Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

271 • Link schools with universities and other sources of information to help teachers expand their knowledge of teaching and learning. • Strengthen the clinical experience by placing teacher candidates in schools that are restructuring. • Provide time for teacher renewal, collaboration and the acquisition of new skills, understandings and attitudes. • Provide incentives for teachers to receive national board certification. • Develop multiple ways to measure progress to avoid “high stakes” testing and teach ing to a single test. • Develop “outcomes-based” accreditation procedures. • Provide rewards for high-achieving schools and sanctions for low-achieving schools. • Create programs that engage students in community service. • Collaborate with other social service agencies to fully serve the needs of all chil dren. The Noxious Nineties : c. 1990 • Develop business/education partnerships. Use technology to explore new ways to deliver instruction… not as an “add-on” to the traditional lecture, recite, test method of instruction. • Be prepared to handle policy decisions on jurisdiction over distance learning; i.e., teacher certification, textbook and curriculum approval. The ECS/NGA Restructuring Workshops were supported by grants from the American Express Foundation, ARCO Foundation, BellSouth Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Control Data Corporation and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. I N 1990 M ARC T UCKER ’ S N ATIONAL C ENTER ON E DUCATION AND THE E CONOMY (NCEE) of Roch ester, New York published America’s Choice: High Skills or Low Wages! which asserted: Once youth centers are established, we propose that the child labor laws be amended to make the granting of work permits to young people up to age 18 contingent on either their possession of a certificate of initial mastery [CIM] or their enrollment in a program leading to the certificate. At first glance, this may seem draconian. But in the long run this requirement will benefit our youth and ultimately the nation. [Ed. Note: The “Certificate of Initial Mastery” (CIM) is a device which is copyrighted to the private sector National Center on Education and the Economy to be used by the public schools.] • Encourage parental involvement. • Create public school choice plans. • Provide incentives to reward accomplishments. • Align and revise state policies to support restructuring.

T HE S TATE OF M AINE TOOK A LEADERSHIP POSITION IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A SCHOOL - to-work system in 1990. The following excerpts from The School to Work Revolution by Lynn Olson