Data
Here are documents and presentations that clearly show the poor a job public schools are doing, despite (maybe because of?)
1. The trillions of dollars in taxes that are spent to run and “reform” education.
2. The 1400 ed schools that “prepare” teachers.
3. All of the curriculum organizations in literacy, math, science, history that say what should be taught and how it should be taught.
4. The billions spent every year on retraining teachers.
5. The billions spent every year on research---as if there is so much to learn before we can effectively teach reading, math, history, and science. Because effective instruction has only been around for maybe 3000 years.
5. The thousands of journal articles and books every year that disseminate pure nonsense. “Children should guess what words say, using context cues such as pictures on the page or the shape of words, rather than knowledge of phonics---the sounds that go with the letters.”
ACHIEVEMENT IN AMERICA: The Numbers and the Stories They Tell
RAISING ACHIEVEMENT AND CLOSING GAPS: Lessons From Schools on the Performance Frontier
Highlights from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003
Notice the commonsense (good curriculum materials, good teaching, high expectations, leadership) in schools that work. Why is this rare?
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS: Real Examples of Real Change at the High School and College Levels
12 STEPS SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS CAN TAKE TO HELP CLOSE ACHIEVEMENT AND OPPORTUNITY GAPS
THE
ANATOMY OF SUCCESS: Lessons from Schools
on the Achievement Frontier