Thursday, April 03, 2014

Our Time in a Fire


I’m remiss in writing a few words about Edward Walsh and Michael Kennedy, two Boston firefighters who died battling a blaze in the Back Bay last week. 

From every account, both were upstanding men.  Walsh, 42, followed his dad’s footsteps and leaves behind a widow and three children, ages 8 – 3.  Kennedy, 33, single, was an ex-Marine and an Iraq War combat veteran; many family members survive him.  He ran marathons in Boston and Chicago.

You never think about the Fire Department until the day you need them.  It was more than two decades ago, but it seems like yesterday Liz and I woke up in our Chicago apartment to a fire in the early hours, just before 6 am on a Saturday in April.

We’d been out the night before, to a Lincoln Park Italian restaurant, celebrating my new job with Tribune Media Services.  As dinner came to an end, we considered going to Pops for Champagne, another Lincoln Park hot spot, but decided to call it night, instead.

Our apartment, located just north of the intersection of Division and LaSalle, was near a Chicago Fire House.  I was awakened by the sirens, hearing them close in on our building. 

It prompted me to get out of bed and walk to our front door.  Before opening it, I touched it.  The door was cold.  As I opened it, in flew a huge puff of black, ashy smoke, instantly darkening the walls around the door. 

I quickly closed it and ran back to our bedroom, yelling there was a fire and we needed to get out.  Liz was up in an instant, watering down bath towels to place under the door. 

She told me to call the Fire Department, and I asked a question that’s been inscribed in Page Family lore:

“What’s the number?”

“Nine-One-ONE!” she bellowed from the front door.

Then, just before putting down the wet towels, she opened the door, yelling into the dark cloud if anyone called the Fire Department.

“We’re here, ma’am,” said an unseen firefighter in the hallway, his presence blocked out by the dark smoke.

The firefighter then told us to evacuate. 

Our apartment, located on the second floor, was above an open garage.  The windows were so drafty that we covered them in plastic wrap, from December to either April or May, as a means of keeping Chicago’s subzero temperatures out of our little abode. 

Now the plastic was a trap, making it nearly impossible to open the window to the waiting ladder, provided courtesy of the Chicago Fire Department, for our escape.  I grabbed our butcher knife, slicing through the plastic so the window could be opened.

There was a firefighter on the ladder as Liz went out the window.  She’d been calm but as she got onto the ladder and turned to climb down, the firefighter instantly sensed she was nervous and scared.  He coaxed her down in no time flat.

Then I was out, on the ladder in front of the same firefighter, seeing a plume of smoke coming from the window.  Like Liz, I felt nervous and started to shake.  With a few reassuring words from the firefighter, I, too, was down on the ground quickly.

We shook hands with the firefighters, thanking them for their help and walked out to LaSalle Drive.  I looked at my watch.  It was 6:30. 

What struck me that morning was the high level of professionalism each firefighter exhibited.  They took their jobs very seriously even though, in the grand scheme of things, this was a minor incident in which no one died or was injured.

I also recall a brief chat with the Fire Department’s lieutenant or captain who was making sure everyone was okay.  The level of professionalism was nothing short of outstanding.

Within about 15 or 20 minutes, the all clear was given and we walked into the building, looking for Jerry, our landlord, one of the nicest guys we ever met, who also lived in the building.  He was in his office, absolutely beside himself in shock, fear and probably some anger.  He gave Liz the biggest hug he may have ever given in his life.

We assured him we were fine and asked what happened.  The fire started when our neighbor fell asleep before putting out a candle, which tipped over and lit up the place around 5 am. 

Our neighbor was also in the office.  Her father was trying to comfort her.  She was in tears, telling her roommate, over the phone, what happened.

Jerry, then, gave us a tour of the burned out apartment.  For something that was a minor incident, the damage was shocking.  The walls were either black with soot or marked by flames.  The area rugs were burned to a crisp.  It didn’t look like much survived. 

By that time, it was 7 and what to do now?  Seriously, in terms of weekend excitement, how can you top ditching your apartment because of a fire?  You couldn’t.  We were filled with excitement and needed to do something.

We walked over to our apartment, making sure everything was okay.  It was.  Then we did a lot of people do on a Saturday morning in Chicago, we went to Tempo for breakfast.

The firefighters I’ve met are great people.  They take incredible risks – and do so willingly – sometimes putting themselves in great peril. 

Boston firefighters Edward J. Walsh and Michael R. Kennedy were two of them.  May they rest in peace and never be forgotten.
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Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Common Core's Standardized Tests

The article below was written by Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post.  I'm embedding the article and also providing the link to where it can be found on The Post's website.

Any parent reading this should know that they're well within their rights to pull their children out of any field test.  This comes from Sandra Stotsky, a former member of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

Dr. Stotsky worked with the people developing Common Core's English Language Arts standards but refused to approve the new standards because, as she saw it, they were providing children with far less of an education in literacy than previously.  James Milgram, a retired Stanford University math professor, worked with the people developing Common Core's math standards and, like Dr. Stotsky, he also refused to approve the new standards, saying they would put American high school students further behind their peers outside of the United States in math.

In fact, when Common Core's advocates presented this new curriculum to the Massachusetts Board of Education about four years ago, the leading math expert for Common Core, Professor Jason Zimba told the Board that Common Core's math standards were designed to put high school student math skills on a level that's acceptable to a non-selective college, i.e., something on a par with a community college.

Seven school districts in the Massachusetts -- Worcester, Norfolk, Peabody, Wachusetts, Mendon-Upton, Tantasqua and Cambridge -- have recognized the rights of parents to have their children opt-out of the new Common Core tests, often referred to as PARCC.

The upcoming PARCC tests are just that, a test.  The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is saying they want to see how this new test compares to the MCAS, the standardized test Bay State children have taken since 1998.

The plan, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, is to replace the MCAS with the PARCC test, which is also being used in many states around the country.  It's important to know that the MCAS was designed to reflect Bay State's standards only.

More on this in the coming days.


Seven facts you should know about new Common Core tests

By Valerie Strauss, Updated: September 4, 2013 at 2:21 pm

The Common Core State Standards now being implemented in most states and the District of Columbia will soon be accompanied by new standardized tests being developed by two multi-state consortia — the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) — with $360 million in federal funds. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said repeatedly that he expects these exams, due to be rolled out in 2014-15, to go beyond the familiar multiple-choice standardized tests students have been forced to take for more than a decade and to be an “absolute game-changer in public education.”
Is he right? Not so much. Here are seven myths and realities about the new tests, from FairTest, or The National Center for Fair & Open Testing,  a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the misuse of standardized tests. You can find more here on FairTest’s website.
Myth: Common Core tests will be much better than current exams, with many items measuring higher-order skills.
Reality: The new tests will largely consist of the same old multiple-choice questions.
Proponents initially said the new assessments would measure — and help teachers promote — critical thinking. In fact, the exams will remain predominantly multiple choice. Heavy reliance on such items continues to promote rote teaching and learning. Assessments will generally include just one session of short performance tasks per subject. Some short-answer and “essay” questions will appear, just as on many current state tests. Common Core math items are often simple computation tasks buried in complex and sometimes confusing “word problems.” The prominent Gordon Commission of measurement and education experts concluded that Common Core tests are currently “far from what is ultimately needed for either accountability or classroom instructional improvement purposes.”
Myth: Adoption of Common Core exams will end No Child Left Behind testing overkill.
Reality: Under Common Core, there will be many more tests and the same misuses.
The No Child Left Behind law triggered a testing tsunami over the past dozen years, and the Common Core will flood classrooms with even more tests. Both consortia keep mandatory annual English/language arts (ELA) and math testing in grades 3-8, as with NCLB. However, the tests will be longer than current state exams. PARCC will test reading and math in three high school grades instead of one; SBAC moves reading and math tests from 10th grade to 11th. In PARCC states, high schoolers will also take a speaking and listening test. PARCC also offers “formative” tests for kindergarten through second grade. Both consortia produce and encourage additional interim testing two to three times a year. As with NCLB, Common Core tests will be used improperly to make high-stakes decisions, including decisions involving high school graduation, teacher evaluation and school accountability.
Myth: New multi-state assessments will save taxpayers money.
Reality: Test costs will increase for most states. Schools will spend even more for computer infrastructure upgrades.
Costs have been a big concern, especially for the five states that dropped out of a testing consortium as of August 2013. PARCC acknowledges that half its member states will spend more than they do for current tests. Georgia pulled out when PARCC announced costs of new, computer-delivered summative math and ELA tests alone totaling $2.5 million more than its existing state assessment budget.States lack resources to upgrade equipment and bandwidth and provide technical support, at a cost likely to exceed that of the tests themselves. One analysis indicates that Race to the Top would provide districts with less than 10 cents on the dollar to defray those expenses plus mandated teacher evaluations.
Myth: New assessment consortia will actually design the tests rather than well-known test manufacturers who have made mistakes in the past. 
Reality: The same profit-driven companies,  including Pearson, Educational Testing Service and CTB/McGraw-Hill, are producing the tests. These firms have long histories of mistakes. The multinational Pearson, for example, has been responsible for poor-quality items, scoring errors, computer system crashes and missed deadlines. Still, Pearson shared $23 million in contracts to design the first 18,000 PARCC test items.
Myth: Common Core assessments are designed to meet the needs of all students.
Reality: Not yet. The new tests could put students with disabilities and English-language learners at risk.
Advocates for English-language learners have raised concerns about a lack of appropriate accommodations. A U.S. Education Department’s technical review assessed the consortia’s efforts in July 2013 and issued a stern warning, saying that attempts to accommodate students with disabilities and ELLs need more attention (Gewertz, 2013).
Myth: Common Core “proficiency” is an objective measure of college- and career-readiness.
Reality: Proficiency levels on Common Core tests are subjective, like all performance levels.
Recent disclosures demonstrate that New York state, which last spring gave students a Common Core-aligned test designed by Pearson even before the consortia-developed tests have come out, set passing scores arbitrarily. There is no evidence that these standards or tests are linked to the skills and knowledge students need for their wide range of college and career choices.
Myth: States have to implement the Common Core assessments.
Reality: No, they don’t.  
High-quality assessment improves teaching and learning and provides useful information about schools. Examples of better assessments include well-designed formative assessments, performance assessments that are part of the curriculum (New York Performance Standards Consortium), and portfolios or Learning Records of actual student work. Schools can be evaluated using multiple sources of evidence that includes limited, low-stakes testing, school quality reviews, and samples of ongoing student work.
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Monday, March 31, 2014

A Massachusetts School Superintendent Speaks Out Against Testing and Mandates

The URL below leads to a blog piece written by Todd Gazda, superintendent of schools in Ludlow, Mass.  He writes a very passionate piece about standardized testing and mandates coming from the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  It's worth your time:

http://superintendentlps.blogspot.com/2014/03/enough-is-enough.html


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Friday, March 28, 2014

Parents be damned


In case you missed it, the Los Angeles Times, one of the country’s top five newspapers by circulation, weighed in earlier this month on Common Core, the latest reform program for the country’s public schools.  Here’s a sum up of the paper’s arguments:

  • ·      California K – 12 public schools are so bad there are more reasons to enact Common Core than do away with it.  This view is similar to that of Harvard University Education Policy Professor Paul Peterson, who I interviewed last summer when covering Common Core’s implementation in Massachusetts.  He described Common Core as a step up for California schools but said if he were a Bay State parent with kids in Massachusetts’ public schools, he’d be very disappointed in the program.
  • ·      Common Core’s standards were adopted voluntarily, an Orwellian argument.  More than 20 years ago, when Massachusetts reformed its public schools – making them the best in the nation – the effort that it was going to take, along with the money that would be used, was put to a vote in both houses of the state legislature.  It was a highly contentious debate but, as it played out in newspapers and on radio and television stations, it gave parents time to digest the arguments, pro and con, and, at the very least, understand what their children would be facing.  With Common Core, in comparison, we have a vote taken by a subset of state officials, not representatives of the public body at large.  So it’s all in how the word “voluntarily” is defined.  As Common Core advocates see it, it means limited to what most voters would likely consider an obscure set of state officials.  It also shows what Common Core’s supporters think of parents and teachers and anyone responsible for bringing up and teaching the country’s youth (Not a lot!)  Why are Common Core supporters so opposed to democracy and putting their program up for a vote?  Why no discussion?  One should fear the manner in which Common Core is being implemented and what this means for democracy, that little idea we fought a Revolution over more than 200 years ago.  (Hint:  The Continental soldiers weren’t looking for more government in their lives.)
  • ·      High school math standards are coming down – and that’s a good thing, says the Times.  Really?  Apparently this doesn’t strike the editors as odd.  They likely weren’t great math students anyway (which is why they’re in journalism).  They quoted the Mathematical Association of America as saying they’re okay with lowering the country’s math standards.  What this means – if the editors had bothered to think this through – is that the math standards expected for earlier generations, even mine, were far more demanding.  Thus, by lowering Johnny’s math requirements, we’re giving him a confidence boost.  This proves the theory that every kid’s a champion, no matter the performance.  As my neighbor (a mother of two boys) likes to say, “Every kid earns a cupcake.”
  • ·      The editors are under the impression that those against Common Core are only Tea Party Republicans.  Let me clear that up:  I’m not a Tea Party Republican.  In fact, I’m not a Republican.  The only party I ever joined (more than 30 years ago) was the Democrats.  I’ve lived long enough to see that was a mistake.  I’m not registered with any party and haven’t been so for more than 25 years.  What I am – first and foremost – is a concerned parent bringing up, with his wife, two boys, in the 5th and 4th grades, respectively.  I wondered, as I read the editorials in the Times, whether there’s a parent among the editors.  It appears doubtful. 
  • ·      Both editorials in the Times raise questions about the current state of American journalism.  The news business, which is all too ready to search for a scandal in private enterprise or among politicians, refuses to consider the possibility of one in education.  If someone comes along, saying they’ve got a great new way to teach kids, newspaper editors see a saint and readily accept their arguments.  David Coleman, in the vanguard on behalf of Common Core, heads up The College Board, the owner of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, taken by high school students interested in attending college.  The College Board’s test competes with the ACT, which is gaining considerable traction against the SAT.  Common Core gives every appearance of being nothing more than an attempt to start prepping kids for the SAT as early as the 1st grade and is also a means to push against the ACT’s success.  Why this hasn’t been investigated and discussed – as a possible conflict of interest by The College Board or as its attempt to dominate and takeover public education – in mainstream newspapers is a mystery.
  • ·      The standardized testing industry in the United States – if limited to just The College Board, the ACT and the Educational Testing Service – is worth about $2 billion.  Based on my review of their tax documents, that’s about $750 million for The College Board, a little more than $300 million for the ACT and just over $1 billion the Educational Testing Service.  And, of course, that’s before taking into account each state’s standardized tests that someone must be paid to create, write and grade.  Reporters and editors should examine whether Common Core and, essentially, its subsidiary testing group, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is really about propping up the standardized testing industry or, at the very least, The College Board.  Here’s another example of where it appears to be.
  • ·      Who among us was career-ready, as the proponents of Common Core like to say, when we graduated from high school?  Other than the kids who held babysitting jobs, worked as a cashier at the local drug store or another retail outlet, maybe stocked shelves, or the ones who cut lawns – none of whom planned to turn those jobs into careers – I didn’t know anyone who was “career ready” once they finished high school unless, possibly, they attended Rye Tech in Stamford, Connecticut.  Those kids learned how to be plumbers, electricians and carpenters, perhaps other jobs, and, likely, were ready for their careers.  But, of course, Rye Tech students were likely facing an apprenticeship for a few years once they graduated, which would actually make them “career ready.”
  • The world is flat, says New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.  That means any job can be done anywhere around the globe so long as that country's political and economic system allows it.  In other words, an accountant in Singapore can complete the tax forms for U.S. citizens.  A South Korean scientist can do what one does in California.  When executives think about opening an office in a distant city or a foreign land, they certainly consider the kind of employee they're likely to hire in that location.  So if Common Core really is bringing down standards -- and by every appearance it seems to be -- then there's every reason to believe that U.S. children will become far less competitive than their peers overseas.  So how is that career readiness argument holding up?  Again, this is a question that needs investigation.  
  • ·      In spite of what some might believe, this isn’t the first time someone’s come along saying they’ve got a curriculum to prepare kids for either college or career.  As the late, great historians Richard Hoftstadter and Charles Beard (hat tip to the fellow DePauw alum) write in their books – Anti-intellectualism in American Life (Knopf, 1963) by Hofstadter and The Rise of American Civilization (Macmillan 1930) by Beard and his wife, Mary – there are plenty of examples of anti-intellectualism in American history.  Common Core is just the latest one.  This new fangled system, if we’re to accept it at face value, isn’t about pushing kids up; it’s about lowering standards.  Common Core’s proponents say it’s about reducing lessons in math and reducing the amount of literature studied in K – 12.  It’s no wonder one of Common Core’s biggest supporters includes a Harvard dropout, Microsoft founder Bill Gates.  His “lack of education hasn’t hurt (him) none,” as Paul Simon sings, and, as the billionaire sees it, it won’t hurt anyone else’s son or daughter either.
  • ·      The single largest issue facing public schools is that it’s a stressed system.  It is required to teach every child, no matter their issues, because it’s supported by tax dollars.  This means schools need to be just as engaged in teaching – for lack of a better term – typical children as well as ones with special needs.
  • ·      When it comes to reforming education, it is surprising what’s off the table for consideration, like lengthening the school day for an hour, maybe more.  Instead, today’s teachers are doing the same thing their predecessors did – cramming as much stuff as they can into a six-hour day, and that’s before we eliminate time spent on music, art, physical education, health, recess and lunch, which means we could be down to about three hours, on average, of real teaching any given day.  If the country’s public schools are failing, especially compared to their peers overseas, then it’s time to undertake the debate about lengthening the school day, even the school year.  Why are we wedded to 180 days?  Well, there’s a union issue to deal with when it comes to many public school teachers and, apparently, no one wants to tackle that challenge.  It’s easier throw out one curriculum so another can be put in its place.
  • ·      Finally, there’s an issue of what kind of student is showing up at college these days.  For that insight, I turned to Emory University English Professor Mark Bauerlein.  When he joined Emory 20 years ago, they had 350 students majoring in English.  Today, that number’s down to about 150 majors.  I sought out Dr. Bauerlein’s expertise when writing about Common Core for baystateparent last summer and, unfortunately, couldn’t use his quotations due to space limitations.  Here are his views on today’s students and Common Core:  

    • .. the issues I’ve observed.  It’s part of a trend, a 15-year trend.  There are far fewer bookish students than there were.  I mean the ones who do reading on their own.  They’re not interested in grades and career, but they have interesting minds.  They’re 19-year-old freshmen.  They’re reading Nietzsche, looking at Freud.  Dostoyevsky hits them hard.  That kind of student is disappearing. It’s partly the digital age, the decline of books and the spread of cable that’s bringing this around.  It’s not a book-based world anymore.  Common Core doesn’t stop the process.  It doesn’t do anything to maintain books.  Unfortunately, it gives license to bringing newspaper clippings and blogs into the classroom.  It doesn’t compel it.  But it doesn’t stop it.





Sources:

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/opinion/la-ed-common-core-one-20140313,0,1799302.story#axzz2xGdJXUdE

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-common-core-two-20140314,0,919887.story#axzz2xGdJXUdE

The College Board’s 2011 Tax Forms:

http://207.153.189.83/EINS/131623965/131623965_2011_094afe72.PDF

The Educational Testing Service’s 2011 Tax Forms:

http://207.153.189.83/EINS/210634479/210634479_2012_09dad785.PDF

ACT Inc’s 2011 Tax Forms:

https://bulk.resource.org/irs.gov/eo/2013_08_EO/42-0841485_990_201208.pdf

Interview with Dr. Bauerlein was conducted in July 2013.

Interview with Dr. Peterson was conducted in July 2013.
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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Tutor Time: One Solution to Solving Math Problems


Tutor Time: One Solution to Solving Math Problems

by Doug Page
Writer's Note:  This article, by yours truly, appears in this month's Bay State Parent. 

Editor’s Note: When a child’s math skills don’t add up, is it time for a tutor? This month, baystateparent asked one father to share his experience finding a specialized math school to help his son.


Way back yonder, when children were but a passing fancy, I had this recurring nightmare: Our kids are born with my history/writer brain instead of their mother’s financial/math brain.

If it was particularly horrifying, the nightmare included a word problem.

“Joe has $5 and wants to buy five apples for his four friends and himself. Each apple costs $1.36. Can Joe buy everyone an apple?”

The nightmare always ended the same way – me running for my life!

As good fortune would have it, the subject challenges only half of our children. Our fifth grade boy finds math much easier than our fourth grader.

So, it’s better than I dreamt.

Still, what to do to help our youngest son?

About 18 months ago, as school was coming to an end, my wife purchased math books for each of our boys. The books were recommended by our school district. The exercises, we were told, would keep the kids’ skills sharp during the summer break.

Our younger son’s teacher warned us that he had some issues with math. But we were confident that by working through the book, all would be fine come September.

Unfortunately, by the time he finished the last lesson, my wife and I were struck with fear that his math skills left a lot to be desired.

To confirm our thinking, I asked our younger son to answer a complex, mathematical problem.

“What’s 10 minus 9?”

His deer-in-the-headlights response told me all I needed to know: He was in trouble.

Now we had a quagmire.

There were two weeks until school started. What to do? Get a tutor? Find a class? It was all very confusing.

Just a short time later, on a Saturday morning while watching our younger boy play baseball, a mom I knew started telling me about her son and his math struggles.

Like us, they had worked with their boy on his math skills during the summer and endured some of the same experiences – tears and emotional outbursts from him while working through the exercises.

So, to improve his skills, she and her husband enrolled him in the Russian School of Mathematics in Newton. My wife and I decided to check it out – and quickly.

I called the principal of the school’s Wellesley location and she agreed to allow our son to “audit” the first class so we could get a sense of his reaction.

As we drove to that first class, there were tears and more tears from our son, who was convinced he was headed for some sort of torture. I tried to calm him, saying it would be fine. Two hours later, when I picked him up, his face was all smiles.

“How was it?” I asked.

“I had fun,” he replied.

With that, I paid the tuition, finalizing his enrollment while simultaneously feeling a huge sense of relief.

I can’t tell you that our son found the class easy, but it has been very helpful. Part of what made the experience so strong was that the class size was very small, all of about seven children. His math skills improved substantially and the lessons put him slightly ahead of his peers.

His teacher covered the concepts of area and perimeter about six weeks to a month ahead of his elementary school teacher, helping our younger boy to look like an old pro to his classmates when the time came to cover the same material – a huge confidence boost for him.

The biggest challenge our younger boy faced, as did my wife, was the homework. It takes about two hours to complete and that means setting aside time, mostly on the weekend, to finish it.  

Like many a family, we’ve traveled on vacation with his math assignments in tow.

The school we chose hands out grades and a written assessment for each kid, giving parents a sense of the child’s performance. But that was not our main concern. Our biggest goal was making sure our boy’s skills were improving. As long as that was happening, we weren’t worried, too much, about the grades.

To keep his math skills up this past summer, we enrolled him in a class at the Russian School that met twice a week for two hours each time. (Of course, he was thrilled – NOT!)

As the fall session approached, we enrolled both boys. For our elder son, the class is more about pushing his skills beyond where they are. Similar to what I saw with our younger son, I’m noticing his fifth grade class at the Russian School is ahead of his elementary school’s math work.

As someone who suffers from, for lack of a better term, a math phobia – likely brought on by my first grade teacher throwing my math book across the classroom – I’ll say the extra help has been a godsend. The program works for our family. 

It is not cheap, and we are fortunate my wife makes the kind of money that allows us to send both of our boys.

The education is tough and demanding. But by having the kids constantly repeat drills, tutoring made our sons more comfortable with the subject. It’s making their lives easier not only in their elementary school but also with daily math facts.

On a recent September morning, while reading aloud from Gregory Boyington’s autobiography about his days as a World War II pilot, I mentioned that he was paid $500 for each Japanese airplane he shot down while flying with the American Volunteer Group over China. Our elder boy asked how many planes he knocked out of the sky.

“Six,” I said.

“He made $3,000,” piped up our younger son.

A smile crossed my face as I thought, “Thank God!”
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Education Policy -- Made Secretly

A great story in The Washington Post about how education policy is made in secret.  This particular reporter, Valerie Strauss, is one of the best around.  She's worked on a number of different stories but, lately, has been full time on education.

The URL below is well worth your time.  It'll take you to her story in The Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/12/secret-policymaking-on-school-reform-is-on-the-rise/


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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Common Core: The Industrial Tool


The only thing more disappointing than the changes to the Scholastic Aptitude Test is the reporting by the news media on the event, including by yours truly. 

There’s more to this story than meets the eye:  It’s not just a simple case of vertical integration – which, with rare exception, most of the news media missed – it also comes with an added twist, coercion.

The SAT gives every impression of losing ground to its only competitor, the ACT test, another barometer for measuring college-level academic performance and part of many college applications.

The most recent numbers, as provided by The New York Times, show ACT test takers edging out SAT test takers by about 2,000 students, 1.666 million compared to 1.664 million.[i]

As The Times shows, however, this doesn’t necessarily mean the SAT is on the decline.  At least 12 states, the paper says, “now require, and pay for, all public high school juniors to take” the ACT.[ii]

If you’re David Coleman, president of The College Board, which writes, publishes and owns the SAT, this isn’t good news.

The College Board should flat out own the market – not have to share half of it with its upstart competitor.

So what do you do to increase market share?

Answer:  You adopt tactics and strategies to dominate the market and shape the industry’s standards, similar to what Starbucks and McDonald’s do so well in their industries.

Coleman, a former McKinsey & Co., consultant, studied the trends The College Board was experiencing, seeing that the SAT was under fire as being a meaningless test and the ACT was gaining ground.

As Coleman likely saw it, if ever there was a turnaround situation, this was it.

It’s very likely, during his consulting career, Coleman discussed vertical integration with his former employer’s clients.

Vertical integration, in case you don’t know, is a business practice that makes sense if it’s cheaper for a company to own their supplier instead of just buying its goods.  It can also be sound judgment to vertically integrate if it provides an advantage over competitors in the marketplace.

To turn around The College Board’s fortunes, Coleman teamed up experts in education with ones from American industry and created a curriculum that could be adopted in the nation’s public school system, grades K – 12.

In other words, long before the current crop of elementary school kids even think about college, they’re prepping for the SAT because they’re exposed to Common Core.

In time, if those five states holding off on adopting Coleman’s new-fangled curriculum continue doing so, he’ll say their students didn’t do well on the SAT because Common Core was missing from their education.

Common Core is the means by which Coleman has assured the fortunes of The College Board.  The fact that it comes at the expense of an outstanding K- 12 education, especially in Massachusetts, is no matter.  He’s served his master.

The only thing to worry about now is when the ACT will wake up, realizing it, too, needs to develop its own K – 12 curriculum.

And the only question the journalism world needs to answer -- including me -- is why no one saw this story sooner.  I offer no excuses.





[i] “Testing, Testing:  More Students are Taking Both the ACT and SAT,” The New York Times, August 2, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/education/edlife/more-students-are-taking-both-the-act-and-sat.html?_r=0

[ii] Ibid.



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