Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

215 the trade-offs between accuracy and [applicability] generally have tended to be composed of low-level generalizations that lack conceptual sophistication, such as direct instruction, academic learning time, and mastery learning. (p. 30–45) The "Effective" Eighties : c. 1984

G RANT APPLICATION FROM F AR W EST L ABORATORY FOR E DUCATIONAL R ESEARCH AND D EVEL opment to the U.S. Department of Education for “Excellence in Instructional Delivery Systems: Research and Dissemination of Exemplary Outcome-Based Programs” was approved by T.H. Bell in 1984. William Spady, director of the Far West Laboratory, carried out this project—which came to be known as the infamous “Utah Grant.” The following cover letter from Utah Superintendent of Public Instruction Leland Burningham to Secretary of Education T.H. Bell, dated July 27, 1984, is reproduced in its entirety: I am forwarding this letter to accompany the proposal which you recommended Bill Spady and I prepare in connection with Outcome-Based Education. This proposal centers around the detailed process by which we will work together to implement Outcome-Based Education using research verified programs. This will make it possible to put outcome-based education in place, not only in Utah but in all schools of the nation. For those who desire, we will stand ready for regional and national dissemination of the Outcome-Based Education program. We are beginning to see positive, preliminary results from some of the isolated schools in Utah which have implemented Outcome-Based Education. These positive indicators are really exciting! We sincerely urge your support for funding the proposal as presented. Attached to the grant application was Spady’s “Summary of Professional Experience” which included “Senior Research Consultant to the Washington, D.C. schools” during 1977– 1978—the same time the D.C. schools implemented mastery learning. In a Washington Post article dated August 1, 1977, entitled “Competency Tests Set in 26 Schools,” Thomas Sticht—who was later named to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole’s Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)—was also mentioned as an associate director at the National Institute of Education (NIE) at the time mastery learning was implemented in the D.C. schools. The Post article quoted Sticht extensively, verifying that he and Spady were both deeply involved in the implementation of the new mastery learning curriculum. Later, in 1987, The Washington Post again paraphrased Sticht as follows: Many companies have moved operations to places with cheap, relatively poorly educated labor. What may be crucial, they say, is the dependability of a labor force and how well it can be managed and trained, not its general educational level, although a small cadre of highly educated creative people is essential to innovation and growth. Ending discrimina Dear Secretary Bell: Warmest regards, G. Leland Burningham State Superintendent of Public Instruction