Ch1: Pre-Sputnik: Non-Test-Based Criticism of Schools
"[Jefferson] did see schools as a means of picking the smartest poor children for more education at state expense. ... http://t.co/4lZCKOeD
"Testing emerged as a professional endeavor only during World War I. But, hey, lack of data has never stopped any p... http://t.co/oVnkDp7N
"Never heard that the Spaniards hunted Indians for sport and killed them for dog food? Probably learned about Colum... http://t.co/0Uyv07zy
"This would be a common occurrence from now on: strong critiques of the schools would get much media attention; reb... http://t.co/CXx7dNOS
Ch2: Post-Sputnik: Criticisms and the Descent Into Test Mania
"It is still amazing to me how people who are wise and insightful on most topics under the sun go all goofy when it... http://t.co/7zEhcf7Y
"People will believe anything you say about public schools as long as it's bad" Bracey
"We had a crisis because our classrooms were 'grim and joyless.' They were obsessed with 'order and control.' And t... http://t.co/OZvSRr3o
"American educators for the most part interpreted open education as open space and the fad died out within a decade." Bracey
"The criticisms of the early 1950s and the post-Sputnik era were based on perceptions and fear, not data." Bracey
"The criticisms were also based on a false perception of decline. Note that Bestor's subtitle was Retreat from Lear... http://t.co/7CVtODO9
"non-referenced tests could not provide long-term trend data on school performance." Bracey
"A shift toward using test scores as the ultimate, and perhaps only, instrument to evaluate schools was already in ... http://t.co/2ax6xX4q
"The minimum competency madness was always something of a consumer fraud. The tests failed enough students to satis... http://t.co/s86P7hoi
"the minimum competency and back-to-basics movements solidified in the minds of critics, the media—and some parents... http://t.co/OYZNS271
"the commission had nine trend lines—three ages by three subjects—only one which could be used to support crisis rh... http://t.co/j6ITGJ4h
"The charter freed the schools from some of the alleged onerous rules and regulations. And what did the school offe... http://t.co/11J5jLzo
"If what we might call The Nathan Test had been applied to charter schools, precious few of them would be around today." Bracey
"When charters shut down, typically it's because they've cooked the books or engaged in actual criminal activity, n... http://t.co/EEzlDyri
"The business community makes no distinction between education and training." Bracey
"The hammer that drove education into the ground as an issue of course, was the economy." Bracey
"compared to the mammoth tsunami unleashed by bad economic and investing decisions, school effects are like a wave ... http://t.co/W71zJRE5
Ch 3: Tests: Descriptions and Trends—How Do We Measure Up?
"Once people leave educational institutions, they don't usually have to take any tests that look like what they suf... http://t.co/lWZi29z5
"Frederick J. Kelly, at the University of Kansas, invented the multiple choice question in 1915" Bracey
"Giving exactly the same test under exactly the same conditions would make that test a 'common yardstick,' to use t... http://t.co/gjXxVJZI
"Giving exactly the same test under exactly the same conditions would make that test a 'common yardstick,' to use t... http://t.co/gjXxVJZI
"While the NAEP assessments were pretty good as tests go, they had at least one problem: they underestimated achiev... http://t.co/7Pkj9Viq
"the biggest problem with NAEP was keeping the kids awake during the tests." Bracey
"In some countries, students are unfamiliar with the American-style one-right-answer multiple-choice questions and ... http://t.co/wi4TZhrM
"No matter what one might think of E. D. Hirsch, Jr.'s contentions overall, when he asserts that you test better on... http://t.co/waQS5hma
"No research shows anything other than test scores predict grades and other test scores." Bracey
Ch 4: No Child Left Behind: "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves"
"NCLB uses the phrase 'scientifically based research' 111 times in its 1,100 pages, but there is no research whatso... http://t.co/oTaV82JB
"most assessments do not assess learning, but instead achievement, which is confounded with family and community variables." Bracey
Ch5: Science, Engineering, and Economic Competitiveness
"Our current economic crisis looks to be more a failure of business schools to moderate their students' greed, to e... http://t.co/Fs3cCLgU
"Since Sputnik, the driving force of this country, especially in education, has been fear." Bracey
"Instill enough fear in people and you can control people, to get them to act in something other than their best interests" Bracey
"until now, accountability was for the public sector, especially public schools; the private sector was busy taking... http://t.co/FYiErVpt
Ch 6: The Real Meaning of Competition
"If China and India win, we lose. Actually, if China and India win, we win, too. It makes no sense to hope that the... http://t.co/XFF2uSgf
Ch 7: "Poverty is Poison"
"For the affluent parents, it was mostly genes. For poor parents, environment accounted for 60% of the variance, a ... http://t.co/KiDA92Ej
"Head Start-like programs can help, but the biggest aid would be getting the kids out of poverty." Bracey
"Some cortical functions associated with reasoning do not mature until age 18 or 19. Could it be that most eighth-g... http://t.co/PCXljCjY
"For me, people who say poverty is not an excuse must then explain the extraordinary difference in test scores in t... http://t.co/8oRrbeS3
"And they must explain why countries that have large government programs to transfer wealth to the poor do not show... http://t.co/KCRYB1TB
Ch 8: A Few Words About Learning—Eureka
"Focusing your attention, as in meditation, decreases your chances for insight because insight requires relaxation." Bracey
Ch 9: The Goals of Public Education
"Looking back, the most educatively salient moment in my son's life might have been when he was in seventh grade an... http://t.co/VJk7lmTC
"Dewey introduced woodworking into his school not to prepare future carpenters but to provide experience in a diffe... http://t.co/OjOdZ6tF
"What must everyone know? Aside from being able to read in order to acquire knowledge (not just as a skill), arithm... http://t.co/XLjCO5IL
"How democratic can a school be when teachers operate from scripts that permit no variation, when principals sign c... http://t.co/9CZPS93Z
"Some of us suspect that that is the point of scripts. De-professionalize teaching so any low-paid person can do it... http://t.co/lsAOfwvl
Ch 10: The Lost Lessons of the Eight-Year Study
"Finland, the top-scoring nation in PISA, has national standards, but teachers are encouraged to teach them in pers... http://t.co/zz7CjdQV
"Education in this nation is, or should be, more about living in a democracy, than about academic achievement." Bracey
"Principals must be democratically oriented colleagues of teachers, not 'bosses.'" Bracey
"Testing should be a means of learning about individuals, not separating and sorting them." Bracey
"Evaluation should lead to improved curriculum, instruction, and decision making, not to the punishment of teachers... http://t.co/pUce2neX
"teachers need to know more about the natures of their students in order to create meaningful learning experiences" Bracey
"Here's why education can never be a science: education deals with sentient beings and each is different." Bracey
Ch 11: Democracy and Education
"Unchecked capitalism is destroying our nation's public schools, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the final nail ... http://t.co/rUtFm0rx
"No system of schools—public or private—has ever demonstrated it can close this poverty-induced learning gap for mo... http://t.co/VXxNC0nX
"Can you imagine applying to Enron and the Wall Street financial manipulators who brought us the credit and home fo... http://t.co/TWqx1mrc
"With No Child Left Behind, Congress ratified an upside-down education reform strategy: improved learning by feedin... http://t.co/SflScMOW
"Instead of relying on the energizing principals of democracy—equity, opportunity, and fairness—to fight this law a... http://t.co/FOTU7Pau
"The law turns over huge chunks of public education to those whose overriding goal is to make money, not educate children." Bracey
"It's a safer 'wealth protector' to deflect public attention to our 'failing' public schools and to ignore the poor." Bracey
"I hate to say it, but I think that, within the education profession today, numbers (I.e. test scores) are revered ... http://t.co/vbBm5tdV
"all U.S. presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan, along with a succession of Congresses, have favored the interes... http://t.co/M9vC2A6x
"capitalism creates income inequality, tolerates poverty, and is hostile to the physical and democratic environment... http://t.co/EYWqaW5K
"corporations are doing what they are 'wired' to do: work fiercely for competitive advantage regardless of social o... http://t.co/7zjK1tb7
"Manu psychological and sociological studies are useful, but they have not created a robust theory of education." Bracey
"Sixty years of successful attacks have left public educators so addled that our leaders accept the corrupting idea... http://t.co/6ctciuZn
"Mr. Obama's education advisers are doing America harm by not educating him on the critical role public schools pla... http://t.co/E8lWkqsM
"I contend that, instead of insisting on more and more standardization, we should be increasing variety, flexibilit... http://t.co/7jBcuniq
"Think how different it would be if students, with guidance and encouragement, could choose their own tracks and sw... http://t.co/Ayziu0eZ
"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, most of the job openings in the next decade will be in occupatio... http://t.co/nFf0bLeG
"Too often in our schools today, kids hear the message (spoken or implied) that they should 'go to college or be no... http://t.co/9JgH8cEP
"The message 'Go to college' is sent with good intentions; it is meant to inform students that the can 'make it' if... http://t.co/H4Iq9uNY
"We can hardly expect then to become critical thinkers if they are not invited to discuss controversial issues." Noddings as cited by Bracey
"Within each program, teachers and students should strive for excellence, but excellence should not be defined in t... http://t.co/bCh6Zs96
"youngsters who fail repeatedly in their school years are likely to reject opportunities for further learning." Noddings as cited by Bracey
"it was precisely by means of government policy that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer in the past 20 yea... http://t.co/W9a7onPS
"They don't mind 'big government' when it helps reinforce their biases in favor of the free marketplace and morality." Bracey
"testing is the best and surest way to create a system for maintaining gaps." Meier as cited by Bracey
