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September 14, 2011

Page 2.

Editorial


The Nat|ona| Research 6ounc|| says hanna 8kandera's brand of
"Educat|on Reform" does not work. 8o why |s the Hart|nez
Administration so gung ho about an approach that is clearly not
what's best for the ch||dren? who rea||y stands to ga|n from the|r
faulty approach?

Skandera and Martinez have begun instituting the Foundation
for Excel|ence |n Educat|on's ("FEE"} one size fits all cookie cutter
agenda of end|ng "soc|a| promot|on", "|ncent|v|z|ng" teacher and
school performance, replacing experience and training with
"effect|veness", rep|ac|ng teachers w|th technology guides, using
"propr|etary" curr|cu|um and teacher tra|n|ng and pr|vat|z|ng pub||c
schoo| through "cho|ce".

The National Research Council is the principal operating agency
of the National Academy of Sciences. It conducts research to provide
adv|ce to the nat|on's dec|s|on makers through a congress|ona|
charter. It is agenda free.

FEE is entirely agenda driven. Well, it is also driven by its desire
to enrich its friends and cohorts with taxpayer money that should be
going to teacher salaries and school infrastructure.

|n test|mony on "h|gh 8takes Test|ng and 8oc|a| Promot|on"
before congress, Robert M. Houser, who chaired the Committee on
Appropriate Test Use Board on Testing and Assessment for the
Nat|ona| Academ|es, stated, "with respect to retention in grade, the
research evidence is overwhelming: Simply holding back students
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Not only does ending social promotion not work according to
houser, "but flunking them, holding them over for a repeat year, and
simply assuming that this will help them overcome their educational
deficits, is ineffective and may even aggravate an already untenable
VLWXDWLRQ houser's research found:

x Students who have been held back typically do not catch up.
x Low-performing students learn more if they are promoted- even
without remedial help-than if they are held back.
x Students who are held back are much more likely to drop out
before completing high school.

Relative to New Mexico, a minority majority and poor state, was
houser's f|nd|ng that "m|nor|t|es and poor ch||dren are the most ||ke|y
to be he|d back."

The National Research Council has also weighed in on
"|ncent|ve programs, wh|ch |mpose sanct|ons or offer rewards for
students, teachers or schoo|s on the bas|s of students' test
performance" |n a recent report ent|t|ed, "6urrent Test-Based
Incentive Programs Have Not Consistently Raised Student
Ach|evement |n the U.8."

The study found that school based incentives gains occurred
only in elementary grade mathematics, and are so small that claiming
these incentives will help us compete internationally are a joke. In fact,
incentives to test scores showed only a .08 standard deviation,
improving from 50
th
percentile to 53 percentile versus the 84 percentile
achieved in high performing countries. It will never make us
competitive.
The Nat|ona| Research 6ounc|| us|ng "|ow-stakes tests" that are
not ||nked to |ncent|ves found that "the overall effects on achievement
tend to be small and are effectively zero for a number of incentives
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The study found that attaching incentives to test scores has
several detrimental impacts:

x They encourage teachers to focus narrowly on the material tested
(teaching to the test).
x Students knowledge of untested materials may stay the same or
even decrease.
x Test scores give an inflated picture of what students actually know
with respect to the full range of content standards.

As a result the report found, LWLVXQUHDVRQDEOHWRLPSOHPHQW
incentives tied to tests on a narrow range of content and then criticize
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Education should not be about teaching to the test. It should be
about teaching how to think and provide fundamental skills that allow
the student to become a productive member of society.

So what really does work? According to the National Research
Council, smaller class sizes, better-trained teachers and principals,
challenging curriculum, high expectations, good after-school
programs and summer schoo| "can make a large and positive
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In other words focus on the needs of the individual students,
identify those that need assistance and provide it to them. For
generations, American students that had trouble learning to read were
given pull out training by remedial reading teachers.

This was a very effective approach, but then districts eliminated
those positions. Why not bring them back? There are also thousands
of retired teachers and other volunteers, who are happy to donate
their time to do pullout remedial reading.

8kandera's approach to educat|ona| reform re||es heav||y on
protect|ng the f|nanc|a| |nterests of compan|es and the|r "propr|etary"
curriculums and training programs . Teach for America, K-12, Inc.,
Laying the Foundation and of course FEE.

Perhaps th|s |s due to 8kandera's |ack of c|assroom exper|ence
and history of working for companies that sell training programs.

8kandera's approach has only nominally asked those that are in
the trenches, teachers, about approaches that will work. It is time for
those who really care about education to do just that.


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