic roots. That’s why, e.g., sperm banks prefer medical students as sources, Ivy League grads are prized egg donors, and "designer babies" are on the horizon. Ask any molecular biologist: the genome folks are on top of this but are keeping a low-profile because of the implications. The truth is not always a pleasant thing, but that is no reason to bury one’s head in politically-correct sand.

Whenever two groups go head-to-head on a cognitive playing field the different results are fundamentally based in genetic differences between the two groups. The achievement gap is not a failure of the educational system.

Poverty and disadvantage are not generally an explanation. It is natural that low cognitive performers will tend to be found in lower income dysfunctional families. Equal opportunity can be provided but equal results cannot be expected. Low-performing students are overwhelmingly the offspring of intellectually-challenged parents whose earning capacities, and less-responsible life decisions leading to poverty, merely reflect genetically-rooted cognitive deficiencies. Genes and environment synergize, they are not independent variables.

The achievement gap is hereditary: no amount of legislation, massive funding, special programs, or litigation can ever close it. Why else do you suppose despite everything that has been tried for the last 30-40 years, the gap has remained essentially stable and intractable?

Contrary to all available scientific evidence, school systems continue to operate under an utterly ridiculous facade that the achievement gap is something that can be fixed. The achievement gap is really a genetic gap. You can provide equal opportunity, but you will never get equal results. Best to identify the superior performing students, regardless of race, and ensure that they have all possible educational advantages and programs. These students are the most precious resource: those who will ultimately be most effective in solving society’s problems down the road. Squandering resources on genetic losers results in The_Best_Children_Left_Behind...

Don Anderson - Kent, WA

Anonymous said...

Clearly the progressive agenda has degenerated our public school systems to the point of an almost complete dependency model. Their absolute refusal to see a creator has all but forced them to teach that men can save themselves. The achievment gap is a 'moral' gap that cannot and will not be fixed by either liberalism or today's watered down christianity. It can be fixed only by complete submission to the authority of Christ. All things were made by him, for him, and through him all things hold together. Minus Christ, all things fall apart as we are clearly seeing.

Virgil - Indiana

 
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