Set Our Teachers FREE!

I think I’m gonna become a non-partisan think tank. Sounds like a good job, and you get to publish reports on anything you want. Just gather some statistics, twist ‘em around to back up whatever hypothesis you started with, and get published. Yep! That’s the job for me. (In fact, there are probably people who would say I’m already doing that. I just never thought to call myself a “think tank” before.)

O.K. Stop ranting and get back to reality, Brennan.

I was just reading an article in Business Week about the alleged “Science Education Myth”. The article details a new report by the Urban Institute (they’re already a non-partisan think tank) that supposedly disproves the alleged weaknesses and failures of the U.S. Education system.

Some way, some how, the authors of the report have come to the conclusion

“. . .math, science and reading test scores at the primary and secondary level have increased over the past two decades, and U.S. students are now close to the top of international rankings.”

These conclusions are in direct contrast with the facts found in the national educational report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” by the National Academy of Sciences. And every other report and study I’ve found. Also contrary to what industry leaders such as Bill Gates, thousands of other employers across the USA, and even the President of the United States report, after consulting with all the experts they have available to them.

This report points to the fact that high school graduates earned more math credits and science credits in 1998 than they did in 1982. Also, the percentage of students taking chemistry increased from 45% in 1990 to 60% in 2004. This report goes on to say that we are ranking a consistent 2nd place in science internationally and that EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD IS WRONG because they are not interpreting the data correctly!

What the report fails to mention is that the percentages taking these math and science classes are higher because SO MANY STUDENTS ARE NOT GRADUATING. For example: ten students taking math in a class of 50 would yield 20%, BUT if five of those 50 students drop out, the percentage of math students jumps to 22%. If 25 students drop out (50% dropout rate), the percentages jump to a WHOPPING 40%. And you can do the math to figure out what the percentages would be in schools where the graduation rate is only 25%.

Apparently, it never occurred to these researchers to question whether other countries around the globe earned more math and science credits as well, or whether more of those students are taking chemistry also. What we Americans are going to have to wake up to and realize is that we are LOSING children (half or more in some areas) that NEVER graduate under our current system, AND that the students who are graduating are falling farther and farther behind the rest of the globe.

There are only two things that I can wholeheartedly agree with in this article.

• 1st - With all the emphasis on teaching our students math and science, we are graduating more scientists than there are science jobs for.
  (Could this be another indicator of problems in our schools? Or is it just wonderful that some few students are learning the scientific approach and are capable of critical thinking, no matter WHAT career they decide to pursue?)




• 2nd - U.S. children are capable of excelling.

I have never said that U.S. children aren’t smart. As a mother of six, a grandmother of 19, and a great-grandmother of six, I have first-hand knowledge of how very bright, inquisitive and brilliant our children can be. Yes, our children are smart! So why do we have dropout rates of 50% to 75% in our country?

We may be graduating more scientists than there are jobs for (really smart, huh?), but we are losing a whole lot more of our young people with the current system we have in place.

Are we next to best? Or are we falling behind everybody else?

As tempting as it would be to be a think tank, I think I’ll have to side with EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD WHO IS WRONG on this one.

It is NOT a myth that our schools are failing our young people. From K-12 through college, we need CHANGE. Only a non-partisan think tank could believe otherwise.

Brennan

Filed under: Education News