Jeb Bush and Education

The Coffee Shop
1

Good article on Jeb Bush regarding his views on education and why he is a minority on this subject within his own party.

I took a couple of his most interesting quotes from here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/jeb-bush-offers-nuanced-defense-of-common-core-education-standards/2014/11/20/b77330f4-70cc-11e4-8808-afaa1e3a33ef_story.html

“This morning, over 213 Chinese students went to school and nobody debated over whether academic standards should be lowered to protect their self-esteem,” he said. “Yet in Orange County, Florida, that exact debate did occur. And so the school board voted to make it impossible for a student to receive a grade below a 50. You get 50 out of 100 just for showing up and signing your name. This was done, and I quote here from a local official, so the students ‘do not lose all hope."

“There is no question we need higher academic standards and — at the local level — diverse, high-quality content and curricula,” he said. “And in my view, the rigor of the Common Core State Standards must be the new minimum in classrooms. For those states choosing a path other than Common Core, I say this: Aim even higher… be bolder… raise standards and ask more of our students and the system.”

2

So it’s your view that Republicans seek lower academic standards and it’s Republicans who are to blame for the failed public schools?

3

So it’s your view that Republicans seek lower academic standards and it’s Republicans who are to blame for the failed public schools?

No. I agree with Bush that tougher, not easier standards need to be put in place even if that is a minority view within his own party. Is it your view that we need to lower our standards so that no child receives a bad grade? Because you are either with Bush on this or against him. Where do you stand?

4

So it’s your view that Republicans seek lower academic standards and it’s Republicans who are to blame for the failed public schools?

No. I agree with Bush that tougher, not easier standards need to be put in place even if that is a minority view within his own party. Is it your view that we need to lower our standards so that no child receives a bad grade? Because you are either with Bush on this or against him. Where do you stand?

Oh brother. Nevermind.

5

Because you are either with Bush on this or against him. Where do you stand?

6

I don’t know of any politician (Democrat of Republican) who would say, “Let’s lower standards”.

However, as long as “graduation rates” are a considered a measure of a school’s success, schools will continue to lower standards even if this means that they “graduate” people who can’t/won’t do the simplest stuff. I’d vote for someone who said, “I don’t care what your graduation rate is, if your students aren’t able to successfully complete some basic academic tasks, they shouldn’t receive a graduation diploma.”

7

So it’s your view that Republicans seek lower academic standards and it’s Republicans who are to blame for the failed public schools?

It’s a fact that REPUBLICANS more often than not want to turn America’s kids into dip shits and the conservative push for “creationism” and Christianity horse shit is proof of that. Furthermore, as more proof that Republicans want to fuck up America’s education system, consider this nonsense that came out of the anus of the republican party over in Texas:

GOP Opposes Critical ThinkingParty platform paints original ideas as a liberal conspiracyBY RICHARD WHITTAKER, 1:17PM, WED. JUN. 27, 2012
http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/5a11/goplobotomy.jpg
Who needs a frontal lobe anyway? Texas GOP platform opposes critical thinking.
It’s official: The Republican Party of Texas opposes critical thinking. That’s right, drones, and it’s part of their official platform.
One of our eagle-eyed readers emailed us to point out this unbelievable passage in the RPT 2012 platform, as adopted at their recent statewide conference.

“Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
What this really means is that the GOP is doubling down on learn-by-rote fact recitation – of the kind spearheaded by the worst of the pro-testing advocates, and locally by IDEA Public Schools, which has committed to the anti-analytical direct learning model (aka “press button A, B or C.”)
But what the hell is all that bunk about “undermining parental authority”? Could it be that the Texas GOP has shown its paternalistic streak a little too overtly? And, let’s face facts, that’s just policy-wonk speak for “honor thy father and mother.” Yup, the Texas GOP is officially enshrining blind obedience into its doctrine of political domination. And be careful that you don’t disturb a student’s fixed beliefs, like, say, that the Loch Ness Monster is real.
Sadly, this is just one of 30 pages of head-in-the-sand, pretend-the-Enlightenment-never-happened thinking from the state’s dominating party. Other gems include:
– Abstinence-only sex ed (yeah, because that’s worked so well so far.)
– Trying juveniles as adults
– Faith-based drug rehab should be emphasized (Scientology front operation NarcAnon should be rubbing its hands at that one)
– Oppose the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Yeah! Who’s the UN to tell us we should ban child slavery?)
– Flat rate income tax (go Team 1%!)
– Repealing the minimum wage (suck it, wage slaves!)
– Opposing homosexuality in the military (don’t ask, don’t tell, and don’t do that!)
– Opposition to red light cameras (because if you run a red, kill someone, and there’s no witnesses, was the light ever really red?)
– Oppose the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, because firms should be able to fire people for what they consider “sinful and sexually immoral behavior.” Like, say, growing a beard?
– Continued opposition to ACORN (even though it has not existed since 2010)
– Opposing statehood or even Congressional voting rights for the citizens of the District of Columbia (who writes this crap, Rand Paul?)
– And no-questions-asked support for Israel because, and this is another direct quote, “Our policy is based on God’s biblical promise to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel and we further invite other nations and organizations to enjoy the benefits of that promise.”
Yes, for every measure that everyone can agree on, like labeling GMOs, there’s another entry or three from the crazy ideas discount bin.
So, next time some Tea Partier tells you the GOP is all about freedom and liberty, remind them that the GOP doesn’t want people to learn how to think critically. Because people who can think critically might start looking at their platform.

8

Many naturally chafe at having standards dictated from the federal level. As was mentioned (Jindal) in the piece, federal funds were set to be withheld for those states that did not put in place “higher” standards, and for many that did not have a plan ready to go, adopting common core was the most efficacious way to ensure they did not lose ed dollars. Some of those states are coming upi with their own improvements and ditching common core. I agree with Bush here:
“States that want to dump the Common Core standards should replace them with even more rigorous benchmarks, Bush said.”

ps. Now you should also cooment on the other side, where Obama continues to use DOJ in efforts to shut down voucher systems, this time in Wisconsin. As I’ve written before, Obama was a big supporter of vouchers back before he was a national figure, and part of a party so beholden to teachers unions, so this is particularly sad and cynical in my eyes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-justice-department-becomes-a-schoolyard-bully-in-wisconsin/2014/11/19/7f5641ea-6f4e-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html

9

Yeah, but from what Jeb is saying schools can’t even teach creationism right.

Obviously whatever liberal basketweaving school you went too didn’t teach critical thinking either… just ram rodding your message whether it makes sense or not.

10

This morning, over 213 Chinese students went to school

What’s the big deal about 213 Chinese kids, there’s hundreds of millions of them in China.

There is no question we need higher academic standards and — at the local level — diverse, high-quality content and curricula,” he said. “And in my view, the rigor of the Common Core State Standards must be the new minimum in classrooms. For those states choosing a path other than Common Core, I say this: Aim even higher… be bolder… raise standards and ask more of our students and the system.”

We don’t need “Higher standards” we need better education, better approaches to education and better administration of our educational system. “Higher standards” is simply code word for “Higher test scores” and “Common core” is nothing more then code for “Compressed, easily taught, easily tested data so we can get higher test scores”.

I don’t care what method of education you use if the goal is little more then to get a “Better score” then the educational system itself is failing the students.

~Matt

11

schools can’t even teach creationism right.

Creationism is all horse shit anyway so it does not matter how schools present it to students who are unfortunate enough to have to go through a creationism course. Creationism is the doctrine of ignorance and students who take a creationism course will become ignorant about science.

12

We don’t need “Higher standards” we need better parents.

FIFY.

14

Too often the school system’s primary purpose is to provide employment and a path to a comfortable retirement for hundreds of thousands of teachers and administrators. Educating the kids comes second.

15

Too often the school system’s primary purpose is to provide employment and a path to a comfortable retirement for hundreds of thousands of teachers and administrators. Educating the kids comes second.

Spot on. Too often the needs of the kids get overlooked and there is plenty of blame we can toss around. Is anyone aware of schools that have taken
what the Govt. has given them and become textbook case on how to do things right?

16

We don’t need “Higher standards” we need better parents.

FIFY.

I think better parents end up with better outcomes regardless of what is going on in the educational system. The educational system, as it is now, is hell bent on on getting every student to learn certain information in the same way. They are not geared toward education they are geared toward memorization and teaching what is on the tests. Worse yet they are attempting to teach in only one fashion expecting all students to learn equal and advance equally under that system, just doesn’t work that way. We don’t need “Higher standards” we need an entirely new approach to education. One that meets the changing face of technology of today and one that recognizes that all students don’t learn the same way or at the same pace.

Worse yet in this frenzy to stuff our students full of information the aspect of learning how to learn is largely lost in the mud pit of “memorize this, test tomorrow” mentality.

~Matt

17

> The educational system, as it is now, is hell bent on on getting every student to learn certain information in the same way.

But it’s been that way forever. That’s also certainly the way it is in other countries that have much better education outcomes. E.g. the prototypical high-achieving Asian students. They turn the “memorize this, test tomorrow” dial to 11. For better or worse. I don’t disagree with your ideas, but I think it’s tinkering at the margins, not tackling the underlying issue of poor performance among the bottom 50 percent of students.

My response was based on my personal experience as a guest science lecturer at various high schools. I’ve lectured at elite academies, where my lecture has taken place outside on immaculate Ivy League-esque grounds, with everyone sitting cross-legged on the grass. And I’ve done it at grim urban public high schools that look like Alcatraz, complete with 12 foot fences surrounding the campus and 3 police cars perpetually parked in front. At one of the grim schools, the lecture was a disaster - the students only responded to threats from security guards to quiet enough for me to try to talk. They were forced to be there. I finished as quickly as I could, and prepared to escape when a teacher announced that anyone who wanted to talk to me during lunch could eat pizza with me in the teacher’s lounge. And to my shock, about 10 kids showed up. And they were brilliant. They asked detailed questions about my path through college and my career. Every bit as educated and driven as the top students at elite private schools. Certainly surpassing where I was at that age.

The commonality among all the “good” students anywere: basic respect for education. That’s the necessary starting point. Then we can start talking about optimizing the balance between classic memorize-test vs. “critical thinking,” etc.

18

We don’t need common cores, we need three cores.

  • College track
  • Vocational
  • Welfare/druggie/criminal

College Track will have the high standards that probably surpass the normal standards now. But will have a high success rate.
Vocational will actually teach them skills and how to manage life.
Welfare/druggie/criminal will teach them how to prevent pregnancy, contact a public defender, and the how to be understood while saying “Do you want fries with that?”.

19

We don’t need “Higher standards” we need better parents.

FIFY.

Better parents and kids with better genes will do far more than anything that a school or teacher can do.

As a guest lecturer, do you try to present the best lecture possible? Or do you tell the school that you aim to not really even try because its up to the students home environment and their genetics whether or not they’ll get anything out of it?

20

We don’t need common cores, we need three cores.

  • College track
  • Vocational
  • Welfare/druggie/criminal

I generally agree, but I’d settle for simply stopping the practice of catering to the lowest common denominator while simultaneously preaching that every kid can be a superstar.

It takes some serious cognitive dissonance to continually lower standards while raising “expectations.”

21

“Yet in Orange County, Florida, that exact debate did occur. And so the school board voted to make it impossible for a student to receive a grade below a 50. You get 50 out of 100 just for showing up and signing your name.

One of the schools I taught in used a similar system. It might be one of the major things that drove me out of teaching. It was virtually impossible to accomplish anything with it because I’d have kids who would literally just decide to absolutely no work whatsoever and even take zeros on the tests knowing that they could just get their butt in gear for short periods of time and squeak out a passing grade.

I taught at the high school level and it was a system that cultivated itself in the early years. The kids got used to the fact that there really were no standards for them, so they just coasted on by in school.

I’d noticed as a teacher that most kids have some sort of standard set either by themselves or their parents, and they would do as little as possible to achieve that standard. Even the best students aren’t going to work very hard in your class if they know they can get an A without putting in more effort. What happens is as you start lowering the bar to try to raise their grades, they just drop their effort down to where they just barely meet their normal standard.

And, again, I taught math. Imagine if you had a whole class full of students who got zeros on lots and lots of tests over the years, but still managed to pass the class. Now they are in your Algebra class without the tools to learn Algebra.