Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

227 “TOTAL P RESENTATION S ET FOR E DUCATORS ” WAS THE HEADLINE OF AN ARTICLE IN THE Tyler [Texas] Morning Telegraph of October 31, 1985 (Sec. 3, p. 3). Excerpts follow: Texas Objectives for Total Academic Learning [TOTAL] will be revealed to Texas educators on Nov. 7 in Houston when four staff members of Region VII Education Service Center of Kilgore, make a presentation to the Texas Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, (affiliate of the national organization ASCD).... The foursome will describe TOTAL, share samples of productivity and give information on how to obtain the materials through their regional service centers.... Project TOTAL was born in Kilgore in January 1984 and matured during the reform-wrought summer after passage of House Bill 246 and its implementation of Chapter 75 by the Legislature.... Some 1500 teachers and 100 administrators in 75 districts of Region VII’s Northeast Texas area were involved [in producing] the 5,000 pages of materials to aid school districts in complying with the law.... TOTAL provides foundation curriculum documents written in “teacher talk” encom passing essential elements. It addresses all 13 subject areas of essential elements from kin dergarten through 12th grade: English, language arts, mathematics, science, health, physical education, Texas and U.S. history, and computer literacy. These elements are developed into actual plans which teachers may use in helping students master the essential elements.... Objectives, activities and resources are suggested for each, and also suggested are means of evaluation to see how well students have mastered each objective.... “The big weakness I see is in the resource listings,” she said. “We are trying to widen teachers’ horizons where they haven’t used much except textbooks and to give them added software that can be brought to their attention and should be available by fall 1986.” [Ed. Note: The above article was selected to explain the process employed by the states to implement mastery learning/direct instruction in the early 1980s as a response to A Nation at Risk . The writer of this book wrote Ross Perot, who spearheaded the Texas education reform movement in the early 1980s, warning him of the intent behind reform and providing him with valuable documentation from the U.S. Department of Education. The writer received a return receipt for the materials, but no response.] M AINE ’ S S TATE D EPARTMENT OF E DUCATION 1985 A SSESSMENT OF E DUCATIONAL P ROGRESS [MAEP] test item bank, based in part on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test items, included the following correct answer as to why the Soviets occupied Eastern Europe after World War II: [Correct answer] Soviet occupation was primarily a result of the Soviet Union’s desire for security along its borders. [Ed. Note: One cannot help but wonder how the international community would have responded to the United States’ occupation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba, the West Indies, Greenland, and Iceland in order to “secure its borders.”] The "Effective" Eighties : c. 1985

M AINE F ACILITATOR C ENTER FLYER REGARDING A TEACHER TRAINING SEMINAR FOR “M OD els of Teaching” by Bruce Joyce et al. was distributed in 1985. Under the heading “Information Pro