"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Monday, November 04, 2013

Rude and uninformed

Re: Chris Christie says story about teacher confrontation was misrepresented, Nov 4.
American schools are not the "failure factories" Gov. Christie claims they are: The only serious problem with American education is the rate of child poverty, 23%, the second highest among industrialized countries. High poverty means poor nutrition, poor health care, lack of access to books, all of which are associated with low school performance.
When researchers control for poverty, American students' international test scores rank near the top of the world.
We need to invest in food programs, health care and libraries, and support, not scream at, the teachers who are doing so well under very difficult conditions.
Gov. Christie is not only rude, he is uninformed.
Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

Sources:  Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13;
Bracey, G. 2009. The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report. Berliner, D. 2011. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism, Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools. Amsterdam: Sense Publishers.
Tienken, C. 2010. Common core state standards: I wonder? Kappa Delta Phi Record 47 (1): 14-17.
Carnoy, M and Rothstein, R. 2013, What Do International Tests Really Show Us about U.S. Student Performance. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/).

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/chris_christie_says_story_about_teacher_confrontation_was_misrepresented.html
this letter posted at: http://tinyurl.com/qzmmcze

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