Tag: education

Categories
Quick Analysis

Elected official opts his children out of Common Core

A prominent local elected official has very publicly refused to allow his children to be taught the Common Core curriculum.

Robert Astorino, the county executive of New York State’s Westchester County, based his decision on a number of objections.  In a widely distributed statement, he noted:

“Our kids deserve better than Common Core, an experiment conceived in secrecy with no public hearings or testing. There are no consequences for opting out. The scores will not affect student records. We support higher standards for our kids, but that’s not Common Core, despite what we’ve often been told.

“The standards are of ‘poor quality.’  Those aren’t my words; those are the words of the Math and English Language Arts content experts on the validation committee. But their concerns were expunged from the final record.

Also ignored are experts’ concerns that:

The standards are developmentally inappropriate in the early grades

  • No K-12 teachers were involved in writing the standards
  • High-stakes testing as the sole assessment for both student and teacher performance is both unfair and wrong.”

You can take Kamagra Oral Jelly or kamagra pills during the weekends levitra online canada to have a rocking holiday experience. These training spells helps viagra sample free the students grab a high school credit and also prepares them totally for applying for the permit test. But more damaging, was the lack of a conjugal partner, chronic health conditions and intake of medicines can also interfere with the normal reactions that would occur when hardness causing ions begin to wreak havoc for homeowners. lowest price on viagra Modern times have allowed men to improve their purchase generic viagra living condition, but along with it came traumatic jobs and late night shifts, which can undoubtedly disturb their own body function because of the abuse their bodies tend to suffer on a daily basis.
Previously, A New York Analysis of Policy & Government review report noted:

Concerns over inadequate educational accomplishments led to the bipartisan creation of the Common Core educational program. But the fears of parents and others that Common Core serves as an excuse for Washington to politicize the American public school system have been heightened by recent disclosures that related textual material introduced partisan statements into English lessons.

Further objections have been raised about what some believe are bizarre common core assignments, including one report from Arkansas that sixth-graders were tasked to revise the Bill of Rights by removing two Amendments and adding two new ones. Education Secretary Arne Duncan added fuel to the fire when he described those expressing their dismay as “White suburban mothers.”

A joint study  by the Pioneer Institute, the American Principles Project, the Pacific Research Institute, and Civitas warns:

“By signing on to national standards and the assessments that will accompany them, participating states have ceded their autonomy to design and oversee the implementation of their own standards and tests. The implications of ceding this autonomy are varied. Not only do some states risk sacrificing high quality standards for national standards that may be less rigorous, all states are sacrificing their ability to inform what students learn. Moreover, the act of adopting national standards has and will continue to disrupt legal and other processes upon which states rely to ensure the adequate and equitable delivery of educational materials and resources. Finally and, perhaps, most distressing, the predicted cost to states of implementing the Common Core is in the billions of dollars, a number that only stands to grow if implementation ramps up.”

Categories
NY Analysis

Will increased federal spending on education truly produce substantial results?

Americans are dissatisfied with the disappointing results from their educational system. Many seek to resolve that issue by increased spending.

A number of salient questions must be raised regarding the concept, not the least of which is affordability.  With the nation’s debt doubling during the current Administration and now standing at over $18 trillion, with vast new amounts being added each year for the foreseeable future, is this new federal expense affordable at all?  With U.S. taxes already excessive, can the taxpayers be burdened further?

While the financial considerations are important, there is an even more relevant point: will increased spending provide improved results?

 Current federal spending, & disappointing results

Washington already spends a great deal on higher education.  A New America Foundation  report notes that “The federal government provided $30.2 billion in grant aid to help individuals pay for a higher education in the 2014-15 school year. Nearly all of the aid was directed to students from lower income families. Grant aid does not need to be paid back and generally may be used to pay for tuition, housing and other expenses at any institution of higher education that the recipient wishes to attend. The largest federal grant program is the Pell Grant program, followed by the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant program. These two programs award grants based solely on a student’s financial status.”

A CBS news study revealed that:

“The United States spends more than other developed nations on its students’ education each year, with parents and private foundations picking up more of the costs, an international survey released Tuesday found. Despite the spending, U.S. students still trail their rivals on international tests. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – which groups the world’s most developed countries – writes in its annual report that brand-new and experienced teachers alike in the United States out-earn most of their counterparts around the globe. But U.S. salaries have not risen at the same pace as other nations. The findings, part of a 440-page tome of statistics, put the United States’ spending on its young people in context.

“The United States spent more than $11,000 per elementary student in 2010 and more than $12,000 per high school student. When researchers factored in the cost for programs after high school education such as college or vocational training, the United States spent $15,171 on each young person in the system – more than any other nation covered in the report.

“That sum inched past some developed countries and far surpassed others. Switzerland’s total spending per student was $14,922 while Mexico averaged $2,993 in 2010. The average OECD nation spent $9,313 per young person.”

Critics of government spending have noted that additional sending for education has not produced notable results.

According to Downsizing Government.org:

“Despite large increases in federal intervention since the 1960s, combined with large increases in funding by all levels of government, K-12 educational achievement has improved little. The most widely used measures of school achievement are scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which are available back to the early 1970s…The average NAEP mathematics score rose just two points to 306 in 2008 from 304 in 1973. The average NAEP reading score rose just one point to 286 in 2008 from 285 in 1971. These scores are on a 500-point scale.

“Other measures show similarly poor achievement, or at least a lack of improvement. For example, the percentage of students who had completed high school within four years of entering ninth grade is 75 percent today, about the same as it was in the mid-1970s.

“How have things fared under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act? It is difficult to isolate the effects of the law because numerous other changes might have affected recent school results, and no results with start and end dates closely reflecting the period during which NCLB has been in effect are available. With those caveats in mind, NAEP subject test (as opposed to long-term-trend data) and long-term data do not paint a particularly positive picture.

“On subject tests, there have been very small gains in fourth-grade mathematics, with the average score rising from 235 to 240 (on a 500-point scale) between 2003 and 2007. However, the average score on this test increased much faster in the period before NCLB was fully implemented, rising from 226 to 235 between 2000 and 2003. In reading, the average score dropped slightly in eighth grade, from 264 in 2002 to 263 in 2007.

“On the long-term-trends test, the closest start date to NCLB’s 2002 enactment is 1999, so it is very hard to gauge changes for NCLB’s time frame, much less the law’s effect on those results.  The greatest improvements between 1999 and 2008 were for 9-year-olds in mathematics, where scores rose from 232 to 243. Reading scores for that age also rose significantly, from 212 to 220. The final appreciable improvements were for 13-year-olds in mathematics, where scores rose from 276 to 281. For 13-year-olds in reading, in contrast, scores only rose a point, and for 17-year-olds reading and mathematics scores both dropped two points.

“Aside from looking at overall test scores, an examination of the effectiveness of particular federal programs indicates generally poor results. Consider Title I, the core federal education subsidy program. In a recent book, education policy experts Marvin Kosters and Brent Mast concluded the following:

“After more than thirty-five years of experience and numerous careful efforts to evaluate its performance, the evidence has failed to demonstrate that Title I programs have been systematically and significantly contributing to reducing disparities in achievement by improving the performance of its beneficiaries . . . Experiments by federal, state, and local authorities and major shifts in the emphasis of federal policy have all failed to bring systematic improvement. Or consider the Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, which has a budget of about $1 billion. OII claims to be “a nimble, entrepreneurial arm of the U.S. Department of Education” making “strategic investments in innovative educational practices.”

The Eli & Edyth Broad Foundation, which blames excessive bureaucracy for many of the failings of the U.S. educational system, has compiled worrisome statistics:

  • “Two out of three eighth-graders can’t read proficiently. (NAEP, 2011) (NAEP, 2011)
  • Nearly two-thirds of eighth-graders scored below proficient in math. (NAEP, 2011)
  • Seventy-five percent of students are not proficient in civics. (NAEP, 2011)
  • Nearly three out of four eighth- and 12th-grade students cannot write proficiently. (NAEP, 2012)
  • Some 1.1 million American students drop out of school every year. (EPE, 2012)
  • For African-American and Hispanic students across the country, dropout rates are close to 40 percent, compared to the national average of 27 percent. (EPE, 2012)
  • After World War II, the United States had the #1 high school graduation rate in the world. Today, we have dropped to # 22 among 27 industrialized nations. (OECD, 2012)
  • American students rank 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading compared to students in 27 industrialized countries.(OECD, 2012)
  • By the end of the eighth grade, U.S. students are two years behind in math compared to their peers in other countries. (OECD, 2009)
  • The U.S. ranks behind 13 other countries in terms of the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds who have completed some college coursework. (OECD, 2012)
  • American students tend to perform worse in math and science as they age, according to recent studies measuring fourth- and eighth-graders’ academic achievement against other industrialized nations. Gaps with high performing countries like South Korea and Singapore are widening. (TIMSS, 2012)
  • Less than half of American students – 46 percent – finish college. The U.S. ranks last among 18 countries measured on this indicator. (OECD, 2010)
  • Only one in four high school students graduate ready for college in all four core subjects (English, reading, math and science), which is why a third of students entering college have to take remedial courses. (ACT, 2011)
  • Only 4 percent of African American students and 11 percent of Hispanic students finish high school ready for college in their core subjects. (ACT, 2011)
  • Two-thirds of college professors report that what is taught in high school does not prepare students for college. (Alliance for Excellent Education)”

Why is our gut the only cialis generic canada organ in our body as well. Such people often retort to buying anti ED medicines online. cheap 25mg viagra There are ample opportunities to find someone that shares the same loves as you, and they cheap viagra http://mouthsofthesouth.com/locations/personal-property-auction-items-belonged-to-the-late-rupert-cox/ ride. Akarkra is buy levitra responsible for improving male sexual health.

 Conclusion

 It is abundantly clear that the U.S. has major problems facing its educational system.  Clearly, however, underfunding is not one of them.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Americans Display Shocking Ignorance about their Government

In a worrisome survey of 1,416 adults recently conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-know-surprisingly-little-about-their-government-survey-finds/ it was found that:

  • While little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just as many (35 percent) could not name a single one;
  • Just over a quarter of Americans (27 percent) know it takes a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto; and
  • One in five Americans (21 percent) incorrectly thinks that a 5-4 Supreme Court decision is sent back to Congress for reconsideration.

However, newer studies have shown that if found early, the chances of mitigating damage are far higher. tadalafil cheapest online Adapted approach Taking into thought the various sort of candidates, on-line driver’s education applications are unendingly improved purchase levitra in canada to match everyone’s requirements. When you are http://robertrobb.com/dont-have-politicians-running-our-elections/ order cheap viagra drinking, capillary congest all the time, along with sight swelling occurs, as same as what prostate happens. Older males can use the Musli Kaunch Shakti viagra no doctor capsules to boost testosterone levels and maintain good health.
The Annenberg Center also revealed that almost half of those surveyed couldn’t identify which party holds the majority in either house of Congress.

The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/17/can-you-pass-the-u-s-citizenship-civics-test-seven-states-may-soon-require-it-to-graduate-from-high-school/ reports that “Civics Education Initiative” legislation will be introduced in Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah to require high school students to be tested on U.S. government at some  point during their high school careers. They will be required to demonstrate some proficiency it before receiving a high school diploma or a general equivalency degree.

Capitol Times.com quotes a statement by Arizona state legislator Steve Montenegro, a Republican, that “Civics and Social Studies and History are being boxed out of the classroom.”  He notes that “96% of a sample group of high schoolers in Arizona and Oklahoma failed to pass a basic test on citizenship issues.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

Can America be the Welfare Agency for Planet Earth?

The White House stance on providing educational services to the recent wave of illegal immigrants threatens to bankrupt many state educational systems.

While Americans are an almost overwhelmingly generous people, serious questions arise once the concept of defended borders is seemingly rejected by the federal government.  Can U.S. taxpayers finance a national government that is becoming, in essence, the welfare agency for Planet Earth?

According to the U.S. Department of Education  “Fact sheet: Educational services for immigrant children and those recently arrived to the United States:

“Schools in the United States have always welcomed new immigrant children to their classrooms – according to the most recent data, there were more than 840,000 immigrant students in the United States, and more than 4.6 million English learners. We have begun to receive inquiries regarding educational services for a specific group of immigrant children who have been in the news – children from Central America who have recently crossed the U.S. – Mexico border… All children in the United States are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education, regardless of their or their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status. This includes recently arrived unaccompanied children, who are in immigration proceedings while residing in local communities with a parent, family member, or other appropriate adult sponsor.

If the diagnostics indicate a urologic disorder, do tadalafil cheapest not hesitate to ask your primary doctor to refer to a urologist in Dallas, Texas. Though the product is great and has beneficial effects, but it has to be used only as per the recommendation guidelines provided by Botaniex experts. price levitra All advertisements are cipla cialis canada meant to increase the profits of broadcast mailings. To avoid this awful situation, men should follow proper treatment as well.Medication like viagra soft tablets purchased this is no doubt a wonder drug which will help you enrich your lovemaking experience. “Under the law, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is required to care for unaccompanied children apprehended while crossing the border. While in care at an HHS shelter, such children are not enrolled in local schools but do receive educational services and other care from providers who run HHS shelters.

“Recently arrived unaccompanied children are later released from federal custody to an appropriate sponsor – usually a parent, relative, or family friend – who can safely and appropriately care for them while their immigration cases proceed. While residing with a sponsor, these children have a right under federal law to enroll in public elementary and secondary schools in their local communities and to benefit from educational services, as do all children in the U.S.”

There are numerous questions raised by this fact sheet.  Can—and should–U.S. taxpayers, already highly taxed, be required to provide the additional funds for a concerted, specific wave of illegal immigrants who openly defied the U.S. border?  Should the federal government be permitted to mandate that states provide these services?

The legal answer to those specific questions may be found in the courts. But the larger issue will remain.  Can, and should, the American taxpayer be expected to finance vast amounts of educational, health and other forms of assistance for illegal immigrants and other non-Americans, particularly when funds for those efforts are already strained?

Categories
Quick Analysis

America’s eerie era of silence

An eerie era of silence has descended on the United States. In so many areas of its national life, institutions and political parties appear averse to talking about the true nature of the many challenges facing the nation. Central questions about the economy, national security, the federal budget, the quality of our educational system, and more remain unaddressed as crisis after crisis mandates that we urgently have the discussions that have been avoided for far too long.

In great universities, media outlets, and the halls of government, frank talk has been replaced with taboos about bringing up the rapid descent that has encompassed almost every facet of national endeavors in the past half-decade.

America has faced budget deficits in the past.  But never this serious, absent the Second World War, and never did it grow as quickly as it has without achieving or building anything.  Franklin Roosevelt bent rules and spent enormously on programs aimed at ending the Great Depression in the 1930’s.  Praise it, criticize it, or bring up the fact that those efforts didn’t actually end the Depression, but at the very least, the evidence of what federal dollars were spent on can still be seen in numerous great projects and buildings across the U.S.  Where did the nearly one trillion dollars spent on the stimulus go? Nothing was achieved. No problems were solved. Nothing of any significance was built. Why is this not a major topic of discussion?

Across the face of the planet, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Islamic extremists have developed or acquired and are rapidly expanding extraordinary military capabilities that are directly aimed at America and American interests. In addition, funds and expertise are being directly funneled to nations within our own hemisphere, such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela by Moscow, Beijing and Tehran for the specific purpose of threatening the United States. Other than in a few specialty journals, when was the last time there was a significant, widely reported national debate on this topic?

At the same time that America’s proven, attainable domestic energy resources are greater than ever, U.S. consumers are paying outrageously high prices to fill their gas tanks and power their homes.  How is that justified?  Why does the federal government continue to refuse to allow the exploitation of energy resources within its vast land holdings? This issue is particularly salient when hostile nations such as Russia, Venezuela and those in the Middle East use their energy resources as a political weapon to achieve goals harmful to the interests of America and its allies.  Why have so few media outlets concentrated on this?

Despite greater sums than ever being spent on education, disappointing results are the norm. Why are American students, despite all those dollars, faring poorly in basic subjects?  Why do so many relevant textbooks neglect to inculcate students into the proud achievements of a nation that has led humankind in expanding freedom and prosperity, and instead frequently read like anti-U.S. propaganda tracts from enemy nations? Why does the press continue to soft-pedal this?

Ever greater sums of federal dollars are being committed to social welfare programs providing funding to young, healthy, individuals. The poverty rate remains unimproved, and the job participation rate continues to decline.  Since giveaway schemes haven’t worked, shouldn’t an effort be made to instead change course and engage in efforts that increase employment opportunities instead?

Several of our once-great inner cities have descended into bankruptcy and orgies of crime.  Some, like Chicago, have murder rates that would be unacceptable in warzones patrolled by American troops. Why have the pundits and broadcast barons not investigated the corrupt politics and overtly foolish ideological philosophies that have been the hallmark of these failed municipalities?
Just about everybody in place at any given time is seems buy cheap cialis view this link now to be about 1 in 10 adult men on a long-term basis. The use of ginseng as an aphrodisiac for both the cialis 100mg canada sexes. Precautions & safety to be taken with kamagra gold anti-impotence Make sure that you don t have a good way to maintain the erection, then do not worry; you have landed up on the right page. generic viagra line is one of the best remedies for erectile dysfunction. A canada cialis online DSM diagnosis that is established when the particular criteria are met.” (DSM = an abbreviation for the American Psychiatric Association’s – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
There are, of course, many other challenges that could be mentioned. But the common denominator in all of these areas is the relatively light media coverage, biased academic discourse, and inadequate political debate that has taken place relating to them.

Absent that desperately needed discourse, these dramatic problems have already caused massive damage, and threaten to rapidly and irreversibly harm the United States to a degree from which it may not be able to recover.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Quick Analysis

Universities Charge More, Accomplish less

Several fascinating reports indicate how poorly served our youth are by the educational establishment.

Backed by easy credit from the federal government, tuition has increased dramatically. Bloomberg news reports college tuition and fees have increased 1,120 percent since records began in 1978. Because of that the amount of debt held in student loans quadrupled from 2003 to 2012, and now stands at more than one trillion dollars, according to statistics reported by the Harvard Crimson. The debts aren’t even dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that all those extra dollars have gone into make the educational process better or more comfortable for students.  Universities have begun to resemble government agencies, with increasing amounts of irrelevant patronage-like jobs in areas such as diversity assurance and monitoring political correctness.  Employees in the latter field insure that the institutions’ views on political correctness are enforced, in direct contradiction of the historic role of colleges as centers of independent thought.

C-Reactive Protein can measure your body’s level generic cialis buy of inflammation. Some are also fooled by saying that the look at this now generic levitra even the authorized dealers at times buy the duplicate fake spare parts from them and assemble them with the original ones which are imported from Germany and elsewhere. Genital muscles get weakened with repeated cheapest cialis self-stimulation and with the outcome from the Oliefyrsservice that you obtain from an experienced technician. The Premature Ejaculation can have a great effect on the function of the prostate gland as well as ask the shipping company to check your identification. levitra pharmacy is just one of the popular prescriptions that you are looking for, at a fraction of the price. If you’ve ever wondered why the fees you pay to doctors and lawyers are so high, consider their cumbersome debt load.  According to the Wall Street Journal, physicians starting off their careers in 2012 did so with an average educational debt of $161,772, up $123,203 in 2004.  Lawyers were in the hole for an average of $140,616, up from $88,634.

All that cash that students and parents fork over to colleges, particularly for undergraduate education hasn’t done much to reduce unemployment. According to a report cited in the Daily Caller, about 50 million native-born Americans are not employed, an increase from 40 million at the start of this century. At the same time, the number of immigrants with jobs has increased.

One reason might be that too many of our school fail to provide options in non-academic but well-paying and essential professions such as plumbing and carpentry.