Set Our Teachers FREE!

According to a report in EducationWeek.org:

“New results from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today, show U.S. students ranking lower, on average, than their peers in 16 other countries in science, out of 30 developed nations taking part in the exam.”

So what’s new here? Well, these scores put our students somewhere in the middle, instead of at the very bottom. Does this mean it’s time to celebrate? I don’t think so. The report continues:

“The test measures the performance of 15-year-old students, regardless of grade level, examining the skills they pick up both in the classroom and outside school, as well as their ability to apply that knowledge to a variety of situations.

In science—the main subject tested on the 2006 PISA—American students scored an average of 489, below the international average among industrialized nations of 500, on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Finland, which has shone in worldwide comparisons in recent years, notched the top science score of 563, followed by Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.”

These scores were even lower than the last time students were tested internationally by PISA in 2003. And the news is even worse in math.

“In math, which was tested in less depth on this PISA, American teenagers fared even worse, producing an average score of 474, 24 points below the international average of 498 among the 30 participating industrialized countries. Finland also landed on top in math.

The top-scoring American students’ averages were statistically worse than those for 23 of those nations, and equal to only those of Spain and Portugal. Just four countries—Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Mexico scored lower than the United States.”

When are we going to wake up to the need for reform in our schools?

While politicos and academic committees come up with massively expensive programs that will take years, and tears, to implement - there is a simple plan just waiting to be put into effect.

The Kingsland Plan, which is presented in a simple little book entitled “Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan to Save Public Education” by Don Kingsland has solutions that can turn our schools around within 2-3 years and would be far more economical than the unrealistic and more expensive plans that have been suggested or implemented to date.

What is especially important to know about The Kingsland Plan is that the techniques have already been proven to work in actual practice.

Policymakers and academicians KNOW we have a problem, but nothing is going to change until the public gets involved and DEMANDS changes.