Here is an interesting piece...
http://gothamschools.org/2008/11/11/gates-will-fight-for-national-standards-and-make-national-tests/
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Here is the complete text:
Gates will fight for national standards and make national tests
by Elizabeth Green
SEATTLE — Here’s another big development: As part of its new approach, the Gates Foundation will advocate for the politically thorny goal of national standards — and will aim to write its own standards and its own national test.
Foundation officials said that the moves are motivated by their frustration with current tests and standards for what children should know, which each state drafts individually as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Vicki Phillips, the Gates Foundation’s director of education programs, said the result is a “testing crisis in this country,” in which tests are losing credibility among teachers, who see them as so low-quality that they are useless.
“Let’s admit it,” she said. “We can’t dispense with assessment, but neither can we keep adding low-quality tests.”
How will the foundation jump into the fight? They’ll start with standards, working with states and school districts to develop a common set. Phillips said the goal will be to make the standards “fewer, clearer, higher” and to make sure they match what students need to know to succeed in college.
The next step will be to help create tests. Phillips said the foundation will usher a few trial assessments into development, and then test them out to see which are best at predicting whether students succeed in college. (From what I understand, this would involve having students take the test when they enter college and then following them through the process, to see whether high scores predict college completion.)
Whichever test wins, Phillips said, the Gates Foundation will make it available to any state who is interested — at no cost.
Gates Foundation should try making a better textbook (available at no cost). Better yet, make Singapore available at no cost. I have serious reservations about Foundation involvement and I doubt their sincerity. A few more years of this wacko bs and we might as well kiss public education goodbye.
ReplyDeleteGates probably equates national standards to the bogus Achieve Standard - Who is calling themself a Constructivist right now? Mr. Achieve himself (Wikipedia). Congradulations public schools have succeeded in doing no better at educating all children than South Africa. I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteLets enslave American children with ignorance and saddle them with debt.
How do we not have runaway inflation? Schools are being manipulated with inflated test scores just like the US dollar is getting stronger.
How do we control the growth of credit? Ans: Banks don't any longer. Welcome to a Socialist Democracy - Last September, the US Treasury bought out Reserve Bank Inc with money that's backed only by American perspiration and there's not much left.
It is definitely worth going to the original post and reading the comments that are responses to the article.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for social conservatives has always been how to access Title I funding. since their strategy is to direct funds to schools that work, rather than fund schools that 'don't work?'.
ReplyDeleteThey have accomplished their task in as many ways -
1. Charter schools to divert students.
2. Poor curriculum to lower student achievement.
3. Standardized tests to change community opinion.
4. Reverse bussing to divert enrollment.
5. Anti-unions to attack teachers and stifle criticism.
Destabilizing diverse communities is the goal of the reform movement. They are no better than the KKK.