Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

191 Many of the key components of the United States’ education reform movement (effective schools movement) were discussed by delegates from member countries. The main topic appeared to be a subject entitled “CBAM” about which absolutely nothing was said in the invitational papers sent to delegates planning to attend. The writer was bewildered by the term “CBAM” until it appeared in the U.S. Department of Education-funded project “Changing Teacher Practice, Final Report of an Experimental Study—Gary A. Griffin, Principal Investigator, Susan Barnes, Sharon O’Neal, Sara E. Edwards, Maria E. Defino, Hobart Hukill—Report No. 9052, Research and Development Center for Teacher Education, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712.” Within the project report there is discussion of the application of “behavioral science for systems improvement.” The “Changing Teacher Practice” project contained the “Concerns-Based Adoption Model” (CBAM), which illustrated the extent of psychological manipulation undergone by teachers who resist change. The following excerpt explains the purpose of “Concerns-Based Adoption Model” as a support tool to assist teachers through the painful process of “change”: The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) provides a structure for staff development plan ning which focuses on the process of change as a personal experience (Hall & Loucks, 1978, Note 19). The perceptions, feelings, motivations, frustrations, and satisfactions of teachers about an innovation are identified and classified according to a developmental scheme of stages. The process of change by which a person moves through these stages is attended to so that an innovation can be implemented. Concerns-based staff development recognizes and accepts as legitimate the concerns of the person involved in the change process. Change is regarded as long term and developmental, and individuals are perceived to need support as they experience change. In this model any process or product that the teacher has not previously encountered is regarded as an innovation for that teacher. (p. 37) [Ed. Note: The information regarding the ISIP conference in Palm Beach is taken from a July 9,1982 letter from J.R. Gass of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Center for Educational Research and Innovation to Donald J. Senese, assistant secretary for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. Such international meetings at which international education/workforce training agenda items are discussed take place regularly. OERI and CERI are closely connected in the work they carry out for OECD, UNESCO and the United Nations.] The "Effective" Eighties : c. 1982 “B ETWEEN C LASSES —W HAT C OST , A CCOUNTABILITY ?” BY T ERRY L. F ORTHUM , TEACHER and editor of the state newspaper of the Arizona Federation of Teachers, was published in the October 1982 issue of the The Arizona Forum . Excerpts follow from this thought-provoking article: If accountability becomes the ultimate goal of education and all areas of education are reduced to “components” measurable by standardized testing, education will no longer be a learning process but a cloning process for both the teacher and the student. The prior ity questions for education in the future may well be: Why can’t Johnny think? Why can’t Johnny enjoy? Why can’t Johnny feel? Why can’t Carbon Unit J smile?... The panic caused by educational studies of the Why Can’t Johnny Read variety has created a new educational priority—ACCOUNTABILITY. In its purest form, accountability aids the profession and the professional in maintaining standards of excellence. The results of any attempt to “monitor” the profession and therefore make it accountable can only be