Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

286 And we need a system of measuring achievement that will tell parents how well their sons and daughters are doing compared with what they need to know to get ahead—not compared to what a kid in another county or another state knows [outcome-based education which replaces norm-referenced testing with criterion-based testing]. It’s time to shift the power back to the teachers and principals [site-based management which abolishes the power of elected school boards]. Under the Georgia Public Policy Plan, “ready for life” means having the knowledge and skills to be successful in life as a citizen, employee and person. Earning a basic high school diploma should mean one is ready for life [UNESCO’s lifelong learning and elements of competency-based/outcomes-based education]. Second, create a new statewide assessment system which: (a) measures the extent to which individual students are meeting the standards; (b) provides information on school performance for parent selection of schools; and (c) gives employers an objective and mean ingful way to assess the capabilities of job applicants by requiring a uniform exit assessment to earn a high school diploma [the controversial National Assessment of Educational Progress which measures students’ attitudes and beliefs, and school-to-work, SCANS]. Academic standards should include knowledge, concepts, and skills that all students, college-bound and job-bound, need to master [school-to-work, mastery learning]. These standards are currently being developed at the national level by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) [no local representation]. The academic standards will: (a) identify the core competencies that all students should master at key transition points in their education careers, and (b) identify the skills and knowledge that students must master to earn a high school diploma.... These academic standards will also include knowledge and skills needed for responsible citizenship; per sonal skills required to get, keep, and progress on a job; and social skills needed to work with others on a job [Certificate of Initial Mastery, lifelong learning, SCANS, OBE, mastery learning, and school-to-work]. In conjunction with the National Education Goals Panel, a new voluntary nationwide examination system is being developed based on the five core subjects that are tied to the new national academic standards. Georgia should adopt this new examination system as soon as it is available for implementation. [This “voluntary nationwide examination system,” which circumvents local control, has metamorphosed into a mandated nationwide examination for which legislation has been before Congress since 1997.] The State of Georgia should take this opportunity to request that the NAEP reauthor- iza tion… include a provision allowing any state that wishes to use the NAEP tests on a school by-school basis to do so [NAEP was not designed to be a school-by-school comparison]. There are three integral and inseparable concepts that will “free the teachers” and “free the parents”—Deregulation, School Autonomy and Parental Choice. [Ed. Note: How can there be “freedom” for parents and teachers when schools are run by un elected (unaccountable) councils which must conform their curriculum to Goals 2000 —national standards, national tests, resulting in a nationalized (socialist) education system?] One of the guiding philosophies of this plan is that government funding for K–12 edu cation should be targeted to the child—not the school district. Each and every school-aged child will be entitled to public support for his or her education. Parents can use the child’s publicly funded “scholarship” at any school where the child meets admission requirements. Exceptions would be schools that fail to meet state performance standards, or private schools that choose not to participate.