Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

446 izing schools, depending on the results of individual children’s proficiency test scores, is now being widely implemented across America. Children will pass or fail based upon these test scores. Teachers will be rewarded or penalized based on the test scores of children in their classrooms. Schools which do not function up to par will be shut down or “managed.” Under increasing pressure, teachers will be devoting massive amounts of time to “teach to the test.” And the teaching method of choice will be direct instruction/mastery learning which drills the students like robots until they can spout out the correct answer without thinking. One might wonder how Ohio students and schools fared with their first run-through of these new tests. The Akron Beacon Journal , in a follow-up article “State Ranking of Schools Sure to Rankle: Many Area Districts Are Scoring Very Poorly in Statewide Evaluation (April 6, 1999) reported: About 1.8 million report cards went into the mail yesterday to the parents of each of Ohio’s public school children.... While showing that students in general are doing better, especially on the state’s ninth grade proficiency tests, math continues to be a weak spot. And many schools in the area are falling short of academic goals, according to the reports. This year, only 15 of Ohio’s 611 school districts achieved the highest rating of “effective.” Not one of the 62 school districts in Summit, Stark, Portage, Medina or Wayne counties was in that elite group.... Akron Superintendent Brian Williams—whose district met only one of the 18 crite ria—prepared the parents of his district for bad news by sending a letter home last week.] T HE C ONFERENCE B OARD ( ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL INTERNATIONAL GROUPS PRO moting the world management/control system and workforce training in the schools) advertised its “1999 Strategic Learning Conference: A Tool Kit to Power Business Performance” to be held March 29–30, 1999 at the Marriott World Trade Center, New York City. On the front of the brochure at the very bottom it states, “The collective wisdom of executives worldwide.” In regard to the subject of the conference, it states: The Strategic Learning Model was developed by Professor William Pietersen at Columbia Business School. At this conference, he and other leading-edge thinkers and corporate prac titioners will walk you through a framework—from beginning to end—that will demonstrate how to create systematic learning initiatives that can result in better business strategy and bottom-line results. “Dry stuff, that,” you say. Not at all. Under the “Making or Breaking Strategy through Culture” one reads: “Culture is the key to success. This fundamental dimension of your stra tegic development can determine success or failure. Find out how to ensure you create a strong culture of success.” Carlos Rivero, Ph.D., director of research, Delta Consulting, and Robert Bontempo, professor of executive education at Columbia Business School, are the presenters. The last two highlighted comments in this particular section state in distinctly Skinnerian terms the following:

What Gets Measured Gets Done