75% of our children nationwide who receive a high school diploma now, are not ready to be trained for a job according to the ACT report. If we do not make a major change for the better, our own education system will destroy us.
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." Galileo Galilei
Italian astronomer & physicist (1564 - 1642) |
During the 90's, most of us noticed that young people in jobs had less and less ability to speak correctly in English or to handle simple math like making change at a cash register. Most of us did not think much of it then. It was not something that was discussed in the newspapers or on TV or radio. We just paid our taxes because we must. We did not realize that more and more of our taxes was given to education districts. We were told that it is an investment in what is most precious to us - our children. We were happy to invest in them. We wanted them to grow up well educated, happy in a career, having a good life - better than our own.
Years later around 2005, I was invited to attend an education summit for business leaders in Knoxville, Tennessee. I spoke to more than 100 of them. They all said the same thing: "We have a big problem. Our high school graduates cannot communicate properly in English and can't even do basic math. We are very concerned about having enough young people for our future work force."
I was shocked. I was retired and started investigating, attending Board of Education meetings in Knox County, Tennessee where I live. The more detailed my questions were, the less answers and cooperation I received. I started investigating state data, how each school district operated, the same in all USA states, and the top performing countries in education who did far better educating their children, spending less money per student, than we did.
This is where we are in secondary education results in 2012. The graph above shows those students with a high school diploma who are NOT READY TO BE TRAINED FOR A JOB (the larger percentages), let alone go to college or a technical school, according to ACT in 2012. We are presenting this data by demographic group, giving also the percentage that represents the demographic group in the total students who received a regular diploma. We are presenting these percentages separately for Knox County, Tennessee, the state of Tennessee itself and the USA total. This is a disastrous outcome considering that we are the second largest spender in the world per student on education.
One can legitimately wonder if the objective of governors and state education institutions is to turn around our poor education outcomes, or to continue dumbing down the American public. It is one or the other. The evidence one finds below for decades points to dumbing us down purposefully by teaching less and using practice tests to show higher scores than our children actually earned, using our own tax dollars.
ACT has a test for students to determine what they have learned from grade one to twelve. It is a national test. It is the standard in Tennessee for all high school children. Yet the an ACT score that represents growth is not the primary goal in any school district. Existing goals are meaningless like "Percentage of students finishing high school" or "Percentage taking the ACT test". ACT also publishes what percentage of children who have earned a regular diploma are ready to learn a job, go to a technical school, or have a 70% chance to finish only the first year of college. It's called "Career and College Readiness". ACT's Career and College Readiness is a very minimal requirement. If a student doesn't make it, that student will have a minimum wage job and be unemployed more and more unless they get much more education at their or their parent's expense. How many will have the money to do that? Very few.
For the state of Tennessee only 11% of the students with a high school diploma are Career and College ready, and therefore 89% with a high school diploma will have a terrible life. This is shameful performance. They will make many babies who will follow in their footsteps. Do you think that they will do better? What do you think this situation will do to our country? Other states are not much better. The average ACT Career and College Readiness in the USA is only 25%, with 75% not ready. Can anyone imagine how bad our life will become with such poor results? No enemy could hurt us as more than our own poorly performing public education system, with the exception of a few schools in most districts.
The ACT scores have not changed significantly for decades, but the education spending skyrocketed. School districts, teachers unions, state departments of education are not changing anything significantly because no one wants to lose their job. There are also more than a thousand foundations out there that say only good things about our schools, but make a good living for their management by convincing wealthier people to donate huge amounts of dollars "to improve our education system and to save our children". There are large foundations established by wealthy people like Bill Gates and the Waltons who donate huge amounts to education, not from money they collect from others, but from the money THEY have earned and they donate from the interest they earn on their wealth. They are also much more candid about the problems they observe in education, because they do not have to sell anyone.
The newspapers and media do not inform the public about what is needed and why, how poorly our public school districts are performing, and many in the public believe that the curriculum demands too much of our children and that we are teaching to the test and not teaching our children to be employable.
Too many in the public do not understand that the curriculum is THE set of courses that are required for a regular high school diploma and each course in the high school curriculum has been defined by former Governors and prominent business leaders in an organization called Achieve, Inc., under the American Diploma Project, and under what is called Common Core Curriculum. They are vital to the states and our nation, and to any child's future. It is obvious that our schools must teach and test to the state-defined curriculum, to measure what the students have learned. Some just do not understand this, and the newspapers and media could do a better job educating the public about it.
What the public does not realize, but teachers do, is that "teaching to the test" refers to a practice where we administer "practice" tests, whose answers are explained in class before the real graded test is given. The two are almost identical. This practice has provided a higher grade to students to make the school performance look better. This practice was going on in Tennessee and several other states for years.
Nothing changes in education results with the exception of the money being spent. This is the public's money. The results do not improve. Not much truth is told to those who pay taxes or those who donate money.
This website is about what is happening in detail and what changes could correct this terrible situation and why. Otherwise, we will simply become a poor shadow of what we once were.
We are using Tennessee and Knox County, Tennessee, as state and school district examples in this website. Consequently most test results presented are ACT-based, although it is the SAT that is used in some states. The problems noted are present in all states and in all school districts in varying degrees, mostly better but not far from the Tennessee examples presented.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHAT TESTS PRODUCE MEANINGFUL SCORES - AND WHICH DO NOT
US News And World Report high school rankings nationally, in any state or city are rated here. For "college completion readiness" the AP tests are used that are more difficult than the ACT or SAT tests. The ACT "college readiness" means a 70% probability of finishing the first year of college, or technical school or readiness to be trained for a job. This reference also provides data on colleges, universities and online education.
The "POOR PERFORMANCE AREA" in red is at or below the "College Readiness" (same as College and Career, job training readiness, or 70% probability to finish the first year of college according to ACT) line in the chart above. This line is rising due to software and robotic automation steadily eliminating low end jobs in this area, without the public school output producing a compensating increase. The green area is the performance of the top 20 international countries in high school education using OECD-PISA to ACT mathematical conversion. "College completion readiness" (AP test) minimum is shown in ACT score equivalent above at 25. All conversions to ACT to be considered estimates although mathematically derived, because the subject emphasis in different tests can vary.
The above chart shows that state tests give a misleading, false positive result, with the exception of Florida, whose state test has a similar rigor to the ACT or SAT. The 2012 Tennessee TCAP had only 58% of the ACT's rigor (see it in the chart), and its scores are further made less meaningful by assigning so called cut scores to make them look better. For example a 50 raw score in TCAP is promoted as a solid "B" performance by the school system without mentioning ACT results, which is really a low "F" when compared to minimal ACT or SAT job training readiness.
Therefore we would suggest that the public disregard state score-based "positive" results, except for Florida. Poorly performing school districts in public education emphasize the presentation of state test results to the public and deemphasize ACT results to look better. The public is uninformed by the school districts, the media and newspapers about the facts presented on this Web site.
In the 2012 state report card, in the State of Tennessee 87.2% (Knox County, TN is 90.3%) of the public high school seniors received a regular diploma. According to ACT's 2012 career and college readiness report (ref. 1, ref. 2, ref. 3 please read all), only 16% of these students (21% of Knox County, TN and 25% of USA students) with regular diplomas are READY for job training or to finish ONLY THE FIRST YEAR of college or technical school (without remedial training to make up for high school shortfall) only with a 70% probability according to ACT.
Stated differently, 86% (100%-87.2%*16%) of students in Tennessee, 81% (100%-90.3%*21%) in Knox County, TN, are NOT READY to be trained for a job or complete ONLY the first year of college with 70% probability according to ACT's Career and College Readiness Report. And this is not the worst. Only 3% of black students with a high school diploma are ready, and 97% are not ready. The figures that would include dropouts from grade 1-12 would be worse than the above figures, but we could not find elementary school data for it.
This situation is a death sentence for our economy and for these students' future, unless someone pays for two years of remedial training at a college at an approximate cost of $30,000 to make up for what the public schools did not do. Most of our public elementary and high schools are nothing but poorly performing "Failure Factories", and most parents will not have the money for remedial training.
Why is this terrible performance allowed to continue with preferential funding, damaging our children and their and our future?
- What kind of job is a school district or state education department doing if only 16-21% of its students with a high school diploma are ready to learn a job, and 79-84% are NOT READY and will be mostly jobless for life? What is the specific plan to raise both diploma qualification requirements and average ACT scores?
- How can we expect success without education districts and the state having to deliver a specific measurable goal like an average consolidated ACT SCORE that represents growth? What is the specific plan for an average consolidated ACT objective at each and every school district and state levels?*
- How can we allow an old law called "Maintenance Of Effort" (MOE) which focuses only on the education district receiving every year at least as much funding as the prior year's budget, without a requirement to achieve an average consolidated ACT score objective that represents growth of achievement. The law as it stands does not support reducing the huge number of students WITH A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA (80%+) who are NOT READY to learn a job or complete just one year of college or tech. school. Is there a specific plan to add an ACT Performance Objective to the existing MOE or the education laws? For example, changing the minimum 100% MOE budget match to 90% MOE budget match of the prior year's budget (e.g. Texas) could achieve that. Then make the 90-100% prior year budget portion an incentive based on the Average Consolidated ACT Score achievement, provided that it is an increase from prior years.*
- How can we fix education if we do not tell the public the entire truth and include in every budget, or additional money request, the following to produce better results? In addition we need to include polices/laws to limit discipline and bullying problems in school, such as financial recourse on parents as some states have started doing and empower teacher decision making with full support. What is the specific plan for the actions below:*
- Communicate to the public where we stand truthfully; what the challenges/problems are in order of priority; commit to an average consolidated ACT Score objective to achieve by the school district.
- Identify what our specific measurable monthly objectives are per school and district to achieve the above ACT Score objective,
- And fix those challenges/problems with professional management of education and petition for law changes if needed.
Can the long-failing education system accomplish the above?
*It is vital to establish these in state law for all districts.
One can legitimately wonder if the objective of governors and state education institutions is to turn around our poor education outcomes, or to continue dumbing down the American public. It is one or the other. The evidence one finds below for decades points to dumbing us down purposefully by teaching less and using practice tests to show higher scores than our children actually earned, using our own tax dollars.
ACT has a test for students to determine what they have learned from grade one to twelve. It is a national test. It is the standard in Tennessee for all high school children. Yet the an ACT score that represents growth is not the primary goal in any school district. Existing goals are meaningless like "Percentage of students finishing high school" or "Percentage taking the ACT test". ACT also publishes what percentage of children who have earned a regular diploma are ready to learn a job, go to a technical school, or have a 70% chance to finish only the first year of college. It's called "Career and College Readiness". ACT's Career and College Readiness is a very minimal requirement. If a student doesn't make it, that student will have a minimum wage job and be unemployed more and more unless they get much more education at their or their parent's expense. How many will have the money to do that? Very few.
For the state of Tennessee only 11% of the students with a high school diploma are Career and College ready, and therefore 89% with a high school diploma will have a terrible life. This is shameful performance. They will make many babies who will follow in their footsteps. Do you think that they will do better? What do you think this situation will do to our country? Other states are not much better. The average ACT Career and College Readiness in the USA is only 25%, with 75% not ready. Can anyone imagine how bad our life will become with such poor results? No enemy could hurt us as more than our own poorly performing public education system, with the exception of a few schools in most districts.
The ACT scores have not changed significantly for decades, but the education spending skyrocketed. School districts, teachers unions, state departments of education are not changing anything significantly because no one wants to lose their job. There are also more than a thousand foundations out there that say only good things about our schools, but make a good living for their management by convincing wealthier people to donate huge amounts of dollars "to improve our education system and to save our children". There are large foundations established by wealthy people like Bill Gates and the Waltons who donate huge amounts to education, not from money they collect from others, but from the money THEY have earned and they donate from the interest they earn on their wealth. They are also much more candid about the problems they observe in education, because they do not have to sell anyone.
The newspapers and media do not inform the public about what is needed and why, how poorly our public school districts are performing, and many in the public believe that the curriculum demands too much of our children and that we are teaching to the test and not teaching our children to be employable.
Too many in the public do not understand that the curriculum is THE set of courses that are required for a regular high school diploma and each course in the high school curriculum has been defined by former Governors and prominent business leaders in an organization called Achieve, Inc., under the American Diploma Project, and under what is called Common Core Curriculum. They are vital to the states and our nation, and to any child's future. It is obvious that our schools must teach and test to the state-defined curriculum, to measure what the students have learned. Some just do not understand this, and the newspapers and media could do a better job educating the public about it.
What the public does not realize, but teachers do, is that "teaching to the test" refers to a practice where we administer "practice" tests, whose answers are explained in class before the real graded test is given. The two are almost identical. This practice has provided a higher grade to students to make the school performance look better. This practice was going on in Tennessee and several other states for years.
Nothing changes in education results with the exception of the money being spent. This is the public's money. The results do not improve. Not much truth is told to those who pay taxes or those who donate money.
This website is about what is happening in detail and what changes could correct this terrible situation and why. Otherwise, we will simply become a poor shadow of what we once were.
We are using Tennessee and Knox County, Tennessee, as state and school district examples in this website. Consequently most test results presented are ACT-based, although it is the SAT that is used in some states. The problems noted are present in all states and in all school districts in varying degrees, mostly better but not far from the Tennessee examples presented.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHAT TESTS PRODUCE MEANINGFUL SCORES - AND WHICH DO NOT
US News And World Report high school rankings nationally, in any state or city are rated here. For "college completion readiness" the AP tests are used that are more difficult than the ACT or SAT tests. The ACT "college readiness" means a 70% probability of finishing the first year of college, or technical school or readiness to be trained for a job. This reference also provides data on colleges, universities and online education.
The "POOR PERFORMANCE AREA" in red is at or below the "College Readiness" (same as College and Career, job training readiness, or 70% probability to finish the first year of college according to ACT) line in the chart above. This line is rising due to software and robotic automation steadily eliminating low end jobs in this area, without the public school output producing a compensating increase. The green area is the performance of the top 20 international countries in high school education using OECD-PISA to ACT mathematical conversion. "College completion readiness" (AP test) minimum is shown in ACT score equivalent above at 25. All conversions to ACT to be considered estimates although mathematically derived, because the subject emphasis in different tests can vary.
The above chart shows that state tests give a misleading, false positive result, with the exception of Florida, whose state test has a similar rigor to the ACT or SAT. The 2012 Tennessee TCAP had only 58% of the ACT's rigor (see it in the chart), and its scores are further made less meaningful by assigning so called cut scores to make them look better. For example a 50 raw score in TCAP is promoted as a solid "B" performance by the school system without mentioning ACT results, which is really a low "F" when compared to minimal ACT or SAT job training readiness.
Therefore we would suggest that the public disregard state score-based "positive" results, except for Florida. Poorly performing school districts in public education emphasize the presentation of state test results to the public and deemphasize ACT results to look better. The public is uninformed by the school districts, the media and newspapers about the facts presented on this Web site.
In the 2012 state report card, in the State of Tennessee 87.2% (Knox County, TN is 90.3%) of the public high school seniors received a regular diploma. According to ACT's 2012 career and college readiness report (ref. 1, ref. 2, ref. 3 please read all), only 16% of these students (21% of Knox County, TN and 25% of USA students) with regular diplomas are READY for job training or to finish ONLY THE FIRST YEAR of college or technical school (without remedial training to make up for high school shortfall) only with a 70% probability according to ACT.
Stated differently, 86% (100%-87.2%*16%) of students in Tennessee, 81% (100%-90.3%*21%) in Knox County, TN, are NOT READY to be trained for a job or complete ONLY the first year of college with 70% probability according to ACT's Career and College Readiness Report. And this is not the worst. Only 3% of black students with a high school diploma are ready, and 97% are not ready. The figures that would include dropouts from grade 1-12 would be worse than the above figures, but we could not find elementary school data for it.
This situation is a death sentence for our economy and for these students' future, unless someone pays for two years of remedial training at a college at an approximate cost of $30,000 to make up for what the public schools did not do. Most of our public elementary and high schools are nothing but poorly performing "Failure Factories", and most parents will not have the money for remedial training.
Why is this terrible performance allowed to continue with preferential funding, damaging our children and their and our future?
- What kind of job is a school district or state education department doing if only 16-21% of its students with a high school diploma are ready to learn a job, and 79-84% are NOT READY and will be mostly jobless for life? What is the specific plan to raise both diploma qualification requirements and average ACT scores?
- How can we expect success without education districts and the state having to deliver a specific measurable goal like an average consolidated ACT SCORE that represents growth? What is the specific plan for an average consolidated ACT objective at each and every school district and state levels?*
- How can we allow an old law called "Maintenance Of Effort" (MOE) which focuses only on the education district receiving every year at least as much funding as the prior year's budget, without a requirement to achieve an average consolidated ACT score objective that represents growth of achievement. The law as it stands does not support reducing the huge number of students WITH A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA (80%+) who are NOT READY to learn a job or complete just one year of college or tech. school. Is there a specific plan to add an ACT Performance Objective to the existing MOE or the education laws? For example, changing the minimum 100% MOE budget match to 90% MOE budget match of the prior year's budget (e.g. Texas) could achieve that. Then make the 90-100% prior year budget portion an incentive based on the Average Consolidated ACT Score achievement, provided that it is an increase from prior years.*
- How can we fix education if we do not tell the public the entire truth and include in every budget, or additional money request, the following to produce better results? In addition we need to include polices/laws to limit discipline and bullying problems in school, such as financial recourse on parents as some states have started doing and empower teacher decision making with full support. What is the specific plan for the actions below:*
The "POOR PERFORMANCE AREA" in red is at or below the "College Readiness" (same as College and Career, job training readiness, or 70% probability to finish the first year of college according to ACT) line in the chart above. This line is rising due to software and robotic automation steadily eliminating low end jobs in this area, without the public school output producing a compensating increase. The green area is the performance of the top 20 international countries in high school education using OECD-PISA to ACT mathematical conversion. "College completion readiness" (AP test) minimum is shown in ACT score equivalent above at 25. All conversions to ACT to be considered estimates although mathematically derived, because the subject emphasis in different tests can vary.
The above chart shows that state tests give a misleading, false positive result, with the exception of Florida, whose state test has a similar rigor to the ACT or SAT. The 2012 Tennessee TCAP had only 58% of the ACT's rigor (see it in the chart), and its scores are further made less meaningful by assigning so called cut scores to make them look better. For example a 50 raw score in TCAP is promoted as a solid "B" performance by the school system without mentioning ACT results, which is really a low "F" when compared to minimal ACT or SAT job training readiness.
Therefore we would suggest that the public disregard state score-based "positive" results, except for Florida. Poorly performing school districts in public education emphasize the presentation of state test results to the public and deemphasize ACT results to look better. The public is uninformed by the school districts, the media and newspapers about the facts presented on this Web site.
In the 2012 state report card, in the State of Tennessee 87.2% (Knox County, TN is 90.3%) of the public high school seniors received a regular diploma. According to ACT's 2012 career and college readiness report (ref. 1, ref. 2, ref. 3 please read all), only 16% of these students (21% of Knox County, TN and 25% of USA students) with regular diplomas are READY for job training or to finish ONLY THE FIRST YEAR of college or technical school (without remedial training to make up for high school shortfall) only with a 70% probability according to ACT.
Stated differently, 86% (100%-87.2%*16%) of students in Tennessee, 81% (100%-90.3%*21%) in Knox County, TN, are NOT READY to be trained for a job or complete ONLY the first year of college with 70% probability according to ACT's Career and College Readiness Report. And this is not the worst. Only 3% of black students with a high school diploma are ready, and 97% are not ready. The figures that would include dropouts from grade 1-12 would be worse than the above figures, but we could not find elementary school data for it.
This situation is a death sentence for our economy and for these students' future, unless someone pays for two years of remedial training at a college at an approximate cost of $30,000 to make up for what the public schools did not do. Most of our public elementary and high schools are nothing but poorly performing "Failure Factories", and most parents will not have the money for remedial training.
Why is this terrible performance allowed to continue with preferential funding, damaging our children and their and our future?
- What kind of job is a school district or state education department doing if only 16-21% of its students with a high school diploma are ready to learn a job, and 79-84% are NOT READY and will be mostly jobless for life? What is the specific plan to raise both diploma qualification requirements and average ACT scores?
- How can we expect success without education districts and the state having to deliver a specific measurable goal like an average consolidated ACT SCORE that represents growth? What is the specific plan for an average consolidated ACT objective at each and every school district and state levels?*
- How can we allow an old law called "Maintenance Of Effort" (MOE) which focuses only on the education district receiving every year at least as much funding as the prior year's budget, without a requirement to achieve an average consolidated ACT score objective that represents growth of achievement. The law as it stands does not support reducing the huge number of students WITH A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA (80%+) who are NOT READY to learn a job or complete just one year of college or tech. school. Is there a specific plan to add an ACT Performance Objective to the existing MOE or the education laws? For example, changing the minimum 100% MOE budget match to 90% MOE budget match of the prior year's budget (e.g. Texas) could achieve that. Then make the 90-100% prior year budget portion an incentive based on the Average Consolidated ACT Score achievement, provided that it is an increase from prior years.*
- How can we fix education if we do not tell the public the entire truth and include in every budget, or additional money request, the following to produce better results? In addition we need to include polices/laws to limit discipline and bullying problems in school, such as financial recourse on parents as some states have started doing and empower teacher decision making with full support. What is the specific plan for the actions below:*
- Communicate to the public where we stand truthfully; what the challenges/problems are in order of priority; commit to an average consolidated ACT Score objective to achieve by the school district.
- Identify what our specific measurable monthly objectives are per school and district to achieve the above ACT Score objective,
- And fix those challenges/problems with professional management of education and petition for law changes if needed.
Can the long-failing education system accomplish the above?
*It is vital to establish these in state law for all districts.
Background
Where are we today?
One often heard after the year 2000 from businesses in Knox County, Tennessee that our high school graduates could not communicate properly in English and could not even use basic math. We saw proof of this often at cash registers with operators not being able to make change. 
The complaints kept increasing and in 2004 I started studying the education systems in Tennessee and other US states and comparing them to the education systems of the top performing countries in the world. I have come to some disturbing conclusions.
Public education delivers very poor results with few exceptions. At the same time the public has to pay more per student with its hard-earned tax dollars year after year with confidence men talking the wealthy into donations, without revealing the truth about performance.
Very interesting interviews are given below about the most successful education system in the world, Finland, by a Canadian interviewer. Canada is second. The USA was 52nd out of 138 nations in 2011. We could learn a lot from them.
Many other nations have overtaken us since we did not change the way we manage education districts and our method of teaching for a hundred years, whereas other nations modernized and developed more efficient public education systems. We are now at the bottom of the industrialized countries in a competitive world. We kept spending more money each year. We became the second largest spender per student in the world in 2011 and fell from being on the top three decades ago to being on the bottom of the industrialized world in 52nd place. These changes have had a great impact on the employability of our children and the health of our economy.
Our secondary education is left in the dust by our competitors. Where are we "missing the boat?"
What is the most important objective of public education?
In my opinion, it has to be TO DEVELOP A SYSTEM whereby 90% of 9th grade students are prepared for JOB TRAINING OR ARE COLLEGE-READY who can contribute to A HEALTHY AND GROWING ECONOMY. This opinion is based on the ACT's definition of "college readiness". It simply means that a high school graduate's knowledge after getting a regular high school diploma is high enough to finish the first year of college with a 70% probability or a job training program that ensures a better than minimum wage. It does not mean that the high school graduate will be able to get a degree in any discipline.
The regular high school diploma does not mean college or even job training readiness as defined above. Sadly, the job training and college readiness figures are much lower from our public schools than the regular diplomas, as low as 3% or 15% only of regular diplomas (Tennessee example: black and all students respectively with a regular high school diploma in 2012). That means that more than 97% or 85% of those students who enter 9th grade respectively (including drop outs) will create enormous economic and civil problems (minimum wage, increasing unemployment and crime, riots) unless we make major changes in education immediately. More details about this important area further down on this page.
It May Be A Good Idea To Peak Into The Future With The Videos Below To Understand Why Better Education Than What We Currently Have Is Absolutely Vital For The Future Existence Of Our Children.
Dr. Michio Kaku, world famous scientist, in "America has a secret weapon":
What will the future look like? The reason for more education:
...and if you would like to understand more about the future in depth, here is Dr. Kurzweil, a world famous scientist. Understanding this presentation requires understanding of basic physics, biology, computer science, artificial intelligence and introductory calculus at minimum.
What is the most important indicator of student, school, district and state educational performance? The ACT scores.
The ACT test gives an accurate picture of what students have learned from grade one to twelve. The maximum ACT score is 36. Average ACT scores under 20 for a student, school, school district, or state are poor. An average score at or above 24 indicates sufficient readiness to learn a job or go to a college for a job that will pay enough to support a family of four.
What does ACT's "Career and college readiness" mean?
References: ref. 1, ref. 2, ref. 3More importantly, ACT also follows up it's test takers for several years to find out how they are doing in a job or in college. With this method ACT can correlate the ACT test scores to the job or higher education level that high school graduates with a regular diploma achieve, and determine what ACT test scores need to be for the student to be ready to finish one year of college with 70% certainty, or attend a technical school or be trained for a job that pays enough to maintain a four member family.
ACT college readiness benchmarks show what percentage of a group of students (school, district, state or country) are ready for what the term "college readiness" represents. ACT publishes five college readiness benchmarks. There is a different college readiness benchmark percentage figure for:
- English
- Reading
- Mathematics
- Science, and a
- Consolidated score for all four subjects
Each benchmark percentage indicates what percentage of students with a regular diploma could complete the same course, but on first year college level, with a 70% chance, without additional remedial training required before taking that first year college course. The consolidated score indicates what percentage of students in a group of students could complete the entire first college year , with a 70% chance.
In 2006 ACT determined that the figure based on the reading and mathematics benchmark percentage also predicted the students readiness to be trained for a job, but subsequently determined that with low end jobs eroding due to automation and company education requirements increasing, the jobs became more technical and the four consolidated subject percentage is also needed for readiness to be trained for a job that provides enough income for a family of four. The new evaluation became known as "career and college readiness". It is clear also that virtually all college or university degrees require during the freshman year a college level English, Mathematics, and Science course with substantial reading skill, and so do more and more jobs today.
"Career and college readiness" does not mean that the group of "ready" students is ready to complete a four year degree, especially in science and engineering. Colleges and universities have an admission requirement as an ACT score that reflects the minimum ACT average score that gives the admitted student a reasonable chance to obtain a four year degree. For example the University of Tennessee requires a 24 average ACT score for admission. An average ACT score of 24 appears to be the minimum that an individual high school graduate needs in 2012 in order to obtain a degree in a four-year institution in a field that will provide a reasonable life.
It should be remembered that a four-year-degree does not guarantee successful employment. There are too many of the easier-to-achieve degrees, and not enough of the more difficult degrees (e.g., science or engineering) which are in much higher demand. As the years go on, this difference will become greater and the need for graduate degrees will become more important.
Too many of our children are not motivated to, and have a bad attitude toward working hard enough in elementary and high school. Both parents and our antiquated school district management system can share the blame equally. During several past decades hard working foreign students made up for the gap created in science and engineering. Unfortunately that is changing. More and more of the foreign students return to their home countries because they see a better opportunity there.
The ACT career and college readiness benchmarks do not represent a successful future for a student. It rather suggests minimal requirements for future existence of a family of four.
It would be important for education districts to have an actual ACT score as a primary goal/objective, with an aggressive annual increase in ACT score objectives, in writing within school districts to actually succeed. Goals like "finishing high school", a target percentage of those who just "take the ACT test" are meaningless. Even the "percentage of students getting a regular diploma" is meaningless if the ACT-defined and reported career and college readiness for students with a regular diploma is only 15-21%, as it is in Tennessee.
A horrible picture emerges in the charts above. It is clear that for employers the Tennessee high school diploma is worthless. Shouldn't it be instead a symbol of readiness to take on the real world?
The number of students who get a regular diploma is high in both Knox County, Tennessee and the state itself. However, the percentage of those who are not prepared well enough to be trained for a job or go on to college is virtually the same high percentage above 80%. The diplomas are worthless for more than 80% of the students.
The bottom half of both charts shows the percentage of students leaving high school who are ready to be trained for a job or go to college and at least finish one year. One group of two statistics represents a percentage of students with a regular high school diploma. The last group of two statistics shows the percentage of students from 9th grade who are ready for job training or college after high school. These are the figures that should be above 80%. They are between 21% and 13.7%.
The public is not told that things are this bad.
What test can we believe?
What tests' scores indicate reliably if a child is making enough progress in order to become employable after high school? The ACT, SAT or NAEP. In our Tennessee example, ACT is the state approved test for end of high school results as well as readiness to learn a job, or to go to a vocational school, or to be able to finish one year of college, collectively called "college readiness". In Florida, the state test itself is used for this purpose and it is the only state where the state test is stronger than the NAEP (ACT or SAT), therefore not requiring a national test.
In the chart below two test scores are shown for each state. The blue score is the national test score NAEP showing that our children score below 50% in 8th grade reading. How can they keep learning as poor readers? The red scores are the state test scores. They show much better grades for almost all states. Why? Because they are easier. Some more so than others. The state tests do not serve us uniformly and well. Unfortunately some tests have been made easier (dumber), so that the scores show higher results in order to get more money for the school systems, while the child will not know enough to get a job.
The blue and red lines would have to be the same length (meaning same score) if the knowledge value or rigor was the same in the national test (blue lines above, NAEP) and the various state tests (red lines above). When the red line is longer it means that the state test is easier than the national test, therefore providing higher scores than the NAEP national test (blue line). That also means that children with much less knowledge in the subject can get a higher score on the weaker state test making the state test meaningless. The NAEP's strength is very close to the ACT and SAT tests, that determine job and college readiness. It appears in the graph that for most states, including Tennessee, in 2012 the state test's (TCAP in Tennessee, Education Consumers Foundation analysis) numeric score is worth about half of what one would expect from the score itself. Children are still getting only a low 45-50% score on the TCAP in important subjects like reading and math in 4th and 8th grades. To make it look better, the state redefines these low scores by calling a 45-50% a "B", which then the education districts call "good performance, but we have room to do better". This is very bad news, indicating that 8th graders go on to high school with not enough knowledge in the subjects, reading and math in this case, to do well. Florida's state test is tougher than the national test which is good news for them.
What tests are NOT a good indicator of progress for job training/college readiness?
You may hear that "Any improvement is good." There are easier, most state tests that will show higher scores (e.g., Tennessee's TCAP) for the same knowledge, and harder tests (e.g., the national ACT) that will show a much lower score for the same knowledge. They are the tests that are used to indicate job and college readiness. As an example, let's assume that a minimum 60% average score is required on the ACT (=ACT 21.6 in 2012) for qualifying for any job training program. This being only an example to illustrate the problem, if the students achieved 85% on the Tennessee TCAP (from 70% the previous year) which equals only 49% on the ACT (=ACT 18 in 2012), it looks good, but it is in fact still very poor. The school district announces through the board of education and superintendent in the newspapers that "We have done a wonderful job and achieved 85% on the TCAP, but we still need improvement". The public thinks that all is well, and the superintendent is doing a wonderful job. But with the ACT being the indicator of true performance, the school system is actually doing very poorly.
The chart below gives an example of the Tennessee TCAP results in reading for 2010, 2011, 2012, and explain how misleading its scores are compared to the tests that really tell the story, even according to the state (the ACT). The poor reading and math performance shows already at grade three. When a student goes beyond grade three as a poor reader, like in Tennessee, and the reading problem remains unremedied, the poor reading will handicap that student's learning and grades all through elementary and high school, sometimes through college limiting the employment of such a person. The same is true for math. Yet the great majority of our public schools keep passing or "promoting" such children instead of holding the student back for remedial training immediately when the poor performance is first discovered in grade school. Who is responsible? The low scores labelled acceptable (cut scores) set by the state, boards of education, superintendents, and those who manage elementary schools, in that order.
.jpg)
Several charts further down are copies of the 2012 ACT consolidated average job and college readiness report for Knox County (KC), the state of Tennessee (TN), and the US (US) for high school graduates with a regular diploma. It is based only on high school graduates with a regular diploma according to ACT. It excludes drop outs plus those remaining who could not qualify for a regular diploma. Without that data. the following is a better picture than reality. The result is a poorly trained workforce. The three ACT charts below verify the following numbers.
Only 21% KC, 16% TN, and 25% US students with a regular high school diploma are ready to be trained for a job or go to college respectively. 79% KC, 84% TN and 75% US students with a regular high school diploma are not ready for anything but low end jobs and increasing unemployment without substantial additional training at their own expense. THIS IS AS DANGEROUS AS A POWDER KEG. AS A RESULT THE FOLLOWING FACTS BELOW WILL LIGHT A VERY DANGEROUS FUSE AND BLOW UP THE POOR EDUCATION-CREATED POWDER KEG.
Within two demographic groups: of the black students with a regular diploma, only 3% KC, 3% TN, and 5% US are ready to be trained for a job or go onto college. 97% KC, 97% TN and 95% US of black graduates with a regular diploma are not ready to be trained for a job. For Hispanic students only 14% KC, 11% TN and 13% US are ready and 86% KC, 89% TN and 87% US with a regular diploma are not ready to be trained for a job or go to college.
WHAT WILL THIS SITUATION CREATE? If this problem goes unsolved, then unemployed and homeless people will increase in greater numbers. They are our poorly educated children.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST THE PUBLIC TO EDUCATE ONE JOB/COLLEGE READY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE?
We pay $10,000 per year in Tennessee for every child (including education related capital and interest expenses), whether they become job or college ready or not. That means that for twelve years of education, we pay $120,000 for each child job or college ready or not ready. Counting inflation, the actual cost in the future will be higher. If we looked at the past, the actual cost would be lower. We cannot change the past, and therefore this is a question for the future.
Since we pay for all black students and only 3% of them will be ready, we also have to pay for the 97% who will not be ready. That means that for every ready black student, we are also paying for 32 black students who will not be ready. Therefore the total cost of educating a black student who is job or college ready coming out of high school is 33 (32+1) times $120,000, or $3.96 million dollars. To reduce this high expense, we must open high performing public, private or charter schools to black students, who want to attend them, subject to acceptance.
The story is similar for Hispanic students. Since only 11% of them are ready after high school, we have to spend the money on 9 other students who will not be ready. The cost therefore of educating one job or college ready Hispanic student is 10 (9+1) times $120,000, or $1.2 million dollars.
It is rather obvious that in all cases WE MUST open up the higher performing schools for students of these minority groups if they want to go there and are accepted by the target school. ANY improvement in reducing the non-performing number of students could reduce the tremendous waste we just described in public education.
It would also push education districts to become more productive by developing better results.
Private schools produce much better results, with a typical ACT average of 24.5 to 27. They cost $6,000 to $15,500 per year, they can turn down an applicant, and today parents have to pay for them and cannot use the $10,000 that are paid from our taxes to a poorly performing school. Hopefully that will change in the future.
WHO IS MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POOR RESULTS?
“People do what you inspect, not what you expect.
” Louis V. Gerstner Jr., Chairman, IBM
|
Reading, math especially, and all other courses must be focused on better in every year, and children not passed on to the next grade if they do not meet state targeted levels in any one year. The ACT average score itself tells what was actually accomplished by high school graduation. The state governors, law makers, state and district boards of education for public primary and secondary schools and their central management are responsible for the results in that order. Huge negative differences are not defendable by claiming parental inattention or IQ differences. The above elected or appointed people can take credit for at least half of the huge differences in job readiness and for not telling the public the truth about ACT results. They do not present to the public through the media and newspapers the ACT job training and college readiness percentages of our students with a high school diploma. Not once and not with the frequency that one must communicate to the public for any understanding and retention of this dangerous situation. That in turn creates the false impression with the public that all is well.
The military option for our students should not be ignored. It may be the only option for many, if they have a high school diploma.
The high school diploma from Tennessee and a number of other states is too easy to get and therefore worthless as proof of sufficient education to be employable. It does allow the student to join the military, where excellent education for anything is available free, if one's military entrance scores are high enough, and if one was not convicted for a crime. The military also does excellent vocational training. If a student joins the Army, Navy or Air Force, the training opportunities are FREE and available for virtually any vocation. Many of these vocations would not involve combat, but even if some do, the mortality rate within the military is lower than for non-military young people in any of our large cities. The military has done a fantastic job maturing and turning around young people who perhaps could not have had a successful life otherwise.
Unremedied poor reading and math results after grade three paralyze children's learning all the way through high school, and sometimes for life.
As an example of the education problem starting early in elementary school, what is the difference between the national 8th grade reading test and the state 8th grade reading tests? Get ready for a big surprise.
Maintaining and scoring any test system is expensive. One wonders why we need different state tests for each state, when one test, the national test does a better job.
It is time for a change.
Today, school budgets submitted by a superintendent without a specific measurable test result (ACT) as a goal, are easily approved by boards of education. We must change that in order to improve the district's performance instead of its continuing failure.
What kind of objectives do boards of education and superintendents have to meet annually?
Look at the objectives within your school district and ask yourself three questions (example: Knox County, Tennessee):
- Are the goals/objectives for the board of education and the superintendent expressed in numbers so that they cannot be misunderstood? For example, is there a specific score goal to be achieved based on a national test like the ACT, that measures what children have learned from grade one to twelve? Also are there maximum spending limits for any month and the year?
- What proves to us without any doubt at year end if their written commitments for objectives were achieved?
- And, who sets the objectives and decides if they have been met for the board of education itself?
Sadly, only vague goals exist (example: Knox County, Tennessee) where only the board of education decides if the goals have been met, and the board of education gives itself the performance evaluation that has nothing to do with national educational score achievement. So no wonder the performance remains poor.
THERE ARE MANY PROBLEMS IN PUBLIC EDUCATION - BUT THE BIGGEST ONE IS: We do not have an impartial, measurable, specific education-achievement goal/objective, such as a consolidated average ACT score in Tennessee and several other states. How can any organization achieve anything good without such a specific goal? It is impossible. |
OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS UP TO THE GOVERNOR DO NOT DO ANYWHERE ENOUGH TO FIX THIS BAD SITUATION DECADE AFTER DECADE.
WE HAVE "FAILURE FACTORIES," NOT SCHOOLS, WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS.
A good question about all projects (and employees) in a school district may be "What actions do they perform or what objectives do they meet that contribute to the ACT score goal directly?" If the answer is unclear to some, then it would be reasonable to ask why such a person should be employed by, or project pursued by the school district? Such ACT score focus is badly needed at all levels.
I am presenting within this website the evidence and the solutions that I found.
During the coming decade or two the problems noted here with our education system will disappear along with the players of this old system and along with the rapidly rising cost of university education. The Internet is already becoming a key player as a Forbes article is describing it right here. The damage caused by today's education system, its leaders and boards of education will not escape public attention for the damage caused or the corrections made and spending reduced as the public finds out about the price it has been paying for the development of unemployable citizens in huge numbers. The education system will be completely transformed in two decades. But we must save the upcoming generation before that happens.
Examples of how the public is mislead about academic results
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
” Lenin (1870 - 1924)
|
THE WORLD OF DISINFORMATION: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth" (V.I. Lenin). The shell game: as an example, there are several tests, some easy that produce high scores and some more difficult but realistic about what needs to be achieved. So the education district publicizes the "high scoring test" about "how well we are doing". Misdirection: "Excellence for all children", while the great majority are so poorly educated that they will not be employable without the parents spending $20-30 thousand additional for training that the public school did not do. Controlling: Only good news gets into the local papers, radio and TV stations about how well the education system is doing. Wasting money: on campaigns, "improvements" to "save our children" to get more money each year, but the results do not improve. Using lofty words to confuse the public, who will hesitate to ask what they mean: "strategic" compensation, "strategic" five year plan, "world class" education, "rubric", "rigor", and many more. Many school districts employ full time professional PR people to create good news in newspapers and the media to flood them and cover up the poor performance. The Knox County, Tennessee school district has eight of them.
The idea is to avoid any news about ACT or SAT scores, call bad scores good since "the public doesn't know anyway", repeat news that sounds good but will not improve the poor ACT or SAT performance, such as a new school for $14 million instead of restoring it for $5 million, or buying iPads for students, or asking for more money "to save the children", when they already spend more money per student than the best performers in the world.
The local newspapers do not inform the public about the poor school performance in some school districts and a few states. Tennessee is an example of that. According to a Knoxville News Sentinel story in January 2012, "Knox Co. Schools earned a solid "B" in achievement grades the latest State Report Card issued by the Tennessee Dept. of Education. The district received a "B" in all four categories, reading, math, science, and social studies. In doing so, it matched or beat the grades given to the state as a whole, which was given a C, B, C, and B respectively. Our state report card results show that our improvement efforts are resulting in steady academic progress - said Dr. Jim McIntyre, Superintendent of the Knox County Schools. True statement except for "steady academic progress". Just look at the charts. The fact is that our public education produces only 11-14% of 9th graders "ready to learn a job or go to college" in Tennessee or Knox County, Tennessee respectively after leaving high school. The real results are not a solid B, but an F minus.
These "good" results are based on Tennessee's own tests (TCAPs) that are weak and are promised to become much tougher under the American Diploma Project by 2015. Considering history, there is no reason yet to believe in that happening by 2015. In 2008, the TCAPs scored Tennessee students at 87%, a very good grade it appeared. But the national NAEP test scored Tennessee students on the same subject and same grade level at 21%! This is how Tennessee and its districts misrepresent to the public in press releases and in presentations the quality of education they provide for our tax dollars. TCAP results do not measure the knowledge necessary for job or college success, like the impartial national ACT scores do. This news about TCAP "B" grade performance in January 2012 does go into the newspapers and media. But the ACT report showing that 86-89% cannot even learn a job after high school, does not.
All the above shows a planned, willful and purposeful misrepresentation of the truth, to create an impression that the school district is doing well, when in fact it is doing very poorly according to ACT's impartial job training and college readiness figures. It is therefore a lie to the public who actually pay for this poor education through their hard-earned tax dollars.
We either have to close virtually all money-wasting low-performing public schools and go to charter schools, private schools, home schooling, keeping only public schools who develop more than 50% of the students from 9th grade who can be trained for a job or college after leaving high school and not 11-14% like we do in Tennessee, or make some very important changes outlined below and cut the wasteful spending of public schools drastically. Please read End Them, Don't Mend Them in the Weekly Standard, and give it some serious thought. We are wasting money on most of our public schools.
What?! Give public tax dollars to private schools?! Yes, consider it seriously for families with family income under a certain limit, whose child is assigned to attend a poorly performing (less than 22 average ACT high school and similar definition for a primary school) public school. The more important question under such conditions is "Do I want my child to attend a school so that he/she becomes employable or not?".
The autocratic style of a bloated Central Management has been a problem for teachers for years. In 2001 a Texas consulting firm, MJLM, was retained to ascertain that the Knox County, Tennessee Central Management is not bloated but normal in size, compared to 6-7 other school districts of similar size. In subsequent years two Board of Education members and even a publisher in an article stated several times that "two" consultant reports confirmed that the Central Management staffing is normal, but could not identify the consultant reports or supply its appropriate pages. We managed to get a copy of the 2001 MJLM report in 2010 and spoke to MJLM. In 2010, James McIntyre, superintendent, issued a memo to a county commission member using the 2001 MJLM report as proof/supporting evidence, that Central Management staffing was at a normal level in 2010. Compared to the Central Management size supported by the American Association of School Administrators and other management publications on the same subjects for school districts, the superintendent's own published figures are more than three times normal size. Compensation databases indicate that the real staffing level of central Management is far larger beyond the superintendent's published numbers.
Knox County, Tennessee is the only large school district in Tennessee that does not have a single charter school disapproving all prior applicants. However, in 2010 the Board (chair: Indya Kincannon) and the superintendent (James McIntyre) approved a charter school, the Knoxville Charter Academy who was backed by the Iris Foundation. When googling the Iris Foundation, one finds that it is fully controlled by the Islamic Gulen Movement of Turkey. The googling presents a highly suspect and undesirable history with multiple posts (e.g., example). If it took us not more than 15 minutes to find this out through Google, why couldn't the superintendent and the Board chair do the same before they approved it? Now that this poor decision has been made public, this charter school may not open, because the original Board decision cannot be defended. This is what extremely bad decisions look like, along with the consistently poor academic results and the misrepresentation of real performance to the public.
In April, 2010 a person, Steve Dobson, identified some potential abuse of our tax dollars within our school district's Central Management organization. More than half of the IT Department employees are former teachers who are not IT qualified, yet they appear to make at least 50% more money than the IT qualified employees in the same positions. We are in a recession and many teachers were laid off, with little impact on Central Management. The postings at schoolmatters.knoxnews.com web site are self explanatory, unless the school district uses its influence and has it deleted. This is a Web site associated with the local newspaper, who always say only positive things about local education performance, when in fact it is poor.
The above and all the symptoms cited below are evidence of total lack of management training and incredibly bad management knowhow both within Boards of Education, among superintendents and within Central Management organizations. It is therefore vital to establish the suggested organizational framework within laws and policies on the state level for every single school district, or the needed improvement will not happen regardless of how much money is poured into a dysfunctional education organization. That in turn will destroy our economy and we will become like Mexico.
Recognizing "confidence men"
in education fund raising
The typical confidence man (con man) is one who gains the trust, or "confidence", of his victims in order to manipulate the targeted individual for donations of money, based on a lie or information that misrepresents the truth, or mixes some insignificant truth with misleading claims. For example Tennessee Report Card TCAP results show B or C for performance. The test is weak and used for elementary school only. Yet the students cannot read or do even basic math. The NAEP is the national test for elementary school student but those results show poor performance. The confidence men talk only about the TCAP results. The Tennessee Report Card also shows the ACT test results at the end of high school. They show that 79% of the graduates with regular diplomas are not even ready to be trained for a job. No profession is immune. We have seen former ministers of churches, lawyers, school superintendents, and others in this confidence man role. School systems are not immune, because parents are willing to do anything to "save our children" from failure and to provide them with a "world class education" and the necessity of "investing in our children's education" - as confidence men promise. The choice of tests in making such claims is important. Some are so easy that the grade they provide is high, but the child is very far from becoming ready to learn a job. They fool the public. The only state test that is the proper "strength" or "rigor" is Florida's state test. When any people ask for supporting votes or more money by claiming to "save our children", with "World class education", "Excellence for all children", so please "invest in our children's education", while the school district doesn't even have an ACT score goal they are committed to reach - an alarm should go off. Support those people who tell you the real truth and the schools that produce good results.
Confidence men also use statements that impress you and mean nothing - but they need more money to implement those "great" things. The key question to ask is "How much will what you are telling me increase the average county ACT score? May I see a written statement about that from the superintendent?"
“Our progress as a
nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The
human mind is our fundamental resource.
” John F. Kennedy
(1917-1963) Thirty-fifth President of the US
|
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES:
1.We are using an outdated centralized system with 100 year-old management and teaching practices. This in turn limits greatly how much our students can accomplish.
In the early 1900's a number of
countries including the US formed a centralized
school system for primary and secondary education to raise
standards. By 1960 all nations
abandoned this system - except for the US. The Cato
Institute study in 1995 describes this problem in detail. Our
100 year-old system is poorly managed, our state education management groups did not learn
from top performers in the world and fell behind. In addition, poor student discipline
and parental litigiousness became effectively supported by some laws, making the
teaching effort difficult, as we slipped to the bottom of all
industrialized nations in reading, math and science education. No school
Board or school system Superintendent stood up and kept standing
to raise the flag about this poor performance. On the contrary,
they do not tell the public what you are about to read below.
2. Very bad teacher morale for years:
Teachers are treated harshly. US teachers work the most class hours in the world, do the most paper work and therefore do not have enough preparation time for classes. To "improve things" a teacher performance evaluation system was created in 2011 where teachers were and are measured based on things they cannot control, further driving down morale. Suggestions are
unwelcome at all levels. Many teachers mentioned to me that if they make a suggestion to Central Management, their job gets threatened. When copies of teacher turnover reports or exit interview analyses are requested, we are told that they do not exist. Difficult to believe. Such things point to lack of management know-how in the districts and the state.
In 2012 Tennessee will find that as a result of a mismanaged
system, the already low teacher morale will drop even more with this
ineffective teacher performance evaluation system.
Teachers appear to be our only resource to produce educated children. People cannot do their best when they have low morale. Like in any profession, not all people in teaching make great teachers. The principals of schools need the authority to be able to make staffing changes if employees are not doing a good job. Union rules make such decisions very time consuming and several hundred thousand dollars in cost. Union leader claims that there is much more to educating our children than getting good grades is very unhelpful in resolving the education related dilemma we are facing. It happens all too often that college students who cannot perform in their selected majors change to teaching as a major because it is easier. There is no reason why school districts could not test new applicants for teaching to find out if they could make good teachers. If teachers need to improve some skills or learn something new, why destroy their morale instead of providing training programs?
3. Worsening school performance: The US elementary and high school school performance WAS one of the best in the world 40 years ago. Since then it has dropped to 32nd out of 65 nations in 2009
(http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/60/46619703.pdf, page 8), and to 52nd out of
138 nations per the 2011 World Economic Council report
(http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2011.pdf, page 344)
in high school science and math.
As a result of a losing trend in education, we have lost
several key industries to foreign competitors and we are losing
more. Emerging technologies provide an opportunity for all
nations to lose or dominate these industries, depending on how
many MS and PhD level scientists and engineers they graduate and
how much money they can afford to put into research and
development (R&D). A study of 114 key US industries show that
foreign products (imports) in 111 industries of the 114 are
gaining in the US market 5% each year against US products ( http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/view_art.asp?Prod_ID=2648" )
4. ARE WE SPENDING ENOUGH MONEY ON EDUCATION?
In 2011 the US became the second highest education spender per student IN THE WORLD using our hard-earned tax dollars and PRODUCING THE WORST EDUCATION in the industrialized world. See the above paragraphs and their references. Obviously, spending more money is not the solution. Also obviously, a good part of the money that we spend is not going to the classrooms for each school to meet specific, measurable, academic objectives. Increasing education spending under these circumstances just takes money away from other public services, in contrast being well run by states and counties.
FOR THE ABOVE GRAPH, OUR KNOX COUNTY EXAMPLE PER STUDENT EXPENSE WAS CLOSE TO $7100 IN 2006. OUR COST OF LIVING WAS THEN AND IS TODAY LOWER EXCEPT FOR MEXICO. AS ONE CAN SEE WE ARE SPENDING MORE THAN ENOUGH MONEY, BUT NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACES, BECAUSE THE RESULTS ARE POOR. LET'S LOOK AT SOME FIGURES THAT SHOW WHERE THE MONEY IS SPENT INEFFICIENTLY.
5. Why is it important not too have too many "chiefs" in Central Management compared to the number of "indians" in any school district organization?
The increased education spending over the years did not increase the ACT score achieved, showing that our children are leaving high schools with decreasing knowledge to be able to learn a job. At the same time between 1995 and 2010, although students increased only 4%, the Knox County Tennessee school district increased the number of administrators by 94%, and that is based on the numbers that the school district published about themselves.
A bloated central management in any organization ALWAYS creates failure regardless of the money pumped into it, because a bloated Central Management has to become self-protective. Money is power and power in the absence of laws controlling proper operating management ratios, creates corruption and/or job security for unneeded overhead people. Good Ole' Boys' networks get formed quickly and expanded by hiring friends and relatives without regard to qualifications for the job. At a recent presentation organized by the school system to tell the public how great a job they are doing, one individual associated with Central Management made a speech focusing on Central Management not being bloated and is being staffed correctly. Even the school district's own published figures show them bloated, and the real staffing figures for central
management are far larger than what they present. The false statements by individuals in leadership positions to save the status quo at any cost is not a characteristic of a well run, professional organization that creates good results. The results are bad. The chart below shows how bad our
student-to-administrator ratios are in every county around us, with Knox County, Tennessee being by far the worst, based on the figures that they provided to the local newspaper (Knoxville News
Sentinel) by the school district. The reference presented below for normal ratios is an impeccable source, far above anyone in expertise in any school district.
- EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION: CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES, 5th Edition is what we used, the best-selling, most comprehensive and respected graduate school text on the market, discusses all topics covered by other educational administration texts, and MORE: culture, change, curriculum, human resources administration, diversity, effective teaching strategies, and supervision of instruction. Drs. Lunenburg and Ornstein include more exciting pedagogical features than any other text, and topics are covered in a direct and easy-to-understand manner, with an excellent blend of theory and practice.
- Dr. Fred C. Lunenburg is Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Research and Doctoral Studies in Educational Leadership at Sam Houston University. Prior to moving to university teaching, he served as a high school principal and superintendent of schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He has authored or co-authored 18 books, most recently, THE PRINCIPALSHIP (with Beverly Irby), published by Wadsworth in 2006.
- Dr. Allan C. Ornstein is Professor of Administration and Instructional Leadership at St. John's University in New York. He received his Ed.D. from New York University and is author of more than 55 books and 2,000 articles and research papers. Prior to teaching at St. John's, he was a professor of Education at Loyola University in Chicago.
From the "EFFICIENCY RATIOS" area of the book, pages
306, 307 and 308 in the 5th Edition:
"Just because large school districts have more hierarchical layers
at the central office, and their organizational charts are taller
and more difficult to understand, does not mean that they have
better or worse manager-student ratios or are more or less
efficient in running the schools within the district. For
example, in a survey of fifty-one school districts with 50,000 or
more students, the manager (supervisor, administrator) ratio at the central office averaged
one manager per 569 students and the median was 578. The ranges
were as high or as efficient as one manager per 1650 students and as
low as low or inefficient as one manager per 161 students." (ref
160, Allan C. Ornstein, "Administrator/student Ratios in
Large School Districts", Phi Delta Kappan, 70
(1989):806-808.)
"Eleven school districts out of fifty-one had one central
administrator per 750 students. The researcher concluded that
school districts should aim for one central manager per 1200 or
more students. Only six of the fifty-one surveyed school
districts achieved this level of efficiency (Los Angeles 1343:1,
Indianapolis 1401:1, Mesa, AZ 1446:1, West Jordon, UT 1512:1,
Clark County, NV 1539:1, Granite, UT 1650:1).
Nationwide the average is one district administrator for 954
students and for principals and assistant principals the combined
ratio is 1 to 370 students, but for teachers the ratio is 1 to 16
students." (Ref: News and Notes: Survey Round Up, "Thrust
For Educational Leadership", 29 (1998): 4; Projections of
Education Statistics to 2011, table 32, p.80.)
"...The American Association of School Administrators (AASA)
argues that central administrators represent 1.0 percent of total
district staff and 4.5% of of the total budget of public school
districts nationwide. All principals and assistant principals add
another 2.4% to staff and 5.6% of the budget, whereas
instructional services comprise 70%." (Ref. Nancy Protheroe,
"The Blob Revisited", School Administrator, 55 (1998):
26-29.
..."the percentage of overhead for central and school site
administration has changed very little over the years, by about
10%" (e.g. from 1.0% to 1.1%) (Ref. Allan Odden and Sarah
Archibald, "Reallocating Resources" 2001, Richard
Rothstein, "Where Is The Money Going?" 1997).
In the above graph a normal organization may have 1200 students for every administrator. A bloated organization would have less than 1200 students per administrator. The smaller the number of students per administrator (supervisor, manager, director, assistant superintendent and superintendent) in Central Management, the more bloated and less efficient the Central Management organization is. All county examples above are bloated. Knox County, TN is the most bloated of all in central management.
THE LOW STUDENT-TO-ADMIN RATIOS SHOW A MAJOR SPENDING INEFFICIENCY THAT RUNS IN PARALLEL WITH LOW ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE. LET'S SEE WHAT ACT TESTS AND REPORTS SHOW ABOUT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.
6. WE HAVE FAILURE FACTORIES, NOT SCHOOLS, WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Tennessee is a US state example. In 2011 in Tennessee, the state report card and the ACT tests indicated that 89% of ninth graders, and within that group more than 97% of black students, are not ready to be trained for a job or to go to college when leaving high school. The extremely poor results of black students especially present a danger to them and to the state. That means that such children will be able to get only minimum wage jobs with increasing unemployment and homelessness for many. Software and robotic automation has been and will be replacing most of those jobs by 2020. This is an extremely dangerous development for any state.
Who is responsible? The state education departments and the school district management everywhere. All of them. Other nations improved their education system. We did not and they passed us as we fell behind.
Academic standing: Tennessee is close to the US
bottom in ACT and NAEP national tests, and spends more
dollars/student/year than any of the top 20 international performers in the world (with one exception, Switzerland). All of these countries have a higher cost of living than we do. Remember that the US is 52nd internationally, and Tennessee is one of the worst in the US. That places Tennessee very far below the top 20 countries.
Should we just keep paying school districts
millions of hard-earned tax-payer dollars more each
year when the school districts do not improve the very low percentage of job and college ready students (3% black and 11% of all students with a regular diploma!) in our existing graduating classes?
“The only thing necessary for the
triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!!
” Edmund Burke, Irish
statesman, 1776
|
The money we spent on US education has sky rocketed since 1970 in the above graph, while education of our children has not improved during the past 40 years. The second chart shows how the hiring of education system employees (administrators and teachers) dramatically increased with only a small-to-moderate increase in student numbers.
The chart above shows Knox County's average ACT scores in Tennessee in an unacceptable range in terms of "job and college readiness" of those students who earned a high school diploma. These scores indicate that less than 25% of the students who graduate are sufficiently educated to learn a job or go on to college after leaving high school. The straight line is the ACT trend-line heading down. A trend line is not just a person's opinion. It is a scientifically computed line based on the actual ACT scores achieved. The trend line shows that the actual knowledge of our high school graduates have been going down over the years. It should have been going up. Another vitally important scientific measurement is presented by the chart below - it is the job training and college readiness of our high school graduates.
Job training and college readiness figures became the same according to ACT some years ago. The above confidential 2012 ACT report to the Knox County school district presents a demographic break down of job and college readiness. It shows that only 21% of all students, with a regular high school diploma, are ready to be trained for a job or go to college. 79% are not ready and that creates a horrible life for these graduates. It is most disturbing that only 3% of the black graduates with a regular high school diploma are "job training or college ready", creating a disaster for the black community and all of us. If one counts what percentage of black 9th graders drop out during high school and those who did not drop out but did not qualify for a regular diploma, the 3% figure gets even worse. Doesn't education management realize the magnitude of the social problems that such figures will create in the near future?
Excessive Amounts Of Money Is Being Pumped Into Poorly Performing Schools Short Changing The Medium And High Performing Schools. Did This Strategy Improve Poor School Performance?
.jpg)
Unfair school-to-school money allocation within Tennessee districts. The above chart shows that we are pouring much more money into poorly performing schools to the extent that the good performers are underfunded, while poor performers do not improve. Something is wrong with such logic. This is a Knox County, TN school district example, but the spending discrepancy is common among school districts. This spending pattern has been common for more than ten years. It limits the performance of schools who could do better, and pours our tax dollars into schools that have not improved, and will not improve regardless of how much money we spend on them, unless our management and teaching methodology changes.
The above chart shows that over a 12-year period, there is no significant change in ACT scores in Knox County, TN schools, or no change in knowledge or job/college readiness, regardless of the amount of money poured into poor-performing schools. The red horizontal line represents an approximately 60% job/college readiness, but we are not there. It is painfully obvious that spending more money to improve education is not the solution. The top school systems in the world spend significantly less money while they are in higher cost of living areas than we are. One would think that state education management would be very interested in how they accomplish this, but our school systems show no interest.
Return on Investment, ROI: Why Don't We
Measure Educational Achievement (ACT Score) Achieved Per Dollar Spent?
We have been looking at education as a right and correctly so, but without any concern and measurement of what it actually delivers and how it satisfies society's specific work force needs. At the same time we spend more money on it at an expense to other tax-paid services society needs, and call it an investment in our children - with worsening results.
Why not look at education in terms of return on investment?
It IS a huge investment, we expect good results
from it, but we are not getting it. WE, the second largest education
spender in the world in 2011, sank to 52nd in math and
science. We were among the best forty years ago.
We certainly could show
a ratio of ACT scores related to dollars spent per student.
That chart would show the amount of money are we spending per ACT point achieved. Why our ACT score is remaining within
a poor range that guarantees only unemployment and an unsatisfactory future for most high school graduates should be a major concern to our leaders. We cannot blame it all on parents and
demographics when other countries have solved such problems.
THE SHOCKING COST OF LOW SCHOOL DISTRICT PERFORMANCE (e.g., Knox County, TN) FOR ONE STUDENT WHO IS JOB AND COLLEGE READY WHEN LEAVING HIGH SCHOOL.
We pay for all students, low and high performers alike. The
poor average performance raises the cost of each single student
who will be ready to learn a job in Knox County to an
astronomical $852,000 over twelve years. The Tennessee cost
for one such student is even higher. The best private school
whose graduates have a 27 ACT average and 100% are ready for
learning a job or going to college, the total cost of their
students' education is $180,000 for 12 years. Some private
school tuition costs are less than half that below the public
school cost with a 24.5 or higher ACT average with a better than
90% readiness to learn a job. If the same per student tax dollars
were transferable to a private school as a result of parental
choice, the private school would be a better contributor to both
the child's, the state's and our country's future
success. All children would not be accepted by private schools,
but a number of them could be finishing in a private high school
ready for a more successful career benefiting themselves, their
families and the state. Tax dollars need to finance the most
productive and not the least productive path. Defensive arguments
will be galore, but the public education cost is simply
unaffordable.
Shouldn't the public, who pay for the
education system with their hard-earned tax dollars know the
exact truth and nothing but the truth? Our political leadership
must change this practice.
The ACT Readiness Brief says that: "Results of a new ACT
study provide empirical evidence that, whether planning to enter
college or workforce training programs after graduation, high
school students need to be educated to a comparable level of
readiness in reading and mathematics. Graduates need this level
of readiness if they are to succeed in college-level courses
without remediation and to enter workforce training programs
ready to learn job-specific skills."
This simply means that the figures that ACT presents as college
readiness percentage, of those who have a regular high school
diploma, is also an indication of what percentage of students are
ready to be trained for a job. Job requirements have increased
over the years because of the impact of software and robotic
technology, that has been and will continue replacing low end
jobs. At the same time, we also graduated students from our high
schools with less and less knowledge, especially in reading and
basic math.
7. What country's system is best to emulate? There are several superior education systems that we could implement from other countries.
For example Finland is the best, Canada (especially Alberta) is second of those countries whose system is adaptable to US culture. The US is 52nd in the world. Chinese, Korean, Japanese systems, although high performers, are not adaptable to the US culture. In Finland, the education system delivers not just some of the highest results in the world, but the highest results come from all minorities as well, for less money than we spend per student in Tennessee. Clearly it is possible to deliver excellent results from minority groups, if we use more modern management and teaching methods. For more information go to Finland's education system.
The chart below (source: http://www.designnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6286283) illustrates how far we declined in American engineers. We are producing the same percentage of engineers from our population as Kenya! This is one of many bad outcomes of our poor but expensive education:
| COUNTRY | TTL UNI DEGREES | ENG. DEGREES | ENG.DEGREE % TTL | POPULATION |
China |
567,839 |
219,563 |
38.7% |
1,330,000,000 |
Taiwan |
117,430 |
26,587 |
22.6% |
22,921,000 |
Germany |
178,618 |
36,319 |
20.3% |
82,370,000 |
Japan |
542,314 |
104,478 |
19.3% |
127,288,000 |
France |
275,316 |
34,293 |
12.4% |
64,058,000 |
Ireland |
18,669 |
2,014 |
10.8% |
4,156,000 |
UK |
274,440 |
20,280 |
7.4% |
60,944,000 |
Kenya |
15,620 |
740 |
4.7% |
37,954,000 |
US |
1,253,121 |
59,536 |
4.7% |
303,825,000 |
8. Elected School Boards direct and manage each and every school district. How good a job have they been doing?
What the great majority of Boards of Education produced to date based on national test-based evidence, like the ACT, is extremely poor education for our children, such that the majority, 85-89% 9th graders, are not ready to be trained for a job or go onto college to be employable after leaving high school according to the state report card and in this case the ACT report. This is costing the public in tax dollars $10,000 per student per year, whether the students are job ready or not, resulting in marginal employment close to minimum wage and eventual increase in unemployment. THAT is not representing the public's interest, and it actually abuses the privilege of getting our hard-earned tax dollars without any reduction even in bad economic times. This per student cost is higher than the top 20 best nations (the US is 52nd) with one exception, and these nations have a higher cost of living. The results generated by Boards of Education, are destroying our economy by degrading our future work force instead of strengthening them. When 89% of 9th graders leave high school not ready to be trained for a job or go onto college, as in Tennessee, that is exactly what Boards of Education are accomplishing, unintentionally. We therefore must change from an elected Board of Education-lead district education URGENTLY.
This poor education performance is not being told the public, and in some school districts, like Knox County, Tennessee, the newspapers, radio and TV media focuses only on good news from the school district. Unemployability and lack of qualified work force cannot be hidden from the public forever. Poor performance at public expense cannot be hidden forever. It will be discovered soon and then former school board members and superintendents may have to explain to the public why they focused on increasing education expenses from the public instead of increasing the ACT or SAT scores.
As a report we present on a different page of this Web site presents:
“The local school board, especially the elected kind, is an anachronism and an outrageous can no
longer pretend it's working well or hide behind the mantra of 'local control of education.' We need to
steel ourselves to put this dysfunctional arrangement out of its misery and move on to something that will
work for children.
” Chester E. Finn Jr.., President, Thomas B. Ford ham Institute
|
With that statement on the record, we're doubly admiring of Anne Bryant and her colleagues at the National School Boards Association for welcoming us into this valuable project. We went into it willing to have our previous impressions of local school boards overturned. For the most part, that hasn't happened. Because we're serious about America's need for bold school reform, we came away from these data dismayed that so many board members appear hostile to some of the most urgently needed reformatted accepting of timeworn (and for the most part unsuccessful) tweaks to the current system.
Substantial numbers view charter schools, intra district choice among schools, and year-round calendars as "not at all important" to improving student learning. They're cool toward teachers entering classrooms from "nontraditional" directions. Yet they're warm-to-hot when asked about the value of such primordial yet unreliable "reforms" as smaller classes and more professional development. And they're more agitated about school inputs--funding above all--than about academic achievement."
READ MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC IN "THE FIX" AREA.
“The only thing necessary for the
triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!!
” Edmund Burke, Irish
statesman, 1776
|
We and especially our governors better realize fast what is happening. The current public school practice is a formula for total economic failure by damaging work force readiness. If an elected individual does not stand up to change it, he/she must be benefiting from the education money - or votes, directly or indirectly. The poor education we deliver is destroying the future of the upcoming generation and the country. The facts are presented here, within this Web site.
Vic Spencer
Farragut, TN
http://www.usaedustat.com
vicspencer@gmail.com
Copyright(c) 2008-2013 V. Spencer
This is a work in progress.
