Don’t Abolish the Department of Education, Fix It – Make America Educated Again
The Department of Education is broken, there’s no doubt about that. As Linda McMahon takes the helm, the stated objective has been to close it down completely.
Our educational performance has declined relative to the rest of the world, in some cases reaching crisis levels, all under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Education.
Realistically, the U.S. may never be ranked number one in education. We are the quintessential melting pot, home to a diverse mix of cultures, including many who are new to the country and don’t speak English. This means our national average will never match that of homogenous countries like Finland or South Korea, where educational methods are efficiently tailored to a single culture. We may also find ourselves trailing behind China at times, given their selective approach to student performance statistics.
I can go into my speech on how diversity makes us richer, how the fusion of cultures enhances our food, music, art, science, and even business. And the evidence for our success is clear: we lead the world in culture, innovation, commerce and more.
Still, we need a strong national focus on education, even if the Department of Education is far from perfect.
What Should the Department of Education Do?
Two key things:
1. Testing
If you don’t test, you can’t measure. If you can’t measure, you can’t improve.
Students. We already have solid testing mechanisms in place for student, such as the SAT and ACT. While some universities have moved away from these tests due to concerns over bias, they still provide a strong foundation. Additional measures such as college acceptance rates, job placement success, and real-world competency in reading, writing, and math, could help refine our understanding of educational outcomes.
Teachers. More importantly, we must test teachers and this is a key component that we lack. The issue isn’t how intelligent they are, it’s whether they are effectively teaching their students. Are their students mastering the skills promised by the American education system? Teachers should be rated by how well their students are doing relative to their peers and in competition with other teachers.
Unions will fight this tooth and nail, for obvious reasons. But the reality is simple: ineffective teachers should be fired. Higher salaries may be warranted, but they won’t improve education if we can’t remove those who fail to do their job. In our editorial opinion, teacher’s unions have done more to sabotage our education system than any other factor.
Schools. We must also evaluate schools. Are they meeting the standards we set? From what I’ve seen, we already do a lot of this, and we do it well. Expanding school choice will only make these ratings more important, pushing the system toward continuous improvement. Compare budgets, hiring methods, administrative methods of successful versus unsuccessful schools. School evaluations in combination with the student and teacher evaluations means that states have a clear data for a path to remedies for bad schools, and for rewarding good ones.
2. Advice
The Department of Education should study the methods of successful schools and share them with struggling ones. Award-winning teachers could be incentivized to teach at underperforming schools for a few years through stipends or grants.
If we taught responsibility and work ethic at an early age, many later problems would take care of themselves. High schools should also teach basic finance and life skills, perhaps even earlier. Rote memorization has gone out of fashion, but without it (at least in some cases) the next level of learning is crippled.
The Bottom Line?
Fire everyone and start fresh – but keep a national focus on education. Keep a light touch, but provide honest and objective evaluations of our schools. Not too much budget, since too much money is coercive – states need to manage their own schools without the political whims of the Federal Government.
If we do this incorrectly without the objective measurements, then we are regressing toward and ever-decreasing mean. Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? But properly targeted tests can provide simplified feedback to the states as to how they are doing, and allow them to manage and implement the equivalent of Tony Robbin’s “Constant and Never Ending Improvement.
Let’s Make America Educated Again.
“Our educational performance has declined relative to the rest of the world, in some cases reaching crisis levels, all under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Education.”
Is this really true the our public schools are under the oversight of the DoE? Pretty neat trick since the State/Local governments hold 85% of the budget, and the Fed holds less than 15% which is not exactly funding oversight or curriculum. Most DoE funding goes to student aid.
I don’t think the fed creates curriculums; state and locals do.
The fed does mandate testing but state and locals select the tests.
The U.S. Department of Education collects standardized test data
The U.S. Department of Education issues a “report card” to each state every two years
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) aggregates test results into a state report card
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) directs states to measure student performance in math, reading, and science
On the teacher-testing that Joe want, let me ask: were you tested every year at the CIA?
Teachers are tested to get the job; it’s called certification. After that, it’s based on the state and local, not the fed. Most states use yearly evaluations, I am guessing just like the life of Joe and the rest of us. Teachers in many states are further tested simply enough by using their student’s scores. Some states have further tests, most have live real time classroom evaluation observations, something I am gathering Joe never went through —- nor I.
I live by an adage: the simpler the job, the more experts one will fine. We all understand teaching, we all have experienced it, there are many experts, but as Joe shows —– he can’t even determine the roles and responsibilities of fed, state, and local, but feels the expertise to make recommendations.
That said: Joe brings up an interesting point about sharing best-of-class “secrets” across school systems. No shit Sherlock!!! Add on to that every fucking thing each of our fifty state “experiments” returns. Why stop at education? NJ has the most expensive property tax in the US —- heh, can we learn something? Same with fixing a freaking pothole here. NJ has a very low number of gun deaths, can Joe’s state of FL learn something? Joe’s state has pretty good public ed; and a really good price tag. NJ pays like number 5 but has the number 1 public schools; perhaps FL and NJ can learn from each other.
I think Joe has a good one here, but why stop at the schools? I just don’t get why the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT does not do this across the States for so many things that they state RIGHTfully manage.
15% is substantial enough to hold sway.
I was given performance appraisals every year (no, not based on how many people I killed).
Being certified doesn’t mean you are successful in conveying information to students. If you are a plumber and your pipe repairs leak, it really doesn’t matter that you are certified. The key is to be able to fire bad teachers. Then you can raise salaries and it will make a difference in the quality of education.
We have to define what “success” looks like and move in that direction. Data helps, teachers unions are in the way.
I agree, 15% can be enough to hold sway and for many schools, may even force change. But your statement about the Fed having oversight does not ring true. They do provide insight, via the test mandate and data collection, they may set standards in terms of results, a minimum “bar” if you will, but they do not tell the schools what to do: state and local government does that. The 15% being mostly student aid, with much of the rest being “program” grants targeted to special efforts like the disabled, really isn’t the sway you are talking about.
My point exactly on the performance appraisals that basically most Americans get them, teachers too. Teachers also get “live, real time” evaluations, how many of us have to go through that shit? Question: I thought you were in operations, not a field agent? Just guessing since those who talk of killing, normally don’t, IMO. Of course, you are a spy, so you lie for a living, right? I am in business, me too :>) but we call it “marketing.” I not only had evaluations, I ran evaluations and pay treatment for my team. I will tell you —— it was as much about the politics as it was the performance on the pay at AT&T. The politics being mine as in lobbying for more cash amongst other managers for a fixed pot of gold. I credit my mentor.
Actually, board certification DOES say you will be successful in conveying information to students, and if it doesn’t, then fix the test, not the teachers; they are not broken, your analysis is. And the metric of testing teachers against standardized test results IS the test you think is missing.
And yes, even with certification, with passing certification, there are failures. That’s where yearly evaluations come in, where grading teachers based on student results come in. You make it sound like chaos out of control and it is not that.
US News, out of 89 countries, puts our public-school ratings at 12. That means there’s 12 countries we can learn from, starting with Denmark, UK, Sweden, and Finland. *https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/well-developed-public-education-system* Then, follow the money: the US spends $30K per student. Denmark: 28K, Sweden 28K, UK 26K, Finland 26K —– it ain’t the money. *https://www.statista.com/statistics/238733/expenditure-on-education-by-country/*
I think your idea of finding “best in class” and then making it so IS a major idea behind States Rights today. Like I said, this concept should be used for many a States endeavor at providing services to the people. As you can see from my last response, I have thought this should be used across the board for years. I mean FL education costs less, performs pretty well, and we don’t know why. NJ’s costs a lot but we are the best, but is money the reason why? Giving FL, I say not entirely, but maybe FL needs to spend a tad more to beat NJ. Who knows, and that’s your point —- we should. And then take the best-of-class to Europe where the better systems exist.
Another conundrum: given we are 12th in public school, why are we 1st in advanced education? How did our dumb high schoolers get so smart four years later? Just kidding, but we have 7 out of 10 of the top advanced education colleges and universities, the other three in UK. So, how did we get that right? One of the seven is a State University too. So I guess you could do that private versus public thing, but then I could come back with —- they are all liberal too!
As to what “success” looks like, I think in our case it’s the standardized tests that define it in our current system. I am in a far different place and I would say “success” is to change to what we teach as well as how we teach, but I am way out of the box. I think our current education is structured for success in the industrial world when the US is in a post-industrial world and therefore the entire system is wrong. We don’t need factory workers, we need inventors, creators, and embellishers. We need to imagine new things, make it so, and make vast improvements to existing things. Let China and others manufacture them, we need to be educated to learn how to imagine and invent what does not exist today. We need to learn HOW to think, HOW to invent, HOW to create. Let China make the things we invent. That’s where the big money is. That’s our future, if we want to continue our success, and we need to educate to that. And nothing we are discussing here touches that.
One last question. Why do Republicans who deny scientific and medical conclusions even care about education? I mean if all news is fake, science gets it wrong, and medical —— jesus, they made the covid vaccine….. why do you even care? Just kidding, but it is a conundrum. Not to mention your feelings about school budgets…..
Bottom line: we are 12th out of 89. Not the sky is falling scenario you paint I think. We may be good, but certainly room to improve and your ideas, not bad, IMO, and the best-of-class is a no-shit-Sherlock moment that one one seems to hear. But big changes are going to be hard. My state pays too much, but we are number one so we will be loathe to change unless it’s a no-brainer improvement of little risk. Most often I ask proponents of change in NJ, what’s the risk to our number 1 standing in what you are suggesting? Cuz it better be great if there’s risk to our standing, especially going after the money since, in our case, it seems to work. I think your state is in the same boat, do you really want to fuck with your lower cost, great returns for public school in Florida? Really?
Good discussion. That’s how it’s done mate.
Teachers are not currently evaluated on how their students do, and they certainly are not fired when their students do poorly. It is certainly a complex task, since shop class isn’t covered on the standardized test, but it could still be done effectively. Yes, standardized test are important and they tell us we are failing, but they do not provide enough as to where teachers or administrators are failing.
You say “we need inventors, creators, etc” as if basic education is not important. Try doing calculus without having first memorized your multiplication tables. Try writing a book when you haven’t had basic spelling and grammar courses, try being an artist not having learned basic art skills. You don’t get to be a black belt without having learned white belt skills and even a below average black belt can kick the crap out of someone with talent but with no training.
Republican are more attuned to science and data than Democrats, that has always been obvious. The problem is the Democrats do not understand the scientific method which is basically to question everything when more data becomes available.
When graduating students to not have the preparation or the motivation to keep a job that is a problem. Several people have said to me “you are not hiring anyone under 30 right? They will have excuses will never get any work done and won’t stick around anyway.” And in several instances that has been the case for me.
BTW the CIA has officers, not agents. An agent is a foreign national who has been recruited.
Joe says: “Teachers are not currently evaluated on how their students do, and they certainly are not fired when their students do poorly.” Many states evaluate teachers based on student progress and teachers can be fired over that. Joe, as I indicated, “Most states use yearly evaluations, I am guessing just like the life of Joe and the rest of us. Teachers in many states are further tested simply enough by using their student’s scores (on standardized tests). Some states have further tests, most have live real time classroom evaluation observations, something I am gathering Joe never went through —- nor I.”
Things did change and states using standardized test scores to evaluate, fire, teachers fell during the time of Trump 1: “Between 2009 and 2013, the number of states requiring test scores to be used in teacher evaluations spiked from 15 to 41, including Washington D.C.” But, by 2019, under the eyes of Trump, that number went down because it does not work, it makes things worse. *https://www.chalkbeat.org/2019/10/8/21108964/no-thanks-obama-9-states-no-longer-require-test-scores-be-used-to-judge-teachers/* Harvard seems to have the answer and it’s not simple and it includes merit pay *https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/ed-magazine/10/01/right-money#:~:text=Some%20plans%20only%20reward%20the,D.* Given how folks want to get rid of Unions due to collective bargaining for more money and benefits, the concept of merit pay may be tough. But the Harvard method does cover shop class.
Joe says: “we need inventors, creators, etc” as if basic education is not important” which is not what I said. I said: Let China and others manufacture them; we need to be educated to learn how to imagine and invent what does not exist today. We need to learn HOW to think, HOW to invent, HOW to create. Let China make the things we invent. That’s where the big money is. That’s our future, if we want to continue our success, and we need to educate to that. And nothing we are discussing here touches that. It does not mean skip the basics. It means add learning on how to create, how to learn, not just rote memorization to be ready for the industrialized factory world. I also should add that I believe we should add two years, an AA level, to our basic public education, to get people ready for our needs in the post-industrial age. And yes, you need skills to do calculus, write, art, etc. But how do you learn to create and invent things that don’t exist? Shouldn’t we be teaching that? I say no and I say if we are going to continue to be the best, if we are going to have China make stuff for us, then we need to make invention factories. People like Musk and Gates do that in the manner they built their idea-incubation corporations and the people they select to work in them. Especially Gates when he “invented” the pc that changed the world. But how do you teach people to be like Gates, to imagine, to invent; that’s where we need to be in the future with education.
Joe says: “Republican are more attuned to science and data than Democrats, that has always been obvious.” I do not think that’s correct. If it’s obvious, prove it. And: “The problem is the Democrats do not understand the scientific method which is basically to question everything when more data becomes available.” Again, prove it because I surmise that Republicans like to ask questions for things already answered, claim “fake news” when the answer does not support their emotional belief and routinely make up nonsensical theories unsubstantiated and impossible to disprove aka “have you stopped beating your wife?” AKA — anti-vaxers. Got measles anyone?
“When graduating students to not have the preparation or the motivation to keep a job that is a problem. Several people have said to me “you are not hiring anyone under 30 right?” Anecdotal data does not a statistic make. Got actual evidence of this?
FYI: teachers with tenure can be fired for cause. Teachers without tenure, fired for cause or whatever floats your boat. Joe summing up, I think you can find much fodder for your thoughts. I leave you with a DC study which confirms, yet questions, many of our ideas and where they most certainly fired teachers based on student test results. Not busted, but I think there is much data out there that goes deeper into the subject: *https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-08/does-using-high-stakes-tests-to-fire-teachers-improve-student-outcomes*
Bottom line: we both see room for improvement in our education system and both agree a best-in-class state-by-state assessment would point to best practices. I think you also understand it’s state and local that rules this roost and the Fed is a 15% player, at best. In terms of teacher evaluations, yes it happens, yes some states still grade teachers based on student standardized test results, but as you noted, it’s a complex riddle to take apart and figure out how to move forward.
Getting rid of the teachers unions would be a great idea
The Department of education needs to be abolished. It has allowed factions within the government to use the agency to propogandize children. It has allowed politics to influence our children. It is time for teachers to get back to teaching.