I have to admit that this interview is a fantastic piece of marketing:
But we could just, you know, comfortably go in decline. If we accept that notion that only 1/3 of our kids are college or career ready. Even though we spend more per student than any country in the world, by the way.The man is definitely confident in his ability to manipulate us with his passive aggressiveness. Truly, it's brilliant.
There's a big fear...about this massive government overreach. I totally appreciate that. But that's not what this is. This is a national imperative. It's not a federal government program.If "imperative" was expressed as a noun it means:
Dictionary.com: 4. a command.If "imperative" was expressed as an adjective, it means:
Collins English Word Dictionary: 5. an order or command
Dictionary.com: 1. absolutely necessary or required; unavoidableSo while it may not be a "government program", it is, through funds that some states received through Race To The Top, government mandated, and as Jeb said, "imperative." That is definitely feeling like "massive government overreach" to me. And I am not a Tea Party member.
Collins English Word Dictionary: 2. peremptory or authoritative: an imperative tone of voice
We have to continue to ask ourselves, and our representatives, "Why are we allowing this in Connecticut when we haven't even received any Race To The Top funds? Common Core is not "imperative" in Connecticut.
During the course of his interview, Jeb Bush also said:
...if you measure it by outcomes... 25% of kids pass all of the four segments of the ACT test which means that they're college or career ready, or college ready.Well here is the raw data on Connecticut's ACT scores for 2012. And here is the version they made easier to read with nice charts and such. And here is one of those charts that is not only nice, but quite telling:
Evidently, here in Connecticut our kids that took this test did better than the national average. In English we did 19% better, in Algebra we did 22% better, in Social Studies we did 19% better and it Biology we did 17% better. And even though one would expect the amount of kids who met all four of ACTs benchmarks to be much lower, since some kids might be good at English and not as good in science, we still managed to do 18% better than the national average.
Granted, this does mean that 14% of the Connecticut kids who took this test are not ready for a college English class, 32% are not ready for college Algebra, 29% are not ready for college Social Studies, and 62% are not ready for college Science. But let's take a look at some more of the report:
"...Governor Malloy and lawmakers are... vowing to significantly reform Connecticut’s public schools amidst calls for accountability to students and closing the achievement gap. We applaud these goals, but we also point out that underlying inequalities related to race and poverty that impact opportunity in Connecticut must be addressed. Without attending to the disparities that exist in our highly favored state, school reform will not reach its mark, and inequality will persist for many children based on the color of their skin or where they live."So I think it's pretty safe to assume that our overall education here in CT is not the problem; the problem seems to be more of a social and economic one.
Interestingly, despite the disparity in our low income areas to our high income areas, Connecticut was still tied for first place in most kids prepared for college English. We were tied for second place in most kids prepared for college Math. And we were tied for second place in most kids prepared for college Science.
We have to continue to ask ourselves, and our representatives, "Why are we allowing this in Connecticut when we haven't even received any Race To The Top funds? Common Core is not "imperative" in Connecticut. The system we were already using was one of the very best in the country. Why change it? Instead of fixing something that's not broken, why not concentrate our energy on helping the kids in our state who were not served by it? Why not concentrate on helping the kids who need it, and let the excellent-enough alone?
FYI: From the ACT website for Connecticut: "11,551 of your graduates, which is an estimated 27% of your graduating class, took the ACT."
ReplyDeleteOne can't really successfully use the ACT in Connecticut to determine how we are doing for college readiness as so few of our students actually TAKE the ACT. The better indicator would be the SAT although it isn't as fact based as ACT. In CT, 88% of our college bound seniors (note college bound, try as I might I can't find an actual figure to compare with our actual high school seniors) took the SAT in 2011-12. The average score was 1528. This is above the national average and nationally only about 50% of college bound seniors take the SAT (because SAT is more common on the coasts, with ACT more common in the interior). So neither of these already self limiting college application tests really give us an accurate measure of college and career readiness of ALL our students.
Probably one can't successfully use the ACT *anywhere* to determine how states are doing for college readiness. After watching Jeb Bush's interview though, I looked up the results for our state out of curiosity, and was struck by the disparity; even with a small sampling of 27% we outdo other states.
ReplyDeleteIt's been on my mind to look up the SAT figures to do a comparison, and I appreciate the detail of our average score of 1528.
You are right that there is really no way to for us to get a complete picture of college and career readiness for all of our students. And for me, that's a good thing, because along with being able to do that comes the increased testing and loss of privacy I am so nervous about.
Jeb joined his brother Neal Bush in the education software/textbook business - which explains his interest in pushing Common Core as an imperative.
ReplyDeleteColleges are lowering their standards to meet the new Common Core college ready students. Common Core is designed to make students ready for a vocational level, 2 year program.
ReplyDelete