<p>Scary part is that it likely won’t be enough to up the numbers to what they want.</p>
<p>“Our nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation is being over-taken by competitors throughout the world. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”</p>
<p>Well, I don’t see any improvement in the twenty-five years since this pronouncement was made by a Reagan Administration presidential commission. What am I missing?</p>
<p>[20</a> years after ‘A Nation at Risk’: Why national education reform failed](<a href=“http://www.ur.umich.edu/0203/Mar17_03/04.shtml]20”>http://www.ur.umich.edu/0203/Mar17_03/04.shtml)</p>
<p>Things aren’t any better in our Capitol city.</p>
<p>“Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of radical (attempts at education reform) in Hartford: privatization, superman superintendents who turn out to be less than average, a state takeover that made no difference, and always, the stale promises that failing schools would not be tolerated. … Still, by any measure, the situation remains drastic.”</p>
<p>[Real</a> Reform: City Schools That Failed Got Replaced – Courant.com](<a href=“http://www.courant.com/news/local/columnists/hc-rgreen0815.artaug15,0,6387156.column]Real”>http://www.courant.com/news/local/columnists/hc-rgreen0815.artaug15,0,6387156.column)</p>
<p>“What am I missing?”</p>
<p>What you’re missing is that by far the fastest growing job in America, as well as the one the largest number of Americans hold, is WalMart clerk (and their non-WalMart equivalents.) Our so-called pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation comes from paying for the expertise we have from foreign sources, from the immigration of bright and hungry people (going back some 120 years), and, now, from creative use of outsourcing. We don’t need engineers, scientists, etc. - there are plenty of those available elsewhere. But we DO need WalMart clerks, and we’ve gotten pretty good at producing them. The reason that schools don’t change is that they are tremendous success story.</p>
<p>mini… the sad part in your argument is that you’re not at all ironic and 100% correct… I recently heard of a study that concluded by the year 2025… not that far off… 80% of the world’s engineers and scientists will be in Asia. I suppose I should just buy stock in WalMart now and be done with it…</p>
<p>
We have no one to blame but ourselves.</p>
<p>I am not being at all ironic. The National Business Roundtable has been heavily involved in so-called “education reform” since 1988, and they are getting precisely the results they intended. </p>
<p>Why do you think it is “sad”?</p>
<p>mini, it’s sad to see a great industrial power transform itself into a nation of WalMart clerks. And you’re right Mr Payne… it’s our own fault.</p>
<p>So it used to be nation of factory drones. I don’t see the difference (except that WalMarts end up fouling someone else’s water and air rather than our own.) </p>
<p>It’s an extraordinarily successful education system where we get to pay for our own virtual enslavement. Meanwhile, over time, our pension funds, and the assets of the rich are doing just fine!</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060873726-post44.html]#44%20[/url]”>quote</a> What you’re missing is that by far the fastest growing job in America, as well as the one the largest number of Americans hold, is WalMart clerk (and their non-WalMart equivalents.)…
[/quote]
</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/17/economy-employment-careers_cx_pm_0220jobs.html]Where”>Where America's Good Jobs Will Be]Where</a> America’s Good Jobs Will Be<a href=“Forbes%2002/20/2006”>/url</a>:</p>
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</p>
<p>So if you lump in nurses, cooks, and janitors with Wal-Mart clerks, you will get different numbers. Do the Wal-Mart clerk numbers by themselves and you’ll find a very different picture. </p>
<p>From the very article you posted:</p>
<p>“What came out on top? Home health aides (up 56%) and retail sales people–up 736,000, though that is only half as many as America’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores (nyse: WMT - news - people ), now employs. But neither of those are particularly high-paying jobs.”</p>
<p>(no kidding! that’s the whole point!)</p>
<p>Alright, I’m going to be devil’s advocate here for a moment, and suggest that these rules, properly implemented, don’t have to lead to horrible schools. If they’re part of a cohesive strategy, they can actually have positive results. </p>
<p>My two teenagers have been attending a charter school that has some of the same sorts of rules, and certainly some of the same intentions. Students can retake tests until they do better. Students can revise work. Zeros don’t happen, because students can’t just choose not to do work – to pass a class, all assignments have to be completed. If a student does not turn in an assignment, the teacher, student, and family work together to correct that. Every step of the way, students are basically not allowed to fail, but if I described it to you on paper, it might sound like they’re not being held to high standards. In fact, the opposite is true. Every student is expected to succeed, and it’s the mission of every student and every teacher to see that every student succeeds. That means that some students initially fail tests, and get to retake them. That means that students don’t get penalized for incorrect homework, as long as they <em>do</em> the homework. </p>
<p>Now, based on the assumptions some of you all seem to have, this would mean that the school should be <em>terrible</em>. There should be very low standards, students being passed to get into jobs at Walmart, etc. In fact, the school has sent 100% of its graduating classes to college. The school’s ratings on tests and performance for 2007 were the best for high schools in the county, some of the top in the state. In an area with some nationally known and ranked high schools, the school is in the top 10. </p>
<p>And that has to do with intent, I think. It has to do with making education not a top-down one way street, where teachers teach material and students either soak it up and learn, or fail out. Instead, it turns the whole idea of education around, making the point of the school to enable every student to succeed. It also involves the entire community – parents, students, teachers, and college adcoms – letting go of the hierarchical model of student achievement, where there’s a valedictorian, rankings, tracks of education, and competition for GPAs. Instead of rewarding students for having the highest GPA, students are honored for embodying the school’s values like compassion, respect, and curiousity. That’s the sort of thing that would be hard for a lot of CC parents and students, who worry about if they have eeked every possible hundreth of a point of GPA they could have. </p>
<p>It’s true that Dallas may not be implementing all of those things, but I don’t know that saying that the community is going to work together to prevent zero grades means the standards are being lowered. It <em>can</em> be a sign that schools are taking more seriously the idea that the success of a few students doesn’t have to be at the cost of another set, who are “cut loose” and allowed to fail.</p>
<p>PS: And lest you think I’m talking about students being admitted to community colleges, or this not being taken seriously by Ivies and top schools, admissions <em>have</em> included Ivies. The school has graduated Gates Millenium scholars, Questbrdge scholars, and is taken seriously by schools at every level. It’s become clear that college adcoms recognize the value of the education there, and understand that A’s arent given away, that students are held to high standards, but they have incredible support to reach those standards. It’s also not just a school of affluent over achievers; it’s a public school with students chosen by lottery, not a magnet. The students come from all socioeconomic and educational levels, including many ESL students.</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> I want to be clear that I’m not bragging. I am just sometimes frustrated that people want to have better schools, but then ridicule attempts at change.</p>