Critics of American schools are motivated more by right-wing political agendas than by a concern for students' well-being—or the truth—author and consultant Gerald Bracey told a packed audience at ASCD's 50th Annual Conference.
In a lecture titled "The Myth of School Failure," Bracey argued that political demands for school vouchers, privatization, and prayer in school motivate conservative critics of the public schools. And in their criticism they have often "lied through their teeth," he claimed.
Bracey sought to "dispose of the widespread notion that schools have something to do with economic competitiveness and economic well-being" on a national level. He pointed out that worker productivity in the United States was higher than Japan's even before Japan's recent recession. "The link between schools and the economy simply isn't there," he said.
Focusing on education as a cause of national problems merely shifts the blame from the policymakers who should be held responsible for such outcomes as productivity and poverty, he added.
For individuals, education is "necessary but not sufficient," Bracey contended, but economic problems on a national scale cannot be laid at public education's door. Millions of Americans have more education than their jobs demand, evidence that the education system is running ahead of the rest of the economy.
- SAT scores are higher now than when the tests were introduced, although the population taking SATs is no longer the economic elite it originally was.
- The number of high school students taking advanced placement courses increased from 98,000 in 1982 to 447,000 in 1992. Greater inclusion—not a decline in student achievement—accounts for the slight decline in average test scores in these courses, he said.
Social Outcomes
Comparisons of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores reveal that social factors, not instruction or curriculum, account for most of the variation between states, according to research Bracey presented. Four factors—parental education, family structure, poverty rates, and community type—can predict a state's ranking in NAEP scores with better than 99 percent accuracy, he said.
U.S. schools often compare unfavorably on international tests as well, but Bracey said these comparisons are frequently ill-founded or distorted.
For example, in one highly publicized study, the media reported as "bad news" that in reading, U.S. 14-year-olds finished 8th out of 31 countries. First, he said, most people ignored the second-place ranking of U.S. 9-year-olds in the same study. Second, the focus on ranking rather than scores distorted the fact that only Finland's scores were higher by a statistically significant margin—and Finland does not have the linguistic diversity found here.
"When they run the 100-meter dash at the Olympics, somebody finishes last," Bracey said, but the losers are not slow runners.
Further, when the achievement of the United States' best students is compared to the best work of students abroad, U.S. students are "world class." The real problem, he said, is the large discrepancy between the achievement levels of rich and poor students in the United States.
Bracey offered evidence that the United States does not spend more money to educate its students than most other industrialized countries, contrary to the claims of many critics.
As a percentage of per capita income, the United States is 14th out of 15 industrialized countries in education spending. When measured as a percentage of total Gross Domestic Product, U.S. education spending is at or below the average for industrialized nations. Also, he added, U.S. education spending includes such services as busing, which is not considered part of the education budget in other industrialized countries.
Finally, U.S. educators work with student populations that are not only more linguistically diverse, but are much more likely to be in poverty.
The United States has more than twice the proportion of children in poverty than all other industrialized nations. In the United States, 53 percent of black children and 42 percent of Hispanic children are in poverty. But economics is a greater factor than ethnicity, he added. Well-off African American students score higher, on average, than poor Asian students, for example.
U.S. educators, while they can always improve, should feel proud of their accomplishments, Bracey said. The original white settlers were dreamers, not readers, he pointed out. And the frequent waves of immigrants are more often "your tired and poor" than "your high SAT scorers," he said.
Contrary to nostalgic myth, "we've never been a nation of learners," Bracey concluded. But "we're closer to that state than we ever have been before."
Correction
Education Update incorrectly reported that Gerald Bracey said SAT scores are higher now than when the tests were introduced. In fact, Bracey explained that when demographic changes in the test-taking population are factored in, there has been a small decline in SAT verbal scores and no decline in math scores.
