"It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best',
You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary!"
Sir Winston Churchill
The Need
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Since No Child Left Behind was put into law and API tests took root, local and state educators have claimed that California K12 schools have made "undeniable progress." They have repeatedly sited data like that to the right, that shows years of steady API improvement. The graph is certainly encouraging. It would mean that our children and our schools reached their goal of an average API score of 800 in just over a decade! The data suggests that our state's educational crisis is behind us. It implies that state educational reforms improved student outcomes dramatically. Such gains would be more than academic, they would certainly improve the lives of millions of children, for generations to come!
So, where are the marching bands? Why are state educators and politicians not singing their own praises? Why are incumbent candidates not using this as a sure fire way to get reelected? What was the educational reform that caused such tremendous improvement? Why are we not hearing all about it? |
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You do not hear much, if anything, about it because, it is not the whole story. If it were, it would mean that the average California student was learning far more today than students did 10 to 15 years ago. It would mean that No Child Left Behind, or the reforms it drove, worked, marvelously. It would mean that our state's educators know how to fundamentally improve student outcomes. It would mean that they know how to turn failing schools into highly successful ones. It would mean that we, the public, should trust them and their reforms. This kind of progress, on a scale this large (5 million students across all of California), would frankly, be unbelievable!
It would mean that about twice as many teens are now prepared for college, and that our schools have saved about 2 million more California students from having to face today's modern world as a high school dropout or with an inadequate education. It would raise millions out of poverty, grow the middle class, eliminate income inequalities, and make All America stronger.
There is one problem. This is a half-truth. Yes, California K12 API scores improved. However, teen outcomes on other objective tests such as the NAEP (the National Assessment of Educational Progress, AKA The Nation's Report Card), SAT and ACT exams has remained dead flat. How is that possible? I contend, that it is exactly what you would expect, if we only listened to our teachers. For years, they have been telling us that they have been teaching to the test. This disparity in results merely confirms what they have said.
Our schools have been so focused on beating this particular test that they have neglected to develop real reforms that actually improve student subject mastery. As a result, California students scored markedly better on California's state-run test, but they HAVE NOT done better on other objective tests. This means that the subject mastery of our teens really has not actually improved. I know it sounds hard to believe with so much apparent progress? But, this was largely confirmed, when the results started coming in on California's next generation of testing. The results showed a "reset" in student performance to older, beginning, failing levels of student performance.
What good will that do our kids? It does not help to pretend they know more. They actually need to learn more. So, how do we determine who really did improve results, and who did not? What reforms work, and what reforms do not? Who knows what to do?
It would mean that about twice as many teens are now prepared for college, and that our schools have saved about 2 million more California students from having to face today's modern world as a high school dropout or with an inadequate education. It would raise millions out of poverty, grow the middle class, eliminate income inequalities, and make All America stronger.
There is one problem. This is a half-truth. Yes, California K12 API scores improved. However, teen outcomes on other objective tests such as the NAEP (the National Assessment of Educational Progress, AKA The Nation's Report Card), SAT and ACT exams has remained dead flat. How is that possible? I contend, that it is exactly what you would expect, if we only listened to our teachers. For years, they have been telling us that they have been teaching to the test. This disparity in results merely confirms what they have said.
Our schools have been so focused on beating this particular test that they have neglected to develop real reforms that actually improve student subject mastery. As a result, California students scored markedly better on California's state-run test, but they HAVE NOT done better on other objective tests. This means that the subject mastery of our teens really has not actually improved. I know it sounds hard to believe with so much apparent progress? But, this was largely confirmed, when the results started coming in on California's next generation of testing. The results showed a "reset" in student performance to older, beginning, failing levels of student performance.
What good will that do our kids? It does not help to pretend they know more. They actually need to learn more. So, how do we determine who really did improve results, and who did not? What reforms work, and what reforms do not? Who knows what to do?
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Fortunately, I am a bit of a data wonk. I spent about ten years as a quality and/or operations manager. I learned how to better use data to fight chronic quality problems, and had great success. Our state's ongoing poor K12 educational outcomes is such a problem.
It took a while, but I did find a fantastic way to reconcile the Big Disconnect between great state API results, and our student's poor performance on more objective national exams. Ultimately, I used a few statistical techniques to correct, or adjust, our API scores to eliminate what I call, API Inflation. The results are scary. They should be a call to action. I call this new metric, The Measure of Mastery, or MoM Score. It qualitatively shows our teen's real level of subject mastery over this same period of time. To make it more meaningful to parents and educators, I plot the data on the full 1000 point API scale and add letter grades that correspond to these results. |
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As you can see, the data clearly indicates that our state's school strategies have led to NO REAL MEASURABLE PROGRESS in student outcomes. Student outcomes are dead flat. No achievement gaps have been closed. No progress has been made.
The full truth is that nearly every student demographic, including whites, on average, really fails to learn what they should. When one includes the millions that dropout, this means that over 75% of California teens either dropout or fail.
Our teens are not ready for college. Sadly, based on this, most should not have been allowed to graduate from high school.
In an ever changing, more globally competitive world - where a college degree is the new prerequisite - this simply is not acceptable. Our
kids deserve better, bolder solutions! California, no America, needs schools that fully prepare nearly every child for college, and a world of abundant choice and abundant opportunity.
NewERA Schools can do just that. NewERA's model not only addresses modern educational issues, it tackles today's very real modern economic, social and familial issues head on. Maybe, it's time for something better. Maybe, it's time for NewERA style schools.
Take a look for yourself, at our vision, at our model, and at our ideas. We think you will agree.
The full truth is that nearly every student demographic, including whites, on average, really fails to learn what they should. When one includes the millions that dropout, this means that over 75% of California teens either dropout or fail.
Our teens are not ready for college. Sadly, based on this, most should not have been allowed to graduate from high school.
In an ever changing, more globally competitive world - where a college degree is the new prerequisite - this simply is not acceptable. Our
kids deserve better, bolder solutions! California, no America, needs schools that fully prepare nearly every child for college, and a world of abundant choice and abundant opportunity.
NewERA Schools can do just that. NewERA's model not only addresses modern educational issues, it tackles today's very real modern economic, social and familial issues head on. Maybe, it's time for something better. Maybe, it's time for NewERA style schools.
Take a look for yourself, at our vision, at our model, and at our ideas. We think you will agree.
Want To Learn More? Get Your Copy Today!
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The above information, while shocking, controversial, and perhaps confrontational, is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to the story, much more to learn. The public does not understand the real state of our schools. If they did, more would be done.
And, only a few know how to help all our teens beat the odds, regardless of circumstance. I hope to change this, once and for all. I have detailed my 10+ year journey, and what I have learned in an upcoming book. I call it, A Nation At Even Greater Risk, to highlight how little has been accomplished since the original effort was published over 30 years ago. The information, the insight contained in this new analysis is paramount to improving the education and lives of our children. Those who make the time to read it, will learn that just everything we have heard, and just about everything most of us now believe on the subject of K12 Educational reform, is wrong. I promise your thinking will be turned upside down. This work has the potential to completely change conventional wisdom, and with your help, political will. |
The good news is that it is possible to full prepare nearly every child for college, career and a life of choice. It does not even need to cost more. America's children can compete academically with others across the globe. It is possible for all our teens to beat the odds, regardless of one's socio-economic circumstance. There are schools, and leaders, that know what works.
The question remains, will we? America, we can, but we have to change what we have been doing, and who we have been listening to.
The question remains, will we? America, we can, but we have to change what we have been doing, and who we have been listening to.