Comment on "Education Needs to Change as Fast as Technology," by Zack Sims. Posted at
http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2014/05/23/education-needs-to-change-as-fast-as-technology/
Mr. Sims
hasn't done his homework. He points out that the "US is
ranked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S.
is 31st in math achievement, 24th in science, and 21st in reading." But a
number of studies have shown that when we control for the effect of poverty,
our students rank near the top of the world.
Mr. Sims also has a great deal of
faith in flipped classrooms. But there is no research supporting this
faith. This technology is being pushed on
classrooms without proper research.
The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty. The US
child poverty rate is an inexcusable 24%.
Sources:
Control for effect of poverty: Payne, K. and
Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics
achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13; Bracey, G. 2009. The Bracey
Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe: Education and
the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report. Berliner, D.
2011. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism,
Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the Educational
Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA
under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools.
Amsterdam: Sense Publishers. Tienken, C. 2010. Common core state standards: I
wonder? Kappa Delta Phi Record 47 (1): 14-17. Carnoy, M and Rothstein, R. 2013,
What Do International Tests Really Show Us about U.S. Student Performance.
Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/).
Lack of evidence for flipped classrooms: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/Evidence-on-Flipped-Classrooms-Is-Still-Coming-In.aspx
Fairtest: http://www.fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-factsheet