In high school policy debate, we teach students to prove that there is a significant problem, to demonstrate the harms that problem causes, to show that the status quo cannot solve that problem, and to propose and defend a plan that can solve that problem. In policy debate, if students fail to do any of those four things, to demonstrate what we call the "stock issues," they lose the round.
Apply policy debate thinking to Governor Dennis Daugaard's education reform package, and you'll see why he loses the round. Governor Daugaard says we need a massive plan of merit pay and state-mandated standardized testing and teacher evaluations to fix our broken education system. He says in particular that we have to do something to fix our math and science teaching.
But what fixing do we need when our science test scores remain near the top of the national heap?
South Dakota eighth-grade students are ahead of their peers when it comes to the latest science scores &ndash which are good, but virtually unchanged &ndash as measured by the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress....
The assessment results, released on Thursday, show that just one state &ndash North Dakota &ndash scored significantly higher than South Dakota's average scale score of 162. Eight states &ndash including Minnesota, Montana, Massachusetts and Colorado &ndash scored statistically the same as South Dakota [staff, "Science Scores Still near Top, Though Relatively Unchanged," Rapid City Journal, 2012.05.11].
South Dakota must not be short of good science teachers. Why do we need Governor Daugaard's radical overhaul of teacher pay and evaluation if there is no problem that needs fixing? We need to vote the Governor's HB 1234 down in November and send him and the Legislature back to the drawing board to first study the status quo, identify real problems, and craft real solutions aimed at those proven problems.
Bonus Forensics Jargon: The rushing sound you hear is a number of my teacher/coach friends in the debate world switching their paradigms back from policymaker to stock issues.
I remain fairly convinced that the Republican party, as a whole, is attempting to chip away at confidence in the public school system. They did the same thing, successfully, with the previously-liberal Universities around the United States.
The Republicans are quite a sneaky bunch, as they've shown historically, and impressively cohesive in their movements. One of the items on the Republican agenda has traditionally been getting rid of public schools, and if they can chip away at public confidence for those schools, then they'll collapse from the inside.
Or I could be becoming a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and they might all just be stupid. Either way.
The other rushing sound is teachers fleeing the state. I smell a Disad. Policymakers wait, come back!
South Dakota has had top scores in science for decades, and they haven't gone down. Daugaard is just totally off his rocker. Anyone who knows basic facts about South Dakota's educational system knows our strong point is science. He's so fixated on the rightwing talking points that he can't even admit when his state's public schools are doing something right.
"He says in particular that we have to do something to fix our math and science teaching."
Cory, why do you continue to use deception instead of taking on issues in an honest straight forward way? The math and science issue was not on quality, but rather the lack of teachers. And his point on overall quality was not that it has gone down hill. It has remained "flat" while cost per student has more than doubled after adjusting for inflation. The proper responce is that his solution will not increase the qualtiy, but will add more adminstration and cost. His solution is what caused the problem in the first place. The real solution is to dump the standards, the State Department of Ed, and let the local school boards run things.
Yeah Carter. The Repub disemboweling of public schools has been going on for some time. They have greatly undercut public schools. They've slashed monies for all kinds of classes, educators, facilities, etc. Then they've blamed the schools! What a load of bu**shit!
Mr. Sibby could not be more correct than his post #4 in this thread.
(I have to qualify it in case there are more posts later than wander insane.)
Those henious Shriners are sticking their fingers up the bung of education again, Mr. Sibby. They have created a program called MMSAT ( "Mmmmm-Sat") to train edcrucrats in teaching. They are going to teach the first 70 teachers that apply for free.
BAH. I am not making this up. http://www.kdlt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17522&Itemid=57
Mr. Sibson is wrong. Saying that scores are flat does not represent a crisis requiring radical reform. Saying that we are paying more without proportionate increase in results is absurd on multiple levels. Consider oil: it costs more per barrel now than in 1972, but it still produces the same amount of energy per barrel. It just costs more to pump/frack out of the ground. Economic and social factors (oh yeah, and all those increased graduation requirements the state has imposed) may cause us to spend more to keep results steady.
People that say scores remain "flat" really don't understand standardized testing, or statistics. Let's say your students' scores are improving, but other schools' students' scores improve, too. Your scores will appear not to change relative to other schools.
Now, let's say you get 100 percent on the science test. How can you improve? If too many students score high, the test makers are going to change the test to normalize it.
Politicians, most of whom don't understand basic statistics, are really fooled by this. Daugaard is not alone.
Indeed, Donald! That's the problem with being at the top: there's nowhere to go but down.
"Consider oil: it costs more per barrel now than in 1972, but it still produces the same amount of energy per barrel."
Strawman argument. After "adjusting for inflation" the cost per student has more than doubled. That will happen when the number of students drop 28.5% and the number of administration personnel jumps 65%. The problem is structural. Daugaards solution is to add more administration to implement Common Core standards, test to those standards, pay bonuses to teachers who agree to teach UNESCO's globalist indoctrination, and punish those teachers who teach the truth. And this is also Obama's education agenda, was Clinton's education agenda, and it was GW Bush who undid what Reagan accomplished...give a boot to UNESCO. NCLB was what the UN wanted. Race To The Top is just a repackaged NCLB.
The cost of oil has also increased more than inflation. The straw man withstands your hot air. Sometimes getting the same outputs costs more inputs. UNESCO is irrelevant.
Wait... so we got 162/300 pts, and scored among the highest? So we're happy with 54%?
Either the test is pretty darned flawed, or our education system is... then again, those two may not be mutually exclusive.
The strawman is that we are talking about kids, not oil.
OK Cory, go ahead and delete this to:
RTTT requires a state to follow Common Core Standards following an international benchmarks. The international benchmarks comes from UNESCO and follows social justice, the United Nations Bill of Human Rights, elimination of private property.
UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development: “Generally more highly educated people who have higher incomer consume more resources than poorly educated people who tend to have lower incomes. More education increases the threat to sustainability.â€
Common Core Standards (CCS) are sub standard to what many states have currently. CCS will create a one size shoe fits all education void of factual learning, critical thinking, logic, reason and analysis. The international education is anti-American, Anti- Family, Anti –Religion and removes study of civics, history, government, factually information from the texts. International benchmarks focuses on consensus where by math is treated as man made so by consensus 2+2=5.
The UNESCO standards also include the UN’s Earth Charter which further defines internationally benchmarked standards. The Charter says these standards must entail what it calls “sustainability education†(Art 14:b). The Charter explains that “sustainability education†entails the “promotion of the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations†(Art. 10:a), nuclear disarmament (Art. 16:d), gay marriage (Art. 12:a), legalized abortion (Art. 7:e), adoption of an “international legally binding instrument on environment†(The way Forward), and indoctrination in pantheism (Art. 14d and Art. 16:f).
Race to the Top also creates a national data base to monitor the student and teacher. This is in violation of Education Code. RACE TO THE TOP is the Federal take over of the schools and is in violation of Federal Education Code: Department of Education, Public Law — 2/01/10, 20 U.S.C. 3403 (Pub. L. 96-88, Title I, 103, Oct. 17, 1979, 93 Stat. 670). United States Code. Title 20. Education. Chapter 48
Abraham Lincoln: “What is taught in school this year will be government policy next year.â€
http://americanfreedomwatchradio.com/?page_id=224
The feds and the UN must intervene in South Dakota to end red state failure: it's just that simple.
As long as the US is responsible for the education of tribal members South Dakota needs to get the hell out of the way.
"The U.S. continues to preach the principles of freedom and democracy while aiding Israel in denying the most basic rights to millions of Palestinians, and the U.S. does so this time by removing 22 percent of UNESCO’s total budget." John Hines, The Volante.