And while many people say, “We need to spend more money on our schools,” there actually isn’t a link between spending and student achievement.
Jay Greene, author of “Education Myths,” points out that “If money were the solution, the problem would already be solved … We’ve doubled per pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, over the last 30 years, and yet schools aren’t better.”
He’s absolutely right. National graduation rates and achievement scores are flat, while spending on education has increased more than 100 percent since 1971. More money hasn’t helped American kids.
Ben Chavis is a former public school principal who now runs an alternative charter school in Oakland, Calif., that spends thousands of dollars less per student than the surrounding public schools. He laughs at the public schools’ complaints about money.
I’m impressed ABC devoted so much effort to education. The article includes full text and video.
Stossel also touches on Kansas City’s effort to turn around (1980’s and 1990’s) by spending more per student than any other district in the country. Madison School District Superintendent Art Rainwater implemented the largest court-ordered desegregation settlement in the nation’s history in Kansas City, Mo
I always look forward to shows like this but as usual I was disappointed. The problem is not the tests, it’s not the money, or buildings, or the union, or the admistration. It is the curriculum!!!
Until a national show exposes the curriculae, and names them, nothing will get done. By naming names I mean:
1) Everyday Math
2) Dale Seymnour Publications (math)
3) Literacy Collaborative
4) Balanced Literacy
5) Reading Recovery
6) Ms. Burmeisters advocacy of programs recommended by the NCTM.
7) Whole Language
8) Guided reading
9) Silent Reading
10) “Child-centered” constructivist learning as opposed to direct instruction.
11) Subject “integration” ie., high schools “integrating” trig/geom/alg together
12)Educators that teach “Balanced literacy” and look you in the eye and say “there’s plenty of phonics in here”……etc., etc.,etc.,
Until parents know about these failed programs and the useless fuzzy-headed philosophy behind them, everything else is moot.
Reed Schneider
Hortonville
You hit the nail on the head! It’s the curriculum! Anything else amounts to rearranging the desk chairs on the sinking MMSD.
Mary Battalgia makes an excellent suggestion to test Direct Instruction and Singapore Math at Lincoln/Midvale. That’s an outstanding idea for testing the impact of curriculum, as long as downtown administrators don’t try to sabatage the experiment.