The Great Majority Of Our Public Schools' Results Are Not Good Enough For Our Graduating Children To Be Employed. Read What We Discovered.
In 2023-2024 we will see three new technologies with major impact on jobs during the following five years. AI-cognitive robotics, Nanotechnology and Space science will replace many jobs, except for those based on engineering and science. There will be many new jobs but they will require much more science and mathematics than what our high schools provide today.
Our elementary and high school education has been changing - and not for the better.
Our biggest problem is not recognizing the fact that we must be internationally competitive in public education. We are the largest country economy, soon to be passed by China. As such, our survival depends on how well educated our population is. We are one of the highest spenders per student in public education in the world. But our public education wants more money. As a country, we dropped to 37th in mathematics. We are also lower in other subjects as well. THAT MEANS VERY CLEARLY THAT MONEY IS NOT THE PROBLEM, BUT THE WAY WE SPEND IT IS. WE THROW MONEY AT THE PROBLEM. BUT WE DO NOT CHANGE THE WAY WE SPEND IT, AND THE RESULTS REMAIN POOR. EXAMPLE: VERY LOW PERFORMING HIGH SCHOOL FOR DECADES WITH BLACK STUDENTS. WE DOUBLED THE MONEY SPENT PER STUDENT. DOUBLED!! AND THE RESULTS DID NOT CHANGE BUT WE KEPT DOING IT FOR MORE THAN A DECADE. WAS THAT A GOOD DECISION? THE PROBLEM STARTS WITH TEACHER TRAINING AND CONTINUES WITH LACK OF MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND POLITICIANS AT THE TOP. The results have not changed because we failed to get on the airplane to learn how the best countries are creating superior results in education. The problem is never too big if a person says "I am not doing well enough, but I will go to find out how the best performers in the world are achieving their results, and learn right now how to do it correctly." The problem is huge if the egos are too big, and the failing management is too weak to admit the failure and change. One must change them. Let's look first at a few more details to "complete the picture."
More than 50 years ago, American parents would fully support the child's punishment for bad behavior at school and would punish the child at home as well for it. WE CHANGED.
Today, many parents in our fast-growing poverty, believe the child is telling the truth. State education management has overstated the job quality, hurting the poor, minority children the most. The parents in poverty are not educated well enough to research and figure out what the truth is, how well their children are educated in school, and how much they know compared to the job requirements of employers. The only thing that such parents assume is that "I am talking to the teachers and principal, they are the experts, and they tell us the truth," BUT LATER: "They did not tell me the truth. I will trust and protect my child."
That, in turn, makes the poor student do outrageous things to be admired by their friends. Eventually, all people realize what the truth is. I received more than six letters from teachers over five years about a male student going to the toilet during class and throwing feces at the teacher on his return to class. The big problem for us is the fact that teacher training is a very old style, without enough subject knowledge. Teaching requires a unique personality that we describe here later. Classes are boring, with very few exceptions. BUT WE SPEND MORE MONEY THAN ALMOST ALL OTHER COUNTRIES PER STUDENT. The teacher must have ultimate authority in the classroom in the eyes of the students, and respond quickly with that authority for bad behavior. We are not strong, decisive and consistent on discipline, and the teachers and principals need much better support from above.
We need to understand the reason for bad behavior to fix it. BUT TOLERATING IT WITHOUT A SERIOUS ENOUGH RESPONSE TO DISCOURAGE IT IS THE WRONG THING TO DO. Some children who grew up in poverty will not have a good upbringing. The parent tries, but does not know how to do better. Children want and need attention. They get it from similar children in the street. He is not doing well in school and knows it, feels inferior, and other children say nasty things behind his back. School becomes an ugly, demeaning place for such black, Hispanic, or white children whose families are in our fast-growing poverty. Politicians can claim to have done many good things for the schools. What really counts are the national test results, the NAEP (unfortunately not an annual test on all subjects), the ACT and the SAT annual tests. The state can do things to the state test to make it impossible to understand what the scores mean (described below) or to show a higher grade for test results that are not good enough (cut scores, explained below).
Income depends on education. Education management blames poverty for the poor school performance. However, guess what the reason for the fast-growing poverty is? IT IS OUR POORLY MANAGED SCHOOL DISTRICTS under the governors of our states. They all promise to fix education when running for governor. Once they win, they DO NOT DELIVER on the promises they made. If one finds this unfair, then please provide examples of what any governor or state commissioner of education has done that raised the ACT or SAT scores. The great majority have done nothing. The ACT and SAT scores are the fair measure of what our children learned from grades one to twelve. If they did not change anything that would raise our children's knowledge, AND THAT IS OUR SCHOOLS' MOST IMPORTANT GOAL, THEN THEY HAVE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING IN EDUCATION. 75-85% OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE NOT EVEN "ACT READY." THAT MEANS THAT THEIR HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IS BELOW 60%. THAT WAS ALWAYS A BIG FAILURE IN THE PAST. BUT NOT TODAY? Employers are screaming! AND WE SPEND ABOUT $500 BILLION ON EDUCATION EVERY YEAR.
How do we know what test scores mean? Professionals who write tests make sure that each question on the test is equal value. In other words, if the test has 90 questions, and if the child gets 54 of them right, then he/she got 60% of the test right. Not too long ago, 60% good answers was the pass/fail point, meaning one passes the test if above that percentage in tests. 30-40 years ago 70% was the pass/fail point. The standard of graduation from high school dropped, and it keeps dropping. 75-85% of the children we are graduating from high school are not even ACT READY. That means that they are below 60% of the high school subject knowledge. FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS, THE GOAL OF TENNESSEE AND A NUMBER OF OTHER STATES WAS AVERAGE ACT 21, BUT THEY COULD NOT REACH IT IN TWENTY YEARS! WHAT PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IS AVERAGE ACT 21? IT IS ONLY 58% high school subject knowledge. That used to be a failure. 85% of Tennessee graduates and a few other states' high school graduates are NOT EVEN ACT READY. These are mostly minority children. We graduate them without the ability to read or write or do basic math well, they can read and write only with block letters. Ready or not, we graduate them. They will not be able to get a job. What we are doing is creating a massive social problem because they will not be employable. The technological changes of 2023 will not wait because we are doing a terrible job with public education. How could our elected leaders do such a terrible job!
Other countries do an additional daily program for students in the afternoon who had difficulty in the morning sessions. Finland's is the best in this so that better than 95% of the class is above the knowledge level-standard they set in every subject daily in the opinion of the teacher. Finland runs an annual ACT equivalent country average above 29, which represents more than 80% of high school subject knowledge. In our classes, the behavior speaks louder than words. Most boys want the girls to admire them. Boys' judgment also comes from his buddies in the street. The child has not been raised with enough parental guidance, and the parent may have had the same upbringing, or he/she is a single parent. We should not ignore such children. BUT WE DO.
Several high-performing countries in education have afternoon programs to make up for shortfalls detected in the child in the morning. We do not care enough. Our teachers want more money and are not educated well enough. Our spending per student is one of the highest in the world. The money is there and wasted. If we did a forensic audit at random every five years, we would not only learn a lot about what is going on under poor, untrained management, but we could reward teachers who consistently produce excellent results. The teachers are loaded with things other than teaching duties. The result is that the schools often misinform the parents in poverty and the general public as well. For example, "God did not make all children for college. But your Johnny is very smart. He can learn a trade and will be able to make good money!" I heard this many times. The problem is that trade jobs will go to robotics. The problem is that we have been doing a very poor job in our high schools for a long time, AND THAT IS THE BIG OBSTACLE TO MORE CHILDREN GOING TO COLLEGE. LOOK AT THE RESULTS!
Let me interject here that the problem is not just matching the personality of a teacher candidate to teaching and that the subject training of teachers being not enough. Our treatment of students is very cold because teachers are taught that they will be subjected to bad tricks by students, like having pee poured into their Coke. Such behaviors go back to how such children are treated from birth onward by people and children around them. Our approach is defensive, WHEN THE SCHOOL COULD BE THE NORMAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE CHILDREN'S LIVES, THAT COULD OFFER A BETTER, FRIENDLIER ENVIRONMENT. IF WE WANT TO REDUCE POVERTY, NOT BECAUSE WE ARE NICE, BUT BECAUSE GOOD EDUCATION WOULD TAKE THE POOR CHILD AND FAMILY OUT OF POVERTY, WE WOULD NEED TO TAKE REMEDIAL ACTION WITH SUPPLEMENTAL COUNSELING IN PRE-SCHOOL AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL BEFORE THE HORMONES KICK IN. OTHERWISE, THE POOR EDUCATION BECOMES THE CREATOR OF THESE PROBLEMS. Friendly treatment in school is much better than what they have been getting in the street. You could say at this point, "this guy who created this website doesn't know anything about education." Look at our results. THEY ARE SO BAD THAT 75-85% OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE UNEMPLOYABLE IN ALMOST ALL STATES. THE TRUTH IS THAT A BAD JOB IS NOT DONE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE WELL TRAINED AND KNOW HOW TO DO A GOOD JOB. We are dropping below industrialized countries. Their results are better than ours. WE ARE 37TH IN THE WORLD IN MATHEMATICS, THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT. IS THAT A GOOD JOB?
HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? WHO COULD DO THIS TO OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION? THERE ARE THREE CHOICES.
ONE COULD BE THAT WE HAVE VERY DUMB PEOPLE ABOVE THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS. THEY ARE NOT DUMB. THEY ARE WELL EDUCATED. THEY ARE SIMPLY NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE MANAGEMENT OF SOME CRITICAL AREAS IN THEIR JOB, AND THE SAME IS TRUE OF THEIR MANAGEMENT. THEY DO NOT SEEK EXPERT ADVICE FROM THOSE WHO SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED SIMILAR SITUATIONS.
THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF PERSON THEY NEED TO CORRECT EDUCATION PERFORMANCE, OR
THEY FEEL THAT THE RIGHT PERSON MUST COME FROM THE EDUCATION INDUSTRY. ALSO WRONG, BUT BOTH POLITICIANS AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT NEVER HAD MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR A JOB THAT IS 95% MANAGEMENT. ONE WILL NOT FIND GOOD MANAGEMENT TALENT LOOKING FOR A JOB IN POORLY PERFORMING INDUSTRIES.
Our education leadership is not interested in how other countries achieve better results. Such people cannot solve problems. Teacher training has been weak for decades. THESE ARE ADDITIONAL HUGE MISTAKES. WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO A GOOD JOB IN THE GREAT MAJORITY OF OUR STATES. WE DO NOT WANT TO GO TO THE BEST COUNTRIES AND LEARN. THERE IS NO NICE WORD FOR IT. I REMEMBER A SUPERINTENDENT WHO PROMOTED A POORLY PERFORMING HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL TO MANAGE ALL SCHOOLS BECAUSE "HE HAD INTERESTING IDEAS." THERE WAS POOR PERFORMANCE EVERYWHERE TO DATE. THEY CHANGED SUPERINTENDENTS, AND THE NEW ONE DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO TO IMPROVE RESULTS, BUT HE IS VERY GOOD WITH HIS PEOPLE. AND "MR. INTERESTING IDEAS" IS STILL THERE SPENDING A HALF-BILLION DOLLARS EACH YEAR, WITH 75-80% OF THE GRADUATES NOT BEING ABLE TO MEET A STANDARD THAT REPRESENTS ONLY 55-60% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE. After seeing this, I went to the best countries in education to find out why their results are much better. The answers are below. THE RESULTS ARE BETTER IF THE TEACHERS ARE WELL EDUCATED, LOVE THEIR JOBS AND IF THEY KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN THE ANSWER TO ANY STUDENT QUESTION SO THAT THE CHILDREN ENJOY LEARNING FROM THEM.
I Found the system in Finland the best AND high scoring. The relationship between teachers and students is excellent on a first-name basis. The teaching methodology is very effective, and with it, no testing is needed until the middle of high school. Homework is rarely requested, and the school hours are the same as ours. Teacher pay is average, teacher recognition and respect are very high, even above doctors because of their high results. TEACHER TRAINING is much higher than ours, and individual teachers make all classroom decisions, including what textbook and teaching aid they want to use individually. Teachers meet weekly to discuss any problem they have openly. The teacher with the problem decides what to do, and the following Monday, the problem is solved. Fast and simple.
Approximately 5% of our high schools do good work preparing students to graduate at a similar level to the top ten countries in education. Our national average is very poor, as the chart shows below. We do not have a single state that produces an average on the same level as the top ten countries. The top nations in education graduate students in the 29-34 average ACT range. We need to recognize the fact that we must produce both teachers and high school graduates to a much higher standard NATIONALLY, NO EXCEPTIONS, instead of varying standards by state. That will never produce a good enough result for an internationally competitive national workforce. We do very well to ignore this huge problem and educate the public less and less as the years go by. We do not tell the public the truth about our poor performance. PUBLIC EDUCATION TAKES ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES PER STUDENT IN THE WORLD FROM THE "COMMON BUCKET OF THE PEOPLE'S MONEY, CALLED TAXES" FOR THE POOR JOB THAT MOST OF THEM DO TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN. OUR POLITICAL LEADERSHIP DOES NOT DO A SINGLE THING THAT WOULD RAISE THE ACT AND SAT SCORES OF OUR CHILDREN. THAT IS THE TRUE EVIDENCE OF WHAT OUR CHILDREN LEARNED. Why would a country's leadership want to dumb down its population? This is a very serious question. Most of us already feel that something is not right. Read below what I found, and YOU decide!
We are the largest country economy, although China is about to pass us. A large economy needs to generate more money than smaller ones to keep its money making functions high enough and not go bankrupt, similar to a large industry. The high school graduates feed the workforce of all industries, and all industries need to make enough money for the products and services they sell. To make enough money the industry workforces that have a better education can deliver better quality products with higher profitability. The products and services are constantly competing with other nations' products and services. We totally ignore the international high performers in education, as we keep dropping further down.
We permit bad behavior and EDUCATE THE STUDENTS POORLY IN SCHOOL. We need to prepare children for a tough world out there. We cannot prepare them properly with poor education and weak discipline. THAT IS WHAT OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION DID TO THIS DAY IN ALMOST ALL STATES FOR MANY DECADES. LOOK AT THE ACT CHART COVERING TWENTY YEARS BELOW.
I did not dream up the suggestions I am presenting here. I saw the methods used in other countries that have a much better education system than ours. Our teachers and principals have nothing to do with the problem we have. The problems are the weak teacher training at colleges and universities, governors, and the people they hire for commissioner of education to head the state education system. The governor hires one who cannot do the job in most states. It is unfortunate to hire a different person because the governor represents a different party, unless those hiring do not know what practices we need to abandon and what new ones we need to do very well. The great majority have no idea how to fix the management problems we have. The results we have are not good enough to create employable children, and in more than twenty years the school results showed this problem very clearly. IF ONE WANTS TO IMPROVE TO BE AMONG THE BEST TWO OR THREE, ONE CANNOT JUST IMPROVE! ONE HAS TO PREPARE TO BE BETTER THAN THE BEST. WE BECAME TOO SCARED TO COMMIT TO BETTER RESULTS. EDUCATION BECAME WORSE. WHY? BECAUSE OUR EDUCATION SETS A TINY IMPROVING OBJECTIVE LIKE AVERAGE ACT 21, BUT DOES NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE, ESPECIALLY THE WAY PEOPLE WORK. TO CHANGE RESULTS ONE MUST CHANGE THE WAY ONE WORKS. THAT WILL REQUIRE SUBSTANTIAL TRAINING AS WELL, BUT EVEN THE SETTING OF WELL UNDERSTOOD AND APPRECIATED OBJECTIVES CAN BRING IMPROVEMENT IN THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. WE WILL COVER THAT BELOW, AND I WILL COVER THAT IN DETAIL: 1. THE RIGHT MONTHLY AND ANNUAL OBJECTIVE AND PLAN, WITH 2. THE RIGHT PEOPLE, AND 3. THE RIGHT BUDGET (IT IS GUARANTEED BY LAW IN EDUCATION! NO ONE HAS IT THAT EASY!) MUST BE IN PLACE TO SUCCEED. IF ANY OF THESE THREE ARE NOT CORRECT OR ABUSED, WE LOSE. IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM, 1 AND 2 ABOVE ARE NEVER CORRECT IN ALMOST ALL STATES.
I am very sorry to say this, but this is outrageous, bad performance, and has been for decades. The people's money in taxes is paying one of the highest amounts per American student IN THE WORLD for education. For that, we are getting one of the worst performances in the industrialized countries. China has the lowest poverty. I attended 29 science and math high school courses. The only thing I heard from students is how boring the classes were. In response to student questions, teachers had to go to the text book. The problem is not the teachers or principals. The problem is poor teacher training at colleges and universities. BUT OTHER UNIVERSITY TRAINING AT THE SAME INSTITUTIONS DID NOT DETERIORATE LIKE TEACHER TRAINING. I am respectfully suggesting, that we, the largest country economy, are creating a destructive problem internally with inaction on several simultaneous problems: dangerously declining public education compared to other nations, no interest in the superior education performance in other countries who passed us, the more than 100 year old festering black and white problem, is growing with poverty. This situation that we have been creating for decades will be made much more severe by the biggest technological increase starting in 2023 (AI Robotics, Nanotechnology and Space Science). Our high school graduates and our workforce had a weak high school education that will not be enough to qualify for the additional education required for the new technology based jobs.
IS THIS THE WAY TO ENSURE A MINIMAL LIVING STANDARD FOR OUR CHILDREN?
IS THIS THE WAY TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN ON WHOM OUR COUNTRY WILL DEPEND IN THE FUTURE?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Without a high, internationally competitive standard in everything related to public education, it is impossible for us as a country to achieve better results. It is really worrying why we did not identify this problem a long time ago. For good decision making, all states must follow an identical standard in OBJECTIVES AND goals, that has monthly measurable GPA objectives to improve to ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE WE SET.
Did governors and lawmakers ever proposed and passed any education law, whose passage increased the ACT or SAT scores? I COULD NOT FIND ANY. NOT ONE. Increasing the ACT or SAT scores means the children's knowledge INCREASED. BUT NOT THE STATE TEST SCORES. THE STATE CAN PLAY GAMES WITH THOSE.
Did governors and lawmakers ever proposed and passed any education law, whose passage IMPROVED TEACHER TRAINING AND RAISED TEACHER CERTIFICATION IN THE SINGLE SUBJECT THE TEACHER WOULD TEACH? WE DID NOT INCREASE SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN TEACHERS, AND THAT CREATES BORING CLASSES. I SAW THAT IN 29 CLASSES WITHOUT EXCEPTION. OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM USES MULTIPLE-CHOICE SATISFACTION SURVEYS. No teacher would write about any bad experience because education would take steps to let them go instead of fixing the problem. Companies use an independent firm for interviewing employees for job satisfaction and pass the conclusions to the employer. Education uses the multiple-choice written satisfaction surveys to show that all is well - when all is not well and teacher turnover is too high. Teacher performance evaluations are not based on achievement of specific results but on four one-hour observations of the teacher teaching per year. The observer is from the principal's office. What do they measure? Whatever the observer thinks, whatever it is. I would venture to guess that if the observer is a man and the teacher is very beautiful, THE MAN WILL RESIST AND NOT BE AFFECTED BY HER LOOKS. RIGHT? Imagine that the teacher does not have measurable performance objectives that she meets. Her performance evaluation will be based on his and his friend's opinion, and the "performance evaluation" under such circumstances can turn into a problem. Imagine if the employees in any other vocation would be graded on somebody watching them for one hour, four times per year. But no one watches the children and the scores they get on tests that show how much they learned from the teacher as a measure of teacher performance. THE GOVERNOR DOES NOTHING TO CREATE A SERIOUS LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, AND EVERYONE ELSE DOES NOT HAVE ANY TARGET TO ACCOMPLISH EVERY MONTH, THAT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT IF THE PERFORMANCE IS POOR AS IT IS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THEY JUST DO THE JOB AS THEY HAVE DONE FOR DECADES, WITH THE RESULTS HEADING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. "DELEGATING FULL RESPONSIBILITY TO SOMEONE ONE JUST HIRED" without keeping a monthly eye on how well he/she is doing her job in terms of morale and results in his/her group, is not good practice. If one senses a potential problem, have a friendly discussion about it, and allow him/her to run his area for a reasonable period to see some results. BUT IN THE END, THE MANAGER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RESULTS. OBVIOUSLY BEING 37TH IN MATH IN THE WORLD, IS A TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE RESULT AND MUST BE CORRECTED URGENTLY. WHEN WE DO NOT SEE IMMEDIATE CORRECTION, THEN THE MOST SENIOR MANAGER DID A POOR JOB. WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?
Why are we on the bottom of the industrialized countries in math? 37th! Because the governors pick the wrong people to manage state education. Education is a poorly performing industry. That means that good management talent is rare. The job is a management job at that level, and good management-trained people do not appear to exist in education. THAT IS THE PROBLEM, AND WE DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. IS THAT UNIMPORTANT FOR OUR STATES AND THE COUNTRY?
Why would people in education management reject well-explained and proven practices in the top three countries in education to improve our poor education that makes our children unemployable and can destroy our country?
Why is it that most states' education department did not improve our children's education for decades? We made it worse instead of improving relative to the changing needs of employers. You can destroy a population slowly this way so that they do not notice it. You can also destroy our country this way, with poorly managed public education like ours.
Why has public education done nothing to improve our poor education? Why are they making education worse instead?!
Why doesn't this very destructive situation deserve a serious investigation? Is it not a serious problem?
Why are the education management people mislead the public about our public education performance? They should deliver the exact truth and nothing but the truth about what they planned and what they actually achieved by the target date of the plan.
Why is it that governors cannot fix the poorly performing public education system? THEY ALL PROMISED TO FIX EDUCATION WHEN RUNNING FOR OFFICE. AND THEN THE GREAT MAJORITY OF GOVERNORS PICK THEIR PERSON TO FIX EDUCATION FROM THE LONG, POORLY PERFORMING EDUCATION INDUSTRY. Hints: The job is 100% management-based. The education industry is not rich in well-educated management talent. Look at the education results for decades. We dropped to 37th place as a nation in Mathematics with our high school graduates, and for the last twenty years, we did not improve. DOES THAT MEAN THAT THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN IS GOOD ENOUGH?! IN TENNESSEE, MORE THAN 80% OF THE CHILDareN WE GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL ARE NOT EVEN ACT READY. THAT WAS A FAILURE LEVEL BEFORE 2010, AND NOW WE GRADUATE THEM?! AND TENNESSEE IS NOT THE WORST! Education is a very large industry in every state. Education is to satisfy employers' needs, and the retired vice presidents from LARGE employers are far better management experienced and trained than the one governors hire from the world of education. At that level, management training and successful management experience are far more important than having been part of a poorly performing education organization. If you want a good job done, hire the best from the industry that hires your high school graduates. An industry, like education, is failing because they do not have well-educated, management-trained, successful leaders from the top-down like the employers do who hire the school systems' graduates. Our HIGH SCHOOL graduates are to satisfy the EMPLOYERS' needs and cannot do it well enough.
We have been paying one of the highest amounts in the world per student for the poor job that our public education does. Why have we not investigated our expensive and poor job for decades to correct it?!
The ACT and SAT scores cannot be changed by the states. But the state tests are a different story. Look up "cut scores" and how they are used with the state score grades? The question is WHY?
Why is it that no education secretary, and no education committees among lawmakers proposed changes in any state that improved the ACT results?! Several of them mentioned to me that if they do, the "education-people" will vote them out at the next election. Any such action should be anonymously reportable so that we know why lawmakers are so totally inactive in this area of education. Is this the kind of country that we have become?
The ACT scores were reported in the state report cards until about four-five years ago (2018). You could lookup for each of the last five years the ACT score and ACT Readiness percentage of any high school, any school district, in any state. Since 2018, one cannot find them. They are there, hidden in Excel files, but the great majority of the people will not find them. The ACT READINESS percentages may not be there at all. Why is the state, for example, Tennessee, hiding them or make it so difficult to find them that people cannot find them anymore? Why hide the truth? The ACT scores and readiness figures are the only reliable annual national test figures that the states cannot alter. They show bad performance. It appears that the state department of education decided purposefully to hide them from the public.
I am very sorry but our public education is not the result of a caring organization. Are we dealing with something from an enemy country? Or is this the solution of a state for bad ACT results? It does not make sense that we would do something like this purposefully. But here it is!
There are three other very important things that could create a trio of problems that could seriously damage us as a country with the poor education.
1. We have three major technologies entering the world market in 2023. They will have a major impact on our lives, employment, education, and economic success. THERE WILL BE MORE JOBS THAN EVER CREATED BY THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, BUT THE JOBS WILL REQUIRE MUCH MORE EDUCATION. The safest jobs for non-replacement are graduate degrees in sciences, engineering, and mathematics. IF WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH WELL-EDUCATED PEOPLE, THE JOBS WILL GO TO THE COUNTRIES THAT DO.
Artificial Intelligence-driven cognitive robotics will replace many, even college degreed, jobs.
NANOTECHNOLOGY will revolutionize the way we make everything, with nanometer accuracy (one-millionth of 1.1 yard, less than 200-nanometer objects are not even visible), the result will be major spending on manufacturing equipment with huge cost reduction on products as a result. This technology will create several new sciences that will grow at a high rate, like materials science.
The third major technology will be space science, that will open up resources to us beyond earth itself, changing existing sciences such as Physics.
2. We have a very long and serious problem with poverty and racial prejudice that ARE growing. It is absolutely shameful that we could not resolve it in a hundred years. It is a problem that could have been solved with a much better education system FOR EVERYONE INSTEAD OF DEFENDING OUR POOR EDUCATION, with full recognition of the fact that their lives are more difficult because of less education and with a broken family infrastructure in most cases. We created this problem, and we could resolve it. Space science and the other two new technology areas will bring many new things, but we cannot benefit from them without more and much better education. The earth is a relatively young planet, and we are a young civilization. Do not ever assume that IF there is life elsewhere, it will look similar to us. They will most likely be thousands and millions of years ahead of us. Some may look very different than we are but imagine how much we could learn from them. Imagine us meeting the people who lived a million years ago. They would be very scared. And when we are afraid of something, we kill it. PLEASE NOTE THAT AN APPROPRIATE CURRICULUM AND MORE EFFECTIVE EDUCATION IS THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM. SOME NATIONS INCLUDE ETHICS AS AN EXAMPLE IN THEIR HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM. OTHERS INCLUDE SIMILAR TOPICS IN THEIR CURRICULUM. MOST TEACH MORE IN EACH SUBJECT THAN WE DO.
3. New technologies are based on the "computing technology" used within them. The computing technology itself has been and will continue to advance rapidly. As an example by Ray Kurzweil, whose technology forecasts are 90% accurate, a $1,000 computer in 2015 had the same speed of "command execution" as a mouse brain. By 2025 it will have the same power as a human brain. By 2045, it will have the power of all human brains combined or 10,000,000,000 human brains for the same $1,000 computer. Any application designed, for example, in robotics, will be at today's supercomputer performance at a very low cost. What brings about such huge changes? New materials with lower resistance and newer specialized machinery to create smaller-scale conductor layout, below what the human eye can see (less than 200-nanometer interconnection lengths becoming shorter each year for faster circuits). We are also working on superconductors at normal temperatures that will speed up signal speeds. Lastly, designs going to three dimensions fully in much more extensive integrated circuits are already being used as a new approach to faster problem-solving. Artificial intelligence will become very useful everywhere.
OUR MAJOR PROBLEMS ARE:
A. Poor Public Education, Hurts Our Employers' Competitiveness Worldwide Who Generate The Nation's Income. Why? Because our high schools feed the workforce of all industries, the product quality and cost depend on the education of the workforce, which is low thanks to our high schools. The end result is the national income that is normally at 12-14%, has dropped to 3-4%, not enough. When we do not have enough money, we borrow it, resulting in the national debt at $30 TRILLION. How much interest will we have to pay? About $7 TRILLION. That will reduce the national income by $7 TRILLION. THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY SITUATION. THE POOR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION CREATES A POORLY PREPARED WORKFORCE. THAT IS WHAT WE HAVE. The political and education leadership does not appear to care. One cannot claim to care and do a poor job. That is an impossibility.
B. The Black/White Conflict For 100 Years Hurt All Of Us And Our Country The Most. If a country wants to solve a problem, IT GETS SOLVED! WE DID NOT SOLVE IT. DO WE THINK THAT CHINA, WHICH SENT TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ITS PEOPLE TO OUR BEST UNIVERSITIES, DID NOT RECOGNIZE THIS PROBLEM? DO WE THINK THAT CHINESE INTELLIGENCE DID NOT GET INVOLVED WITH SIMPLE MESSAGES THROUGH AMERICAN SOURCES TO ADVANCE PROBLEMS FOR US?
C. The Fast Growing Poverty We Have Damages Us Even More. PUBLIC EDUCATION CLAIMS THAT POVERTY IS THE REASON FOR POOR PERFORMANCE. Our poor public education IS CREATING THE POVERTY. All Three Are The Result Of:
MOST governors And The People They Hire Do Not Care About Education, Or Do Not Know What To Do, Or Lack Management Know-how:
Absence Of Measurable Objectives And Standards Always Create Huge Failures.
No Action Was Taken To Solve These Problems. AND THAT IN TURN WILL CREATE:
Big Damage To Our life And Economy, Because No One In Leadership Appears To Care About Education, or
THEY HAVE NO IDEA How To Solve Problems.
THESE APPEAR TO BE OUR MAIN CHALLENGES. MOST OF THESE PRACTICES ARE 100 YEARS OLD. IF WE CANNOT FIX ALL OF THEM, HOW LONG WILL WE EXIST WITH ALL THE ADVANCED WEAPONS THAT MANY OTHER COUNTRIES WILL ALSO HAVE WITH AN UNDEREDUCATED, VERY UNHAPPY POPULATION? WE COULD HAVE A MUCH BETTER LIFE. BUT NOT WITH A POORLY-EDUCATED POPULATION. WE ARE ON TRACK TO A MUCH WORSE LIFE AND DESTROYING OURSELVES. IT IS UP TO US TO LEARN AND RESPECT EACH OTHER TO CREATE A BETTER AMERICA FOR ALL OF US. OR WE WILL FAIL.
CHINA 1: There is a purpose in mentioning China at this time. Please pay special attention to it. China did a very difficult and interesting thing during the late 1970s that relates to education to achieve economic dominance. Most of us are not aware of this. China has a very long history with many significant accomplishments and discoveries in its very long history before communism. Their MAOIST economy was doing very poorly for many years before 1980. Deng Xiaoping, China's president from about 1970, and his ministers decided in the mid-1970s that Maoist communism does not work. The Chinese presidential group went to Europe to visit the six largest and healthiest country economies to learn why they are successful. They decided that they must raise education in China to the top of all countries and that modern management know-how needs to be used to turn around their own economy and managed in a western fashion. With China having a huge population, there were many dedicated communists. For that reason, they maintained communism in image only but managed to change. This was a huge and very difficult job to accomplish.
CHINA 2: They not only decided and became the best worldwide in K-12. They made a deal with US presidents at the same time to educate on the highest technical level (Ph.D.) one million Chinese, and by being the best students, they were included in the most sophisticated classified projects. The Chinese historically can come to an agreement on top, and work very hard and achieve it quite fast. A most important element in their success is covered in a book, The Art of War, written 500 BC by a Chinese general, Sun Tsu. THIS IS THE MOST FAMOUS BOOK ABOUT STRATEGY in war or in business, with worldwide acceptance. The Chinese stick to it 100%, all others change it. Some would not read it because of the word "war," but it is the most valuable book on both military and business strategy. It could be part of any advanced management training, but the person has to be a highly experienced man who is actually using it in business. We, westerners, think a little differently than the Chinese, Japanese, or Koreans. Look at North Korea. A very small nation in very bad shape. But in strategic thinking, they beat us. Again Sun Tsu thinking. Japan had its own Samurai strategy genius, Musashi, 16th Century ("The book of five rings"). Very similar. And education is extremely important in all three countries.
CHINA vs US: A country becomes an enemy of other countries by behaving badly with others. All countries have ambitions and will compete and take business away from other countries. China changed for the better and later started improving for its people. They want to disarm other countries economically with a growing military, with aggression to spread out and control as many nations as possible. They accomplished a change for the better that we cannot do by improving education and did it in 15 years TOTALLY under the false name "modernized communism." Next, they improved their education such that China became the number one country in education in the world since 2010. We could not accomplish that in many decades because we were not, and we are not dedicated to change for the better. Our political and education leadership has not done a good job. All political leaders promised to improve education when running for office. However, none of them delivered better ACT or SAT scores, the measure of what children learned from grade one to twelve. We depend only on them to represent our schools' performance truthfully. In education, we are not improving and stretch the truth for the public often. I spent eight years investigating US education, plus the best three countries in K-12 education in their countries. This is what I found. Click for more important information about China.
Sun Tsu's "The Art of War" dated 500 BC, is the most respected book on strategy to win any large group activity today. It is a required reading in the national war colleges of many nations and also in Special Ops training today. China realized that their high school output became very poor about 50 years ago, learned from the best countries, and became the highest scoring nation in the world with high school graduates. They also reduced their poverty rate to one of the lowest.
We know now that the intelligence services of hostile countries, like Russia and China, would be very happy to do things that are not overt and destructive like 9/11, but would weaken us economically as much as possible. Some cultures prefer to create such a situation over decades, with small annual impacts/changes that people would not notice. Others would want results much faster. The Chinese are long-term actors. Russia is not. The other thing they would do is facilitate not one but three different long-term damages that can create ONE serious damage, but each does not violate any laws in the country where the damage is to occur. For example, a hostile country could cause public education to decline by degrading teacher training only. Or increase education union opposition to change that would cause that union to create and grow Congressional lobbying assets to protect the declining education's slow progression and being unnoticed. A second purposeful attack could take a very old national conflict in the target country, like our black and white conflict, and the enemy could use its psychologists and psychological warfare assets to provide news into local hands of the destination country that would keep increasing the black and white conflict. They could also prepare an attack at the same time to fan the conflict in the fast-growing poverty in the target country, each getting a little worse every year. The solution to all three problems is an internationally competitive education system. But a poor education system will blow up all three progressing destructive programs in the destination country, and with employers having problems with poorly educated high school grads necessitating robotic replacement in large numbers, the hostile country, like China, could create enormous problems for us.
We do not look at how the high performing countries in education produce far better results, and we isolate ourselves masterfully in the huge old wine barrel of education and keep yelling to everyone that "We are the best!", "We provide a world-class education to ALL children!". The "huge old wine barrel we call public education," with many holes in it, sinking with water up to our knees as it floats toward the "Niagara Falls." 75-85% of our high school graduates are not even ACT Ready today. They are BELOW FAILING GRADE IN EVERYTHING. YOU TELL US HOW THEY WILL SURVIVE!
Look at the ACT scores and ACT Readiness percentages! Not being ACT Ready means that the students' high school subject knowledge is less than 60%! That used to be a failure for eons, and we graduate 75-85% of such children! NEW TECHNOLOGIES ALWAYS INCREASE THE KNOWLEDGE THAT OUR CHILDREN WILL NEED TO LEARN IN SCHOOL TO BE READY WHEN GRADUATING. In the meantime, three huge technology groups will change the world and change the jobs starting in 2023, just two years away, replacing most workers with artificial intelligence-driven cognitive robotics. One always needs an independent guard with high enough standards to be competitive INTERNATIONALLY. So we decided to let education and its associates with an outstanding congressional force of lobbyists make all those decisions. WILL THIS ENABLE OUR CHILDREN TO MAKE A LIVING WAGE IN THE FUTURE? IT CANNOT.
ONLY MUCH BETTER KNOWLEDGE DELIVERED FOR YEARS IN OUR K-12 SCHOOLS TO OUR CHILDREN CAN SAVE US. BUT SOME PEOPLE OR SOME GROUPS MADE SURE THAT 80-95% OF OUR CHILDREN AND 94-97% OF OUR MINORITY CHILDREN ARE NOT GETTING EDUCATED WELL ENOUGH. Many people aided the creators of this monster, and none of our leaders made an attempt to correct this huge destructive problem. We voted for you, and we trusted you. Combine this now with the century-old black and white problem. It is solvable with education, if education is good enough, and if there is WILLINGNESS TO SOLVE IT. We also have one of the fastest-growing poverties in the world. It is solvable with education, if education is good enough, and if there is WILLINGNESS TO SOLVE IT. Obviously, all of that is missing.
For those of you who defend us and investigate potential enemies to keep us safe:
1. China knew that the education of the public is the key to national strength and success. They did not waste time. They achieved it. They are not our friends. Do you think that they have not noticed this problem of ours with public education? Our situation is very easy to see, identify and exploit WITH WORDS ONLY TO MANIPULATE BASIC HUMAN BEHAVIOR.
2. "Divide and Conquer" is a very old, more than 2,000-year-old strategy. The human ego can rarely admit that one is wrong. However, our egos lost the best weapon in strategic thinking and created potential disagreement about solutions to problems. We are not united in education, and we do not keep an eye on the most important nations to find out how they passed us and what they are doing better. WE STARTED BY BEING DIVIDED, A MAJOR DISADVANTAGE, AND WITH THE DUPLICATION OF PEOPLE THAT IS INVOLVED, IT IS VERY EXPENSIVE. The result is that we are blind and very damaged at this point. However, we cannot admit it; we cannot admit that other countries have passed us with much better performance, and the leadership would rather have our poor education destroy the entire country than admit to a mistake. Is that the kind of national character we are building? Covering up many mistakes in the first year of mistakes is easy to do because our damaging ego tells us that admission of mistakes is much more dangerous than lying. That is our philosophy of managing education. However, as of 2021, we made bigger and bigger management mistakes FOR DECADES, and our egos want us to look good. So many in education and political management, IF NOT ALL, do not have the courage to admit that they made mistakes or they did not know what to do, although that would indicate that such a leader has a strong character. Instead, we are creating cover-up schemes and doctoring tests that we can control to show higher grades for the less knowledge that our education systems are creating. If we know what percentage of knowledge equals what grade (e.g.60% or less was an "F" or a failing grade), we know how our children are progressing. But if the state system changes the grade names and grade percentage of knowledge and mentions that they can change any of these variables annually, what is the benefit in knowledge to the student? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. SO WHO DOES IT BENEFIT? ONLY THE EDUCATION SYSTEM, BECAUSE NOW THEY CAN MOVE PASS/FAIL POINTS, DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGE RANGES PER GRADE, SO THEY CAN ARTIFICIALLY CREATE BETTER GRADES FOR THE EDUCATION SYSTEM TO LOOK BETTER, WHILE THE CHILDREN LEARN LESS. I would venture to guess that this is not what we should have for children. People of minority groups, especially people in poverty, will focus on the grades in school, and if that sounds good, they are satisfied. However, the child will need to get a job, and only then will those parents discover that they were graduated with a useless level of knowledge. We have a poor education where 75-85% of the graduates are not even ACT Ready. Such children's high school subject knowledge is below 60% that was always considered a failure before.
3. We let our egos hide our poor decision-making, and we willfully lie to ourselves and the public.
THIS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS THE ROAD TO DESTRUCTION, NOT TO IMPROVEMENT.
The problems I found are complex, and some started in the late 1800s. Many things have changed since then. Although they were useful a hundred years ago and more, they negatively affect education, with no significant change to date. Other countries improved significantly, passing us. Very intelligent people set them up combining various areas depending on human frailty, like people's ego reaction, fear of the unknown, with the biggest impact on minorities and those in poverty. However, even the very wealthy will not escape a bad outcome. Let us look at ACT scores first for twenty years. They are too low and will create massive unemployment because major new technologies will improve many things, eliminate many jobs, and create many new jobs, but those require much more education. A lot of other countries anticipated this and successfully increased their public education, but we did not. We found that we are close to 4-5 decades behind. Our ACT average of high school graduates in most states is 20-21 average, representing less than 25% ACT readiness (less than 60% subject knowledge). The top ten countries in education have an ACT equivalent average of 29-34, representing 80-95% ACT readiness (80-90% subject knowledge). About five percent of our high schools meet such a performance level.
Those of us who had a good, loving, well-educated upbringing have to understand the following. Went to the inner cities and spoke to many people who live there. The most common experience I heard is this.
"My boyfriend got me pregnant. Then he ran away. I could not finish high school because I had to look after the baby. I work my fingers to the bone every day in a low-paying job. I am dead tired by the time I go home. He is with his gang all afternoon and evening. I cannot do more."
Before we criticize such parents, think. Those of us who are more fortunate cannot expect more from a poor parent in this condition. I heard some well-to-do parents being very critical of such poor parents, most of the time a single parent, and I hope that my explanation will be helpful. Those in poverty have a major disadvantage. They are not educated well enough to navigate this world of ours, and the parent is likely to not have had any adult guidance with many people in the school system trying to make them feel better instead of being truthful and helpful with the parent of a child who is not doing well. In addition, although we spend the highest dollars per student, we do not have a daily make-up system in the afternoon to detect the shortcomings of a student in the morning and correct it in the afternoon. This behavior was going on for generations. We have one of the fastest-growing poverties in the world because our education is poor, making good grades much more difficult. To make it worse, we are not interested in learning from the best countries in education, and we are getting teachers from the bottom 30% of the college population, when the top ten countries in education get them from the top 30%, with one country, Finland, getting potential teachers from the top 10% OF MASTER'S PROGRAMS! I traveled with my job to about 80 countries every year for 40 years. I am very familiar with how they handle education.
Everything and every single country has some positives and some negatives. The important thing is how they can manage the positives well and how well they can convert the negatives into positives. It is hard work. The tool that helps the most is management training beyond an MBA, and good education for the job where they work, enjoying their job. How can one achieve that in a country where public education is not among the best? Almost impossible because prerequisite education must always be completed with excellent grades. For example, our high school graduates have trouble reading, can read and write only block letters, and cannot handle basic math. Can you imagine that on the job, the boss has to write a quick note to little Johnny, but has to write nice block letters when he is in a hurry?! And our teacher training schools at our colleges are doing a poor job, that limits today's teachers in teaching well enough - as a surprise because the teacher candidates rightfully assumed and expected good enough training for them to be well-prepared for teaching. THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM. INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH, NO OTHER VOCATIONAL SUBJECT MAJOR WAS COMPROMISED LIKE TEACHER TRAINING WAS. VERY INTERESTING. It is ten times more difficult to learn in a school that is doing a poor job than learning in an excellent school. The good ones hire outstanding high-IQ student teachers with the right personality. Do not blame teachers or principals. If you google teacher training in the US, you will find many articles. Everyone needs excellent education to be able to do an excellent job. WHY DID WE IGNORE THAT FOR A CENTURY OR LONGER? WE HAVE TO GET THE PRIDE OUT OF OUR MINDS AND STOP SAYING THAT WE ARE THE BEST! WE ARE FAR FROM THE BEST. THOSE WHO HAVE TO SAY THAT THEY ARE THE BEST ARE DEFINITELY NOT GOOD AT THEIR JOB. ONLY POOR PERFORMERS USE SLOGANS ABOUT HOW GOOD THEY ARE. "EXCELLENCE FOR ALL STUDENTS," "WORLD CLASS EDUCATION," OR "WE ARE THE BEST!" THESE ARE SIGNALS THAT ONE IS NOT SO GOOD. One of the most important things any country must do is to keep an eye ALWAYS on the best 2-3 COUNTRIES WITH THE BEST SCHOOL SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD. The reason is to find out exactly how those competitors achieve better results than we do. THIS IS NOT A GAME OR AN OPTION. It includes things like standards, management quality, OECD PISA test performance, and other unique operating assets. They will be scoring between the equivalent of average ACT 29 and 34, 80-95% subject knowledge including CALCULUS, CHEMISTRY, AND PHYSICS THAT WE DO NOT INCLUDE, with 80-95% STEM ACT readiness upon graduation. We are at average ACT 20-21, LESS THAN 25% ACT READINESS, BELOW 60% HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE. SUCH PERFORMANCE WILL NOT BE ENOUGH FOR GETTING A JOB AFTER 2023 BECAUSE OF AN ENORMOUS JOB IMPACT CREATED BY AI-DRIVEN COGNITIVE ROBOTICS, NANOTECHNOLOGY, AND SPACE SCIENCE. THEY WILL HAVE A BIGGER IMPACT THAN COMPUTERS EVER DID. THIS WILL ELIMINATE A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THE WORKFORCE AND ALL HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WITH THE CURRENT CURRICULUM AND COURSE CONTENT. WE MESSED UP ROYALLY FOR MANY DECADES WITH OUR TEACHER TRAINING BEING POOR, AND THAT IS HAVING AN OBVIOUSLY SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON OUR ECONOMY. MOREOVER, THAT MAY BE AN INDICATOR OF SOME INTELLIGENCE INFLUENCE THAT IS SLOW BUT SIGNIFICANT AND COGNITIVE, AS WELL AS DECISION MAKING BRAIN IMPAIRMENT (INCOMPLETE NEURONAL FUNCTIONAL GROUP INTERCONNECTIONS, AND ALSO INSUFFICIENT CONNECTIONS IN LEFT-RIGHT BRAIN HEMISPHERE INTERCONNECTIONS, PLUS IN THE MATHEMATICS AND SEVERAL OTHER FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF THE BRAIN FOR DECISION MAKING). Always show a comparison honestly and truthfully TO THE PUBLIC WHOSE TAXES PAY FOR THE ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE WORLD, THAT IS CREATING BAD RESULTS. WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS WHY WE ARE DELIVERING POOR RESULTS FOR THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE ARE PAYING FOR IT PER STUDENT compared to the three best country-organizations in the world, and learn what they do better, and why. AS THE LARGEST COUNTRY ECONOMY, WE CANNOT AFFORD THE DETERIORATION IN EDUCATION TO DATE, AND THERE IS SOME URGENCY TO RECOVER EDUCATION AS FAST AS WE CAN. Be truthful with the public, and they will support you. Public education is doing what it should not be doing. Ego, pride, poor job, and lying to the public will hurt you. If anyone does not believe, consult an MD NEUROLOGIST WHO IS A BRAIN SPECIALIZED professor in large medical schools.
1. A twenty-year ACT score trend on the website shows flat performance in the average ACT score area of 20-21 in the USA, plus examples of Tennessee and my school district in Knoxville, TN. This score area represents 25% or lower employment readiness at 60% high school subject knowledge. ACT Readiness is a low standard in the 60% high school subject-knowledge area, which will not be enough after 2023, after the three new technologies mentioned below. The gigantic problem is that 75-85% of high school graduates ARE NOT EVEN ACT READY, MEANING THAT THEY WILL BE UNEMPLOYABLE AFTER THE THREE MAJOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES CREATE MAJOR CHANGES, THE WAY WE DO ALMOST EVERYTHING FROM 2023 ON.
2. In 2023, we will see the worldwide entry of three major technologies: AI-driven cognitive robotics, which will replace a large number of college graduates as well, nanotechnology that will be able to create anything at nanometer resolution or accuracy (one-millionth of 1.1 yard), and space science. Public education needs to incorporate them within three years, ALTHOUGH WE WERE ALREADY TWO YEARS BEHIND BY 2018, PRIMARILY IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE. THOSE HAPPENED TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT AREAS FOR FUTURE EMPLOYMENT. OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION DID NOT KNOW THAT TO THIS DAY. THAT IS A HUGE MISTAKE THAT WILL MAKE MANY FORMER AND CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES UNEMPLOYABLE. Our goals and standards and the knowledge of graduates declined instead of matching new technologies and top INTERNATIONAL competitors in education. The upcoming robotics will be able to replace most jobs in the workforce and close the door to our high school graduates because they are not prepared well enough. Today, most high schools graduate children who require an additional two years of education in math and science mainly. By 2024, four years of remedial work will be needed.
3. We were close to the top in education worldwide in the 1960-1970 area. Our education was internationally competitive then. REMEMBER that the high school graduates feed the workforce in all industries of all countries. The product or service quality AND COST depends on the education of the workforce in all industries. We compete with other nations' products domestically, as well as in other countries. THAT MEANS THAT OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES KNOWLEDGE MUST BE COMPETITIVE WITH THE TOP THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION, OR WE WILL HAVE SERIOUS FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. We are reminded every year of how poor our education system is, but we do nothing about it. Since then we gradually dropped to 37th in the world in mathematics, the most important subject for any job! Our science scores are also low, and we graduate children who cannot read, do not know basic mathematics, and no longer can read and write a script. 75-85% of the children that graduate from high school are not even ACT Ready, and that means that their knowledge of high school subjects could be anywhere under 60%. There is NO WAY for children like that to have a job in the future. The emphasis in the future will be on improved communications, graduate-level mathematics, science, and engineering. Robotics will be better for all other subjects at one-quarter of the cost, and updating the knowledge of a robot worker with an entirely new profession will be a ten-minute download. There is no way to beat that.
4. What appear to be the major contributing factors to the low education of high school graduates?
4.1. US teacher training has not changed much in 100 years, but other countries improved significantly after WWII, by requiring a Master's degree in the top 10% of the Master's program in the subject that they will teach in Finland and in the top 30% in other countries, in the subject they would teach in high school. The teacher's personality must match the teaching profession. Today's teacher training in the US is not turning out well, same for certification and as a result of our classes turning out boring. I observed 29 classes in science and math over the years. Boring classes can turn off a child or an adult about the subject forever. This is not the teachers' fault. It is the fault of selection for and quality of teacher training to match future employer needs. We ignore such things.
4.2. Both our teacher training and certification is too low to be competitive, too low to be effective in teaching our children.
4.3. The teachers are not supported and treated well. The required paperwork after class eats up their time. They get enough preparation time for each class in other countries that passed us. In our schools, most do not have enough preparation time because of paperwork that could be automated.
4.4. Student discipline is a problem. The teacher is not given the authority to effectively manage the classroom. She/he must be the top authority in the students' minds.
4.5. Our public schools' cost per student is among the five highest IN THE WORLD. The student grades are low, with mathematics the lowest in the industrialized world. WE ARE 37th! When one has such a big difference between cost and performance, it is a high probability that money-wasting ending up in the wrong pockets, or with friends, or lovers, or just wasted. The normal level of employees in school management, all principals, and assistant principals should not be higher than 2.5% of total expenditures. According to the more advanced management materials, not all people agree with top management. The weaker the top management, the stronger, the lower management becomes, with different ideas to be promoted. Good ole boys' clubs form as the central management staff grows beyond 4% of total staff. But in large school district management, central management is 1% of the total school district employees normally, but you can find ten times that number of people in many school districts. This is a major problem creator.
4.6. Management training is absent in education. Management know-how does not come naturally but requires serious training. Much of education operates under the guidance of locally elected school boards, who, as an average, are the least informed and trained about what is required to create a school with good performance and are not open to learning what they do not know. Just think hard. What do you know about people you vote for? Do you know what is needed for their job to be done well? Do they know specifically how the best nations in education achieve their results? Do they know what results we have to achieve to compete with them successfully? Do they know why this is important? The local board system originated in the late 1800s when we were educating local children in the agriculture industry. I heard several school board members commenting that "the people elected me; that means that I know what is needed for education-related decisions. I asked once in a board meeting why board members are paid $20,000 to $25,000 per year. The answer was "because we cannot get people for less money." In Los Angeles, they pay $100,000/year. With the poor results, why are people running to be elected for the school board? To improve education or the money? The economy got very complicated since then, and a lot more education is required. But public education responds very slowly and with less knowledge than needed. For local schools to do well, well-educated EMPLOYERS need to be on a small board to define what the curriculum should be and all the standards to be national, that all school districts meet with well-trained managers and teachers. The duplication of spending among 50 states and 14,000 school districts wastes many millions that must go to much better education for the children. Management must always be very small, with well management educated employees. The good results are producing the new teaching skill, which is a simple new download. Always optimize for better results where the action is. The high school principals need to be in charge of expenses and the results and have the authority to make changes in staff and practices to improve results. Most superintendents and practically all school board members have no idea how to improve performance.
In the 1800s, when public education started taking its more modern form, we had a single dominant industry, agriculture, with small towns surrounded by family farms. There was a small schoolhouse with one teacher and a handful of farmers advising the teacher on what they needed. This was the original school board. It worked very well because the education system was purely local, it was simple, and there was no need for today's more complicated subjects. The farmers' children received an education that was perfect for the farmers. They returned to the family farm to work. I found two eighth-grade final tests from about 120+ years ago. I was very surprised to find that the English and Math portion of those tests, the majority of our current HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES and all eighth-graders could not pass today!
Today, there are many laws controlling education. Many parents whose children attend the local schools, upon graduation, will work in one of ten or more different industries locally or go to one of a thousand industries far from home if they were excellent students. Education became an internationally competitive business because the high school graduates were feeding the workforce of many companies in many industries. The same is true today. The product and service quality and their cost depend on the training of the workforce in high school. Our industries are competing with the products of foreign companies at home or in other countries. For that reason, our high schools need to be internationally competitive with the best countries in education.
The local school boards are elected in 14,000 US school districts and influence what the schools should spend and what the children should learn or not learn. IN ADDITION, OUR STATES CAN CHANGE ANYTHING, AND THIS COMBINATION OF CHANGES LOWERS THE RESULTS. The various states' education leadership believe and publish today that the best advice for what our children should learn comes from the locally elected school board. HOWEVER SMALL THE DIFFERENCES ARE IN OUR DIRECTION BY STATE, THE QUALITY OF THE JOB THAT PUBLIC EDUCATION DOES BECOME LESS THAN WHAT WE COULD DO IF ALL THE STANDARDS WITHIN PUBLIC EDUCATION WERE THE SAME IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. IF ONE DOES NOT FOCUS ON THE SAME MEASURABLE OBJECTIVE, WHERE WE SHOULD BE, WE END UP WITH POOR EDUCATION. We do not do this like the other low-performing countries. Such management ENSURES, REPEAT "MAKES SURE" that the results are bad. It appears that his structure was created by some very smart people WHO WANT US TO FAIL WITH SLOW ANNUAL DETERIORATION OF RESULTS AT A MUCH HIGHER COST (MAJOR DUPLICATION OF FUNCTIONS). Most local school board members, if not all, have no idea what our children must learn well and what international compatibility means.
This is what American public education has today, in 2021, on the Internet:
"The school board association sets the standard for achievement (in the states and school districts), incorporating the LOCAL community's view of what students should know and be able to accomplish at each grade level." If one thinks about such a statement and our poor ACT performance, school boards use a group majority decision from the lowest level of ELECTED people in 14,000 school boards, whose majority is unequipped to make decisions to improve our education. But I have to tell you that when we vote, how well do we know the person for whom we vote? How do we know that they know how well the school district is doing and how to increase performance? The ACT chart clearly shows twenty years of poor performance without improvement. Today, high school education is much more sophisticated than it was in the 1800s. The old style that we still carry around our necks, like school boards, will not create a uniform competitive performance. When all education standards and decisions are not uniform and are not competitive internationally, one cannot have a uniformly good performance. We, being the largest country economy, adopted such a system that cannot deliver good performance. If you do not believe it, look at the "not ready percentage" of graduates in the twenty-year ACT chart I have here. By the way, anyone could see the ACT results before 2016 in the state report cards on the Internet per high school, school district, state, and US average. Today, no one has access to that information except for the student's family who took the ACT. They justify it with individual privacy laws. But the needed information is not the ACT scores of individual students.
WHY ARE SCHOOL, SCHOOL DISTRICT, STATE AND US AVERAGE ACT SCORES AND READINESS PERCENTAGES SO DIFFICULT FOR THE PUBLIC TO ACCESS? It used to be very easy to find it until about 2015. It was part of the report card. ACT is still providing them, BUT WE ARE HIDING THESE RESULTS FROM THE PUBLIC WHO PAY FOR OUR POOR EDUCATION! Why do you think our education management is hiding them?
WE HAVE TWO AREAS THAT ARE NECESSARY TO FIX URGENTLY FOR RECOVERY IN EDUCATION. Being the largest country economy, we need to become among the top three countries in public education, and not 37th in mathematics as we are now in 2021. We always think of simply allocating more money to solve problems, not giving any thought to the fact that with the same people, the money will be spent when one does not have any financial sense on board to stop the runaway train of spending.
Second point: If one does the numbers, one can easily see that the largest country-economy cannot afford to drop too far in the education of children because the economic underperformance will cost increasingly more. The further you drop, the process can become irrecoverable. WE ARE TOO LOW ALREADY. It is somewhat similar to a national debt's interest payments becoming so high as an expense that it will damage future investment that is critical.
TEACHER TRAINING IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH IN THE US. THIS IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM BY FAR. UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OFFER THE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMS. They started declining in quality approximately four decades ago. Very interestingly, no other degree programs declined as teacher training did. The subject training of teachers is very weak. This appears to be the most important cause of declined education in the USA, combined with the total lack of management training under the state department of education. The subject knowledge and training for teachers is so weak that it makes good teacher performance impossible. Without the universities fixing this shortcoming urgently, the badly needed school improvement will not be possible. If a teacher does not know his/her subject 4-5 times deeper than what he/she has to teach in a year's course, he/she will not have the fluency and comfort to teach the course in a positive, enjoyable manner. This is the biggest problem in US education. Mathematics to Calculus and its prerequisites, along with Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, must be acquired on the Master's level for teaching. They also must be required for graduation from high school to restore the current disgraced diploma.
As the largest country economy, we have some serious opponents internationally who do not wish us well, namely Russia and China. Just like we watch everything, they watch everything, including us. Make no mistake that a declining education system is a huge incentive for them to give some domestic enemies a "helping hand." Have our schools been dumbing down our high school graduates? We hear more about that monthly. Is our education system open with its results if one asks for ACT scores and readiness percentages? Not like ten years ago. Do we have a lot of Chinese, Russians, and even North Koreans attending our universities? Absolutely. We better start thinking seriously. Is there a connection between poor teacher training and some "external friends?" Do not allow the problems to fester under our roofs! Too many have been doing that.
Teachers whose personality is well matched to the teaching profession is very important.
But our children must be educated in our entire country by better-educated teachers in many more subjects, and not just educated a little better here and a little less elsewhere, but educated uniformly well everywhere in the country. Teacher education has dropped at our colleges and universities, but the other subject programs did not drop. Why do you think? Someone who wants to be a teacher would assume that he/she will be educated and certified with high enough standards to be a good teacher with good results. However, we do neither. Why do we as a country need more than 100 different curricula? THAT JUST DILUTES ALL SCHOOLS' PERFORMANCE. but according to one list of courses everywhere in the entire country for an increasingly more technical and more sophisticated world. For our world we need an excellent education on the basic subjects. That is what employers needed and need, but public education did nothing about employers' needs and totally disregarded an increasing number of countries that passed our schools. We cannot afford to keep paying the highest rate per student in the world when public education dropped our students' knowledge very low, like 37th in the world in mathematics. Within public education, the state education departments, all 50 of them, need to focus on much better education to a uniformly high standard, set by a small group of senior employer executives. We as a country will not survive unless we increase education to raise people out of poverty and improve our citizen's life.
The small single-classroom school houses did a good job in mathematics and English focused on mostly agricultural production, and very simple manufacturing. Please look at two 8th grade final exams more than 130 years ago:
one is from 1895, and
the other is from 1912. To verify the tests, it took me a year to find and buy the subject textbooks from the same period as the tests. They matched. We are showing here how much tougher the
8th-grade education and tests were more than 130 years ago. Many of today's high school graduates could not pass these eighth-grade final tests. Something happened after WWI. We started advancing faster in more and more areas of sciences and mathematics. WE WENT FROM THE HORSE AND BUGGY TO THE MOON! THESE EFFORTS RESULTED IN MILLIONS OF NEW DISCOVERIES IN THOUSANDS OF NEW SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, MEDICINE IN MANY-MANY INDUSTRIES, AND WE COULD GO ON FOREVER. MANY OLD JOBS DISAPPEARED, BUT THE BIG CHANGES CREATED MANY NEW JOBS. EDUCATION HAD TO INCREASE FOR THE NEW JOBS AT ALL LEVELS:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL, UNIVERSITY LEVEL, AND ON A GRADUATE LEVEL, LIKE DOCTORATE PERFORMANCE IN MOST FIELDS. AFTER WWII, EDUCATION ON THE ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL INCREASED ACCORDINGLY IN MANY COUNTRIES. BUT NOT IN THE USA.
75-85% OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WITH A DIPLOMA IN HAND ARE NOT EVEN "A.C.T. READY!" Please listen to what I found. Part of our poor education is ignoring things that are critical to success in teaching, such as making sure that those who want teacher training have a high IQ and the right personality for teaching children. When teaching high school math and science, the teacher needs to be at least five times higher educated in the subject as the most advanced course they have to teach in the subject. A teacher that loves the subject they teach makes a huge difference in the student results. You need such qualifications to present with infectious enthusiasm in the classroom to get the students interested in the details that one teaches in class.
TEACHER TRAINING REQUIREMENTS IN THE BEST COUNTRIES IN PUBLIC EDUCATION ARE VERY DIFFERENT THAN OURS. HOWEVER, OUR EDUCATION MANAGEMENT DOES NOT WANT TO GO THERE TO SEE WHY. THIS DOES NOT REFLECT AN ATTITUDE BY POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP THAT PRODUCES GOOD RESULTS. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE TELL US THAT THEY DO SOMETHING WHEN THE EVIDENCE SHOWS OTHERWISE? WHY DOES OUR LEADERSHIP TURN A BLIND EYE TO THIS HUGE PROBLEM? WE CAN WRITE TO GOVERNORS ABOUT THIS FOUR TIMES AND RECEIVE NO ANSWER FROM ANYONE. When one looks at the readiness percentage of graduates on the ACT chart below, we can clearly see that the results are poor. Our children must be much better educated to be employable in future years.
What could be the reason for our declining education?
Increasing the growing divide and hate between rich and poor, black and white. Suppose one reads enough about mental and psychological development. In that case, one finds that poor education combined with an environment where the child learns to accept and believe only his own friends and race, and does not trust those who are different, goes back to the years of cavemen where you trusted only your own family and killed others for food. Jump ahead thousands of years, and religious feelings developed that should have mitigated hostile feelings against people with different beliefs, appearance, mass killings of others by governments, hostilities, and cheating each other did not diminish. It all originates from what we learned to think from childhood. Laws were created, but punishment after the fact does not cure the behavior. Education from an early age has the best chance to correct destructive thinking. But can the countries incorporate prejudicial beliefs into education? They can but not enough to create TOTAL domination of thinking. This process can be manipulated, but not significantly if we include in the curriculum subjects that temper it. Finland includes ethics in its high school curriculum.
Population reduction, by increasing joblessness, homelessness, crime, jail time and early death.
Create civil disorders to eliminate more people in poverty.
Poor teacher training, very poor in English Composition, Reading, Mathematics and Sciences.
Management training, that must be independent of any education organization, is needed the most in jobs. That is where most problems lie.
Poor discipline control for fear of law-suites in schools. There must be zero tolerance for most behavior problems. We are not doing well. AWFUL things can happen in classrooms without punishment. For example, a student going to the toilet during class and throwing feces on the teacher when he returned. The punishment was sending him home with the parent who today believes the lies of the child. The student returns to school the next day as if nothing happened. The schools' punishment needs to be so heavy that no other child would ever consider doing such a thing. If you believe friends in education management who disagree with what I found because a friend works in education and "knows the truth," you are acting on prejudiced information. Do a serious investigation. Investigate what I am presenting here. You find the right source, and let me know. You will be able to do that soon. I am certain that no one wants our children to become unemployed and homeless. And please do not raise incorrect information, like "ACT is a profit-making company, and they are not giving you the truth." They are a non-profit organization. Such companies, if they lie, will be closed because no customer would want to use them. The person who created this rumor was Ph.D. in education, and he managed all schools in the school district.
Not enough knowledge to get a good job, leads to crime and illegal jobs leading to prison.
WE HAVE A BAD HABIT. A FEW DECADES AFTER WWII, WE STARTED A SLOGAN-BASED ENCOURAGEMENT OF CHILDREN, LIKE "JOHNNY!, YOU ARE VERY SMART! YOU ARE THE BEST! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" WHAT WE DID WITH SUCH SLOGANS IS THE CREATION OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND INFERIORITY COMPLEX. IT WOULD HAVE MADE MORE SENSE TO SIT DOWN WITH LITTLE JOHNNY, BE HIS FRIEND, INTRODUCE A PROBLEM, EXPLAIN HOW TO SOLVE IT, WHILE ALLOWING JOHNNY TO SOLVE SUCH PROBLEMS WITH LESS AND LESS HELP.
Later this lead to schools putting slogans on their letterhead and buildings like "We Provide World Class Education!" and "Excellence for ALL Children!" However, the performance was nothing like it. I think it would be much better for all if we stopped overstating our poor education, and stopped lying about it, or cheating to produce higher grades, and let the newspapers tell the truth. What most public education schools do, does harms us. Improving education VERY SIGNIFICANTLY, not just a little, in every single school, will be the action that raises the earning ability of children in poverty and solving the hateful black and white problem. To that end, the entire school system's performance must rise significantly.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS TO ACHIEVE MUCH BETTER RESULTS ARE:
A highly trained teacher, with five times more subject knowledge than what he/she teaches in her most difficult course, with a personality that matches very well the teaching environment as detailed below, cheerful, outgoing, friendly as long as children behave. International high performers are moving to a Master's degree in Mathematics and Sciences, for the subject that they would teach above 4th-8th grade.
One cannot solve teaching problems just by getting by. Yet, that is what we did for many decades in American education. We need to change our standards to having teachers who are excellent in the subject they teach and whose personality matches their job. STANDARDS ARE SET FOR MINIMUM PERFORMANCE TODAY. We are poorly performing. The standards must be much higher to reach the performance level of the top three countries. That means an average ACT performance at 29, and not lower. The top three are doing it. Do they have a much higher IQ THAN OUR CHILDREN? NO, THEY DO NOT. WHAT WE HAVE IS MUCH WORSE K-12 EDUCATION, AND NOT A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL IN LEADERSHIP HAD THE COURAGE AND OR KNOWLEDGE TO FIX IT. THE BIG PROBLEM IS THAT MONEY WINS IN ELECTIONS, WITH A WINNING IMAGE CREATED BY THE ADVERTISING COMPANY THEY SELECT. ONE HEARS MANY PROMISES TO FIX EDUCATION WHEN SOMEONE RUNS FOR GOVERNOR. THE IMAGE CREATION IS DONE SO WELL THAT THE VATICAN MAY CHANGE THEIR LAWS FOR PAPAL ELECTION, AND MR. BOOMLINOODLI, THE US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, BECOMES THE POPE. I AM TRYING TO TELL HOW CLEVER THE SCIENCES BECAME THAT CAN CONTROL THE PUBLIC'S BELIEF SYSTEM. The sad thing is that this situation ends up hurting the less educated minority in poverty who are getting a poor education in our system as well as in a few other countries as well.
TEACHER EDUCATION AND PERSONALITY: Starting in the late 1800s to this day, teacher education improved in the US but far from enough. It used to be in the form of general education that would enable teachers to teach any subject to a minimal level. That is still going on in many places. It happens too often that teachers are assigned to teach courses for which they were not trained well or were not trained at all. We advanced worldwide to a point 20-25 years ago where the teacher knowledge is needed to satisfy employers who require teacher training with much more single-subject knowledge. Many countries moved to teachers having a Master's degree in the subject they teach from fourth grade on. Our teacher training did not follow that. With the absence of testing teachers for personality match to teaching, and without giving them a solid Master's degree-level education in the subject that they would teach, we are creating teachers who are not as well prepared as they are in the high-performing countries. Looking at teacher requirements first, we must raise teaching much higher to improve the education results. It is a hard job, and our teacher training degrades it. There are several tests for vocational matching. I have experience with the Strong Interest Inventory correlated with the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory, which can be downloaded from the Internet for $100 total. The very successful teachers appear to have the following profile. Such a profile is very important for teaching anything, but especially the harder subjects, like Mathematics, Sciences, Engineering, where the future emphasis will be from 2023 onward. Pay needs to be higher for such teachers. However, we must realize that pay increases cannot be supported by the poor performance we have to date.
I saw brilliant public education methods in Finland that we could use instead of following the destructive strategy to increase unemployment, poverty, and racial conflict, and if that was not enough, the public is told things that are untrue. Finland runs education on the ministerial level, reporting to the president. Country size does not offer an excuse because our problems are mostly the result of not having any management know-how in US education from the very top and all the way down. The presidential level of the US does not have any unifying power to have high standards. They do not use any management method properly for growth. Some reasons were given by US Education management, like: "you cannot use Finland's method of operation because we are much bigger," or "Finland does not have minorities," and such arguments that are false. But we show a lack of management know-how, poor planning, and poor execution of plans. We will destroy our own economy with our own poor education that is operating with 1800's teaching and management know-how, disorganized because we lack important know-how and do not want to learn why high performers are high performers both on the domestic and international front. When the system lacks necessary important knowledge, it cannot produce good results. Or, bad results are an indicator of poor management, poor standards, lack of motivation and wrong direction of where we want to be. You can keep the education in the states with specific ACT or SAT annual objectives, BUT WE ALSO NEED MONTHLY measurable objectives (GPA) that are key indicators of success or failure in knowledge. But not the definition and set of standards and objectives. That education has a conflict of interest, and they opt to doctor the results. Those need to be controlled by a small group of retired presidents of large employers/companies, that education should be satisfying with their students. We managed to mismanage education for several decades. The poor ACT results show that clearly. With the long history of poor performance, that the national leaders do not correct, and the misinformation that public education feeds to the public, with lack of performance-comparisons between US education and the education industry in the top three countries in education, everyone is dreaming that all is going very well when it is not even at a survivable average performance. It is like a person standing alone in front of the mirror and lies to himself loudly so that everyone hears that "We are the best in the world," as political and education leadership let out a lot of gas loudly and proudly. Unfortunately, education management is like a group of blind people walking into big trees in the forest, and there is no leader with normal and healthy vision to avoid the trees. As if that was not enough, we mix into education two "poisons" with NO REMEDY FOR THEM: The hateful black and white problem that should have been resolved during the last hundred years, and one of the fastest-growing poverty of the population that the poor education creates. We certainly could have resolved the education problem with the steps we identified on this website. AND GUESS WHAT! The solution to solving the declining education and fast-rising poverty problem would have solved both the poverty and the racial conflict problems. If we did that, life would be much better for our entire nation today. Three major technologies will produce super-fast and very intelligent robots, plus a new technology (Nanotechnology) that can manufacture much better quality products 50% cheaper with nanometer (one millionth of a yard) accuracy or precision, plus space sciences that will become huge very rapidly, and a lot of new sciences and engineering methods, and a lot of new, better-paying jobs. The new jobs will always need higher education. Government leadership knew that in advance because the manufacturing companies forecast internally ten years ahead of the start of design for such a new product. Political or education management's decision-making is very slow, and we do not have enough time to change to be ready in 2023-2024. Our leaders managed to let public education collapse with no real opportunity to improve it sufficiently, if at all. We have been graduating children nationally from high schools for about a decade 75% to 85% of whom were graduated with less than 60% high school subject-knowledge who will be unemployable in just a few years. They will be unable to learn jobs, they will be unable to get legal jobs, and they will be hungry and making babies like bunnies. They would also become a gigantic labor source for illegal jobs. I brought up this problem ten years ago. Nothing was done. Wrote to governors four times, and one seven times. None of them answered. What kind of success and situation do you think the US education will put our country into in 4 or 5 years? Excellent education ON TIME is extremely difficult to achieve in most American companies because our public education chose not to be improved, and it is failing. I saw on television a school district superintendent talking about why we do not need testing. He was asked how could he tell that the child learned enough in that case? His answer was, "I look into their eyes, and I can tell." How can someone like that become a superintendent? No one like that should be working in public education AT ANY LEVEL. A few months ago, I had to pay a $23.00 bill in a store, and I paid with a $50 bill. The electricity went out, and six cash register operators and their supervisor could not figure out what my change was! Finally, I told them that they owe me $27 as change. I was told they were all high school graduates. I wrote down three names and confirmed that they graduated from a high school a couple of years ago. WE SHOULD NEVER GRADUATE EVEN A SINGLE SUCH YOUNGSTER FROM HIGH SCHOOL! BUT WE DO. DO YOU ALL HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT MEANS IF YOU HAVE EVEN ONE SUCH UNEDUCATED GRADUATE?
Incorporate the following points at the very start of teacher training and role-play frequently and extensively the handling of serious problems that will appear in the classroom. Perhaps the biggest one will be the result of hormonal changes in the 10-16 year age-range and teachers must be well prepared for it.
A teacher must be a high I.Q. individual. His/her training must be upgraded significantly. Our teachers are not respected as highly as they are in other countries. Why? Our children's education is worse. The level of teacher training is too low and has been low for many decades while the competitive nations improved. The best countries in education are moving to a 6-7-year Master's degree in the subject he/she will teach, if finished in the top 30% of his/her Master's program (top 10% in Finland) in the subject he/she will teach. Teachers' Colleges offer a one-year Master's program in the subject for teaching. Do not take that one.
Excellent presenter/communicator, who has to deal with student-questions, loves his subject, feels that the way we teach is very important for the children's and country's future, it has to be very convincing, enjoyable, firm on discipline but compassionate. Such a person requires at least five times the subject knowledge required to get the highest grade level of the subject minimum to understand it well enough to answer student questions with examples very clearly.
The big change around nine years of age in teenagers is an explosion in emotional reactions as a result of hormonal changes. Organize a two-week seminar about emotional responses every summer for those teachers who teach subjects from 9th grade and supervisory personnel about how to best handle such students, and how to advise the students with a special class and in private to make sure that they know how to recognize such powerful feelings and manage them without disturbing their studies.
A teacher must love his/her subject to become an excellent teacher of that subject, up to date on new developments in that field.
Great sense of humor, including juvenile humor, is an important tool for a teacher. I attended 29 math and science classes. The classes felt that they were boring. Classes being boring, it is very important for the teacher to make his/her classes and what he/she teaches very interesting and enjoyable for all. One can do that only with a teacher who loves his subject and knows it very well beyond what he has to teach.
Be highly innovative! Finds the best tools for the job, and he/she needs to organize to improve how he/she thinks, how he/she is to improve classroom results and given a free hand in organizing how he/she can best teach, covering the curriculum for the course in the most interesting way in his/her opinion, being creative and optimizing everything he/she is teaching.
Loves to work with children, great problem solver.
Management training would be very helpful to teachers in my opinion, since a teacher has to accomplish good results with 15-30 "people" in the classroom, obtain resources for the same from people above him/her, and be creative to achieve both. That is a management task. In addition, it will be an excellent promotional tool, as robotics will penetrate teaching as well.
BUT, even this is not good enough. If you put a very well-trained person into a poorly performing organization, again, "If you don't use it, you lose it" applies to everything. I MEAN, EVERYTHING THAT ONE NEEDS FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE CAN DISAPPEAR BECAUSE WE STOP USING THEM. A WELL EDUCATED TEACHER PLACED INTO POORLY MANAGED ORGANIZATION WILL REGRESS.
THAT MEANS THAT UPGRADING ORGANIZATIONS CANNOT BE IGNORED WHEN WE PLAN TO UPGRADE ONLY PART OF THE FUNCTIONS (e.g., TEACHERS IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM). PERHAPS A MIDDLE GROUND, LIKE OPTIMIZING A SCHOOL DISTRICT, COULD BE DONE, BUT THE MANAGEMENT HAS TO BE ROCK SOLID BECAUSE THE ARROWS WILL BE COMING AT THEM FROM ANYWHERE, INCLUDING THE TOP, WHO PERFORMED POORLY. So the cost of the change will be lowest if we change from top-down for quick recovery.
The teaching profession needs to become much more creative, valuing new methods and ideas to better educate with the same effort. Education management must have people who always are on the search for significantly better tools and methods in all areas, especially in the countries that have excellent results, every single month, to improve the measurable outcome, the annual ACT scores.
A good background like the one above could qualify a good teacher for other future jobs as well. That is a good thing because we need teachers who have a deep desire to teach because they love it instead of just for income. To achieve that, we must open up their training and teaching to improve our education not only for today's children but also for the teachers, to allow them to rise higher than before. That can take us beyond what teachers can achieve today, anywhere.
PUBLIC EDUCATION STANDARDS: Mathematics, Engineering, Sciences, and Economics are the most important subjects for future employment. Artificial intelligence-based robotics with multiprocessor architecture will replace most jobs, regardless of education level in the long term, that involve repetition or require high levels of accuracy. Ray Kurzweil, head of Google's technology division, the most accurate technology forecaster with 89% accuracy 30 years forward, estimates that processor calculation speeds AT THE SAME PRICE will be 10,000,000,000-times faster than they were (will be) in 2025!! Unfortunately, our public education is teaching less than many other countries do. What will be important in the future is a high level of education in the above-mentioned subjects and the mental flexibility to learn new jobs quickly. DO NOT WORRY. THERE WILL BE TOOLS AND METHODS TO SPEED UP OUR MENTAL CAPABILITIES AS WELL. The basic high school requirement TODAY for graduation needs to include Calculus and its prerequisites, Physics, Space Physics, Chemistry, speed reading, writing, and speaking in Modern Mandarin Chinese with all high school courses passing at 80% subject knowledge MINIMUM. Why 80%? Because historically, the higher-level jobs always required a B-average performance (85%). In the future, we will not have the lower-level jobs of today. Robots will be doing them at a much lower cost. The future standards for graduation will not become lower. THEY WILL BE HIGHER. They will have to increase. New technologies are driving the increase. Why Chinese? Because they will be either our enemy or friend. Friend, hopefully. Their education is the best and will remain so. They will also most likely be equal to us or above us in technical developments. VERY SADLY, OUR POLITICALLY MANAGED PUBLIC EDUCATION SET US BACK AT A VERY BAD TIME. WE MUST FIX THIS PROBLEM URGENTLY. RAISING TEACHER TRAINING AS SUGGESTED IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. I AM NOT TELLING YOU ALL THIS BECAUSE I AM BRILLIANT. BUT I AM VERY WELL CONNECTED INTERNATIONALLY FROM MY PAST JOBS AND KNOW HOW THEY WORK AND IN WHAT AREAS. Since the technical subjects will dominate jobs, many jobs will include Chinese contact and publications. After the poor results that our state education departments created for decades, anyone who wants to negotiate, we cannot afford to do. They would continue with the poorly performing primary and secondary schools as they have done in the past. This is no longer a game of how little we can do and "get by." We cannot continue graduating children who are anywhere near ACT Readiness or below it. We will need to move to STEM ACT Readiness as the right standard within 2-3 years, by 2025 at most. Will that make high school much harder? It will make it easier if we upgrade teacher qualifications and teaching methodologies based on what the top three countries in education are doing and using. When one is in a higher-level position, one must know what standards to enforce in the jobs within one's group. We also no longer can afford governors who are so soft as they demonstrated in the past by letting public education "go to the dogs." The public high schools need to teach our children much more, with high enough standards to be ready to learn even more in jobs AND at a university. The high school graduation requirements are not high enough, and 75-85% of graduates are not even ACT Ready a modest measure. A high school diploma with an average ACT 29 score, which guarantees only 80% Readiness, would be the appropriate objective since we are paying public education one of the highest rates per student in the world. The average A.C.T.-equivalent performance in that group of countries is 29-34. WE NEED TO LEARN THAT OVER-PERFORMANCE MAKES LEARNING EASIER. UNDERPERFORMANCE IS EXTREMELY DAMAGING. SO WE CHOSE TO UNDERPERFORM. NO COUNTRY CAN SURVIVE UNDERPERFORMANCE FOR DECADES. THAT IS WHERE WE ARE FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES WITH VERY POOR ACT SCORES.
A GOOD IDEA: The high performing countries whose graduation results are 29-34 average A.C.T. equivalent, test prospective teachers to find out if they are a good match to the teaching profession. They already completed a Master's degree in the mathematics, science or engineering field that they would teach above fourth-to-eighth grade. They had to be in the top 30% of the university's Master's program (in Finland in the top 10%) in the subject that they will teach. I set in on their classes in Finland, and there is a big effort to make the classes fun and play. The students and teachers call each other by their first name in every class. Teachers stay with the same class in the more advanced forms of the subject. There are balconies in some classes because they have more than 100 countries sending groups to observe them and learn. Everyone, students and teachers and visitors, meet at 7:30 AM and eat breakfast together, and later lunch together. Homework is very rare. Very often, the teacher breaks up the class of 30 into small teams of two or three students and gives them a problem to investigate. The result learned will teach the students what the teacher's curriculum requires for that week. Teachers decide how they teach and in what sequence and the small teams work together and solve the problems collaborating together. Every hour the teacher sends all students out to play. Schools are very nicely decorated inside and outside as if they were the wilderness. They play soccer very hard. No testing until the middle of high school. The teacher makes the classes enormous fun. We need exactly that. The compensation scale for such teachers should be 20-30% higher as a new scale if they test vocation compatibility. That will give to teachers an internationally compatible profession, and for the lower trained, an incentive to become better. Too expensive some will say? Much better than the 80% unemployable high school graduates our system graduates today because those will need continuous social support at a much higher cost for life. The teacher salary in Finland is not high. But, they enjoy the population's highest respect of teachers. They are more respected than doctors or any other profession. No one interferes with teacher decisions. They each can pick the subject books they want. Some do their own teaching aids. The Finland student learns not only more of the subject than we do, but they learn to work together, cooperate, collaborate. Teacher turnover is low single-digit. The classroom programs are so efficient that they do not have homework. They always encourage play but not homework. Do you know why? Because they love what they are learning what and they love the subject. When you love the subject, it works its way into frequent playing. Interestingly, Deep learning is the result of not just book learning but actually researching for and coming up with solutions to real problems, and what you learn that way stays with you for many years in long-term memory.
I had a few problems in this investigation and personally learned from it some very important things that I would like to pass on.
FBI and other state law enforcement replies fast, if criminal laws exist that were violated. But, there can be a steady, slow, "unnoticed" deterioration of several things in a nation or a state that at a certain point, at some future date or even years later, the several deteriorating things together become extremely destructive to the state or country. Education of the public has become such a danger to us as a nation through a huge, rapidly increasing poverty. Every governor promises to improve education when running for office. And nothing happens. Our employers who compete internationally suffer the most. As a result, we are in a real hurry to accelerate robot development. That results from three major technologies entering the world market in 2023. It will create many new jobs, but new jobs always require more education, especially in math and science. Unfortunately, a long, poorly performing public education system that could not solve its many problems in the past is totally unprepared.
We can all get very nervous by recognizing how huge a problem we have at home or at work. For some of us, our imagination making a mountain out of a molehill can cause problems. The lack of know-how about how to improve under various problem situations is called management science. It would be a good idea to include its basic management course in all university programs. There are better education materials than what the public schools have. They are available on the Internet, in all subjects. Informal education could be much more effective with these tools, except for the fact that formal certification of knowledge is not available yet in any field in informal education. It is a good idea not to generalize. Always have facts. Try to identify what the problem is and what caused it, if possible. Guessing is not a good idea. Creating the impression that one knows when one is just bluffing is a very bad practice. EVERYONE HAS AN OPINION ABOUT EVERYTHING. HOWEVER, FEW HAVE THE FACTS TO BACK IT UP. Learn, investigate, find out exactly what you are facing. Only then can you solve the problems. I tried to do a very good job of identifying the serious problems and found many. The ACT and SAT results are bad. Compared to whom? We don't know, in both private and public education. American education has much better competition in about ten countries. This is a very big mistake that we will explain below. In the end, we, human beings, are not perfect. The fact is that our FUTURE success as a nation depends on the education of our children TODAY. It is not going well.
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When we recognize that the schools are not doing well, who do we, THE PUBLIC, blame?? Teachers! And principals! WOULD YOU BE SURPRISED IF I TOLD YOU THE PROBLEM WAS ELSEWHERE? AS AN EXAMPLE, We need to realize that any of us would assume that if we want to be medical doctors, our required education if the requirements are met, will result in a QUALIFIED medical doctor who will do an excellent job. We all trust the education system that way. It was also reasonable to assume for those who wanted to be a teacher that the qualification criteria and the curriculum were set such that in 4-5 years, when the teachers graduate, they will be able to do an excellent job. They were misinformed and misguided purposefully. But it is the responsibility of the school doing the teacher training to ensure proper certification to teach, including the subject knowledge that is a 5-6 year Master's degree in the subject for the teacher to teach high school level Calculus with all prerequisites, or Chemistry, or Physics or Biology, all completed by the high school students with 80%+ subject knowledge, in order to qualify for high school graduation and a diploma. This level of STEM READINESS will be needed after 2023 because of the major impact on employers and others with three classes of new science groups: AI-driven Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Sciences. AS THE LARGEST COUNTRY ECONOMY, WE CANNOT AFFORD TO FALL BEHIND OTHER COUNTRIES, AS WE HAVE DONE IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. ABSOLUTELY SHAMEFUL BEHAVIOR BY PUBLIC EDUCATION. Teacher training was and is decades behind from 2020 onward. As a result, the teacher may have less subject knowledge than teaching a subject requires, too much pressure for which he/she is not trained, no backing from superiors, not enough authority to rule on bad behavior in class and bad morale and higher than normal turnover is the outcome. In most places, teaching is not a very satisfying job for teachers and students alike. We pay the most per student per year in the world. We do not pay teachers enough (remember that we did not teach them enough is the excuse), but poor results make any salary increases very difficult. WHO CONTROLS THE TEACHER TRAINING CURRICULA? WHY ARE THEY UNDERPERFORMING? WOULDN'T IT BE BETTER TO OVERPERFORM A BIT CONSIDERING THE COMING FAST TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES? WHY DON'T WE HAVE NATIONAL STANDARDS IN THIS AREA? We deliver poor results with varying degrees by the state in 90% of the states. The worst thing is that state superintendents/commissioners of education, hired by governors, have no idea what to do, or they are limited from above to prepare more than 90% of graduates to learn a job or go to a university. They create "Failure Factories" where children learn to dislike learning any subject. As a result, we end up with less than 20% of high school graduates who cannot learn enough to be employable in the future. TEACHING AS AN ENTIRE SUBJECT IS UNDER BAD MANAGEMENT, AND SO ARE THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH THEIR ELECTED BOARDS, AND SO IS THE STATE. Hopefully, we will be under state and federal management to change this bad situation with a sense of urgency.
Sometimes what we hear can fool us. Example: The United States is 3rd in murders throughout the world. THAT isn't very good. It is creating the feeling that it is happening everywhere. But if you take out just five cities: Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, St Louis, and New Orleans - the United States is 4th FROM THE BOTTOM, IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, FOR MURDERS. That is like being 190th! NOT THE THIRD. Notice the difference? If the problem is still too big, prioritize its parts and do a fantastic job solving each part. Whose fault is the five-city murder record that gives our country a bad name? It is the political party of which the city mayor is a member. WE CANNOT JUST BLAME THE PARTY. AND WE CANNOT BLAME THE TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS for the state of education. BUT TOP MANAGEMENT, LIKE MAYORS AND GOVERNORS, ARE ALWAYS FULLY RESPONSIBLE. Those five cities are high murder-rate cities, and THAT makes the problem ten times more complex to solve. The combination of the local police and sheriff's offices and the FBI's local office can be of great help if they work well together. I think that they do. Sometimes the truth is very different than what it appears to be "when you first see it." Let me give you another hypothetical example. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 500 BILLION star systems like ours in it, with a sun and planets like Earth and Mars. We can observe only part of our universe. NASA says that the Milky Way is an average galaxy. NASA estimates that we have 2.5 TRILLION (2,500,000,000,000) galaxies in the observable universe. Ours is a young planet. Most planets are much older by millions of years. According to NASA, there are 40 billion planets out there with similar temperature ranges and water for OUR TYPE of intelligent life to evolve. Some of this life could be close to a billion years ahead of us. However, gravity, elemental composition, and atmospheric composition may be different from ours. We, human beings, created too many wars, too many killings of each other, and we glorify killings in wars with medals. We do not take care of our earth. We are destructive. And we hate each other for things like different color, religions, what we say or hear, what little country our ancestors are from -- but we worship and love money! We hate each other so well. The difference in appearance between us and extraterrestrials may be very different and so much bigger than the differences among us. We could be extremely scared of how they look, we have weapons at home, we judge many things on appearances and we like to hate each other for much smaller differences. What chance would a soldier have from the year 1100 a thousand years ago to kill us? One-on-one perhaps not much. But group-on-group, like wars are, they would have zero chance, and very fast. Could we observe them without them noticing us? Absolutely. ETs are likely to be 100,000 years ahead of us OR MUCH MORE!! We may find them very scary and ugly in appearance. But they could help us in so many ways to solve all of our problems to improve our lives. If they wanted our resources or us for their restaurants, what could we do? They could have destroyed us already in a second. Is it possible that such beings would want to help us with all our poverty and problems? Absolutely, 100%. We could learn an enormous amount of good things in every area from them. Is it possible that some of us would not want them around here and would want to kill them? Absolutely. Those who have everything and want more of everything are most likely. Those who care more about themselves. What is most important for us is a much better education to enable us to understand much more. We do need help, but in the schools, we are not getting it -- yet. And the problem is above the schools. Think very hard about what I am telling you.
Some people, for fear of losing something important to them, resort to personal attacks against those who write something like this website. Some even go as far as discounting everything written if they find one mistake. Read below what I found. Our children must get a much better education to survive than what they have been getting. Poor public education, combined with the children of too many low-income families who could not get the right education ARE VERY BIG PROBLEMS. Add a more than 100-year-old black and white CONFLICT, that we could have resolved a long time ago but did not, IS A DEADLY COMBINATION FOR US. ALL OF THEM COULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED: THE PROBLEMS WITH "COLOR," FAST-GROWING POVERTY, AND THE POORLY MANAGED EDUCATION SYSTEM, DUPLICATING MANY THINGS IN EACH STATE FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS! WHY WERE THESE PROBLEMS NOT SOLVED? PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED IF THE LEADERSHIP IS COMPETENT, RECOGNIZES THE PROBLEMS, KNOWS HOW TO SOLVE THEM, AND DOES SOLVE THEM WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY. But we are used to solving "single, bad event crimes" that violate the law and not complex ones like this one. When we look at the public schools' performance, it is shocking. The knowledge of most children we graduate from high school is very poor. We are one the most expensive public school systems per student in the world. We must understand that we do not become bad performers in any job, including education, if we are educated well enough and treated well by management. For some strange reason, governors promise to fix education whenever they run for office, but very strangely, do nothing that raises the low ACT or SAT scores in their state. This can destroy us as a nation. We used to be on top 50-60 years ago. Today we are 37th in mathematics, and also low in other subjects. Our poverty is skyrocketing. This situation, continuing its declining path, can destroy most of us. We have done nothing that would increase the ACT and SAT scores. THAT IS THE BEST, MOST RELIABLE INDICATOR OF WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED. WE ARE DOING MANY THINGS THAT WOULD PREVENT ANY IMPROVEMENT. The wealthiest may believe that this cannot happen. Unfortunately, many things are interdependent in this country or in the world. The wealthy will last longer. I am telling you that we have a very serious problem with public education that needs to be corrected very quickly. In the end, what counts is how well we educated almost all of our children for tomorrow's world. We have not done that. ACT READINESS is a low standard, equal to 60% high school subject knowledge at best. In states like Tennessee, more than 80% of our children we graduate with a diploma ARE NOT EVEN ACT READY, A LOW TARGET THAT REPRESENTS LESS THAN 60% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE. The fastest-growing part of the population, the minorities in poverty, are growing like a wildfire. Our financial position is not as good as before. Our national debt is very high, and our national income is low. One would think that we would do smart things like put effort into attracting well-educated immigrants. Instead, we let in huge groups of poorly educated people who do not even speak English. I think that politicians are trying to make those feel good, who are getting a high school diploma, without even being qualified for ACT READINESS. One could think this is not good, "but we just hired Dr. Babaloomba Ph.D., an internationally famous dance instructor, to head education in our state. She will fix it all. She has the right experience. She looks very experienced. We know because she told us so!" Even more importantly, the governor we voted for is rich and smart. And rich and clever. And rich if I forgot to mention that. He hired her.
SHE IS ABOUT THE 23RD PERSON IN THIS POSITION, AND NO ONE HIRED BY THE NEW GOVERNORS IMPROVED ANYTHING THAT RAISED ACT OR SAT SCORES. THEY COST US A LOT AND PROVIDED BAD EDUCATION FOR OUR CHILDREN. I SHOULD NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT SUCH THINGS. AFTER ALL, GOVERNORS AND PEOPLE THEY HIRE ARE VERY HIGHLY EDUCATED PEOPLE. IS IT ONLY AN ILLUSION THAT PUBLIC EDUCATION IS IN A DIVE? UNFORTUNATELY NOT. WATCH THE ACT OR SAT SCORES ONLY. IF THEY ARE NOT GOING UP, WE ARE IN GREAT TROUBLE.
WE MUST BE AMERICANS FIRST AND FOREMOST. We must not be only Democrats or Republicans, one against the other. BUT WE ARE. WE NEED TO LEARN TO BE EXCELLENT AND LOYAL AMERICANS FIRST. We must not be blacks or whites saying bad things about the other, BUT WE MUST SUPPORT EACH OTHER. WE BETTER LEARN TO BE EXCELLENT AND LOYAL AMERICANS FIRST. Or those who are highly educated against the others who do not need to be kinder and make an effort to help those not being able to have a better life. Yet the mess we see in education, a mess that can destroy us, is all in the hands of "highly educated" people. None of us are a picture of perfection. We all experienced good times and bad. We do not like those who have a different opinion. Why? WE MAY LEARN SOMETHING IMPORTANT.
We human beings evolved through a lot of difficulties. It may take a couple of years to complain a lot, but we all adapt to change, good or bad. Our opinion about what is "normal" appears to change within 2-3 years at most after a change. Our belief in what is impossible also changes. As our situation becomes worse, we start accepting bad performance as "average." As something deteriorates, what we thought was possible a few years ago, will appear as impossible. And then, we give up. This is how the mind works for most if not all unless one devotes some time to something one loves, and one learns as much about it as possible. Keep learning. Drugs and alcohol will impact the brain's fundamental development that will go on until age 22. The brain keeps developing. There is a thousand-year-old Buddhist belief that expresses our thoughts well. THAT controls our decisions at any given moment: "Buddha says: The mind is everything. What you think, you become." If one thinks that something is impossible, it will be impossible. What changes this "impossibility thinking" is learning. Not just in school. But with everything that one does all through life. That includes even playing. Interestingly, Finland has the best education methodology, no poverty, and the highest public happiness per the annual UN survey. Typical reading, hearing, learning can be forgotten in a year or less. If it includes physical activity, deep learning takes place that will last for decades. The students in Finland have very lively classes. Nothing is boring. After 45 minutes of classroom work, the students are sent outside to play. Since the classes are very interesting, the playing involves what they have learned. For this reason, our life depends on what we learned in and out of school, and our thoughts can limit or expand what we are learning. When one looks at our education results in the charts, the schools that teach us will tell us that their results are good. Unfortunately, they are not good enough, except for about five percent of high schools nationally. Our state education management is not interested in how we compare to the best three countries in education in the world. You can learn the most from enemies or competitors if they are doing better than you. Or one can ignore them and fall behind them further every year. And our education management is a master of wrong choices.
High school graduates feed the workforce of all industries. The competitiveness of our industries' products and services depends on how well the entire workforce is educated. THAT depends on the high schools in any and every country. If we disagree about that, why do we need high schools at all? That kind of behavior makes both our schools and us blind to what we should achieve and why. We are not doing well enough in public education, and that goes back several decades. It is getting worse. When the low performance goes on for decades, people do not want to change because any higher target appears impossible. How come some other countries graduate children with 29-34 ACT equivalent averages? Why are we struggling with 18-21 ACT averages that make sure that our children will live in poverty? PUBLIC EDUCATION ALWAYS WANTS MORE MONEY. WE KEPT PAYING MORE AND MORE MONEY TO PUBLIC EDUCATION EVERY YEAR. THE RESULT IS THAT WE ARE NOW AT THE BOTTOM OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES IN MATHEMATICS. When people think that something is impossible, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. They create not schools, but FAILURE FACTORIES. They can work very hard, but good results will not happen if they think that what they do is as good as it can get. Why didn't the leadership visit some high-performing countries in education to find out how they can achieve better results? Because our public education leadership does not want to improve anything. Why don't they learn so that they can deliver better results? Because their top management does not want or instructed from above to NOT IMPROVE RESULTS. THEY DO NOT WANT TO LEARN TO IMPROVE. OTHERWISE, WE WOULD BE DOING MUCH BETTER. So, can such people be part of a normally performing, improved organization? The answer is "NO." ABSOLUTELY CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO IMPROVE.
As one looks at 20 years of A.C.T. scores in the above graph, a few things stand out. The older people will remember that they knew a lot more when they graduated from high school than the children who graduate today. The average A.C.T. scores in Tennessee, and national average did not go up in twenty years and did not change much in twenty years. Second, please look at the very high percentage of those children we graduate, around 80% of those graduating, who are not even A.C.T. Ready. A.C.T. Readiness requires four subjects to be at least an average score of 21 if their scores are averaged. How good is A.C.T. 21? It represents 59-60% subject knowledge at best, and that was a failure a few years ago. For about twenty years, Tennessee public education set A.C.T. 21 as its goal every year and was never able to reach it. A.C.T. 21 IS NO LONGER HIGH ENOUGH TO BE USED AS AN OBJECTIVE. Robotics will do those jobs. I HAVE TO TELL YOU A SECRET. LOW OBJECTIVES DO NOT MOTIVATE PEOPLE. THEY GET IGNORED. BORING CLASSES ARE GOOD ONLY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE STUDENTS WILL HATE THE SUBJECT. NOTHING CHANGES. BUT PEOPLE DO RISE TO HIGH EXPECTATIONS. THAT IS A REAL STRETCH FOR THEM! PEOPLE RISE TO HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND DELIVER. BUT THEY NEED TO KNOW WHAT THOSE HIGH EXPECTATIONS ARE. THE OLD IDEA OF "I DON'T CARE IF HE DOES NOT LIKE IT, HE JUST HAS TO PASS IT" DOES NOT EVER PRODUCE DEEP LEARNING THAT WILL LAST UNTIL THE FINAL TEST. PEOPLE WHO MANAGE EDUCATION NEED TO HAVE CONTINUING EDUCATION IN SUBJECTS THAT DO RELATE TO BRAIN FUNCTIONS INVOLVED IN LEARNING. ALL JOBS HAVE UPS AND DOWNS. CAN ALL PEOPLE DO AN EXCELLENT JOB IF THEY DO NOT LIKE THE JOB? THE HIGHER-PAYING JOBS ARE MORE DIFFICULT AND HAVE VERY HIGH UPS AND EXTREMELY DIFFICULT DOWNS THAT ONLY THOSE PEOPLE CAN DO WELL WHO LOVE THEIR JOBS. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT LIKE THEIR JOB, WE NOW KNOW THAT THINGS LIKE LOVING YOUR JOB AND LOVING THE SUBJECTS RELATED TO IT, LIKE HOW THE BRAIN WORKS TO CREATE DEEP LEARNING, ARE VERY IMPORTANT. IF ONE DOES NOT LIKE THE JOB HE/SHE DOES, EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE. THAT IS WHY WE NEED POTENTIAL TEACHERS TO BE TESTED TO ENSURE THAT THEY WILL BE A GOOD FIT FOR THE JOB AND WILL BE EXCELLENT TEACHERS. ALTHOUGH THE MATCH OR MISMATCH WILL DIFFER IN DEGREES, IF YOU WANT EXCELLENT TEACHERS, IT IS ONLY SUCH A TEST THAT CAN GUARANTEE GOOD TO OUTSTANDING RESULTS AFTER TRAINING.
Instead they renamed and restructured the old A (90-100% grade), B (80-89% grade), C (70-79% grade), D (60-69% grade) and F (0-59% grade/failure) to a four-grade system with confusing names. How important was this change in grades? Totally unimportant because changing the grading system does not improve our children's poor education that has been the problem for many decades, as education performance declined. What we find shocking is that our public education started graduating with diploma children who were not even A.C.T. Ready! That means somewhere below 60% subject knowledge. Today 75-85% of our high school graduates are not A.C.T. Ready!! Among black students, 94-96% are not A.C.T. Ready! Do you know what that means? It means that public education must be very poor in teacher selection and teacher training. Why are black students even worse? The reason is that the family infrastructure to support children is much weaker, mostly with a single parent in a low-paying job. For that reason, minority children and those in poverty have less-educated parents, generally one parent, with overwhelming financial problems. Poverty is growing very fast in the U.S. Other nations created a solution to this problem that is very simple and works well. We will describe it below. We just do not seem to care from the top down. It means that 75-85% OF SUCH GRADUATES WILL HAVE A JOB! WITH SUCH A HIGH PERCENTAGE, YOUR CHILD IS LIKELY TO BE AMONG THEM. IT IS ABSOLUTELY REVOLTING THAT PEOPLE WHO WERE VOTED INTO THE HIGHEST POLITICAL OFFICE DID NOTHING TO FIX A HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE EDUCATION SYSTEM. THEY DID THAT TO THE PUBLIC, WHO ARE PAYING ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES IN THE WORLD PER STUDENT TO KEEP SUCH A DISHONEST GAME GOING WITH THE PEOPLE'S TAXES, AND THEY ALSO PAY THE SALARIES OF GOVERNORS AND OTHER "Education PLAYERS!" THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR DECADES. COULD SOMEONE LET THE PUBLIC KNOW WHY PUBLIC EDUCATION IS WASTING OUR HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS TO MAKE OUR CHILDREN UNEMPLOYABLE? HOWEVER, 75-85% WAS NOT ENOUGH. THEY GRADUATE 94-96% OF MINORITY CHILDREN WHOSE OUTLOOK IS HOPELESS, BUT WE PAY FOR THEM THE SAME HIGH FEES! I THINK THAT IT WOULD NOT BE UNFAIR TO ASK GOVERNORS WHY THEY DID NOTHING TO FIX SUCH CORRUPT SYSTEM. ARE OUR CHILDREN THAT UNIMPORTANT? IS THE FUTURE EXISTENCE OF OUR COUNTRY THAT UNIMPORTANT? I WROTE TO SOME GOVERNORS 4-7 TIMES ABOUT THESE PROBLEMS, PLEADING THAT THEY HAVE SOMEONE EXPLAIN IF I AM WRONG. I NEVER RECEIVED A RESPONSE. ONE WONDERS WHY SUCH LEVEL OF DISLOYALTY EXISTS BY SOME PEOPLE IN HIGH OFFICE. IS THERE A GENTLER WORD THAN "DISLOYALTY" FOR SUCH BEHAVIOR? THIS SHOULD BE OF GREAT CONCERN TO ALL OF US.
Our US Constitution guarantees to Ensure Domestic Tranquility, and Promotion of the General Welfare, right in its preamble. Our public schools seem to violate it more and more. But we do nothing about it. Who is responsible for this area? The political party of the governor in charge? Or the FBI nationwide?
Who enforces the US Constitution if it is violated? At what point do we violate the "insure domestic tranquility" and "promotion of general welfare" clauses?! Is this a zero-tolerance situation? Do we wait until we as a country go bust? Or do we have to wait until we have a revolt on our hands with blood in the streets? We have to understand that friends help us on any level they can. What are the limits? A friend that creates bad results and cries for more money when their performance is poor IS NOT A FRIEND. Who is responsible for this area? 50 different states' bureau of investigation that must carry a large duplication overhead, and the FBI.
We have one of the highest rates in the world per student for elementary and high school education. Public education is paid from our taxes about $11,000/year per student average. But the quality of education in 95% of public schools is not worth more than $1,000/YEAR/STUDENT. But you cannot get jobs anymore to become a street sweeper. It is like having the three monkeys in the highest positions making EDUCATION decisions. COULD A SITUATION, THAT UNDER-EDUCATES ALMOST ALL OF OUR CHILDREN, DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY! WHY? Because our high school graduates feed the workforce of all industries. Also, the competitiveness of our industries internationally depends on the education of the workforce. A poorly performing public education can paralyze our country economically. When 75-85% of our high school graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready, and THAT IS THE CASE TODAY, we may not recover. Such qualification is no longer employable. However, "STEM ACT Readiness," which includes testing for Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus at a minimum A.C.T. score of 26, is of great value from now on in 2021. Future jobs for our children will be in the Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, Economics, and such subjects on a graduate level. Most states FAILED TO KEEP AN EYE ON HOW OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION PERFORMED. Our children are not being prepared WELL ENOUGH as of 2021. Who is responsible for resolving problems in this area? All governors of 50 states and their parties, and the F.B.I.? The fact that education management is not centralized carries a very high duplication expense, a high law enforcement expense, and complicates any investigation 50-fold. This duplication in 50 states and with management responsibility diluted by the elected school boards of 14,000 school districts does not raise the quality of education management and its results nationally, but it lowers average national performance. The lack of management know-how, poor teacher training, unprofessional teacher treatment on the job is creating the biggest danger to both our children and our country.
The following information covering 1995-2010 was my first clue that something is very wrong with public education in the Knox County, Tennessee school district. I did not realize then that we have this dangerous situation nationwide.
Look at this graph carefully. It covers the A.C.T. scores, the percentage of the high school graduates who are "not A.C.T. Ready," and the percentage of high school graduates who are A.C.T. Ready. What do you think about this performance? A.C.T. readiness is based on three high school subjects, plus reading, a third-grade subject. Their consolidated value is ACT 21, representing only 59-60% subject knowledge. That is not enough for any job, not even minimum wage jobs. WE GRADUATE AS ONE SEES ON THE CHART 75-84% OF STUDENTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHO ARE NOT EVEN ACT READY! THAT MEANS THAT THEIR SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IS BELOW 60%! THAT MEANS THAT OUR CHILD'S HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA IS NOT GOING TO BE WORTH ANYTHING. It will not be enough for any job after 2023.
WHO APPROVES HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY?! By doing so, public education guarantees their joblessness for life.
WHO APPROVES SUCH A DECISION IN EVERY STATE? What one needs to be employed after high school is an old "B" average or 85% high school subject knowledge, and that means an average minimum ACT SCORE of 29.
Our poor education standards and lack of management know-how combined with political management are responsible for the poor education performance we have had for decades. WE DESERVE A MUCH BETTER EDUCATION THAN THAT BY PUBLIC EDUCATION.
WHY IS IT THAT THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THE PUBLIC DID NOT AND DID NOT GET A GOOD ENOUGH EDUCATION IN OUR K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO BE EMPLOYABLE?
President Clinton's EXAMPLE: "Goals 2000: Educate America Act" goal for the year 2000 included things like:
"The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent." Well, the education system did nothing about improving. Teacher training declined, according to many publications. Cheating (Cut Scores) to lower the pass/fail points increased to raise the grades that way. We also changed the grading system from the old A, B, C, D, F (pass/fail point at 60% good answers) to a new grading system with complicated score names, different score values that very few people understand now since 2018. How does this kind of change "align with the A.C.T. scores" that represent what children learned from grade one to twelve? IT DOES NOT. Is that not the most important question? It certainly is for me.
Or: "United States students will be first in the world in Mathematics and Science achievement by 2000." But instead we dropped very far down.
Another problem in education management was the lack of monthly measurable objectives in an operating plan and a manager to make sure that public education implements those plans. We must separate those who implement the plan and set the standards and objectives from those who manage and deliver to meet the education objectives.
SETTING STANDARDS, PLANS AND OBJECTIVES
1. Setting of standards must be by a totally independent, small group of five or seven retired large employer-Presidents or CEOs. Reason: Education departments MUST deliver in students what employers need. The most qualified employers are the large companies because they deal with the most in competition.
2. Setting plans and objectives is to be performed by a group made up of the standard-setting group representing 80% of votes, and senior education management making up 20% of the votes.
3. The education performing group of school districts and schools performs the education to satisfy all standards, objectives and plans.
Doing all three functions within the same group of people represents a conflict of interest that should have been recognized a long time ago. When they are not separated so that they are totally independent of each other, and the group that is to perform cannot or does not do the job well enough, it is easier to change the standards, plans, and objectives, if both groups of functions are done within the same group. In such a case, as in the past, performance cannot be as good as possible.
Having set in on many high school MATH AND SCIENCE COURSES, they were uninteresting, boring, going back to poor teacher selection and teacher training. Boring presentations turn off anyone. This is not the teachers' fault. It is the lack of teacher personality matching to the profession, not enough subject knowledge, and the old general-purpose teacher training to teach any course by any teacher that results in boring classrooms. This kind of teacher education would turn off adults or children. COULD SUCH SCHOOLS BY THEMSELVES DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY!
Creating a Manager is not just simply the promotion of a good employee, although most people appear to believe that. A bad worker cannot become a good manager. That makes the promotion of friends and relatives a terrible choice. Although many could benefit from management training, most good workers who are promoted to management may not become good managers. Management is a precise technique that people in management positions need to learn. If they do not, too many problems develop as they have developed for us, which end up destroying the school's organization. MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE REQUIRES SERIOUS TRAINING. We have no management training in education, and teacher turnover becomes very high. COULD MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS ALONE IN EDUCATION DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY!
As if that was not bad enough, some of the state education departments, including Tennessee, changed the grading system so that even well-educated people cannot understand what it is and how it works. AT THE SAME TIME, our children's education is getting lower in a world that is dealing with an accelerating rate of new technologies that are entering the world market by 2023, SOMETHING THAT PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOULD RESPOND TO, TO BE HELPFUL TO THE EMPLOYERS IN ALL OF OUR INDUSTRIES. A CHANGE IN THE GRADING SYSTEM has no other benefit than hiding something more serious than the poor educational results. WE PAY THE HIGHEST RATE IN THE WORLD PER STUDENT FOR SUCH A POOR JOB AS WHAT WE ARE GETTING, AND NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. AND THE THREE MONKEYS OF EDUCATION ARE STILL PLAYING GAMES WITH US. WHO IS DOING WELL? THE WEALTHY PEOPLE. WHO IS HURTING THE MOST WITH NO HOPE? THOSE IN POVERTY, THE MINORITIES, THE DEFENSELESS. WHY? BECAUSE WE HAVE A CULTURE THAT IS FOCUSED ON MONEY. BECAUSE OUR CULTURE DOES NOT CARE ENOUGH ABOUT ITS LESS FORTUNATE PEOPLE. OUR POORLY PERFORMING SCHOOLS ARE INCREASING THOSE WHO END UP IN POVERTY. SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG WHEN WE SPEND THE MORE MONEY PER STUDENT THAN ANY OTHER NATION, AND FOR THAT, OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION DOES THE WORST JOB OF ALL INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES, LOOK AT WHAT GOVERNOR CANDIDATES PROMISE WHEN THEY RUN FOR OFFICE. AND COMPARE IT TO WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DELIVER.
We have today, and we had for decades, a very serious, festering black and white problem in our history for about 150 years. Problems do not get solved unless the leadership does not want to solve them on both sides of the problem. It is very irresponsible that we have not solved it. Black students are suffering more from it because more of them, as a percentage, are in poverty, with poor family-support infrastructure for their children's education does not exist at home. Education is a bigger problem for them than it is for white or oriental folks, although it is a problem for all. Much better education happens to be the solution for all, especially for those in poverty. Education is the only way to leave poverty by having a better job in the family. Education is also the only solution to solve unfair, prejudicial thinking among us for differences in skin color, culture, religion, and so on. That cannot go away unless ALL of our children are educated for higher-level jobs and thinking. None of us want a bloody racial conflict, and our poor education today cannot solve it. The racial behavior on any side violates even the "domestic tranquility" clause of the Constitution because we seem to be doing nothing to be peaceful and understanding.
Robotics are penetrating every area we can imagine to make products better and easier to use. They are also replacing people in jobs, the easiest jobs first. The next robotic development wave that starts in 2023 will be replacing the easier university-trained jobs that will be biting into jobs like accounting, law, and many others. With the addition of nanotechnology and space science, all three will appear worldwide in 2023. New technologies help employers the most. Public education is to satisfy employers' needs. Our public education does not. That makes our education results years behind the times. This is a big problem that will become huge in 2023-2024 because we will be on an exponential technological acceleration path from now on. Since high schools feed the workforce in all industries, whose product competitiveness depending on the education of the workforce, we will see big, very dangerous economic problems and unemployment. What will survive robotics longest will be graduate degrees in engineering, science, economics. You can thank your elementary and high schools for it with boring classrooms, poor teacher training, and zero management training. This does look very discouraging, but there is a fantastic opportunity behind this "negative" development. There is a never-ending need to discover/find better techniques, new technologies, and new ways of doing things IN ANY JOB AREA AND IN ANY FIELD OR SUBJECT. WHAT THAT REQUIRES IS MORE SCHOOLING AND AVOIDING DRUGS AND CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES. THOSE ARE THE MOST VALUABLE PROFESSIONS, AND THERE ARE MUCH MORE OF THOSE THAN WHAT IS BEING DISCONTINUED. IF YOUR SCHOOL IS NOT GOOD, IT IS NOT A PROBLEM. YOU CAN GO TO GOOGLE AND LEARN ABOUT ANYTHING. WE ALSO HAVE ON THIS WEBSITE THE BEST COMPANIES IN MAKING TOOLS FOR THE TEACHER OR STUDENT TO BECOME ANYTHING THEY WANT TO BECOME.
Everything changes in this world. Some things change fast. Other things change slowly. But the changes, in this case, bring enormous opportunities. There is only one thing that a young person has to do to qualify for such opportunities. He/she must have graduated from high school with an average A.C.T. score of 29 or higher, which means that the graduate's subject knowledge is about 80%, like an old "B minus" grade at minimum. Today, most schools have a goal of reaching A.C.T. 21, representing less than 60% subject knowledge. Schools treated that as excellent performance and chose it as an objective. that is how much we regressed in judging what the needed level is in education.
SCHOOLS HAVE A PROBLEM with educating children. But remember that a teacher or principal just wanted to be a good teacher and principal. The teacher candidate rightfully assumed that teacher training and certification would prepare them well for the job, but the training was behind the times, making our problem not teacher-created but upper political and teacher management created, with no interest to improve. If you doubt it, just read below, so that you know what kind of education your children received. Your child's education is worse. Only five percent of schools are doing a good job. A good job done by the schools had to satisfy the future jobs five to ten years away. A good target for that would be what an engineering or science degree requires for the second year at a university. Most politicians, when running for governor, promised to improve public education, and none of them do it. The result should be an increase in S.A.T. or A.C.T. scores. And that has not increased in decades. A number of other countries are doing more than that. It is impossible to use the same methods we use today. We have to change as many other nations did. We are graduating 75-85% of our children, not even A.C.T. Ready. That means high school subject knowledge BELOW 60%. Not good enough is an understatement. Mathematics is the most important subject for the future. We used to be on top 50 years ago. Today, 36 countries passed us in mathematics. We are the worst in the industrialized countries. Most children will be unemployable after 2023 with the entry of Artificial Intelligence-driven Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science in 2023-2024. Our rule today is to be "optimistic." You can be optimistic about the future of your high schools are delivering 80-90% A.C.T. Ready children. But not when they are graduating 75-85% of children who are not even A.C.T. Ready. Covid 19 is accelerating robotics development. It may not be, but it should not be ignored as a potential enemy-driven tool. The result will be devastating to millions who become jobless in the workforce itself unless we change the high school subject knowledge from 40-60% to 80% and above, which means graduating with an average 29 A.C.T. score. I did my research during an eight-year period at my own expense. I want to help governors, education management, and I also present the solutions to the problems to that end. Some don't seem to be happy about it. Our education is paid with our hard-earned taxes, and we are one of the highest payers per student, getting one of the worst jobs in our schools. Read about the solutions for it below. First, we will explain operational and management problems, and then we will explain what needs to be changed to fix them.
Any business or activity that sees potential worldwide, needs a solid foundation and a MEASURABLE OBJECTIVE against global competition for success. That includes the education industry as well, which we do not believe. The result is our K-12 education sinking lower and lower behind the other nations. Do you know why this is very important? Because the high schools worldwide feed the workforce of each country's industries. Our industries compete worldwide. For this reason, our high school graduates must be competitively educated as compared to the top three countries in education. But our high school graduates are not educated well enough. 75-85% of high school graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready. A.C.T. Readiness equals approximately 59-60% high school subject knowledge when graduating. That was a failing performance level
in the past. A.C.T. Readiness is no longer enough. We will see much faster development of new technology and sciences from 2023 onward. We need to be targeting STEM ACT READINESS for at least 80% of high school readiness and add Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry to the curriculum.
TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS ARE WORKING VERY HARD. The biggest reason for that is a very weak curriculum, very weak graduation requirements because not having good enough and high enough training for teachers makes their job much more difficult. That results in much weaker training of students from grade one! So weak is the training that most of our high school graduates cannot read or do basic math! How could we let that happen? At the same time, the education organization seems to be very comfortable with an old teacher training program, total absence of management training, and in most of our states, state management has done nothing for decades that raise the education and certification of teachers. This kind of negligent management makes the job of teachers and principals much more difficult than it would be with better training and governors WHO CARE ABOUT EDUCATION ENOUGH TO RAISE THE LOW A.C.T. SCORES. 75-85% of high school graduates A.R.E. a massive failure, UNDER EDUCATED, with that huge percentage of graduates being below 59-60% high school subject knowledge. So what does state education management do? They cover it with a very difficult-to-understand NEW grading system "to better "align" our students with the A.C.T. scores, which is an impossibility. They align most likely by using cut scores to lower the normally 60% pass/fail point to as low as 27%, and that creates passing grades for students who would fail otherwise and not graduate. THE RESULT IS THAT MOST OF OUR CHILDREN ARE UNEMPLOYABLE! BUT THOSE WHO CAN SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS WILL BE EMPLOYABLE. WHY DON'T WE HAVE LAWS THAT PROTECT THE PEOPLE IN POVERTY? THE EDUCATION INDUSTRY LIES TO THEM, AND THAT IS THE WORST BEHAVIOR THAT HURTS US AS A COUNTRY. They know it, and they are lying to or misinforming the public. THEY WORSHIP THE GRADUATION RATE BECAUSE THEY CAN CHEAT ON SCORES TO GET HIGHER SCORES AND GRADUATE A LOT OF CHILDREN WHO WOULD FAIL OTHERWISE. WHO DOES THAT HELP? THE IMAGE OF OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION ONLY, WHILE THEY DUMB DOWN THE PUBLIC. BUT THE GRADUATION RATE IS ALMOST 90%! - THEY SAY. THE GRADUATION RATE IS WORTH NOTING IF THE CHILD CANNOT BE QUALIFIED FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS. I AM JUST WAITING FOR OUR EDUCATION LEADERS TO SAY SOMETHING BRILLIANT, LIKE "WELL, THEY COULD GET A VERY GOOD JOB IN 1950!! That is an unquestionable cheating move, passing many children who would be failures instead of extending high school to legitimately educate all children to the very low graduation requirement that public education sets, for one of the highest expenses per child in the world! WHY DON'T WE HAVE THE FBI INVESTIGATE THIS HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE WAY OF EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN? OUR FUTURE AS A NATION DEPENDS ON THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN TODAY. ANY METHOD THAT DROPS EDUCATION THIS MUCH IS DESTROYING THE COUNTRY PURPOSEFULLY. THIS IS NOT A ROAD TO SUCCESS. THIS IS A ROAD TO DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY! WHY DO WE HAVE TO BE SO STUPID THAT WE DO NOTHING AND DID NOTHING TO FIX THIS SYSTEM?! HOW COULD WE DO THIS UNDER OUR CONSTITUTION? OBVIOUSLY, WE NEED SOME NEW LAWS TO ENSURE MUCH MORE SUCCESSFUL ELECTIONS AND EDUCATION. We need measurable monthly academic objectives if we want to improve from one year to the next, especially after years of poor performance. In such a case, the organization will need new management because years of bad performance degrades the confidence, judgment, and standards that the beaten-down old management ever had. Buddhism has a very smart guideline that says that "you become what you think." With both formal and informal training, our knowledge increases. But it will also decrease if the education is dumbed down in any area, as we are experiencing it, or if we lose interest in learning something. A school with boring classrooms will do that. That depends on the teacher being a good personality fit to teaching, teacher training level on the subject he/she teaches, and teacher's morale that depends on management training and experience above her all the way to the top. OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION IGNORES MANY THINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE POORLY TRAINED IN BOTH THE SUBJECT AND MANAGEMENT ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP. THEY ARE EITHER NOT IMPORTANT TO GOVERNORS, OR THE GOVERNOR DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH MANAGEMENT KNOW-HOW TO DIAGNOSE AND CORRECT THE PROBLEMS. IN ADDITION, EDUCATION DROPPED VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECTS THAT ENHANCE BRAIN DEVELOPMENT, SUCH AS ART AND MUSIC. THOSE WHO ARE BORN TO FATHERS THAT CREATED A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS DID NOT HAVE TO STRUGGLE AND LEARN AS HARD AS THE FATHERS. OPERATIONAL KNOW-HOW IS EXPERIENCE-BASED, AND IT CAN BE THE SAME AS THE SUCCESSFUL FATHER OR MOTHER, BUT VERY RARELY. Education is not an exception to this because education feeds the workforce of all companies, who survive only if they compete successfully. We lost industries that did not do that. In many important areas, we ignore such fundamental things and fail. WE GUARANTEE FUNDING TO PUBLIC EDUCATION WITHOUT HIGH ENOUGH OR ANY PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENT AND MEASUREMENT. WE SET LOW STANDARDS TO TRUMP IT! THAT BECOMES A FANTASTIC TOOL TO DEVELOP POORLY PERFORMING PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS UNDER MANAGEMENT THAT ALSO DEGRADES FOR LACK OF MANAGEMENT TRAINING. HIGH IQ PEOPLE CAN TURN OUT TO BE TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE IF THEY SPEND MORE THAN A COUPLE OF YEARS IN SUCH AN ENVIRONMENT. The brain's neuronal network is always changing based on "use it or lose it" because use or experience creates deeper learning than formal education. Forgetting what we do not use is an example. Periodic reviewing of what we learned in high school during high school does not exist. Students enjoying what a teacher presents would go a long way in this process.
This is the biggest problem:
High schools feed the workforce of all industries.
The quality and cost competitiveness of the products of our industries depend on the education of the workforce.
Many companies complained to governors during the past 20 years about the poor training of high school graduates. To be specific, we have been graduating 75-85% of our high school graduates with a diploma, who were not even ACT READY! A.C.T. Readiness is based on four subject benchmarks, with a consolidated average A.C.T. score of 21, and that is equal to 60% subject knowledge. LET THIS SINK IN NOW. 75-85% OF GRADUATES FROM HIGH SCHOOL ARE BELOW 60% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE, AND GOD ONLY KNOWS HOW FAR BELOW. SHOULD ANY SUCH STUDENT BE GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL? IF YOU SAY "YES, " IS THIS ALL WE CAN ACHIEVE? ONLY 15-25% OF GRADUATING STUDENTS QUALIFIED OVER A VERY LOW OBJECTIVE OF 60% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE, AND 75-85% GRADUATING WITH LESS THAN 60% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE? I THINK WE BETTER MAKE ALL DECISIONS ABOUT EDUCATION AND GRADUATION STANDARDS NATIONALLY WITH A SMALL GROUP OF RETIRED EMPLOYER CEOS/PRESIDENTS, SINCE THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE TO SATISFY THE EMPLOYERS' REQUIREMENTS.
The education of our workforces depends on the poorly performing high schools that are not improving, even after two or more decades of poor performance. The high schools feed our workforces. The workforces make the products and services. The quality and cost of products and services depend on the education of the workforce. With most of our products and services, we have to compete with the products and services of nations that have far better education systems than we do. BUT MANY OTHER NATIONS IMPROVED THEIR K-12 EDUCATION AND PASSED US. WE ARE THE LARGEST COUNTRY-ECONOMY. WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE FACT THAT OUR K-12 EDUCATION SYSTEM MUST BE COMPETITIVE WITH THE TOP TWO OR THREE COUNTRIES THAT HAVE THE BEST EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD.
The results are: poor K-12 education degraded our national income from about 12% to 3-4%. That being too low, the national debt is skyrocketing to $30 trillion in 2021, and the high school output is not improving but getting worse.
The above curves show the following situation. The yellow curve is by Ray Kurzweil, the most accurate technology forecaster in the world, with close to 90% accuracy 30 years out. He is Technology V.P. for Google. The yellow curve shows how new technology PERFORMANCE is accelerating FOR OBJECTS AT A CONSTANT COST ($1000).
We added a shorter green curve for public education that shows the increasing gap between new technologies and public education increasingly falling short in their curriculum about technology-related information. So what? Public education had been slipping increasingly behind, years behind the date when the new technology became available to employers. Our high schools feed the workforce of employers in all industries. The quality of our industries' products or services depends on the education of their workforces. Our high school graduates are not as well prepared for employers as they should be. There have been many meetings between governors and employers about this problem without results.
New technology-based solutions are developed for employers mainly. Technologies keep developing only if they help to make our employers more competitive worldwide. However, poor high school education not only creates unemployment. It can destroy the competitiveness of our industries. We have three major technology groups coming in 2023. They will eliminate many jobs, excluding jobs in sciences, engineering, mathematics, and economics. That will put many people on the street from the workforce. As if that was not enough, the black and white problem festered like a bad infection for 150 years. The bad K-12 education is increasing our fast-growing poverty because it is far from good enough. People in poverty are less educated, single-parent families, where that poor single parent works his/her fingers to the bone. He, but mostly she, cannot make enough money, and that created children, WITHOUT THE SOLID HELP BY A FAMILY INFRASTRUCTURE, THAT THOSE WHO ARE WELL OFF HAVE. The solution for that is much better education FOR ALL so that the child in poverty can rise and have a chance to pull the entire family out of poverty. So we made sure that teachers are not educated well enough. That did not happen in other university degree programs. And we are paying one of the highest rates per student in the world in public education, receiving an education that puts this wonderful country into the grave. People are not so stupid that they would create this very dangerous situation, in my opinion. But a smart internal or external enemy could because this situation was long-a-comin'.
WE ARE REPEATING THIS BECAUSE IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. THE US CONSTITUTION IS THE FUNDAMENT ON WHICH OUR COUNTRY STANDS. WHEN THAT FOUNDATION IS VIOLATED, HOWEVER SLIGHTLY, IT BEGINS CRUMBLING. THERE CAN BE NO EXCUSES. WE MUST RESTORE THAT FOUNDATION.
The biggest problem of all is the fact that our constitution guarantees to Ensure Domestic Tranquility, and Promotion of the General Welfare, right in the preamble of the US Constitution. Our public schools seem to violate it more and more. But we do nothing about it. Please! Someone tell me at what point do we violate "insure domestic tranquility" and "promotion of general welfare?!" Do we wait until we as a country go bust because our children were poorly educated? Or do we have to wait until we have a revolt on our hands with blood in the streets? We have to get it into our heads that friends help us on any level, and they do it well. It is not a friend that creates bad results and cries for more money when their performance is poor, and we are already paying them one of the highest rates in the world. It is like having the three monkeys in the highest positions making decisions. COULD A SITUATION THAT UNDER-EDUCATED MORE THAN HALF OF THE POPULATION DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY! WHY? BECAUSE OUR FUTURE AS A COUNTRY DEPENDS ON HOW WELL WE EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN TODAY. AND WE ARE DOING A VERY POOR JOB WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Having set in on many high school MATH AND SCIENCE COURSES, they were uninteresting, boring, going back to poor teacher selection and teacher training. Boring presentations turn off anyone. It is not the teachers' fault. It is the fault of teacher selection for teacher college, wrong personality profile, and the old, inadequate general-purpose teacher training to teach any course by any teacher. These characteristics turn off adults or children. COULD SUCH SCHOOLS BY THEMSELVES DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY!
Creating a Manager is not just simply the promotion of a good employee. Management is a precise method that people in management positions need to learn. If they do not, too many problems develop that end up destroying the organization. We have no management training in education and teacher turnover is very high. COULD MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS ALONE IN EDUCATION DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY!
We had a very serious, festering black and white problem in our history for about 150 years. Problems do not get solved unless the leadership does not want to solve it on both sides of the problem. It is very irresponsible that we have not solved it. Black students are suffering more from it because more of them, as a percentage, are in poverty, with poor family-support infrastructure. Again, education is a major problem for them as well. GOOD education happens to be the solution for all, especially for those in poverty. Education is the only way out of poverty by having a job in the family that pays better. Education is also the only solution to solve unfair, prejudicial thinking among us for differences in skin color, culture, religion, and so on.That cannot go away unless ALL of our children are educated for higher-level jobs and thinking. None of us want racial conflict, and our low-level education today makes this problem bigger instead of solving it. The racial behavior on any side violates even the "domestic tranquility" clause of the Constitution because we do not remove it.
Any of these alone can destroy an organization or a country. We have quite a few more such situations that we describe below. In today's world, destroying or damaging other countries by acquiring and using such methods is becoming more common instead of wars. Our security services hopefully recognize them and remove them. But with our poor education, they do not appear to do so. Are they limited by our public education as well?
75-85% of high school graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready. That means that their high school subject knowledge is BELOW 60%!! We have three big TECHNOLOGY groups coming in 2023 worldwide. For example, Artificial Intelligence-driven robotics will replace college-educated jobs. Or Nanotechnology, which will change the design and manufacturing of almost all things. And Space Science, with all three creating new sciences, new engineering, and many new jobs that require more education. When we under-educate our children, we are increasing robotics as early as possible for employers. Our workforces and high school graduates are not even close to surviving such a change, just a couple of years away.
Have the authorities protected our constitutional guarantees? IT APPEARS THAT THEY DID NOT. Read on, and you will see for yourself.
Another "science" developed since 1900. Lenin was its founder with his slogan, "If you lie to people a thousand times, they accept it as truth." Dr. Josef Goebels, Hitler's propaganda minister, refined it further as a science. It mixes facts and fiction in speeches/advertising to the public to guide public opinion and belief. It is very useful in advertising regardless of "truth in advertising" laws. It is a high-level skill within military and intelligence circles, and it is used in public education constantly. The result from it is the following. People get used to low standards if they are exposed to them for 4-5 years. That will distort their expectations such that poor results they accept as "average" or "normal." The acceptance can rise to "good enough," and at the same time, they view higher expectations/results as impossible, ruling out the possibility to have the equivalent of average 29-34 A.C.T. equivalent performance. Remember the Far Eastern Buddhist belief that "What you think, you become." That is how psychological warfare defeats an enemy. China produces the highest grades in the world under the OECD PISA International tests of 15-year-olds. But those results are produced only in Shanghai, China, although all major cities in China produce good school results.
Successful completion of anything takes work, sometimes very hard work. If one loves to do that project, seeing it progressing and come to a successful finish makes hard work great fun. If it is not an enjoyable thing, you may be in the wrong job. Never do a job poorly. We need the type who wants to learn something that he/she does not know well enough. Sometimes you may get disappointed or frustrated. It happens with all jobs. Learn to meditate about seeing yourself doing it successfully. You may have to talk to someone excellent at solving a hard problem for you. The big, interesting jobs are difficult to do. One gets a real big boost in morale if one learns and solves problems they could not solve before. People who can deliver big projects on time are rare. They never give up, and they are very dependable. Anyone could learn to become like that.
CONSIDER THAT OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON HOW WELL EDUCATED OUR CHILDREN BECOME TODAY. THE CHILDREN'S EDUCATION DEPENDS ON:
HOW GOOD A PERSONALITY MATCH THE TEACHERS ARE TO THE TEACHING PROFESSION,
HOW WELL EDUCATED THE TEACHERS ARE IN THE SUBJECT THEY TEACH AND
HOW MUCH THEY LIKE THE SUBJECT THEY TEACH.
SUPPOSE TEACHER EDUCATION IS NOT TAKING SUCH CONSIDERATIONS SERIOUSLY. IN THAT CASE, THERE WILL BE A HUGE DIFFERENCE TEACHER-TO-TEACHER, WHICH CREATES A HUGE DIFFERENCE AMONG HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES IN SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE. OUR STANDARDS THAT APPLY TO EDUCATION ARE TOO LOW, AND SO ARE THE TEACHER CANDIDATE SELECTION AND TRAINING STANDARDS. THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR COUNTRY IF WE GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO DO NOT EVEN MEET EVEN A LOW STANDARD LIKE A.C.T. READINESS.
75-85% OF THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WITH A DIPLOMA IN HAND ARE NOT EVEN "A.C.T. READY!" Please listen to what I found. Part of our poor education is ignoring things that are critical to success in teaching, such as making sure that those who want teacher training have a high I.Q. and the right personality for teaching children. When teaching high school math and science, the teacher needs to be at least five times higher educated in the subject as the most advanced course they have to teach in the subject. A teacher that loves the subject they teach makes a huge difference in the student results. You need such qualifications to present with infectious enthusiasm in the classroom to get the students interested in the details that one teaches in class.
TEACHER TRAINING REQUIREMENTS IN THE BEST COUNTRIES IN PUBLIC EDUCATION ARE VERY DIFFERENT THAN OURS. BUT OUR EDUCATION MANAGEMENT DOES NOT WANT TO GO THERE TO SEE WHY. THIS DOES NOT REFLECT AN ATTITUDE BY POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP THAT PRODUCES GOOD RESULTS. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE TELL YOU THAT THEY DO WHEN THE EVIDENCE SHOWS OTHERWISE? WHY DOES OUR LEADERSHIP TURN A BLIND EYE TO THIS HUGE PROBLEM? I WROTE TO GOVERNORS ABOUT THIS FOUR TIMES AND RECEIVED NO ANSWER FROM ANYONE. When one looks at the readiness percentage of graduates on the A.C.T. chart below, we can clearly see that the results are poor. Our children must be much better educated to be employable in future years.
PUBLIC EDUCATION STANDARDS: Mathematics, Engineering, Sciences, and Economics are the most important areas for future employment. Artificial intelligence-based robotics will replace most jobs, regardless of education level in the long term, that involve repetition or require high levels of accuracy. Unfortunately, our public education is teaching less than many other countries do. What will be important in the future are a high level of education in the above-mentioned subjects and the mental flexibility to learn new jobs quickly. The basic high school requirement for graduation needs to include Calculus and its prerequisites, Physics, Space Physics, Chemistry, reasonable reading, writing, and speaking in Modern Mandarin Chinese with all high school courses passing at 80% subject knowledge. Why 80%? Because historically, the higher-level jobs always required a B-average performance (85%). In the future, we will not have the lower-level jobs of today. Robots will be doing them at a much lower cost. The future standards for graduation will not become lower. THEY WILL BE HIGHER. They will have to increase. New technologies are driving the increase. Why Chinese? Because they will be either our enemy or friend. Friend, most likely. Their education is the best and will remain so. They will also most likely be equal to us or above us in technical developments. Since the technical subjects will dominate jobs, many jobs will include Chinese contact and publications. After the poor results that our state education departments created for decades, anyone who wants to negotiate, we cannot afford to do. They would continue with the poorly performing primary and secondary schools as they have done in the past. This is no longer a game of how little we can do and "get by." We cannot continue graduating children who are anywhere near A.C.T. Readiness or below it. We will need to move to STEM A.C.T. Readiness as the right standard within 2-3 years, by 2025 at most. Will that make high school much harder? It will make it easier if we upgrade teacher qualifications and teaching methodologies based on what the top three countries in education are doing and using. When one is in a higher-level position, one must know what standards to enforce in the jobs within one's group. We also no longer can afford governors who are so soft as they demonstrated in the past by letting public education "go to the dogs." The public high schools need to teach our children much more, with high enough standards to be ready to learn even more in jobs or at a university. The high school graduation requirements are not high enough, and 75-85% of graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready, a modest measure. A high school diploma with an average A.C.T. 29 score, which guarantees only 80% Readiness, would be the appropriate objective since we are paying public education one of the highest rates per student in the world. The average A.C.T.-equivalent performance in that group of countries is 29-34. WE NEED TO LEARN THAT OVER-PERFORMANCE MAKES LEARNING EASIER. BUT UNDERPERFORMANCE IS EXTREMELY DAMAGING. SO WE CHOSE TO UNDERPERFORM. NO COUNTRY CAN SURVIVE UNDERPERFORMANCE FOR DECADES. THAT IS WHERE WE ARE FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES WITH VERY POOR A.C.T. SCORES.
TEACHER EDUCATION AND PERSONALITY: Starting in the late 1800s to this day, teacher education improved but far from enough. It used to be in the form of general education that would enable teachers to teach any subject to a minimal level. It happens too often that teachers are assigned to teach courses for which they were not trained. We advanced worldwide to a point 20-25 years ago where the teacher knowledge needed to satisfy employers requires teacher training with much more single-subject knowledge. Many countries moved to teachers having a Master's degree in the subject they teach from fourth grade on. Our teacher training did not follow that. With the absence of testing teachers for personality match to teaching, and without giving them a solid Master's degree-level education in the subject that they would teach, we are creating teachers who are not as well prepared as they are in the high-performing countries. Looking at teacher requirements first, we must raise teaching much higher to improve the education results. It is a hard job, and our teacher training degrades it. There are several tests for vocational testing. I have experience with the Strong Interest Inventory correlated with the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory, which can be downloaded from the Internet for $100 total. The very successful teachers appear to have the following profile. Such a profile is very important for teaching anything, but especially the harder subjects, like Mathematics, Sciences, Engineering, where the future emphasis will be. Pay needs to be higher for such teachers. However, we must realize that pay increases cannot be supported by the poor performance we have to date.
Incorporate the following points at the very start of teacher training and role-play frequently and extensively the handling of serious problems that will reappear. Perhaps the biggest one will be the result of hormonal changes in the 10-16 year age range.
A teacher must be a high I.Q. individual. His/her training must be upgraded significantly. Our teachers are not respected as highly as they are in other countries. Why? Our children's education is worse because the level of teacher training is too low and has been low longer than two decades. 6-7-year Master's degree in the subject he/she will teach finished in top 30% of his/her Master's program, he/she would teach above fourth grade. Teachers' Colleges offer a one-year Master's program in the subject for teaching. Do not take that one.
Excellent presenter/communicator, who has to deal with student-questions, loves his subject, feels that the way we teach is very important for the children's and country's future, it has to be very convincing, enjoyable, firm on discipline but compassionate. Such a person requires at least five times the subject knowledge required to get the highest grade level of the subject minimum to understand it well enough to answer student questions with examples very clearly.
The big change around nine years of age in teenagers is an explosion in emotional reactions as a result of hormonal changes. Organize a two-week seminar about emotional responses every summer for those teachers who teach subjects from 9th grade and supervisory personnel about how to best handle such students, and how to advise the students with a special class and in private to make sure that they know how to recognize such powerful feelings and manage them without disturbing their studies.
A teacher must love his/her subject to become an excellent teacher of that subject, up to date on new developments in that field.
Great sense of humor, including juvenile humor, is an important quality for a teacher. Classes being boring, it is very important for the teacher to make his/her classes and what he/she teaches very interesting and enjoyable for all.
Highly innovative. Finds the best tools for his job, and he/she needs to organize to improve how he/she thinks he/she is to improve classroom results and given a free hand in organizing how he/she can best teach, covering the curriculum for the course in the most interesting way in his/her opinion, being creative and optimizing everything he/she is teaching.
Loves to work with children, great problem solver.
Management training would be very helpful to teachers in my opinion, since a teacher has to accomplish good results with 15-30 "people" in the classroom, obtain resources for the same from people above him/her, and be creative to achieve both. That is a management task. In addition, it will be an excellent promotional tool, as robotics will penetrate teaching as well.
BUT, even this is not good enough. If you put a very well-trained person into a poorly performing organization, again, "If you don't use it, you lose it" applies to everything. I MEAN EVERYTHING THAT ONE NEEDS FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE BECAUSE WE STOP USING THEM. A WELL EDUCATED TEACHER PLACED INTO POORLY MANAGED ORGANIZATION WILL REGRESS
THAT MEANS THAT UPGRADING ORGANIZATIONS CANNOT BE IGNORED WHEN WE PLAN TO UPGRADE ONLY PART OF THE FUNCTIONS (E.G., TEACHERS IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM). PERHAPS A MIDDLE GROUND, LIKE OPTIMIZING A SCHOOL DISTRICT, COULD BE DONE, BUT THE MANAGEMENT HAS TO BE ROCK SOLID BECAUSE THE ARROWS WILL BE COMING AT THEM FROM ANYWHERE, INCLUDING THE TOP, WHO PERFORM POORLY. So the cost of the change will be lowest if we change from top-down for quick recovery.
The teaching profession needs to become much more creative, valuing new methods and ideas to better educate with the same effort. Education management, at least on the very top, must have people who always are on the search for significantly better tools and methods in all areas, especially in the countries that have excellent results, every single month, to improve the measurable outcome, the annual A.C.T. scores.
A good background like the one above could qualify a good teacher for other future jobs as well. That is a good thing because we need teachers who have a deep desire to teach because they love it instead of just for income. To achieve that, we must open up their training and teaching to improve our education not only for today's children but also for the teachers, to allow them to rise higher than before. That can take us beyond what teachers can achieve today, anywhere.
A GOOD IDEA: The high performing countries whose graduation results test 29-34 average A.C.T. equivalent, require from prospective teacher a Master's degree for teaching at and above fourth grade, in top 10% of the university's student record in the subject. We need exactly that. The compensation scale for such teachers should be 20-30% higher as a new scale if they test vocation compatibility. That will give teachers an internationally compatible profession. For the lower-trained, it will be an incentive to become better. Too expensive some will say? It is much better than the 80% unemployable high school graduates they graduate today because those will need continuous social support at a much higher cost.
IN 1994, PRESIDENT CLINTON AND CONGRESS PASSED INTO LAW "GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT" with the intent of becoming the best in the world in Mathematics and Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) by 2000. A huge organizational effort was made to bring together all concerned, including American education, funding at $400 million to start. The recognition of the education problems was very promising. Too many people were involved, but proper annual academic objectives were missing as a 2000 goal, and monthly measurable objectives were also missing. When one does not have such precise targets, one cannot make progress. Very impressively organized, but too big, too broad agreement that all players desired, driven by the long failing education system had no chance. One can look at the very impressive bill by clicking here. The needed elements from a management perspective were not present. That means that the goals/objectives are not clear or do not exist, describing in 1994 what we are to achieve in 2000, but not with specific figures. All inclusiveness sounds like a good step, but involving too many groups and the failing education organization in planning would create more of the same. We will cover below the results of our eight-year investigation of our public education plus our visits to the best three countries in public education to find out how they manage to achieve outstanding results. I was shocked by the findings, most of which you can read here.
To determine exactly what we should achieve, several large committees were proposed, that are unnecessary. Why?
As we identify an objective with past performance that has been poor for DECADES, higher performance than what you think you need is recommended. The reason is that poor performance became a habit. If one picks a lower objective, one increases the problem. Some other countries CAN do it very well. We COULD do it well ALSO. But we don't.
Education is a competitive activity worldwide because the success of products and services of all industries depends on a well-educated workforce. High school graduates feed the workforce. HOW COULD IT BE THAT WE IGNORED IT?! I AM SORRY, BUT NO ONE PAID ATTENTION TO ANY NICE AND POLITE REMINDER AS SOME PEOPLE ARE MANAGING POLITICS AND EDUCATION INTO THE GUTTER WITH THE "POOR STANDARDS" THAT WE HAVE TODAY! HOW COULD THOSE PEOPLE DO THIS TO US? That is what happens when your standards are low, and you do not measure people's performance. PEOPLE DO NOT DO WHAT YOU EXPECT! THEY DO WHAT YOU INSPECT!
One can look up WHERE the best three education systems in the world are in any subject or in high school results in general, and that will define where we should be. One person can do that in a week or two. One does not need a committee of a hundred people organized by a high-ranking POLITICIAN and a two-year wait to find out where we should be and why. It need not cost millions of dollars to get answers to exactly where we should be in education. WELL, LET ME TELL YOU MY THOUGHTS! ACT AVERAGE AT 29 BECAUSE WE NEED TO BE AT 80% READINESS MINIMUM FOR OUR CHILDREN TO BE EMPLOYABLE BEYOND 2024. WE DROPPED TO 37TH PLACE IN MATHEMATICS IN THE WORLD. THAT WEAKENS US SUBSTANTIALLY. A GOOD NUMBER OF COUNTRIES GRADUATE CHILDREN FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHOSE ENTIRE GRADUATING CLASSES ARE IN AN ACT EQUIVALENT AREA OF 29-34, AND THAT IS THE SAME AS HAVING 80% OF YOUR GRADUATING CHILDREN STEM ACT READY. Our graduates are closer to 5% STEM ACT READINESS.
"What the children should target as an objective" will keep increasing because it is driven by new technologies as the major influencer.
It is a huge mistake not to know who your top international competitors are, what results they get, and what methods they use to achieve it. Our results, standards, and methods are old and very poor. We do not know anything about international competitors in public education, and our teacher selection, training, and certification are too low from preschool onward. That can drag down university performance as well. It is a big mistake because that is exactly how one can fall very far behind.
The best outcome in anything depends on the quality of the foundation that one creates first. prerequisite education programs must be of high quality, and we as students must do very well in them. As the largest country-economy, we MUST DO VERY WELL TO SURVIVE AS A COUNTRY to maintain our economy. I mean with high results based on what the best two or three nations are doing in education. We need to be among the top five countries in preschool plus K-12 education. If we are not among the top five countries with a high school curriculum of the top five, we cannot succeed as a nation. The reason is simple. To maintain the size of the economy, we need a much higher number of scientists and engineers. We did such a poor job in K-12 education that we dropped to 37th place in Mathematics, the most important subject for our future. We need to understand a lot of things much better than what our education management understands in each state.
HOW THE BRAIN WORKS RELATIVE EDUCATION: Pre-school education from age three needs to be made mandatory. The first six years are the fastest period for the formation of neuronal interconnections in the brain (neuroplasticity or learning and "unlearning" as in "use it or you lose it"). The initial two years in life are dedicated to sensory interpretation development (e.g., vision, hearing, sounds, speech, etc.). The next 3-4 years start to build on the fundamental sensory interpretation of the environment, human behavior and concepts, and decision making. Interestingly, these stages of development very significantly overlap the phasing in and out areas of various subject areas in the brain, phasing out one thing, slowly overlapping the phasing-in of the next developing functional areas simultaneously to complete initial specific functional areas as we go to the next stage of brain development. That is the initial development of all functional areas of the brain. What follows is a very flexible system where the brain will enhance its specific functional areas with new experiences (learning), but "if you don't use it, you lose it" also applies. If one keeps up the learning at a certain speed, it can keep going on through one's entire life at almost the same speed. There is a genetic map that directs the sequencing of this process from birth, based on age to about 22, and if the person keeps learning all along, the brain will fine-tune its functional areas throughout one's life. Imagine your brain changing all your life accordingly. Learning never ends. But there is more. Learning happens first with taking information in by seeing, reading, hearing, listening. BUT IT GOES MUCH DEEPER BY USING AND DOING IT ALSO. That is how knowledge is refined. That means that schooling is only the beginning of learning. ALL THE EXPERIENCES WE HAVE DURING LIFE LEAVE DEEP LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE WITHIN OUR BRAINS, BUT IT STAYS ONLY IF WE USE IT. THESE CHANGES ARE SLOW OVER MONTHS RATHER THAN YEARS. In the formal education area, the degree includes a significant amount, like 20-40% of the years it takes to get that degree, experience, and research to develop and add new information to worldwide knowledge or improvement of related procedures and processes is a Ph.D. This provides some exposure to the pressures a Ph.D. will encounter on his/her job later. However, the degree-related pressure is criticism-based from the professor who is directing the student in the preparation of his/her thesis. The actual high-level experience on the job for life will be much longer, especially in management, depending mostly on the number of employees under you or based on the level of risks in some jobs. Role-playing difficult problems for long exhausting hours after a Master's or Ph.D. degree is the best training experience to have. But as in any course of study, if they are only several weeks long, they will not become a habit or anchored into one's brain, and when one leaves such a course, it takes serious willpower for a year or two to become automatic. For this reason, very few people benefit from such short programs long-term, and they are very expensive. Such courses are generally organized by large corporations. The knowledge level with any schooling is vitally important as it relates to one's future. But formal education has to be the same for a large group to be affordable. That is the fundament of our education today. The best result will come in 6-8 years when with robotic AI, one's natural vocational path and psychological profile will be measured in the background, and then the learning path can be adjusted to it individually. It will build up with a collection of knowledge, on a much higher level for a job. Always with the idea of creating a solid fundament for accelerating future changes from now to about 2045. As to what will come after that isn't easy to predict. Technology changes will come faster and faster from now on, with less and less time spent using the same technology. Imagine that you have to manage ten projects one at a time for financial reasons. Technology will be improving and changing fast enough to have to change/modify that design for expense reduction even while it is being implemented. We will see that for the first time with Nanotechnology. We already know that it will drop manufacturing costs on materials by more than 50% in many cases. It gives you the skill of understanding and solving problems in the field you studied. But you will have to become a good problem solver! A builder of what you decided to build but flexible! That requires courage, analytical thinking, decision making, confidence, and most importantly, experience solving problems small and large. You will fail at times. It is all part of the most important part of learning. You may lose some jobs. But never lose credibility or lie. Know what you can and cannot do. And do take reasonable chances to become better at any age. The changes will be a blessing. A question remains on this topic. Does public education introduce ideas into teaching that reduces a child's ability to learn? This is especially important for critical/logical thinking and decision-making. The answer is yes. For example: removing classical art, music and allowing calculator use from/in the school environment.
EDUCATION AND CALCULATOR USE: Mathematics development area in the brain is worth a comment. There seems to be a very fast mathematics area developed for critical thinking, decision-making, and other autonomous, very fast computation. It appears that this area is stunted by calculator use in school and the deemphasis of memorizing multiplication and other math table functions. Our state education departments make decisions about standards that should be made by an independent group for the entire US, that is, a single group of high-level people that represent employers and brain-neurology expertise. Education departments need to be responsible for educating our children, following the standards established by the suggested group. They need to be doing a much better job in that area. We need to be educating our children much better than they do today, according to the standards set by an independent group as described. Pre-school done well will pay off in elementary school.
CONSULTANTS HIRED FOR WHAT MANAGERS SHOULD LEARN CAN CREATE SOME BIG PROBLEMS: We must eliminate the poor reading and poor mental math beyond third grade. TODAY WE GRADUATE CHILDREN WITH SUCH PROBLEMS, WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION HANDICAPPING THE LEARNING ABILITY OF CHILDREN "FOREVER." AS AN EXAMPLE, PEOPLE IN EDUCATION WHO HAVE A Ph.D., TRY TO SOLVE SUCH BASIC PROBLEM BY USING CONSULTANTS. THAT IS A BIG MISTAKE. CONSULTANT KNOW-HOW VARIES A LOT. ONE NEEDS TO LEARN THE KNOW-HOW WITHIN THE SCHOOL FROM SCHOOLS THAT DO A SUPERB JOB TEACHING THE SUBJECT I WOULD THINK, AND MANAGEMENT SHOULD KNOW HOW SUCH A SIMPLE SKILL WORKS. Elementary education needs to be done very well if we want to get the most out of high school. And high school must be completed with excellent results in order to make a university or job experience successful. Our state departments of education and their school districts did not make sure that this is happening. As a result, WE GRADUATE CHILDREN FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHO CANNOT READ, CANNOT WRITE BUT ONLY BLOCK LETTERS, CANNOT DO BASIC MATH, CANNOT EVEN FILL OUT A JOB APPLICATION AND HAVE A BAD ATTITUDE ON THE JOB. The attitude problem is based on black/white problems, plus the bad education is visible to everyone at work. WE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM 24 YEARS AGO. HOW STUPID OR WEAK MUST PEOPLE BE TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN and go unresolved for decades? IT IS YOUR CHILDREN WHO WILL BECOME HOMELESS AS A RESULT OF OUR LEADERS' POOR DECISIONS. HOW COULD WE ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN? Imagine a boss who hired today's high school graduates, who cannot read his writing, and are not very sharp, cannot read and do the math, can make big mistakes, and have a bad attitude on the job because they don't know enough. How could we be so incompetent AND STUPID THAT WE ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN?! Especially when our future existence depends on the education of our children today?!
CLEAN UP EDUCATION MANAGEMENT! What kind of jobs will almost all high school graduates get? They will be unemployable. But both education and political management is "too shy" to ACT on such a thing. As of 2021, no one has made any changes to resolve the education problems we have. AND NOW WE HAVE BIG PROBLEMS. We just lower the standards and make the 90% graduation rate the most important result to achieve, and we cheat to achieve it. We should be very concerned, but no one stands up to correct it. Not the governors, and we should find out why! They know the problems. Why don't they ACT on them? Purposefully fibbing to the public to cover up such cheating has gone on longer now than two decades. AS A RESULT, MOST OF OUR SCHOOLS BECAME FAILURE factORIES. THEY CREATED A GROWING PROBLEM, AND THEY CANNOT BE CORRECTED. THEY ARE BECOMING WORSE INSTEAD. WE MUST CORRECT IT BEFORE IT DAMAGES US MORE.
WE NEED TO REEVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VOTING TO "FIND PEOPLE FOR IMPORTANT POSITIONS." PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING. We put important decisions into the hand of local school boards. We have about 14,000 of them directing education in our school districts nationally. They are elected to office, and a candidate spends $6,000-$15,000 on promotional advertising, handouts, radio programs, and so on. They are prepared by an advertising firm very professionally, and they know very well how to sell anything to the public. Does the voting public know how good our education is locally compared to what employers need because our children will have to work for them? They do not. They know what the schools tell them. Also, how much do we know about the candidates who are not close friends of everyone within the voting public? We don't know enough to tell how they will improve our low-performing public. What we know is that wealthy people can donate enough money to a candidate through their friends to get the person elected. There is owner way to know the truth about whether or not our education is improving. The two annual national tests, the ACT or SAT will tell you the truth. We have an ACT score chart here covering 20 years. The individual states use only one of the two tests. There is no improvement in 20 years. The locally elected boards cost money, but they do not have the knowledge to guide a school district to improve. Elections on a lower level are not reliable. Their majority decisions are not good enough. Now imagine that nationally we have to do much better in public education. For that, we need excellent competitive standards nationwide and well-trained teachers and management. WE DO NOT HAVE EITHER OF THEM. For public education, we need NATIONAL STANDARDS, CURRICULUM, AND GUIDELINES FOR ALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS, INSTEAD OF SPENDING THE MONEY ON DUPLICATION OF EFFORT IN 50 STATES AND 14,000 SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITHOUT EXPERTISE. This is something that originated around 1875 and was not changed to this day. THE WORLD HAS CHANGED A LOT SINCE 1875! It is a lack of know-how and a total lack of understanding about what creates apathy and no improvement for so long. The most dangerous thing is how no one recognized in more than a hundred years that education is producing bad results as the world is advancing scientifically. We will not get better until we correct the management structure and set minimum standards for successful organizations, in addition to a few more things. We cover these in detail below.
ARE LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS EFFECTIVE IN IMPROVING THE EDUCATION OUR CHILDREN GET? They claim that "The local school board sets the standard for achievement (in the states and school districts), incorporating the LOCAL community's view of what students should know and be able to accomplish at each grade level. Is this investment paying off today?" Click here to see it. COMMENT: Elected school boards do not know enough to make such decisions and they do not want to learn. I met only one person during the last twelve years who was different and read a book about the Alberta, Canada education system that was better than we are. Today's public schools do not need the opinion of local boards. We need an employer-dominated national board for standards since education is to satisfy EMPLOYERS' needs. We need teachers whose personality is a good match to teaching with a full 7-year Master's degree in the subject they teach, who come from the top 30% of their Master's program. We need better-trained teachers and management-trained managers, superintendents all the way to the top. We need to know what the best three nations in education are doing and planning for our own guidance. Other countries' products are beating us domestically and globally.
We have about 14,000 school boards in the US, and our education is far from what it should be. They are low performers because the locally elected boards run them. Elections are no longer the best tool to chose the best people. The great majority of voters don't know anything about the candidate for which they vote. The candidates do not have any idea about where we are in education and where we need to be competitive. A long time ago, when we had a single industry, agriculture, local sales, it was good enough, but we changed a lot, and education did not. The local school boards did not help to create well-educated children. The school boards created a huge variation in performance among the 14,000 school districts. Any good strategy would both raise the grades and reduce the spread on tests that cannot be altered in the scoring area. The education departments need to focus on delivering much better educated high school graduates per the standards defined by a group like a national board of employers. Or we can send our students to the National School of Dentistry in a third-world country, the picture you see here. When you mix different standards in the groups that are doing work to deliver to those standards, you will not get the best quality. That makes the creation of standards within the state education department a conflict of interest. We must separate those two. Employers have been complaining to governors about high school graduates since about 2010. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET UNIFORM HIGH-QUALITY RESULTS WITHOUT UNIFORM HIGH STANDARDS NATIONWIDE, WHEN EVERY SCHOOL BOARD MAY HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS, HOWEVER SMALL THOSE DIFFERENCES IN STANDARDS ARE. I can tell you this. Hostile intelligence services, like the Chinese or Russians, have enough financial resources and very smart people like we do in ours. They would help any of our problems to become bigger. Look at the OECD PISA international test results we display here. WHO IS ON TOP? CHINA! Think about it. There is strength in a nation that establishes standards for anything on the highest level. BUT WHEN 14,000 DIFFERENT SCHOOL BOARDS cannot do anything to improve our public education, decade after decade CANNOT EVEN MAKE TINY CHANGES FOR THE BETTER. WE CANNOT IMPROVE. WHY DON'T WE GET RID OF ALL INEFFECTIVE OLD PRACTICES? IT WILL SAVE A LOT OF MONEY FOR IMPROVING THE AREA THAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, OUR SCHOOLS! OUR EDUCATION STANDARDS ARE NOT THE SAME IN EVERY STATE. MOST ARE VERY POOR. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT ENFORCE NATIONAL STANDARDS, AND EACH OF 50 STATES IS DOING ITS OWN THING. WE MUST SET ALL EDUCATION STANDARDS CENTRALLY IN THE US. EDUCATION IN EVERY STATE MUST DELIVER IT WITH THE WORK THEY DO IN EVERY STATE. "THE BEST IDEAS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION COMES FROM THE LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS," WHICH DELIVERED POOR RESULTS, IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TODAY. IT IS A VERY STUPID IDEA FOR US THAT CHINA LIKES VERY MUCH. Think about it. A high school graduate will be employed by employers. Right? Whose needs must education satisfy? Schools have to satisfy employers' needs. Employers hire high school graduates. Who should set the standards for public education? The San Diego Zoo? No. Public education? No. It is a conflict of interest for them. They will do what they want. Not what employers need. A group of senior executives representing employers TO GUIDE EDUCATION? Absolutely YES. But for us, public education keeps defining low standards. But they cannot even deliver that. So, they create higher grades from low scores with the Cut Score Magician. Absolutely brilliant!
WHY ARE WE NOT SOLVING THE POOR EDUCATION, POVERTY AND BLACK/WHITE PROBLEM DECADE AFTER DECADE? We have poor public education in 95% of our schools, fast-growing poverty with overlapping a greater than 150-year-old black/white problem, that could be resolved, but we decided not to do it. That is a deadly combination for us as a country. It is unresolved because we did not make a real effort to solve it. Our public education is responsible for resolving it, not the poor single parent whose boyfriend ran away when she got pregnant. Good education is the key to solving both problems: poverty and the more than 150-year-old black/white problem that we should have resolved a long time ago. We are significantly interdependent. That means that if one is wealthy, do not count on surviving such a tragedy for long. We all have a moral and legal obligation to educate ALL citizens of any color to be employable. WE DO NOT DO THAT! You will see it below. But the actions within almost all of our schools are not good enough. The moral and legal obligation for public education to make our children employable for a useful life has been forgotten. They work for you, governors! Governors generally promise to fix the education problem we have when running for office. But then they forget about it. And the public is easy to influence with the personality of a high-level leader. Public opinion can dominate individuals who disagree. The elected can forget about the promises or decide that the promise kept is too difficult. The problem-filled life for the people in poverty will help such promises to be forgotten by those poor people. It is important to recognize why we have not corrected public education in more than a hundred years and supplement education laws to resolve it.
THE TEACHERS DILEMMA. All teachers wanted to be teachers. If they are not the right personality for teaching, who should approve their entry into teacher training? A pair of tests would do it. The Strong Interest Inventory, correlated with the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory, can be downloaded from the Internet for $100 total. We do not do it for teaching. Other countries do. The teacher candidate rightfully assumes that the teacher training is up to date to ensure that he/she can do the job very well. But what if the college program is not good enough? Unfortunately, that is the case. They are not good enough. Same for certification. As to subject training, it is poor, and we do assign teachers to teaching subjects that they know nothing about. It is not fair to blame the teacher. If the job turns intolerable because of bad student behavior and bad management, the result is bad teacher morale. Why? Because the teacher is not given the authority to do something about it, and the job becomes very demoralizing. Do all such things make it fair to blame the teachers for the bad results? Teachers not having specific, measurable objectives could be subject to "approaches" that are unpleasant. In a case without objectives in writing, the performance review will be influenced by the boss's friends. Who is responsible then? The governors to whom the education department reports. We will get into details further down. BUT PLEASE CONSIDER THIS AS WELL. Having 50 different state education departments who performed poorly for decades, making the most important decisions about achieving much better education results. Is it possible to get people who know what to do? No, you cannot. With such history, they are not likely to know what the critical problems and their solutions are. With the enormous duplication of departments of education, one cannot achieve uniformly high standards. The spending is getting very high. It is very difficult to create high enough results. ALWAYS DEFINE WHERE WE SHOULD BE IN MEASURABLE KEY INDICATOR RESULTS FIRST, LIKE AN ACT SCORE, AND WITH WHAT RESULTS ANNUALLY. SECOND, DEFINE THE BEST OUTCOME FOR THE ENTIRE ULTIMATE ACT SCORE OBJECTIVE WHERE WE SHOULD BE AND THE PEOPLE MANAGING IT. THEN DECIDE THE TEAM TO DO IT AND THE SEQUENCE OF ANNUAL OBJECTIVES TO REACH THAT GOAL WITHIN FIVE YEARS.
EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION IS POSSIBLE - IF THE GOVERNOR WANTS IT, unfortunately. There is no national standard for governors about their education departments, unfortunately. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE SUCH A NATIONAL STANDARD. SEEING THE BROADLY VARYING DEGREES OF RESULTS AMONG STATES TESTIFIES TO THAT NEED. They cannot claim that they are interested if the results are poor. The excellent education in Finland identifies 6% of students as learning disabled. But they qualify half of the learning disabled students for a REGULAR DIPLOMA at an average ACT equivalent of 29-34. We qualify 11-12% as learning disabled for extra school funding. We have enough public school irregularities to investigate such a thing since we already spend the highest amount per student in the world. We should do much better but cannot even reach an average ACT 21 score in most states. That represents only about 20-21% readiness of the children! Many black children are graduated at only single-digit ACT Readiness, like only 4-6%. I was wondering why. I found a charter school in New York called Success Academy Schools. They take only poor inner-city students, mostly black children. They read by the end of first grade. We, on the other hand, graduate children from high school WITH reading problems. Visiting them was a pleasure. I could not convince anyone in our education community to do the same. Success Academy Schools have 46 schools and 19,000 families on a waiting list. Their scores pass even most private schools. The owner made available on the Internet FREE both their curriculum and teaching methodology for every subject, a great value. This sounds like a great opportunity to learn how to improve your school. There are many such examples internationally. Just go to Finland and Singapore. We are very far from what we as a nation need. Public education says only bad things about others who do better and accuses them of taking the traditional public schools' money. They sound like bickering children. SUGGESTION: HOW ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND RELATED PUBLICATIONS PRESENTING ONLY THE TRUTH? HOW ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS INCREASING THEIR LOW ACT AND SAT RESULTS TEN PERCENT PER YEAR FOR THREE YEARS? Governors and all movers and shakers, FOR WHAT, ARE YOU WAITING? CHANGE THE "IMPOSSIBILITY" THINKERS! YOU MAY HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK. I THINK WE ALL DO AT TIMES DURING OUR LIFE. Use what the great education providers offer on the Internet. Most are free and outstanding to help you improve, instead of destroying our country.
There are some human behaviors that originated a very long time ago. Things that our pride and ego prevent us from doing properly. Let's assume that you and your predecessors did not do a good job. If you did not do well, most people would lie about it. Listen, learn and work harder instead to become very dependable and good in everything you do. Too many people do not learn enough first before taking action. Too many people do not even know what their job requires. We people and our country, the USA, became too money-oriented. In some cases, even your boss may not know what he wants you to do well. Do not accept such a job. But if you did, make a great effort to learn and become very good with your job fast. If you could not do something well, admit that you did not do something well enough and learn to become much better and try even harder to do an excellent job. Such an employee or student will do very well.
Unfortunately, most of our public elementary and high schools’ performance is poor. 75-85% of high school graduates are not even ACT Ready. We have a very serious problem. We are doing nothing about it, other than fibbing to the public in the states about how well our public schools are doing. Our public is paying one of the highest rates in the world per student for public education. Look at the shameful ACT performance in the chart below. Look at the high percentage of students we graduate who are not even ACT Ready. "We deserve a much better job" is an understatement.
Study the chart for a few minutes. About half the high school graduates use the ACT test. The above graph shows twenty years of it. We cover USA, Tennessee that is close to average state performer, and Knox County, TN that is also a close to average school district performance. We show the ACT scores, percent of students who are "ACT Ready" in each group, and we also show the percentage of high school graduates who are not "ACT Ready."
ACT's Benchmark at the end of high school for "ACT Readiness" qualification is based on meeting only 4 of these individual subject scores: Math, Algebra score: 22 (61% knowledge), Science: Biology score: 23 (64% knowledge), Reading/Soc. Science: score: 22 (61% knowledge) and English Composition score: 18 (50% knowledge). Only those who pass all four subject benchmark tests are "ACT Ready." According to ACT, the ACT Ready students have only a 50% - 75% chance to pass only four first-year college-level courses in the same freshman-level subject-name ONLY, as what the ACT benchmarks' subjects were. That is all that "ACT readiness" is. NOW LOOK AT THE PERCENTAGE OF THOSE GRADUATES WHO ARE NOT ACT READY QUALIFIED, BUT WE GRADUATE THEM WITH A DIPLOMA. WHAT KIND OF JOBS WILL THEY GET WITH THE FAST TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES WE WILL SEE FROM 2023?
This is not the entire problem yet that we have to solve. If someone had excellent training, and even if they worked in an excellent organization to enhance the same related areas in the neuronal network, if that person joins for work a poorly performing organization, their knowledge will decline. Current public schools are most likely to be the worst in that area. We do not consider that YET. This subject is something that I have been digging into for some time, and for me, it is very important for education improvement. Education cannot be modified in two important areas:
It is not good enough to raise the quality of teacher education and to employ the better educated new graduate in a poorly run organization like most are today. The brain adjusts to the work environment within a year or two. It continues to develop in a "use it or lose it" fashion until the end of life. FOR THIS REASON, THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT MUST ALSO BE BETTER TRAINED AND ORGANIZED FROM THE START. MORE LATER ABOUT THIS AREA.
Brain development is very sophisticated. Artificial Intelligence is a great tool for its dynamic continuous optimization for specific jobs. Brain's neuronal interconnection activity (that is what learning really is), especially between birth and 22 years of age in detail are following a specific road map to complete "all basic wiring" of all functional and subject-based areas, sequencing in a specific order, from preschool to end of high school graduation and beyond.
The K-12 teacher education solution depends on two primary things: Teacher training and K-12 school productivity raised to a much higher level, meaning a minimum of 80% of high school graduates achieving 80-90% high school subject knowledge level. That happens only if a student is at average ACT 29. Some important subjects we removed from the high school graduation requirements: Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics used to be included in the curriculum, but w/o calculator use, w/o use of cut scores, with centralized high security of testing and scoring management with results, with interpretation and graphs and a probability of success forecast, all by a student, school, school district state, and country. We are just under average ACT 21 that represents 40-60% high school subject knowledge that is far from enough. Don't forget that low performance in high school and college courses and or poor training will limit the teaching ability of a new teacher. Both the education side and the more important creation of the advanced, deep-skills development side of creating good teachers are in bad shape for us. It is vital that both be solved and corrected. The Achilles Heal of K-12 education is the absence of management know-how, creating bad morale. Satisfaction surveys in education are multiple-choice. Such tests can guide any teacher to a "major problem" that turns out to be "not enough money", that turns out to be not true. Studies in this area indicate that money is never among the top three choices in job dissatisfaction, and one gets used to more money in a few months. Therefore the real reasons that are more important to indicate job dissatisfaction are those that are not money. For me, having attended 29 high school science and math courses, one thing was unique compared to what I observed in nations that are top performers in education. Our classes are monotone and boring. Quite often, the teacher has to go to the book to answer a child's question. THIS IS VERY BAD NEWS, AND THE EDUCATION PEOPLE CLAIM OTHERWISE. LET ME ASK YOU THIS: HOW MANY TIMES DID GOVERNORS IMPLEMENT A CHANGE IN EDUCATION THAT RAISED THE LOW ACT SCORES? NEVER! ARE lawmakers and governors afraid of something? It appears that way. Some told me that education lobbyist people made it known that if anyone proposes a change in the way education operates for vote or implementation, they can vote him out. This needs quick resolution. Basic management practices do not exist in education. They are very useful for almost everyone and even in life. In addition, both the standards for education and the children's education should not be done in the same group called education for conflict of interest.
We have not been educating our children well enough, we are getting worse and not better, and that situation creates a very expensive burden for our states and country. But that is not all. There is something else that makes it far more dangerous. It is the black/white problem that we did not resolve for about 150 years, coupled with overlapping the fastest-growing poverty in the world. They have a poorly educated family infrastructure to support the children. Other countries compensate for that within K-12 education. We don't. The solution is not throwing money at this problem, as we generally do, because it will be spent the same way as before without solving the problems. The money has to go into making education far better than it is, reducing the huge money wasting and insufficient education for teachers in the subject they teach and lack of management training all the way to the top. And then, we need an effective program to give more training time for the children who lack the complete parental infrastructure. We must aim at educating the children well enough so that they can get their families out of poverty. That needs to be the objective! We already have one of the highest AND fastest-growing poverty rates in the world, with a very high national debt. Why are we adding to this huge problem by not shutting off uneducated illegal immigrants that we justify with humanitarian reasons, just to "look good to get their votes." IT MAKES NO SENSE. But helping highly educated people to come to the US would be helpful. Unfortunately, too many see better opportunities at home. Both the population and the federal government need to understand our financial, political, and education problems. Recovery of our economy is first for our citizens before we take any further action. At this point, the increasing national debt would be damaging to our national income. We cannot just print more money, as some people believe. We already owe $7 Trillion on the national debt in interest. That is real national income we have to pay urgently for getting the loan because the interest goes up every year. There is nothing else we can do with the huge interest. What we need urgently is university-educated legal immigrants because our failing elementary and public high schools graduate only about five percent of graduates who are prepared. WE NEED MORE THAN 80% PREPARED! Make the legal entry easy for corporations who identified and would like to hire talent that they need. But we cannot afford large groups of uneducated immigrants like we are doing now for humanitarian reasons. Because of our poor public education, we no longer have the financial capacity to do so. We must reach 80% STEM ACT Readiness with an average STEM ACT SCORE of 29 to protect our economy, with the huge technological changes coming in 2023.
We must reduce our expenses. As an example, our defense budget is equal to ten times the top ten defense-spending countries' defense budgets, excluding us. Perhaps two-three times would be enough, but we, the people, cannot judge that. If our aerospace firms see an opportunity, let them make long-term classified investments. They are a much better judge of where our money should be spent than the government. Some people may not understand that. We are one of the five highest spenders in public education per student in the world. But the results are so poor that 75-85% of high school graduates are not even ACT Ready when we need STEM ACT Readiness for employment in about 2024-2025. Now THAT IS A PROBLEM THAT CAN BE SOLVED. We are not spending the education money so that it can save us. I sat in on many classes in ten states. Children can ask very sharp questions. Teachers could not answer them. The bottom line is that the classes are boring. I am sure that some are not, but all 29 classes that I observed in high school math and science were boring. No one, adult or child, will learn in a boring, monotone class where the teacher is not prepared well enough. That would require NOT LESS than an A.C.T. 29 average of high school graduates, representing 80% readiness.
BUT I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS: A low objective like ACT 21, that is AN INDICATOR OF ONLY 22-25% GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-READINESS, IS set by people, who have no idea how to improve education OR THEY DO NOT WANT PUBLIC EDUCATION TO IMPROVE. THE INTERESTING QUESTION IS WHY? WHY DO YOU SPEND THE MOST MONEY PER STUDENT IN THE WORLD, ENOUGH TO DO VERY WELL AND DO A BAD JOB? SO WHAT YOU REALLY DO IS TO MAKE SURE THAT IT PRODUCES BAD RESULTS. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CAUSING FOR AN INVESTIGATION MANY YEARS AGO. NOT A COMPLICATED SITUATION. IT MEANS NEGLIGENT OR UNTRAINED MANAGEMENT. THAT SHOULD REALLY WORRY THE GOVERNORS BECAUSE THEY DID NOTHING TO IMPROVE IT. WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN IF THE FBI OR CIA SUPERVISORS WERE UNTRAINED POLITICIANS? WE ARE NOT QUITE AS BAD IN EDUCATION, BUT SIMILAR. TWENTY YEARS OF ACT SCORES ARE SHOWING THAT ANYTHING CLAIMED AS AN IMPROVEMENT IS NOT AN IMPROVEMENT IN STUDENT KNOWLEDGE THAT THE ACT SCORES REFLECT. IT IS A TOKEN EFFORT TO LOOK GOOD ONLY. THE IDEA OF PURPOSEFULLY DEGRADING EDUCATION MAKES SENSE IF WE ARE TRYING TO FIND OUT WHY TEACHER TRAINING QUALITY DROPPED INSTEAD OF INCREASING AND WHY THERE IS NO MANAGEMENT TRAINING IN EDUCATION. AND WHY THE TRUTH IN RESULTS IS KEPT FROM THE PUBLIC WITH LIES TAKING ITS PLACE ABOUT BEING EXCELLENT, WHY THE AVERAGE TIME DURATION OF SUPERINTENDENTS IN A JOB IS SHORT, AND WHY WE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN VISITING HIGH-PERFORMING NATIONS IN EDUCATION TO LEARN. BUT WE KEEP SPENDING A LOT OF MONEY! Since 1970, education expenses skyrocketed, but the results declined. There was not a single governor who stood up and said that since we are not improving, we will halt any increases in education until we demonstrate increases higher than X% for a couple of years. That is what normal management would do. We had many governors, but not a single one who did that.
An important point is this. We human beings are not at a point yet where we are good enough to not have wars but resolve problems without wars. Education is very important for that purpose worldwide. The egos become bigger in people who rise to high positions. And the education is not there to solve old problems that are festering to become bigger and end up with self-destruction. Or as access to nuclear power increases, AND IT WILL, someone's hurt ego will press the wrong button. That puts humanity in a dangerous position when we have our hands on weapons that can destroy all of us. Insufficient education is a gift to an enemy. And today's knowledge in psychological warfare and disinformation theory can enable an enemy to manipulate and amplify such problems without detection. Every dangerous, potentially destructive situation needs to be identified and corrected for national security reasons, and I believe that the state of American education was at a point decades ago for such action. We live and hopefully learn that the system is so infected that it cannot be self-correcting.
I would like to tell you about two countries with excellent education systems. The reasons are different for their excellent performance.
Over many years, I traveled to many countries about 70% of my time. I am more familiar with cultural, religious, legal, financial, and communication issues worldwide than the average person. Both countries have a highly productive and happy population, according to the UN surveys. Both have very well-educated teachers and management. Both countries do not present but the truth to the public. There is no poverty and crime in both. Both countries match teachers to the profession and require a 6-7 year Master's degree for teaching above fourth grade.
One is Finland. In Finland, education is free to the Ph.D. level, and Medical services are free for life. They are both excellent. There is no poverty. Taxes are 12% higher to pay for it. UN's annual survey shows them the happiest country in the world. The relationship between students and teachers is very friendly, the first-name basis, every student and teacher have breakfast and lunch together, first grade starts at age 7. They have excellent preschools between ages 1 and 7. Teachers are also fully qualified to diagnose learning disabilities and can refer to the medical community. Decisions take (e.g., IEPs) two days. Teachers are highly qualified and make decisions in a meeting of teachers only, once per week. All decisions are made by them. The curriculum is tougher than ours in both countries, but each teacher decides how and in what sequence they will teach their course, what textbook they want to use, or no textbook and teaching aids are individual teacher decisions. They are more respected than any other profession, their salaries are average, and teacher turnover is 1-2%. Their schools are happy and friendly places. Groups are visiting them from 100 countries every year. There are balconies in many classrooms for visitors. No testing until mid-high school, and homework does not exist. Same hours as ours, but students who are slipping are given remedial classes immediately in the afternoon. There is a lot of additional training for teachers. The teaching methodology is unique, and it would work anywhere if the teachers are well educated. The teacher divides the class into teams of 2 or 3 children. The teacher gives a written problem to each team that they are to collaborate on to investigate using the school library and/or the Internet. The teacher visits with each team about six times per day to make sure that they do not get stuck in work, and the solution they arrive at is what the curriculum of the teacher wants them to learn that week. Collaborating, hands-on, excellent method for deep learning. They are also multilingual, fluent in 2-4 languages, generally cover subjects in more detail than we do. There are no cultural issues in transferring the methodology to our environment.
Singapore and Finland are not rich in natural resources. Singapore schools are more formal than Finland's schools. The culture is Buddhist, Chinese, and Muslim, but never any radical Muslim problems in Singapore or its neighbor, Malaysia. Very nice people. Singapore is very safe to visit any time. Education is more traditional than in Finland. There is one huge difference that makes Singapore a high performer in everything. They are the best in the world in education results. The big difference is that Singapore runs every government department like a business, they do not place politicians on the top of government departments, but they get the top company presidents to run government sections like education, industry, military, post office, and others for five years, at which time they rotate in another company president with excellent history to head each of the government divisions. Singapore is a role model country for me. It is very clean, everything functions perfectly, people are happy, zero crime. Even the street vendor's food is safe to eat is of first-class quality everywhere. Singapore is the cleanest country I visited - anywhere you go. Outstanding shopping places, and whenever I went during the Christmas season, it was the most beautifully decorated place in the world in the Christian tradition, with Christmas music everywhere. The big advantage they have is making sure that all group functions, like within government or industry, get a successful high-level business manager on top at all times, and that includes education.
We are doing poorly in education, and we are very slow in actions to accomplish anything within education. I hope that I am leaving an important idea with those who run education and a few governors. There is a lot to be learned in other countries that have excellent public education, can give fantastic and well-proven ideas to improve. But I hear some opinions from public education management that are ego-driven and poorly informed. The quickest way to learn is to visit the best 2-3 countries in education, wherever they are. We are still suffering from the belief that "we are the best" of all countries in everything. It is a damaging habit/belief.
1. Actions We Need To Take
First, let us look at not all, but some examples of major long-term problems that are behind the poor, declining K-12 results in 90-95% of our public schools nationally with very few exceptions:
The ACT scores and readiness percentages for the past 20 years confirm a very poor, unacceptable result. There is POOR management know-how at all management levels. There is no appropriate management training,
Poor teacher training programs at colleges and universities, that create bad teacher training results and not the teachers. The teachers would logically assume that the teacher training would be good enough to ensure their success in the classroom. Why is it worse than what is needed for good performance?
Old practices that go back to the 1800s are damaging today. The local school board idea was born in the late 1800s. Agriculture was the dominant industry, and the local schools' job was to teach reading, writing, and math to the local farmers' children who returned to the family farm. The local school board made all education-related decisions, and they worked well for a number of decades. But many things changed. In a more complex world, there is no way for a local school board to provide the best guidance for educating our children correctly, and the results show that this "custom" is not helping, but it harms our children's education. How can such an illogical idea exists in 2021 that is costing us all the millions we pay to school boards that deliver bad results?
Very low standards. 75-84% of children we have been graduating high school are not even ACT Ready. ACT Readiness is passing a 21 ACT score that represents 60% subject knowledge in four subject areas only. We are graduating 75-84% of our children who are below 60% subject knowledge. We do this when AI-driven Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science start eliminating jobs, including college degrees in most fields other than a graduate-degreed job based on Mathematics, Sciences, or Engineering. It is our state organizations for education that have been responsible for the poor education, that combined with poverty and the black/white unresolved problem, will create havoc unless we urgently move to improve education.
I am sorry to have to say this, but Public Education did nothing all these years about and has no interest in improving our poor education. They opposed any improvement that involves a change in K-12 education to date. There is a total lack of measurable objectives that are the key indicators of success or failure. There is a total lack of management knowledge about how to interview candidates at all levels, especially superintendents, a most important position for success. There are decisions and methods within public education to falsify test results to increase grades when using state tests. Educating children to satisfy decades old needs, instead of future needs, and Public Education is against any change or performance measurement within the classes, schools, and school districts that indicate how those in charge are doing at all levels, blocking most important management information, sometimes with comments that are incredibly foolish. There is a total lack of interest in and knowledge of how the best nations are doing in education. These are all purposeful actions that are ensuring that our education becomes less and less competitive, and that can sink any nation.
This practice has gone on so long that most of our high school graduates will be unable to learn the requirements of jobs without special help resulting from much faster, exponential technological acceleration in job requirements worldwide from 2023 onward. It is very damaging if employees are within a poorly performing organization for five years or more, and they accept it as normal, making improvement an impossibility. The top management can ask the following to illustrate. We are doing a poor job. That is around average ACT 20. That means a poor 17-20% ACT readiness in graduating classes. We feel that the groups MINIMUM ACT readiness should be at 80% of a graduating class, TO BE RAISED ABOVE 90% IN VIEW OF THE FAST TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES COMING IN A COUPLE YEARS THAT WILL CREATE ENORMOUS JOB LOSSES TO AI ROBOTICS, INCLUDING HUGE LOSS OF WORKFORCE JOBS ON THE ORDER OF 30 MILLION. THE OLD SHAMEFULLY UNRESOLVED BLACK/WHITE PROBLEM, WITH ONE OF THE FASTEST-GROWING POVERTIES IN THE WORLD, WILL CREATE ENORMOUS CIVIL DISORDER BY 2024-2025. All because we had people in charge of education in the great majority of states who still insist on locally elected school boards, of which we have about 14,000. They believe AND PUBLISH to this day in 2021 that the best way to excellent education in our entire country is with the 1875 local school board structure. But to keep it beyond WWII was the dumbest idea of ANY nation on this earth. One wonders if so many leaders in both politics and education were lobotomized to be stupid enough not to change the system to set at least firm standards nationally. Just think first about what some people actually did to our country to this very day to understand why I am using language that is too kind to describe what some in leadership did to us.
There is a seriously organized movement against standardized testing of students. What else could we do to measure how students are progressing and how good the job teachers, principals, and superintendents are doing? Please, someone, tell me! Obviously, we should not just stop testing because some who produce bad grades do not like being exposed. Advice: EXPOSE THEM MORE. WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK THAT HIDING POOR PERFORMANCE BY PRESENTING A BETTER PICTURE TO THE PUBLIC THAN REALITY WOULD WORK? At the same time, the state education departments are doing unsavory things to raise the grades without raising the knowledge of the students, which degrade high school graduates so much that they cannot get a job. I will never forget a superintendent interview on TV where he wanted to eliminate testing. He was asked how he could tell that the child learned enough without testing. "I could look into the child's eyes and could tell!" - he said. It is also well known that teachers do not want to be measured on their students' performance. We never come back and have a governor firmly answer such foolish comments. To know how well a teacher or school, or state performs in education, we have to test their student results. THAT's called testing. We have to be smarter and answer such comments completely and firmly instead of being quiet. Public education's results are very poor because our political and education leadership has no idea where the results should be or have no courage to stand up. Such people have actually damaged our children, making them less employable. We need much better management than that!
What standard tests do we use that are secure, whose results cannot be changed by the states to "create" higher grades without increased knowledge? We have two annual national tests in the USA, the ACT, and the SAT, that fit the bill. These two yearly annual tests at the end of high school, or their results, THE INDIVIDUAL STATES, CANNOT CHANGE. The states have tests that they can modify to make the results look better with "cut scores." They use the state test results to graduate children from high school.
Why are cut scores necessary?
Cut scores could be used to raise the 60% pass/fail point high to create lower grades or cause the pass/fail point to be dropped to create higher grades in one or more subjects, on the state tests only. Was the pass/fail point ever used to raise failing grades to passing grades?
How do cut scores improve the education of a child?
In 1786 the US constitution dealt with many other more important things. Education was in its infancy. We had agriculture as the dominant industry. We educated the farmers' children locally, who went back to the farm to help the family. The exception to this was probably less than 5% then. Education grew as we developed other industries, slowly at first. WWI and WWII accelerated the development of more industries and the marketing of products internationally. And then BOOM! We went from the horse and buggy to the moon!! A huge increase in industries and sciences followed. The US Constitution was amended 27 times, but not for education. Education became a strategic asset in each state, many states by now.
BUT WE DID NOT MODERNIZE YET THE EDUCATION MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE OR THE CURRICULUM OR THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS TO DATE! WE MUST DO THESE THINGS AS A NATIONAL STANDARD. WHY? BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE PEOPLE IN EVERY STATE, WHO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THESE AREAS WELL ENOUGH. UNDER SUCH CONDITIONS, THE NATIONAL AVERAGE WILL ALWAYS BE BELOW. IN ADDITION, BECAUSE OF THE DUPLICATION OF JOBS IN 50 STATES, THE COST OF SETTING SUCH STANDARDS WILL BE ENORMOUSLY EXPENSIVE. THIRDLY, WE AS A NATION WITH VERY GOOD INTERNATIONAL COMPETITORS WHOSE PERFORMANCE IS HIGHER THAN OURS, CANNOT BE COMPETITIVE WITHOUT A COMMON MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE, CURRICULUM, AND GRADUATION STANDARD. The management structure of 1875 remained to this day. Running education with a locally elected school board is the same as it was in 1875. Locally, one will not get the best talent to improve education. Getting the people with elections makes it even worse. WE LIKE TO USE COMMITTEES TO MAKE DECISIONS. Committee decisions are slow and not the best. They cannot make education better. But they can say "yes" to spending millions of other people's dollars. We became the biggest spender per student globally, and we dropped in mathematics to the bottom of the industrialized countries. When you divide an organization or a country into its parts, you compromise its high-level decision-making. One does NOT make a country or an organization better that way. In antitrust rulings, as well as in military strategy, you weaken the target. But for education, this was not good news. Education departments may disagree as a defense to protect themselves and not give up anything. However, decades of experience show that state-based decisions about many things (e.g., teacher training, certification, K-12 curriculum, graduation standards are all made easier creating poorly prepared graduates). It appears that there is cheating on the tests, even by the state education department using "cut scores" and grading changes to lower pass/fail points on a test, as much as moving it from 60% correct answers to less than 340. These changes resulted in one thing: less-educated young people on whom the entire country depended. The student discipline does not exist at the right level "because the offender's parents may start a lawsuit." We do not get the best talent this way in any state, and the result is declining education taking the easy road. THE COUNTRY GETS MORE COMPLEX AS IT IS EVOLVING. SIMPLE, LOCAL MANAGEMENT CAN NO LONGER SUFFICE, AND CONSTANTLY INCREASING EXPERTISE IS NEEDED. ELECTED PEOPLE REPRESENTING "THE PEOPLE'S NEEDS AND WANTS" (SECOND HAND) DO NOT IMPROVE AND CAN BE INFLUENCED BY SPECIAL INTERESTS MORE AND MORE. JUST THINK. WHAT DO YOU OR THE PUBLIC KNOW ABOUT THE PERSON FOR WHOM YOU VOTE? WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HOW WELL HE/SHE CAN DO THE NEW JOB? WHAT HAVE PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS OR PEOPLE ACCOMPLISHED IN PUBLIC EDUCATION TO IMPROVE IT? NOTHING. WE BECAME WORSE. HOW ABOUT PEOPLE UNDER THEM? THE SAME. YET, THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE. THE BIG PROBLEM IS THAT THE SELECTION SYSTEM AT ALL LEVELS DOES NOT HAVE GOOD ENOUGH MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE IN TWO AREAS: POLITICS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION. HOW CAN WE IMPROVE IT? The first step is to recognize that setting standards (for education) in 50 different states by the same people who have to deliver it without knowing what competitors are doing and achieving cannot work. One ends up duplicating very high expenses fifty times higher than needed. It is called a conflict of interest. The schools develop and set standards for the students, who are satisfying employers, who are not satisfied. Do we need 50 deviations of standards, ONE FOR EACH STATE? NO, WE DO NOT. WE NEED ONE INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE SET OF STANDARDS. WE ARE FAR FROM IT. The same is true of any group activity if it does not have central decision making IN THE MOST IMPORTANT AREAS. TOMORROW DEPENDS ON HOW WELL WE EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN TODAY. WE ARE DOING A POOR JOB. IT MAY HAVE TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT WE ARE GAMBLING WHEN WE PLACE EDUCATION INTO THE HANDS OF INDIVIDUALLY ELECTED PEOPLE WITH EACH STATE. THE STATES NEED TO MANAGE EDUCATION TO THE STANDARDS SET BY AN EMPLOYER-DOMINATED GROUP NATIONALLY WITH FULL COMPLIANCE. IF ANY DIFFERENCE DEVELOPS IN STANDARDS AMONG THE VARIOUS STATES EDUCATION PEOPLE, THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY FOR BEING AS GOOD UNLESS ALL STATES FOLLOW THE SAME STANDARDS. WITH ANY DIFFERENCES, HOSTILITY ALSO DEVELOPS AMONG THEM. THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES OF OTHER COUNTRIES OPPOSING US CAN REALLY MAXIMIZE GOOD RESULTS FOR THEM ONLY.
We need to remember that in a competitive world, public education needs to be internationally competitive because the high school graduates feed the workforce of all industries and those industries compete internationally. Education can be good, as other countries are demonstrating it. Have we given up? Have we lost the courage to see our own mistakes? Has our public education dumbed us down? The answers are "yes."
Does an individual state's right to a totally independent complete education system produce better competitive results? No it does not. Especially with an ELECTED local board. Whenever we use the word "competitive," we mean "internationally competitive". Successful education depends on standards based on the best performing three countries in education ("competitors"), for the following:
Prospective teachers' personality matching the needs of teaching, and top 30% performance in Master's program for the subject that the candidate would teach, are very important.
Knowledge level of all subjects required for completing each grade,
Competitive graduation requirements without exception,
Confidential testing source for student results per student, and any consolidation per class, department, school and school district, state and country,
Measurable monthly objectives in GPA for classes, teachers, principals and school districts,
Management training for teachers, and all management, plus an annual A.C.T. score objective for high schools, school districts, state
Continuing education for teachers for a Master's degree in the subject they teach, AND
Teachers must be known to students as the highest authority and no penalties for students unless their teacher approves it.
Zero tolerance of discipline violators. Dismiss from school for remainder of year. It has to be harsh enough to discourage any repeats.
Reduce paperwork on teachers. Automate paperwork, testing, grading, planning academic achievement, zero-based budgeting monthly, automatic reporting on spending and GPA objective per month and year-to-date.
Our public education produces a wide variety of results by state, poor from states like Tennessee, Alaska, and many others, to better than average performance in only five states, like Massachusetts or Connecticut, based on the international competitors. With the average of all states poor, at an average ACT score of most states close to 21. ACT 21 is represented as a very good target by the state education departments to look good to the public. It represents high school subject knowledge in the 59-60% range AT BEST, which will not be an employable level even at minimum wage levels by 2024. It makes the state results very poor with only a few exceptions. Except for a few states, the results are poor. Is this costing us less? No. It costs us 50 times more to duplicate state education departments and their incomplete functions, covering all of 50 states. Another example: When your employee turnover is at a very high number, like 30% at the state department of education, it is a management problem at the top or close to the top that is causing it, unless it was planned weeks in advance with the governor in advance. Why? Because employee turnover is a very expensive thing. The minimum cost of employee turnover is the annual total cost of the employee with benefits. If the 30% represents 400 people, and the average annual salary with benefits is $60,000, the expense of that turnover is $24 million. Plus, you set back operations about a year with such a percentage of turnover that will cost you an additional $20 million if you want recovery in a year. If a state commissioner of education had good performance reasons for driving out that many employees in 1-2 years, I would believe them because the poor performance in some states indicates that education has a bigger than 400 employee problem in at least half the states. The investment per employee to test for a match to the job/profession would cost only about $500. It is a good investment to ensure a very low turnover, if any. Since the natural vocational preference is one of the last areas to develop in the brain, waiting for such a test until age 22 would be wise. Or repeat at age 22. There are groups of psychologists that provide pretesting services to avoid such problems. Our public education does not believe in many things that are appropriate management practices. But they do not oppose it. With the poor education results in many of our states and no action taken by the governors to correct public education performance, it is not a job well done. IT IS A TRAGEDY! Elected officials have to do a good job for the public after they are elected. Unfortunately, management oversight in political and education leadership does not exist. Poor results in education for our children can destroy or seriously weaken a country for takeover or bad changes.
Since we don't do some things that would ensure success, I would suggest two things urgently. Vocational matching on all teachers. It is good for all teachers because those who are not a good match to teach will find out about what other vocations they would enjoy. That could be the best advice they ever received. Second, people in education are not used to continuing education in the subject they teach. Practice it a lot, because it will be very important from now on!
Old habits die hard. The great majority of us do not like change. Some may even fear change. Both of these are basic human characteristics. BUT, change is a certainty. Education is very important to understand. In many situations, you either change or "fail." We waste much money on public education and produce results that are too low. About 75-85% of our high school graduates and about 30 million of our workforce will not be employable. WE ARE TOP SPENDERS AND BOTTOM PERFORMERS ALREADY. K-12 education opposes changing in the extreme and lies to defend itself. They go as far as claiming to provide in public "excellence for all children," being the best in mathematics in the international test when we are 37th and our public education being "world-class." Too many people believe them. Good performers do not need to manufacture good news. Their entire record is good news. About 5% of our high schools are good, 95% are not. Average 25 ACT results are no longer good enough when your INTERNATIONAL competitors are between average ACT 29 and 34 equivalent.
However, no one, not even the governor does anything about the 75-85% unemployable graduates. Our education management does not want to visit the high-performing countries in education to find out how to solve the big problems and poor results we have. This kind of evidence shows hostile interference. You must investigate, identify and get rid of what caused it. I am sorry, but a governor's life must include not only glorious honors, being the most famous person who was voted in by all those people who don't know him. He spoke about fixing our poor education when he ran for office, like his predecessors. He did nothing about it exactly like his predecessors so far. It is possible that something or someone made them afraid. It is also possible that they had no idea what to do and got scared by something. We have some large school districts that do a poor job educating our children. But they have no respect for tax dollars. For example, school district central management having too many people is very common. Not just a few more than normal. How about eight times normal for decades! Could governors keep an eye on it and correct it? They could, but they do not. 80% of high school graduates are not even ACT Ready, a very low measure. Why can't a governor keep an eye on it and correct it? We seem to be under the impression in political and education management that the manager that hires someone in politics or education does not need to know what that new employee needs to achieve, how, and why. So they hire a Ph.D. They are smart (true) and will know what to do (not true in public education). But if the hiring manager does not know what needs to be done in detail AND TO WHAT STANDARD, he/she can't even ask the right questions from the candidate during his/her interview. The locally elected school board majority decides to hire the superintendent, who needs to be managing the entire school district. The superintendent has to know a lot more than the locally elected school board does. I would think that if a new superintendent had to take advice from the elected board members who knew a lot less, it would be a huge problem. If you ask why, the answer from state education management is that "We found that the best decision-maker for a successful school to increase their results is the locally elected school board." It made sense in the late 1700s, but absolutely no sense today. I WAS TOLD AND SAW IN WRITING THIS FOOLISH STORY IN EDUCATION TEXT OFTEN that the best opinion about educational direction and performance comes from the locally elected school board. THE IDEA ORIGINATED IN THE 1800s! WHO DOES THAT TODAY? DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT WE NEED TO DO IN EDUCATION TODAY? WE ARE PERFORMING POORLY BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW AND CANNOT EVEN LEARN FROM HIGH-PERFORMING COUNTRIES WHAT TO DO. Amazing. I would really worry about today's rules of operation being so wrong. You see the worsening, poor results, but all decision-makers are on Brain Numbing (BN) injections or BN Cool Aid.
In 2023, we will see the entry of three very important technologies:
AI-based cognitive robotics that will start replacing most four-year university degree-based jobs,
Nanotechnology that will create a manufacturing revolution with major savings and a huge impact on material sciences and many other new sciences, and
Space Science will help create many other sciences and engineering fields with significant additions to physics, chemistry, antigravity engines, transportation, literally thousands of new engineering and science areas everywhere worldwide.
We Must Eliminate Things We Do That Misinform The Public Or Does Not Elevate ACT And SAT Scores. 75-85% Of Our Children Will Be Unemployable By 2025 Based On Results To Date.
2. The Logic In Using Cut Scores To Fix Failing High School Performance Makes No Sense and It Appears To Be A Form Of Cheating. We Do That In Some States.
What would we call a good, minimum ACT Readiness level to be for high school graduates to have a reasonable chance to learn a job to be employable beyond 2021 until 2031? That really depends on what the needs of employers are, and that depends on what technologies we have been using the past ten years and will use in the coming ten years. Robotics have eliminated many low end jobs and will eliminate much more with AI-driven robotics from 2023 on. Today, 75-85% of high school graduates' readiness is below 60%. WE DROPPED DOWN TOO FAR. MOST FUTURE JOBS WILL BE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING BASED. THERE WILL BE MANY NEW SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FORMING BASED ON AI DRIVEN ROBOTICS, NANOTECHNOLOGY AND SPACE SCIENCE STARTING IN 2023. THE HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULA SHOULD ALREADY REFLECT IN 2020 THAT NEED WITH 50% STEM ACT READINESS going to 80%. We are graduating from high school children now in 2020, 75-85% of whom are not even ACT READY. It is obvious that most of our state superintendents of education and the governors above them have done a very poor job in education for a very long time, beyond 3 or 4 decades. China has been the top performer in all subjects for a decade. They are also the lowest in the world in poverty. We were on top about 50 years ago. Today, we are 37th in mathematics, because teacher education did not improve, management education does not exist in public education, we have been paying one of the highest rates per student in education, and that means that we are wasting most of the money, because 75-85% of graduating students will be unemployable. That means that we are wasting in education about $350 billion per year (75-85% of $500 billion). That is a terrible and very wasteful job for decades. WE HAVE TO WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT IF WE END UP WITH A CHILD WHO IS NOT EMPLOYABLE, WE WASTED ALL THE EDUCATION SPENDING ON HIM OR HER IN SOCIAL SUPPORTING AND REHABILITATION SERVICES, WHICH IS ABOUT $150,000 PLUS THAT CHILD WILL COST US MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN THE FUTURE. No one makes up for what our public schools DECIDED not to do. For becoming a normal, employable graduate, the graduating students would have to be at average A.C.T. score of 29. That is the same as a "B minus" under the scoring system about ten years ago, the same as 80% good answers on all subjects. B minus was not a big deal ten years ago. It was possible with the old teaching methods. But if we mentioned average A.C.T. score of 29, almost everyone in public education would call that an impossibility today. We depend on our education system to do a good quality job, and to tell us the truth, especially when we are paying them one of the highest rates in the world per student, when they falsify our children's performance record to look good, when they teach them less, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DAMAGE TO OUR CHILDREN AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGE TO OUR COUNTRY? I THINK THAT WE OWE THE COUNTRY THE TRUTH! I THINK WE OWE THE PEOPLE THE TRUTH! IS THIS NOT FRAUDULENT BEHAVIOR ON THE HIGHEST SCALE WITH ENORMOUS DAMAGE TO US? WHY DID WE IGNORE IT?! WHY DID WE NOT ESTABLISH LAWS TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC?
PUBLIC EDUCATION HAS TO DELIVER MUCH MORE KNOWLEDGE TO OUR CHILDREN, ON WHOM OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE DEPENDS. HOWEVER, ONE CANNOT DELIVER WITH BORING CLASSROOMS. US EDUCATION IS IN COMPETITION WITH OTHER NATIONS WHO HAVE PASSED US. COMPETITION IS THE CREATOR OF HIGHER ADVANCEMENT AND HIGHER-QUALITY FOR ANYTHING, ANYWHERE. GOD OF INFINITE INTELLIGENCE ALSO GAVE US DIFFICULT SITUATIONS, BIG PROBLEMS TO SOLVE, AND WE CAN LEARN THE MOST FROM THOSE PROBLEMS BY SOLVING THEM. BUT SOME OF US WOULD PREFER NOT TO HAVE SUCH "OPPORTUNITIES," BUT INSTEAD JUST LEAN BACK ON THE SOFA WITH OUR MOUTH OPEN, WAITING FOR THE BEST PIZZA TO FLY RIGHT IN THERE. WE HAVE SOME THINGS TO SORT OUT IN OUR LIVES TO BECOME BETTER PEOPLE. LEARNING IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THAT. LET'S TALK ABOUT SOMETHING CALLED "CUT SCORES". IF WE WANT TO GET HIGHER GRADES IN SCHOOL BY LEARNING LESS, IT IS THE IDEAL SOLUTION FOR THOSE WHO SWALLOWED THAT LARGE PEPPERONI PIZZA WITH EXTRA CHEESE. I REGRET TO HAVE TO SAY THIS, BUT THIS IS HOW PUBLIC EDUCATION BEHAVED FOR DECADES, REFUSING TO CHANGE, AND THEY ARE ACTUALLY REGRESSING THE KNOWLEDGE OF COMING GENERATIONS.
Please go to Cut Scores, page 11, (Nedesky et al) Cut_Scores_Primer.pdf.
In the "Cut Scores Primer" we find that the use of cut scores in education is based on the following idea. "If a student has a failing grade close to the pass/fail point, there could be circumstances under which he could be passing the test." BASED ON SUCH ARGUMENT WHY DO WE HAVE THE OPTION AT STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS TO PASS CHILDREN IN ORDER TO GRADUATE NOT AT THE NORMAL 60% PASS/FAIL POINT BUT AT 30%? IN OTHER WORDS PASSING THEM AT 30% CORRECT ANSWERS ON THE STATE TEST INSTEAD OF AT 60% AS IT IS DONE NORMALLY. AND WE DO THIS BASED ON THE NEDESKY ARGUMENT THAT TRIES TO PASS A FAILING STUDENT WHO IS VERY CLOSE THE 60% PASS/FAIL POINT.THIS IS NOTHING BUT UNJUSTIFIABLE CHEATING. WHY? BECAUSE 70-85% OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE NOT EVEN ACT READY, A LOW STANDARD THAT IS EQUAL TO 60% HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE AT BEST. IT WAS GOOD ONLY FOR MINIMUM WAGE JOBS IN THE PAST. BEYOND 2023, ONLY THOSE CHILDREN WILL BE EMPLOYABLE WHO HAVE A SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS OR ENGINEERING DEGREE. FOR THESE REASONS we disagree with this logic and the use of cut scores because it is clearly an instrument for raising the number of high school graduates in order to cover up extremely poor elementary and high school performance.
When the state uses cut scores, it is circumventing the grading system to LOOK BETTER to the public, but that results IN DAMAGING THE EMPLOYABILITY OF OUR CHILDREN AND DAMAGES OUR COUNTRY AND ITS ABILITY TO SURVIVE. We are graduating the children with less knowledge than what purposefully was designed into the graduation requirements, damaging the child's ability to earn a living. THE BIG PROBLEM IS THAT OUR GRADUATION STANDARDS HAVE BEEN MUCH LOWER THAN THAT OF SEVERAL DOZEN COUNTRIES AND WE LOST SEVERAL INDUSTRIES AS A RESULT TO OTHER COUNTRIES. Such action happens only to make the school look better to the public. USING CUT SCORES AND REDUCING GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS ALONG WITH TOTALLY IGNORING VERY USEFUL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND NOT improving teacher selection and teacher education plus several other things we will cover later, instead of increasing the students' knowledge so that the child learns more and becomes employable, WE WEAKENED THE ENTIRE EDUCATION SYSTEM TO THE POINT OF BECOMING THE WORST AMONG INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS. THAT IS WHY WE HAVE A 90% GRADUATION GOAL, THAT CAN BE ACHIEVED EASILY BY PASSING CHILDREN WITH VERY LOW PASS/FAIL POINTS. AND FOR THIS POOR JOB WE PAY PUBLIC EDUCATION PER STUDENT THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF ANY COUNTRY OUR HARD-EARNED TAXES.
The probability of assuming that "a failing grade on a test is accidental" for "one who can actually pass the test" is questionable logic. It is nonsense. THOSE ARE NOT THE STUDENTS WE NEED FOR US TO BE COMPETITIVE. WE NEED THOSE WHO GRADUATE WITH THE BEST POSSIBLE GRADE, BECAUSE WE DOWNGRADED OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT MUCH. WHAT IS VERY DISTURBING IS THE FACT THAT OUR POLITICAL LEADERSHIP DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT.
The assumption that Departments of Education claim as a benefit for cut scores would be both very small and happens to be FALSE REASONING AS PRESENTED and as it is PRACTICED. In this kind of math problem to see things more clearly, you extend or increase the key variable to see where it points or where it goes.
Does any school district use cut scores to pass totally unqualified children as high school graduates? YES, THEY DO. No other country uses cut scores in elementary and high schools FOR ANYTHING, BECAUSE IT IS A FORM OF CHEATING TO NOT SHOW THE CHILD'S EXACT KNOWLEDGE. IT IS ILLEGAL IN OTHER COUNTRIES TO CHEAT WITH TEST INTERPRETATION IN SCHOOL. WHAT WE DO IS WE DROP THE 60% PASS/FAIL POINT WITH CUT SCORES AS LOW AS 27%. AND WE GRADUATE 75-85% OF THE CHILDREN WITH IT WHO WOULD OTHERWISE FAIL. THE CHILD HAS A DIPLOMA, BUT NOT WITH THE INTENDED LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE THAT GOES WITH NOT LOWERING THE PASS/FAIL POINT. SO THE CHILD GRADUATED WITH NOT ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE. EMPLOYERS COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS TO GOVERNORS FOR 20 YEARS NOW. THEY ALSO KNOW THAT SUCH A CHILD WILL NOT HAVE ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE TO DO A GOOD JOB IN ANY JOB. PEOPLE WHO DECIDE TO DO SUCH THINGS SHOULD BE IN JAIL. It is not a valid point from an employer's point of view TO EMPLOY SUCH A CHILD, SUCH A DIPLOMA WILL BE WORTH LESS THAN USED TOILET PAPER, AND THANKS TO THE STUPID DECISION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WHO DECIDED TO USE CUT SCORES IN THIS MANNER, THEY USED THIS TRICK TO MAKE MINORITY CHILDREN IN POVERTY JOBLESS FOR LIFE. Having above 60% good answers on a test when employers were always looking for EMPLOYEES with a B average (85%), or better in the past.
But in addition the logic is "bidirectional" in that it would apply also to the marginally passing student who could be a failure, such insignificant change compared to what the student will experience in real life if he/she is not educated well enough in high school
the grades given close to, and around the pass/fail point are so poor that a graduate with such low knowledge will not be employable.
About three decades ago the pass/fail point was 70% correct answers in a test. A decade or two ago, 60% of correct answers would pass the test. So in all states we adjusted the pass/fail point to the low performance instead of learning how others can keep the high performance without dropping pass/fail points. SO WE MADE THE BRILLIANT DECISION AND DROPPED THE PASS/FAIL POINT FROM 60% TO 27% IN ONE SUBJECT, ENGLISH, AND THAT ONE SUBJECT MOVE, RAISED THE TOTAL GRADUATION RATE TO THE RIGHT LEVEL TO MAKE THIS BRILLIANT ADJUSTMENT "INVISIBLE." SINCE THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS MOVE, DEFRAUDING AND HURTING MOSTLY THE POOR-TO-AVERAGE PUBLIC WITH ITS OUTCOME, SINCE THE ORGANIZATION THAT DID IT, IS DOING EVERYTHING WITH THE HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS OF THE PUBLIC. I would suggest that political management like governors and education management move very quickly to fix the public education-related problems. THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT CREATED ANOTHER THING TO HIDE THE PROBLEM. THEY CHANGED THE GRADING SYSTEM FROM FAILURE PLUS FOUR GRADES (F, plus A, B, C, D) to a THREE GRADE PLUS PASS/FAIL POINT system with the a very narrow/small, failing grade, also a very small high performing grade, and two large passing grades in the middle, with very confusing names. The person who did it must have had serious intelligence training in the CIA, most likely. The Chart I have here describes exactly what was approved by the state board of education and the governor in 2017 or 18 in Tennessee. Such an act is not to the benefit of a state, but it is for damaging its education system that will result in massive layoffs. There are many marginal students in a poorly performing education system. The real motivation is that the public education system making the graduation rate most important. THIS IS A HUGE MISTAKE. I would not be surprised if the substandard teacher selection and training is being done on purpose to create the boring class rooms 29 of which I experienced. If I did not experience them, I would never believe the students who talk about the boring classes. No wonder that so many teachers are leaving public education. The governors, with the exception of 4-5 states in the north-east since the state education departments report to them, are silent. That means that they approved it. Who benefits from such practice? Not the graduating student, because his knowledge is nowhere near enough to be employed in today's and tomorrow's environment, with major changes coming to potential employers represented by AI-Based Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science. Look at the ACT score chart for the past 20 years. We have been underperforming for more than 20 years. No wonder because increasing unmanaged performance generates the kind of results we have had for the past 20 years. You could raise that very significantly, but that would require the precise use of the technique called Management By Objectives, or MBO. But in the discussions I had and in the literature I read, there is zero evidence of American education using MBO. For that reason from a management perspective, American education does not use any management technique that would raise results, and they don't do any management training within education. They do, however, some very short programs after finishing the teacher training, a one-year Master's degree in a science as an example. A normal Master's degree in any science takes seven years, so a one-year program is far too short. Public education informed the public, making ACT 21 look like a real achievement. Do not believe such nonsense. ACT 21 represents less than 25% "ACT Readiness." That is NOT good performance. More about it later. Employers were always looking for a B average (80% or more good answers in tests) or higher in job candidates, except for minimum wage jobs. But the employment picture changed. It became more demanding in math, sciences as the years went by. Public education decided to teach less math and science when we needed a lot more. THAT IS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR OUR CHILDREN. They focus only on graduating as many children as possible. 75-85% of those who graduate with a diploma are not even ACT Ready, a low qualification. Does public education care about the education of our children? Are the people we elect responsible for it, including our governors and the president? If they were, they would insist on high enough average ACT scores above 28 as an objective. Why? Because that would mean that three-quarters of our children would graduate well enough educated. Is that good enough? I don't think so. We all have to understand that we, as a country, pay one of the highest amounts per student to public education from our hard-earned taxes and have been doing it for many decades. For that money, we get graduates who are the worst in math among the industrialized nations. This is not a friendly, professionally done teacher education that we do. But we misinform potential teachers and the public about the level of training the teacher colleges provide. It does not help our states or nation. It is destructive, and we are requesting all governors to investigate and correct this destructive situation. But governors, we found, care about other things more than education. That should be part of their objective in writing, with a reasonable A.C.T. or SAT objective that ensures at least ten years of employability. A.C.T. Readiness means that the student passed three high school benchmark subjects plus reading at an average A.C.T. score of 21 for the four benchmark subjects. A.C.T. 21 means only 59-60% subject knowledge. A.C.T. says very clearly that those who pass the four A.C.T. Ready benchmark tests have only a 50% or 75% chance to pass only four freshman-level courses in the same subject only, as what the four benchmark names were. This is not college completion readiness as public education makes the parents believe. That is all A.C.T. Readiness is. That level of knowledge was not acceptable in the past and is a lot less acceptable tomorrow. It may be your child that will become part of our fast-growing poverty! By the way, our poverty rate is the fastest growing, one of the highest in the world. Public education picked average A.C.T. 21 as an objective in many states like Tennessee twenty years ago. Do you know what percentage of our children will not be A.C.T. ready but will be getting a high school diploma? 75-84%!! Among black students, that percentage is 94%. Our country depends on about 80% of our children graduating above-average A.C.T. 28 to do well. 20-25% of our graduates come close to A.C.T. Readiness, which is not good enough. Our education performance is not even close to survival level for our country! I think we need some new laws with very serious changes to get us as a country on the right track so that we do not destroy ourselves.
We can see from the above, that cut scores with a 5% dropping of the pass/fail point from 60% to 55% would be very generous and questionable. BUT IN TENNESSEE THEY DROP IT FROM 60% TO 27%! SO THE REASON GIVEN FOR IT IS NONSENSE. THE RESULT IS A BIG INCREASE IN THOSE WHO WILL BE GRADUATED, STUDENTS, WHO ARE FAILURES IN LARGE NUMBERS.
CONCLUSION: Approximately 95% US public education is not producing good enough results, with only about 5% doing well. Families that provide a good infrastructure for their children at home can make a difference. But in both poverty and among the poor black families where there is a single parent especially, who did not finish high school, such support infrastructure does not exist. The importance of education is not as strong in such parent(s). Some other countries solve the problem with a longer education day by providing 2-3 hours of additional help in the afternoon for those children that the teachers identified during the morning sessions as needing more help. This idea is prA.C.T.iced daily and makes a big difference. We are paying the highest amount in the world per child for public education. We are not getting a good education for it. We are 37th in the world in mathematics. We are significantly overpaying for the education we receive. This is one of several areas where public education should be doing a better job, reducing the overpaid areas in their operations. In other words, improve as fast as lightning.
Our public education is far from what it should be, and the acceleration of new technologies will make almost all high school diplomas worthless. The grades used to be F, failing at and below 60% good answers on a test. 61-69% good answers was a D, but a couple of decades ago, it was also a failing grade. 70-79% good answers were a C, 80-89% good answers were a B, at and above 90% was an A grade. Straightforward system to understand. HOWEVER, WHAT EMPLOYERS ALWAYS WANTED WAS A "B" AVERAGE OR HIGHER, MEANING AN 80% KNOWLEDGE OF ALL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS AND THAT OUTLOOK HAS NOT CHANGED. BUT IN PRACTICALLY ALL SUBJECTS THERE ARE CHANGES EVERY YEAR THAT WE ARE NOT VERY GOOD AT TEACHING. Many of life's decisions are based on specific boundaries set by the country, the company where you work, your parents, your religion, your grades in school and what they mean, and so on. MOST boundaries are very important. But all boundaries need to be important and easy to understand. The old grading system was that. The new one IS very confusing, in my opinion, too complex for the great majority, AND the education system automatically sets THAT up to be both the educator and judge of how the interpretation of scores needs to work. Like all right, do a bad job, and we will pass you even if you are below the pass/fail point! Education should be delivering a good job educating, but they should not set the method of evaluating/changing the scoring/evaluation of the result. State departments of education can change it any year. Such an action makes it impossible for the parent to understand how their children are learning, how well the school is doing its business, and what is not going well at all. With the new grading method combined with using "cut scores" that lower the pass/fail point in tests, PUBLIC EDUCATION assures one of the fastest growth in poverty in the world! Does the "cut score" explanation show a lot of confusing mathematical proofs? YES. But focus only on what is happening to the pass/fail points. You will see that it only lowers it, to graduate more children who would otherwise fail, by creating a confusing grading system that makes graduation possible for children who are under-educated. And we, the people, are paying for it!! Public education lied to us for a long time and ended up teaching less and less to our children, with future technologies that will only create homelessness. It also destroys our ability to reverse poverty by educating the children from poverty well enough. Who approves the use of such systems/ideas in each state?
When each state independently decides their education standards, and policies, instead of setting them centrally by the group that needs and hires the graduating students, changing poor practices and low standards become a much bigger problem and it is expensive.
Our children's education and the country's future depends NOT on making score interpretation more tricky and difficult to graduate more children who otherwise would fail! It depends on how much our children learn. Plane and simple. Why would anyone bother to combine "cut scores" THAT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MAY CHANGE ANY YEAR TO SELECT THE SUBJECTS WHOSE PASS/FAIL POINT? THEY WANT TO DROP and simultaneously introduce a complex and confusing new grading system. Did governors approve it? Who did? It is not an A.C.T. for improving the students' education. Using "confusion" in an evaluation system about anything, like ONLY lowering pass/fail points in grading tests in selected subjects within a new, much more complex grading system, is not necessary. For that reason, its use in education then has to be bogus. It is not a measure of intent to raise knowledge for better grades. It is a method to lower the pass/fail point, as in lowering knowledge to produce higher grades. It is a method to make the school performance look good, but the student is guaranteed to become homeless. And the knowledge depends on how well they are taught in all classes that have interesting teachers. Based on what I have seen internationally, "interesting" depends on the teachers' personality, intelligence, master's-level training in the subject he/she is teaching, and his/her love and high-level knowledge of the subject they teach. The teachers' colleges offer a one-year master's degree after four years of teacher education. No one offers such teacher training among the top 30 nations in education. Only the knowledge represented by a seven-year master's degree is acceptable. Your child depends on his education to survive. Not on the grading system. Don't ask for more money for education! Ask for changes in our schools that can produce results like the best two or three countries do in education and beat their previous results! Those international high schools graduate children with an A.C.T. equivalent average of 29-34, and many of our states are below Tennessee, who average a poor 19-20. We are already paying the highest rate per student in the world. Giving more money without changing how education is doing its job will not change anything but waste more money! We are already wasting 75-85% of what we spent because we graduate that many unemployable children because they are not educated well enough to be employed in the future.
Let’s look at the new grading system we have. In 2016 we changed the grades to "Below", "Approaching", "On-track", and "Mastered" from the old scoring system "A", "B", "C", "D" and "F." WHY?! It will help if you read the illogical reason for this change. How can such a change improve the knowledge of our children? You make a smaller percentage of children fail without improving their knowledge. That's called cheating. You make a smaller percentage of children receive the highest grade. You have to read how this works. Please read the state-board-approved cut score scheme for scoring our students in 2016 at and click here to read it. Please read it. You must see this.
Is this a willful A.C.T. to help the population of the state involved with the intent to improve the children's employability? The education system appears to be hiding dangerously low performance, created to mask poor education. 1. lowering selected pass/fail points on one or more subjects to raise the grades, 2. to hide the deed with a very confusing grading system, and a benefit-explanation for it that is false. 3. It is done purely to show that "I fear this problem, I fear to take action, but I must do something for me to look good." The problem is that there is no competent oversight to make sure that such a thing does not happen. We have been delivering results where 84% of high school graduates are unemployable. Of course, those who proposed and did it and approved the work at various stages would be liable. The education system does a poor job and blames the parent in poverty or minority.
Let me repeat again. The employability of any child depends on how excellent his/her elementary and high school education is compared to the best two-three nations in education. That excellent education will not depend on changing to a confusing grading system. Excellent education also will not happen if we keep comparing ourselves to the worst regional US performance only. It will depend on comparing to the best globally, that is where we should be, and figuring out with the best non-political minds what we should be achieving each year, and learn from the best how they do it, and change!
No one is going to become better by parroting how excellent they are, when they have poor results. BUT WE DO THAT! Improvement always starts with a recognition of what and where we are. Learn from the best in the world, and improve in order of national priority for the education system, without lying to the public that pays for it.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
Is our objective to graduate from high school trainable and employable children?
Or is our objective to just graduate children even if they are not employable?
Our use of cut scores allows the state department of education to decrease the pass/fail point on one or more subjects in the state test from 60% good answers to below 30% good answers. If so, we are passing some children who would fail otherwise. Honestly...who does such a prA.C.T.ice help? NOT THE COUNTRY. NOT THE CHILD. A school system that keeps telling us that graduation is the most important thing, when they cannot even set the right minimum education level for graduation, that kind of school is the only one that benefits from a slogan like "We are graduating close to 90% of our students!!" Such schools should have a different name. 75-85% they graduate are not even A.C.T. Ready. That means that they are graduated with a high school subject knowledge below 60%. Some very far below. SUCH SCHOOLS SHOULD BE CALLED FAILURE-factORIES, AND WE SHOULD CLOSE THEM. WHAT IS THE POINT IN PAYING THE HIGHEST RATE IN THE WORLD PER STUDENT TO SCHOOL WHOSE GRADUATES ARE NOT PREPARED TO LEARN A JOB? EVER! BY THE WAY, THEY HAVE HUGE CENTRAL MANAGEMENT, AS MUCH AS TEN TIMES NORMAL SIZE, FILLED WITH FRIENDS. THE NORMAL SIZE IS 5 PLUS ONE PERCENT OF THE TOTAL EMPLOYEES.
If we lower the knowledge needed for passing on even one course, then we are lowering the entire group of high school courses' knowledge needed by the graduating students to graduate. Is that true?
Our high school graduates' performance has been low for more than two decades, to the extent that new technologies will make them unemployable as soon as 2023. Would it be better to raise the pass/fail point to ensure that we graduate children with higher subject knowledge that would make them more trainable and employable as new technologies appear?
3. A.C.T. scores and "A.C.T. Readiness." What are they?
The A.C.T. chart covering twenty years seems to show that almost all of our children do not know enough of the high school subjects. The K-12 curriculum must cover the subjects that the graduates will need to get a job and perform well in it. Even in 1970, more than 50 years ago, the graduation standard in our public high schools was much lower than in the top 15 countries in education. We are even further behind today in 2021. Knowledge level needs to be at 90% of the curriculum because our curriculum is behind the best countries' education. Like the A.C.T., SAT, PISA (international), the various tests can be converted to a "percentage of knowledge" interpretation, like a percentage scale. Suppose we convert the A.C.T., SAT, or PISA scores to a percentage of each test's maximum score. In that case, we can see approximately what percentage of subject knowledge the test score represents in the chart below, similar to any other test. For example, an average A.C.T. 21 score is the same as an SAT 1070 score, both representing a low knowledge of high school subjects that vary state-to-state as well as within some states, but the variation is always favoring lower and not higher performance. But most international high school graduates of the leading countries in education also have to pass a so-called matriculation test ON ALL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS AT THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL. That ensures a significantly higher knowledge. By not having such a test at graduation time, our children graduate high school with less knowledge because a lot of the first three years' material is forgotten by the end of high school.
On the A.C.T. chart, the black numbers are the A.C.T. scores. The red percentages below the black A.C.T. scores are the A.C.T. Readiness percentages/year in a group of graduates. LOOK AT HOW HIGH THE PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN IS FOR THOSE GRADUATES WHO ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY! They are far below the 59-61% average knowledge on four K-12 subjects only, BUT WE GRADUATED THEM. Is the A.C.T. Readiness standard too high? Or is that standard a reasonable indicator of knowledge of what employers need? It is significantly lower than what employers need. There have been quite a few meetings between employers and governors about that during the last 15 years. What is the A.C.T. College and Career Readiness? We will cover the answers below.
The state departments of education are the biggest customers of both A.C.T. and SAT tests. A.C.T. dominates the market with around 52% market share. They would not be that unless both the education organizations and the testing organizations agree about the test results. So any standards are negotiated between them. That means that the party that is failing its job will use its financial influence on the testing company to present a slightly better picture of school performance than reality is. I am not sure that this is happening, but I would investigate it. Considering the public education community's truthfulness with the public about the education they provide our children, with our public paying them the highest rates in the world per student, any behavioral analysis would show that such behavior is very likely. And it may be too modest. The parties that need well-educated high school graduates are the employers in all industries and the government. But they are not involved directly in the decisions on standards. It is a big mistake because employers who hire well-educated high school graduates, 75-85% do not even meet the low four-subject A.C.T. Readiness standard. The standards could be best defined by employers, not by education, in a situation where total expenses are guaranteed by law in public education, whose results are too low. Just a point that we wanted to make upfront. The average consolidated A.C.T. score is the average of four individual subject tests. They are each scored 1-36. Your number of correct answers in four A.C.T. tests converts to a score that ranges from 1 to 36 for each of the four tests in English, Math, Reading, and Science — and your A.C.T. "composite" score is the average of those. These four subjects are a close indicator of achievement based on A.C.T.'s correlation of scores vs. college performance after high school. We are converting the A.C.T. scores to a high school subject-knowledge percentage to show how much subject-knowledge the score represents. Each A.C.T. score point is equal to 2.78% (100% divided by 36) knowledge of the high school subjects. As an example, an average consolidated A.C.T. 21 score represents 58% subject knowledge level upon high school graduation for a single student or group of students (class, school, city, state). Knowledge levels below 80% upon graduation were not considered good enough for adequate education for income as far back as 1970. We also include in the above conversion table the SAT and the international OECD PISA test scores as a percentage. With robotic automation increasingly replacing more and more sophisticated jobs since about 2000, if someone wants a college education in mathematics, Science or Engineering, the education that will survive robotics the longest, a STEM A.C.T. Readiness with an average 29 A.C.T. score WOULD BE NECESSARY. This is only 80% knowledge of the high school subjects, but it also covers Physics, Chemistry, and Calculus THAT ARE PART OF THE HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN THE HIGH PERFORMING NATIONS IN EDUCATION and in about 5% of our high schools. Quite a few also include in the curriculum 2-4 languages, but not just a year or two in each. The students have to be fluent in foreign languages. The minimum A.C.T. score for STEM A.C.T. is 26 (44% knowledge of all STEM subjects). We are far behind them, but the top ten nations in education are between the STEM A.C.T. equivalent score of 29-34 TODAY. Our national average was an average A.C.T. score of 20.7. In 2019 TENNESSEE and to date, the state average A.C.T. score was below 20. NOT enough for any job training from 2020 onward. THE TENNESSEE GOAL WAS AN A.C.T. GOAL OF ONLY 21 SINCE 1995. We Never reached it because our education management did not understand how to use the state education departments' management tools. Most state education departments also did not understand these terms and gave the school districts the wrong advice about using them. We explain all this below. Many of the good US universities already require between 29 and 34 A.C.T. average for admission to study anything. Our public education is behind. If one talks to professors, they will tell you that today's high school graduates need two years of remedial education to start any freshman program today in any engineering or science field. Please remember that many of today's college degrees will not survive because the Artificial Intelligence programmed Cognitive Robots will be able to do a better job less expensively than we people could do. The students who want to be in a field that will survive robotics for ten or more years would need to pass 80% STEM A.C.T. Readiness at 29 average A.C.T. score or more. The surviving jobs will need to have graduate-level knowledge in mathematics, sciences, engineering, or economics. Hopefully, we will improve in many areas very quickly, and achieving that INTERNATIONAL level of knowledge will be easier than what we do today. WHEN YOU SANK AS LOW AS WE DID IN EDUCATION FOR 20 YEARS, THE CORRECT LEVEL OF TRAINING SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE WHEN YOU REMEMBER HOW BORING YOUR CLASSES WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL. THE fact IS THAT IF YOUR TEACHERS' PERSONALITY IS NOT MATCHED TO THE TEACHING PROFESSION AND IF THEIR SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IS AS LOW AS IT IS, ONE CANNOT HAVE EXCITING, FUN CLASSES. WE HAVE TOO MANY BORING CLASSES, AND NO ONE CAN EARN VERY GOOD GRADES IN SUCH A CLASS UNDER VERY DIFFICULT CONDITIONS.
A.C.T. Readiness is different. A.C.T. announced in 2006 that college entry readiness and job readiness became identical. Job readiness was lower before 2006 than college entrance. Unfortunately, A.C.T. Readiness is not communicated clearly to parents, implying readiness to get a college degree. It is important, especially for parents and school children in poverty to understand this. Our poverty rate is increasing fast. Guess why? Because we are graduating poorly educated children. The high international performers are way ahead of us. Many of them get to their good results independently of what the parent can do to help because, in poverty, most parents are not educated well enough to understand how the child is doing, and their life is terrible. The explanation they are given is that "God did not make all children college material. But your little Johnny is smart, could learn a trade job, and make enough money!" That is a terrible thing to say to such a parent. Unfortunately, that is a lie that the poor parent accepts. I spoke to African immigrant parents and other minorities in the high-performing countries and saw how well they were doing. MUCH BETTER THAN WE DO. The new governor hires a new state superintendent. Do you know how much our state education superintendents do to find out how well we are doing? They visit a class in three schools in their city, with early announcements to the school about the visit and put on a good show. They don't go to the best countries in education to find out what high performance is about and how they do it, but they spend BILLIONS of dollars annually on our education that is very poor. As a country, we spend about half trillion dollars annually on public education.
A.C.T.’s Benchmark at the end of high school for “A.C.T. Readiness” qualification is based on meeting only 4 of these individual subject scores: Math, Algebra score: 22 (61% knowledge), Science: Biology score: 23 (64% knowledge), Reading/Soc. Science: score: 22 (61% knowledge) and English Composition score: 18 (50% knowledge). Only those who pass all four subject benchmark tests are "A.C.T. Ready." According to A.C.T., the A.C.T. Ready students have only a 50% - 75% chance to pass only four first-year college-level courses in the same freshman-level subject-name ONLY, as what the A.C.T. benchmarks' subjects were. That is all that "A.C.T. readiness" is. The four specific high school subjects only qualify the student as A.C.T. ready at or above the four specified A.C.T. scores because he passed the four subjects at an average 21 A.C.T. score (representing only 58% subject knowledge). At the passing score level on all four subjects, the student has a 50% chance to pass four courses in the identical benchmark subjects but on the freshman level only. If the benchmark scores rise to the 80% level, then his chances go to 75% that he will get a passing grade only in the same four freshman courses. But most universities require a 26-34 A.C.T. average to enter. That means that A.C.T. Readiness is not the qualification you want because it is too low in 2020, even for taking basket weaving in college. It is not an indicator by A.C.T. for any other course or program or college entrance to complete entry into any job by 2023, except for domestic help. Also, A.C.T. Readiness will be raised because it is already too low for employers beyond 2020. The STEM A.C.T. definition has already been identifying the graduation knowledge level that will be necessary to be immune to robotics in the near future, hopefully for more than ten years. From 2021 on, STEM A.C.T. would be the right predictor of employability.
Of all children we graduate from high school, more than 80% are not even A.C.T. Ready in Tennessee and a number of other states. A few years ago, our schools graduated ONLY THOSE STUDENTS who passed above 60% good answers ("D" average or higher) on EVERY SINGLE HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT. Today, MORE THAN 80% of today's high school graduates with a diploma would have been failures because they can be anywhere BELOW 59-61% knowledge ON ONLY FOUR SUBJECTS called "A.C.T. Readiness benchmarks" who would not graduate under the old system we had. WE GRADUATE ABOUT 3.6 MILLION STUDENTS ANNUALLY in the US. 80% OF 3.6 MILLION IS ABOUT THREE MILLION CHILDREN WHO ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY. This was a very foolish creation by the department of state education in every state because more than 80 % of graduates do not have the knowledge to be employable - AND IT IS INCREASING! A.C.T. readiness is at such a low level of product knowledge that by 2023-2024 they will be replaced by robots as well. We will need high school graduates today who are "STEM A.C.T. ready" with an average 29 or higher average consolidated A.C.T. score (80% A.C.T. Ready). STEM A.C.T. is not only for engineering and science jobs. It should be our standard for all high schools now because it will be required for all jobs after 2024. Robots will take over the jobs that require less than STEM A.C.T. Readiness who graduate from high school. Why do we graduate them and give them a high school diploma to imply that they are ready to become self-supporting when they are not?! It is a form of lying to the parents, especially in low-income areas. "Your child has done so well that he is congratulated in a public ceremony and given a diploma!" A piece of paper called a diploma, but the child did not learn enough to get a job. We respectfully requested FOUR TIMES that our governor ask someone to explain why the education department is allowing our education system to perform this poorly. No one ever replied. Someone higher up should be asking that question, but they don't.
OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE NOT READY IN THE NUMBERS WE NEED. BETWEEN 5-10% ARE PREPARED. 90-95% ARE NOT. WE WOULD NEED MORE THAN 80% A.C.T. READY COMING OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. HOWEVER, BY 2024-2025 WE WILL NEED 80% STEM A.C.T. READy GRADUATES BECAUSE EDUCATION WILL BECOME TOTALLY DOMINATED BY MANY NEW JOBS THAT WILL REQUIRE GRADUATE LEVEL MATHEMATICS, SCIENCES, AND ECONOMICS TO SURVIVE. I wrote to governors about these problems as many as ten years ago. Seven times to some of them. And no one responded. It is time to find out why so many good, well-educated people or I made a lot of mistakes. I wrote to governors to get someone's comments if I was right or not. I paid for my investigation and domestic and international trips to the best countries in education. If I am mostly right, all of you lawmakers, politicians, and state commissioners of education, need to move fast to make some badly needed changes. You may not realize it, but in about four years' time, there will be many who will lose their jobs because our public education did not do their jobs WELL ENOUGH for decades. And please do not forget that the same people who did such a poor job at supervising the right education standards, the wasting of money instead of improving teacher training, management training, and making the right curriculum the standard for this nation, you invented your own thing or kept on doing what you did in 1875, creating "your version of excellence" for all children. Many higher-paid new jobs will be created with the new technologies, but they will require more education with focus on more advanced mathematics, sciences, engineering, economics. We, unfortunately, fell behind in the very subjects that would be a lifeline for our workforce and high school graduates, and we do not have enough time to make up for what our public schools did not do well enough. Covid-19 was an opportunity to advance K-12 education since the Internet offers incredible learning tools and makes the best teachers' and professors' classes available for a very low price. We had very poor results for a long time, with inappropriate goals that cannot work. Instead of advancing our K-12 education, we decided to make no changes to our mostly boring classrooms, and Covid-19 will become the scapegoat for our public education's inability to look at what other nations are doing who passed us. 75-96% of our high school graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready, a very modest qualification. That means that the huge percentage of high school graduates who are not A.C.T. Ready are kicked out into a much harder world with less than 50% high school subject-knowledge, with black students significantly lower figure. WHAT POSSESSED US NOT TO SOLVE THE BLACK AND WHITE PROBLEM FOR 150 YEARS? THE SOLUTION IS NOT MONEY, BUT BETTER EDUCATION FOR THEM TO GET HIGHER PAYING JOBS FOR THE FUTURE. WE ARE STILL A FEW DECADES BEHIND IN EDUCATION. OTHER NATIONS HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WERE GRADUATED WITH CALCULUS, CHEMISTRY, AND PHYSICS 50 YEARS AGO, NOT JUST ALGEBRA AND BIOLOGY AS MANY OF OUR STATES ARE DOING. I am talking about not the availability of these courses but their requirement for graduation from high school. For American public education to deteriorate this far while significantly hoodwinking the public who pay for it all is absolutely outrageous. Do our political and education leadership and school district management realize the bad decisions they are making to produce bad results with the children on whom our future depends?? I may have made some mistakes in my study of our education system, but more than 90% of public education is totally missing the boat on education and both the political and education management did not initiate any action whatsoever to improve it, that could have raised the A.C.T. and SAT scores TO WHERE THEY SHOULD BE.
Unfortunately, our public education system would never acknowledge anything that they did wrong. This is very common in poorly performing organizations. On the other hand, organizations that are doing well will be the first to tell the public if they encountered a problem, AND they will also tell you what actions they are planning to correct the problem. The elected school board is ruled by majority decisions. As a group, some of their decisions will be beyond their experience. Public education is weak in several important areas, like teacher screening and training, management training, spending BIG money on things that do not work, but by law, such expense remains in the future budgets, and the education of children suffers as a result. They like to use any event that they can blame for their own poor performance. I am certain (in January 2021) that education performance will drop this year, and Covid-19 will be blamed for their poor performance. However, we all know that homeschooling has been growing nicely for about eight years. It is well organized so that parents can select that as an option. We also know that several of our best universities, like MIT, offer an outstanding high school education program. We also know and will present you on a list below that the lectures of the best university professors are available for complete high school courses and more, and all that can be an enjoyable, fun experience for students. With Covid-19, all the needed courses were available for years, taught by much better professors than public school teachers. It seems to me that a brilliant school conversion could have taken place quickly actually to improve high school performance at a lower expense. The opportunity is there. The best materials are available. And we will find out shortly if any public school districts grabbed that opportunity not to complain but to improve. Click here about home schooling's impact on college performance. This is very important because we need to improve high school graduates' knowledge if we want them to be employable. Today most of them are not employable longer than a few years. For that reason, we need to open up immigration to more educated people. But we favor what sounds nice to those less fortunate, what we need public education that is redesigned to be the best for the future. Not only to solve today's problems but to make it an exportable product. But that will not come from the education industry. It will come from a highly innovative Artificial Intelligence company.
Do we have a few role model countries whose curriculum and teaching methods could help us improve? OF COURSE, WE HAVE SUCH COUNTRIES. WE DO NOT WANT TO LEARN AND CHANGE ANYTHING. DOES ANYONE IN EDUCATION AND POLITICAL MANAGEMENT KNOW WHAT IS NOT WORKING WELL ENOUGH AND WHY? IF WE DID, WE WOULD HAVE SEEN CHANGES MADE IN ALL AREAS THAT WE IDENTIFIED A LONG TIME AGO. When you are not doing well, the very best places for learning are the best performing countries. When you are not doing well, but you think you do, you should be replaced because you will degrade MORE AND MORE OF OUR ECONOMY. LIKE AN INFECTION. If you are not doing well and feel that your people cannot possibly do better and cannot learn more, you need a different job. The worst thing is that we do not want to learn and change. That was and is a death sentence in any activity. Do we prefer being the worst in the industrialized countries IN HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS? WE ARE, AND WE ARE NOT CHANGING ANYTHING TO CORRECT IT. Our OECD PISA Mathematics score is 478. Finland's OECD PISA Mathematics score is 507, much better, Singapore's is 569, much better. EITHER COULD BE A GREAT ROLE MODEL. For example, Finland's teacher selection, teaching methodology is exemplary. So is Singapore's management of any government activity, INCLUDING EDUCATION. They appoint the most successful business managers to head government departments. Then manage the various departments as pseudo-profit-making companies, including public education, as a service business, and it works very well. There is incredible innovation going on in education out there. On the other hand, we are the most expensive, poor performer, believe that to solve education problems, we have to hire people from the poorly-performing education system only, or education committees within lawmakers, who never passed and implemented an idea that actually raised the A.C.T. or S.A.T. scores at least 5%. We operated education poorly, without innovation, without raising our education higher with increasing A.C.T. or S.A.T. scores. But instead, we became worse, badly mismanaged, with a high teacher turnover, making mistakes as if we were trying to win a gold medal for being the worst. We lie to the public about it. This kind of behavior is the fault of the leadership to whom education reports. Our experience points to the following facts:
WE ARE GRADUATING MORE AND MORE UNQUALIFIED GRADUATES FROM HIGH SCHOOL, AT A TIME, WHEN IN 2023, ONLY A COUPLE OF YEARS AWAY, WE WILL HAVE THREE MAJOR TECHNOLOGIES ENTERING OUR ECONOMY. THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES INCREASE THE COMPETITIVENESS OF OUR EMPLOYERS ON WHOM OUR ECONOMY DEPENDS. Public education was always slow about incorporating math and science subjects to strengthen their graduates and did the opposite by graduating too many undereducated children who could not read well enough or do mental math well enough. Public education is to support the needs of employers! But that is not happening under political management. Instead, we separated education by state, creating a disorder with weak education standards that are paving the road to hell, at a time when in a few years, three new technology groups will remove most of today's jobs, and our poorly trained graduates will not be able to fill many new jobs that require a better education. Public education is to satisfy the needs of employers people!!! We have been paying our taxes the highest rates per student to the politically managed public education system!!! Have you noticed that they constantly ask for more money?? Have you noticed that no one stands up and asks them about a long list of money-wasting actions that are going on in education? Still, the mathematics knowledge of our graduates is on the bottom of the industrialized nations?? Education should be under an independent group of five or seven retired presidents of major employers. That is where all education standards need to come from, including teacher training and graduation standards, from every grade and high school.
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LEARNING FROM OTHERS, AND WE DO NEED TO IMPROVE SIGNIFICANTLY. We simply cannot do that alone. We refuse to learn from others. but our public education management, their publications participate in misinforming the public about our education results.
IN OUR OPINION, THE LARGE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT CURRICULA WE USE IN THE US, AND EACH TEST, WHEN PURCHASED, BEING A GREATER THAN $100 MILLION EXPENSE FOR EACH STATE, IS HARDLY A JUSTIFIABLE EXPENSE. WHY DOES EACH OF 50 STATES NEED SEVERAL DIFFERENT CURRICULA, STANDARDS, DIFFERENT TESTS THAT THEY CAN POSSIBLY MODIFY? IS THAT THE KEY TO GOOD EDUCATION? No. It is the key to overspending in the entire world and producing bad results simultaneously. Twenty years' results indicate "no." All states can be independent in their decisions. Still, we must have the best common standard for teacher education and certification, student testing, and high school graduation in education. We need to add to graduation requirements like pre-calculus and calculus, chemistry and physics, and 90% scores in reading and basic mathematics to enter into fifth grade. Being overeducated never created a problem. But being undereducated is about to destroy us. It reduces product competitiveness and income both to industries and companies as well as national income. Why? Because the high school graduates feed the workforce, and it is the workforce in any industry on whom product and service quality depends, including the best gross margins.
WOULD NOT BE BETTER TO HAVE ONE UNIFORM EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT IS EXCELLENT, INSTEAD OF HAVING 45 OF 50 STATES BE THE WORST IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS?
SOME OLD SYSTEMS WORKED WELL in 1875. BUT THEY DID NOT WORK WELL ENOUGH AFTER WWII, BUT WE STILL ARGUE TO HAVE IT USING THE SAME LATE 1800s ARGUMENT TO KEEP USING IT TODAY in 2021! Should we not change to a better system that provides better education for tomorrow's leaders, our students today? Yes, that is one of the things we need to eliminate to improve our poor public education!
HOW ABOUT SOLVING THE BLACK/WHITE PROBLEM! Instead of solving it, we are making it worse on both sides. That is a very good idea if you all want to destroy yourself. I do understand your anger. Our people in charge just keep throwing money at the problems. But those who spend the money spend it the same way as before. So nothing changes. And we just keep asking for more money. Is that very smart or very stupid? We are certainly not solving the problem that is growing fast, and it could destroy us all. What would it take to solve this huge problem? A good education that we have in about 5% of public schools! NOT ENOUGH. Make it as good as the top three nations in education: in 95% of our public schools! Are our top political leaders making better decisions today, compared to 40-50 years ago? Poor education already dumbed down a lot of people of ANY COLOR in 40-50 years. We allocated twice the normal amount per child in some black high schools for twenty years now. The A.C.T. score results did not improve in those schools. A lot of money was wasted. Guess what the problem is?! Our education has been getting worse for a long time, relative to the employers' needs (or technology advances). Black, white, or any color, if they are poor, they are at a disadvantage. Many are single-parent families. They do not have the support infrastructure for the child. But the children need it and find it in the streets in gangs. while we preached everywhere "excellence for all students!" Go back decades and look at the news and school documents. It does not take twice the money/student for some schools to educate our children properly, for a school that does not educate all students well. You have to raise people's income to get them to leave poverty. Good education and a good job in Science and Engineering will do that. We need an education that has teachers whose personality is a great match to the teaching profession and who come from the top 30% of a Master's program in the subject they teach in Mathematics or Science above 4th grade. We ALSO need all of them to be intolerant of bad behavior that disturbs any classroom. That is what all people, all children of any color, want. That is what all governors should have achieved, but they did not! That is what the high-performing nations do, but we do not. That is what we need for all schools instead of slogans like "excellence for all children!" Do you want to get more technical? What we need is high school students who graduated to an A.C.T. Readiness standard of 80%. That means an A.C.T. average score of 29 for a class instead of less than A.C.T. averages below 20 like today. What equals today's 80% A.C.T. Readiness, we used to have a few decades ago.
Public education organizations do a good job listing how parents and others who are not part of the school contribute to our poor performance. Should they list first the ways the public schools contribute to the poor performance of high school graduates? Then set the monthly objectives and list in the operating plan the school's actions to resolve those problems urgently. Earnings are dependent on the education one gets. We have the second-fastest-growing poverty in the world. That is the result of our children not being educated well enough to be taken out of poverty. It is time to face the fact that we do not provide good enough education to our children in about 95% of our schools. WE DESERVE MUCH BETTER EDUCATION FOR ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES PER STUDENT WE PAY IN THE WORLD. DON'T YOU AGREE?
Why is it that law makers and education management need decades or a century to remedy practices that degrade our public education's performance?
I am wondering why a cooperative attitude does not exist among the education systems of 50 states to help each other to do a much better job. Such that they could save money and make sure that curriculum is competitive (it is not) and teacher training for the subjects is up to date so that our children are employable when they graduate.
Why do we need more than one curriculum in the US? Does that increase results?
Would our education be worse than what it is if we had only one set of standard tests for all states? Administered under security so that only the unmodified test results go to the public or anyone else? It would be much less expensive. and just as effective not requiring the upkeep in each of 50 states. Any money gained could be applied to getting better grades in the classroom.
Would we become worse in education if we did not have 50 or more different school systems under different management that is not connected to the traditional public education system anywhere for anything?
Would we have a worse education system if we had only one set of high school graduation requirements that is competitive with the best two or three countries WORLDWIDE in education?
The states could retain their education independence and be in agreement on following the same standards for K-12 education that is the standard of Massachusetts, the best US state in education. However, being among the top three in the world nationally is a much safer position to keep. It is a smart choice to be guided by the best as a five-year goal and incorporate in annual plans the objectives that lead there. If you think that we use objectives IN EDUCATION, we do not. We use the graduation rate as an objective that is based on A.C.T. 21 (too low) plus the 90% graduation rate, which is state test-based that the state can manipulate to show higher grades. Eliminate the state tests' participation in graduating students, and use the annual A.C.T. objective, that would be raised more than 5% each year in all states. IT MAKES NO SENSE TO MANIPULATE THE GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS THAT ARE TWO LOW, AND HAVE A DIFFERENT GRADUATION STANDARD IN ANY STATE FROM THE REST.
The states use state tests to qualify high school students for graduation. I chose to use the A.C.T. results for analysis because of my time limitations. Slightly more than 50% of the graduating students from high school take the A.C.T., and the rest use the SAT. The northeastern states generally perform better, and they use the SAT. In terms of performance, Massachusetts and Connecticut are the best performing states in US education, at an average A.C.T. equivalent level of 26 and 25, representing 72-69% high school subject knowledge, respectively. On the international side, the top ten countries graduate all students at an A.C.T. equivalent of 29-34 average equals 81-94% high school subject knowledge. Tennessee just graduated in 2020 at a 19.4 A.C.T. average that represents 55% high school subject knowledge. We are not considering that the top ten countries in education cover more in the individual subject areas in their curricula for a diploma than we do. For example, in Mathematics, they cover subjects that we do not require for graduation, but they do, e.g., Solid Geometry, Advanced Algebra, Plane and Solid Trigonometry, Calculus. In Science, they have a year of Chemistry and Physics that uses Calculus, which we also do not have as a high school diploma requirement. The other countries also have to take an exam on all high school subjects that typically counts as half of their graduating grade. We were performing almost at the same level with high school graduates as the top internationals did in 1960. And then we started deteriorating. We are presenting a chart of the A.C.T., SAT, and PISA International scores. They have different score ranges, like 1-36 (A.C.T.), 1-1600 (SAT), and 1- 600 (PISA), so we also show each as a percentage of subject knowledge on high school subjects. The bottom chart shows the percentage interpretations. Lastly, there are two measures or standards called A.C.T. Readiness based on English, basic Algebra, Reading and Biology, and STEM A.C.T. Readiness based on the same plus Pre - Calculus Mathematics, Calculus, Chemistry and Physics in addition. We will have a rapid increase in engineering, Science, and Mathematics, with robotics replacing most of today's jobs within about five years by 2026. If we want to have a prosperous country, we must concentrate public education on STEM A.C.T. Readiness from now on. When you look at A.C.T., SAT, and PISA scores in our report, the corresponding percentage represents a percent of subject knowledge. The first reaction of today's teachers and students would see the STEM A.C.T. Readiness as an impossibility too hard. This is not true. I attended 29 classes in high schools within four states to see what the students experienced. After each class, the word I heard from students most often was "BORING." They were boring. fact: No adult or child will learn easily in a boring classroom. I noticed that the teachers' training was insufficient, and their personality was not well suited to communicate with students. Teaching is one of the most important jobs. It is a unique job. We will describe later what the important characteristics are for a high-performing teacher. But we do not pay attention to such things, but other countries do. I also found that the teacher training curriculum has deteriorated at our teaching colleges. BUT OTHER DEPARTMENTS DID NOT! And that means that most of our teachers and principals are not at fault for not delivering enough knowledge and in a well-received way. Read about it here, although the information is a little dated. High school teachers in the top ten countries in education require a Master's degree above fourth grade in the subject they teach in any subject with special emphasis on mathematics, the sciences and economics. WHY? Because at that level they can create exciting classes if they have the right personality and level of knowledge to make the subject very interesting. We do not pay enough attention to such things. The outcome is simple: children or adults will become interested if the subject is fascinating for them. Boring classes turn off students of any age. If the first course of a subject is boring, it will impact the student's decision against that subject, even if that subject would be the best fit as an ideal vocation for the student. I managed to attend and/or listen to 29 courses total in ten states in high school Math and Science. They were all boring. There were student questions that the teachers could not answer. A second major problem appeared as well. We are pushing children's leaning toward finding a "good" employment direction for them instead of raising them high enough on basics for a good foundation for the future. The brain is a very sophisticated organ. Every human being develops toward a few vocations that will be the easiest ideal vocation for them. You will be best if you enjoy your job. That is what your brain's development can ensure. That area of the brain completes its neuronal development around age 22. Pushing children early toward a vocation interferes with the natural vocational development in the brain. If in doubt, talk to a brain-specialized neurologist, exactly as I described the doctor's title. I found a problem in education that I did not see anywhere. Education management at all levels believes that they know enough of an important subject when they do not. They have good intentions, but there seems to exist a belief in education management and locally elected school boards that they have been elected or promoted because they have the knowledge to make good decisions. There is so much to learn in the coming million years. Search engines and being a fast reader comes in handy. A Ph.D. is a very good start to show one's capacity to learn. But the right experience following it will make the good decision-maker.
OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM FAILED US FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS. WE NEED A MAJOR CHANGE. THE PUBLIC PAYS A HIGH RATE FOR EDUCATION AND THEY DESERVE TO KNOW WHY THEIR CHILDREN ARE NOT EDUCATED WELL ENOUGH TO MEET THE STATE AND FEDERAL GOALS/OBJECTIVES TO EDUCATE THEM TO BE EMPLOYABLE.
SECOND, PLEASE STOP LYING TO THE PUBLIC.
IF THE EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS CANNOT COMPLY AND DO NOT RAISE THE RESULTS SIGNIFICANTLY, THEN DON'T YOU THINK THAT WE MUST CHANGE THEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE? THIS MATTER IS URGENT, BECAUSE OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN.
What is an acceptable score? It was an 80% or B- average or higher for many decades what employers were looking for. 80% A.C.T. Readiness is a 29 average A.C.T. score. Parents may say, "I don't know. I just want my kid to graduate." They were guided by public education to the idea of "graduation IS the ultimate PROOF to be ready for a good job." That means being able to buy a really fast car that your friends cannot afford, the ultimate sexy girl magnet. So he gets a job. All high school grads make about the same money. But our high school friend cannot even do a job, where you enter two numbers on two dials and press a button to start. He made a mistake with the numbers every time, although it was printed on a sheet. His coworkers were talking behind his back. He learned that people around him hated him because he was paid a little more. After two weeks, they let him go. He told his version of the story to his single mom. Mom did not finish high school. Do you understand his and his mom's side? I SAW THIS HAPPEN! WHY DID WE GRADUATE HIM ON TIME? HOW GOOD WAS THE SCHOOL TO WHICH HE WENT? DID ANYONE FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE GOVERNOR CARE ABOUT HOW GOOD THE EDUCATION SHOULD BE BEFORE WE GRADUATE CHILDREN? SOMEBODY WHO WAS A Ph.D. AT OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LAB, BLAMED THE PARENT. We did not have high school graduates THREE DECADES AGO who could not make a change from a $50 note for a $23.00 bill. It happened to me, and it was shocking. THE ELECTRIC WENT OUT IN THE STORE. CASH REGISTER OPERATORS AND A SUPERVISOR COULD NOT FIGURE OUT MY CHANGE. I HAVE NEVER SEEN PEOPLE WHOSE FACE AND EYES LOOKED "EMPTY" THAT MANY OF US SAW IN VIETNAM. I NOTED SOME NAMES AND FOUND OUT THAT THEY GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL. UNBELIEVABLE!! Or there was one who could not draw a 3 "x8" rectangle from the corner of a plywood sheet during an interview. It was shocking to meet such children. There should be no such high school graduate! None! With all the scientific advances during the last 50 years, employer needs did not decrease but increased. Unlike some others in the world, our education system set up a different grading system that is more confusing because several things changed in American K-12 education. For example, were different score ranges and names for different grades of achievement necessary to improve student performance? No, it was not important. But a confusing system that the less educated poor people do not and cannot understand, and even most well-educated parents do not understand, was not necessary. Learning more of the high school subjects was necessary, but we did not do anything about that. Yet changes like that cost millions! You will laugh, but unfortunately, we do more "knowledge modification" on the population as a science today than we did 20 years ago. Suppose education or any other political subject is in trouble. The current players cannot solve it without admission. In that case, they confuse the public because people in politics and education are afraid to ask questions for fear of appearing stupid. Disinformation theory became very important during WWII in Germany. Large Advertising Companies became masters at it. Their job is to build a very positive image for products, ideas, religions. OR DO THE OPPOSITE MASTERFULLY, TRUE OR NOT. We need education to see the real truth. But our public education became slowly worse after decades. We became much slower than other countries to bring the high school curricula to the latest technological level that employers used. Worse than that, we became lax in achieving the right level of student performance to be employable. When something declines, some of those running it, like public education, put a lot of effort into ensuring that the public believes they are better than average. The decline impacts black and Latino students the most. Some governors, to whom the state education departments report, do not seem to know what to do. Or they fear something. Most commissioners of education they pick for their state are well-credentialed but do not know what to do, or the governor disagrees with them, and they have to resign. The teachers' unions are also strong enough with well-practiced lobbying of Congress to limit what a governor can do, and such lobbying interference needs to be eliminated by law.
Education has the highest national importance. Our future depends everywhere on how well our children are educated today. If there are differences in standards within a country and they are low standards, how can that country improve? Good performance comes only with high standards, monthly measurable objectives, and an operating plan by month for the fiscal year for teachers, supervisors, and managers that require and can help a stretch in the effort. People rise to high expectations under a good manager and do well. But people ignore low expectations, and because of inattention, they miss such low objectives.
Look at the A.C.T. scores of a school district in Tennessee, the scores of the state of Tennessee, and the average A.C.T. scores for the USA over 20 years. Our 20-year A.C.T. chart shows flat performance, likely much longer, without improvement. The average student results are in an average A.C.T. area of 19-21, representing 53-58% of high school subject knowledge. That is far from enough.
Think about what kind of elected leadership talks about wanting to fix education when running for office. But does nothing about raising the A.C.T. scores when elected, and accepts such poor results, and does nothing about it. We have too many such superintendents in public education. We had even cases when a new superintendent whose job experience was not a good fit did a poor job, but for his first three years, we celebrated his presence with awards to him for nothing, public celebrations, and the newspapers calling him a MIRACLE MAKER when there was not a single good result that he created. This kind of hiring damages thousands of children's lives and will damage the country if it happens often. IT HAPPENED VERY OFTEN. THERE ARE SCHOOL DISTRICTS THAT COULD NEVER HIRE THE RIGHT SUPERINTENDENT. No doubt, such lack of proper education and experience, not just can but will cause great damage to the country.
Why is it that our public education employees purposefully avoid visiting high-performing US and international school systems to learn? Then compare it to poor-performing states in the USA that targeted only low performance. THE GOVERNORS AND THEIR APPOINTED COMMISSIONERS OF EDUCATION DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT CORRECTING THE BEHAVIORS THAT CREATE THE LOW PERFORMANCE.
Regretfully, our first conclusion has to be that our public education's performance has been very poor for twenty years, AND most likely much longer.
4. One Of Public Education's Biggest Mistakes Is Focusing On Two "Objectives" That Do Not Work.
The A.C.T. 21 Objective Is Too Low To Be Motivating And 90% Graduation Rate That Can Be Manipulated In State Tests Are The Goals/Objectives.Objectives are to focus all managers and supervisors on what they have achieve in a month or in a fiscal year. Goals are what an organization or group wants to achieve in an extended period like five years. Both has to be based on a measurable key indicator of success or failure, like an A.C.T. or SAT score. Monthly objectives in education are measured by the Grade Point Average or GPA. The objective must be backed up by an Operating Plan. In its simplest form, the operating plan would specify the individual monthly and annual objectives of each manager and supervisor, and the actions to be completed by a specific date to meet a specific objective.
Achieving an A.C.T. 21 average results is too low and cannot motivate. A "90% graduation rate" is an invitation to cheat. And cheating they do under the "cut scores" name, where one or more subjects pass/fail points are dropped from 60% good answers to as much as 30%, graduating many children who would otherwise fail. Both are damaging to our children's and nation's education, but especially those in our fast-growing poverty, understand only that "little Johnny graduated and now he can get a job." Any such action is taking advantage of less education and comprehension in the poor population, punishing children of poverty for being unemployed, when the real solution to poverty is education to become employable. Unfortunately, similar methods were used, with poor performance in boring classes. It must have been created by very smart education and political leadership who are following a directive to destroy us as a country. When you look at all the mistakes that have been very cleverly and slowly done so that they go unnoticed, and if you attended the War College of our military, you will recognize a few very well developed long term strategies to do just that.
We had an A.C.T. 21 objective in Tennessee for close to twenty years and we were about 5% under it every time. Why can't people achieve an objective that is only 5% higher in a poor SCORE area that represents less than 60% subject knowledge? They cannot REACH-IT because they do not change the way they focus at work based on the right annual and monthly objectives. The schools never had any objectives and related monthly operating plans, and having them will make a huge difference in performance. Our PEOPLE ARE NOT FOCUSED. Teacher PERSONALITY qualification measurement before their training does not exist. Teacher training is too weak compared to the teacher candidates' and employers' expectations, and management know-how is unknown in education. THE HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM IS TOO WEAK IN MATH AND SCIENCE. WHAT IS MOST INTERESTING IS THAT WE NEVER OPERATED THE SCHOOLS, AND THEY PRODUCE THE RESULTS, UNDER MANAGEMENT TOOLS THAT COULD DELIVER FAR BETTER RESULTS! Politicians never had to learn how to interview a candidate who is selling himself or herself. Hence, they build a fast, unwieldy organization that is not trained, managed, AND performs well. Otherwise, we would be averaging close to 29 A.C.T. (same as 80% A.C.T. Readiness) where we should be.
I attended 29 classes in high school math and science. No governor or commissioner of education has ever done even half that. The word I heard students using most often after every single class I attended was "boring." I can tell you this: all 29 that I attended were boring. There is no adult or child that will develop an interest in any subject whose presentation is boring in the first course of the subject. But the teacher is not responsible for it. They were accepted into training as is. The damage is that a young student can be completely turned off about his/her first class about a subject for life, when that subject may be the best fit for him/her for life. When you do not change the way you work and do not use the management tools properly, the results cannot improve. So after a few years, the thinking is that we cannot possibly do better. They are right. They cannot do better without changing the way they think and work. People are not motivated by low objectives like an average A.C.T. 21 score is. People rise to high expectations! Hence the ten percent growth on A.C.T.'s prior result is far from impossible. Just look at the A.C.T. chart covering 20 years. Both of these performance measurements were and are not successful. The results are not good. A.C.T. 21 average score represents less than 25% A.C.T. Readiness that is a very low standard. We will explain this below. Too low for motivation for the technological acceleration starts with ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE-based Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology and Space Science in 2023 and keeps accelerating in the future with major changes. Employers need the changing technologies to be competitive. There have been many meetings between governors and major employers about updating the curricula because the state education systems are not doing it. Our public education is already behind because of the low A.C.T. 21 objective.
Of those that use it, MOST STATES TOTALLY IGNORE THE A.C.T. OBJECTIVE. In the lower performing states like Tennessee, 84% of the high school graduates are not meeting either A.C.T. 21 as a standard or A.C.T. Readiness, a standard that is about the same as an A.C.T. 21 score. We need an A.C.T. objective TO BE COMPETITIVE, and that means 80% A.C.T. READINESS, and that is achieved at A.C.T. score 29. THAT IS WHAT EMPLOYERS NEED. THAT IS WHAT CHILDREN WHO GRADUATE TODAY NEED WHO WANT TO BE EMPLOYABLE FOR FIVE YEARS OR MORE. That is what the top international performers achieve at a minimum. Things have changed out there and are moving much faster than we think. But public education did not and does not. Public education refuses to go where employers need them. Public education refuses to change to become competitive in curriculum and knowledge with the graduates of the best three nations in education. Public education does tell us that they are the best. On our planet, they are on the bottom of the industrialized nations in mathematics. But they spend the most money per child. It appears that governors have not been able to improve them. It takes a small amount of courage only to do the right thing. Our leaders just do not have it anymore. It appears that public education needs to report to a group of senior retired vice presidents of employers. More than twenty years of evidence shows that the way they are managed is not producing the right results.
As we mentioned above, A.C.T. 21 is a low score, and such a child would not be employable unless he has a native professional talent for example, in music, that by itself would guarantee his employment. I would like to mention also that low objectives do not produce good results. People do not pay attention to them. It is too easy to slip back to old work habits. But objectives that are a healthy stretch, like 10% higher than the prior year's actual result for a state like Tennessee, can do magic. The average A.C.T. score was only 19.4 in 2020. People tend to produce good results because people rise to high expectations.
An objective is a quantifiable academic achievement, the A.C.T. or SAT score itself, depending on what your state uses, that cannot be changed by the state education system directly or indirectly. But something can be treated exactly like an objective, but the organization may not name it as an objective. For legal reasons, demand the right score with the right name, which is "objective." In poorly performing organizations, one can find many silly games to avoid responsibility. One has to be very clear and very firm, and fair. An objective must be a measurable key indicator of success or failure, and the number associated with an objective will always represent not failure but higher than past performance.
EDUCATION MUST SATISFY WHAT EMPLOYERS NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL. EMPLOYERS COMPETE WORLDWIDE. THAT MEANS THAT OUR EDUCATION RESULT, A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE MUST BE AS WELL PREPARED AS THE AVERAGE GRADUATE OF THE TOP THREE NATIONS IN EDUCATION. THEY ARE PERFORMING BETWEEN THE EQUIVALENT AVERAGE A.C.T. 29 AND 34. NOT STRUGGLING UNDER AVERAGE A.C.T. 20 AS WE DO! An objective has to be a measurement that cannot be falsified or altered by an education organization that shows better results or grades because the pass/fail point in one or more subjects during a test was lowered to show better results. Some states use this method, and it is called "cut scores" applied to their state tests, that is fully accessible for any change by the state's department of education. If they did not, they could do that. The state test scores, like any annual test, are presented at the end of the school year. That puts enormous pressure on the teachers to pass and graduate as many children as possible who would otherwise fail. But today's children need higher performance to be employable in advanced mathematics and science-dominated future. Artificial intelligence-based cognitive robotics will start replacing 2023-2024 most of today's college-educated jobs. For these reasons, any academic objective for high schools should be based only on the A.C.T. or SAT tests, whichever the state uses.
The purpose of objectives is to focus all school employees on the jobs to be done well enough, minimum, to achieve the organization's objective. An annual objective works well in an organization that has performed well for 3 years minimum after one reaches the end goal. However, it is not enough for a poorly performing organization, like POOR PUBLIC EDUCATION for two decades or more. If a state wants improving results that PRODUCE EMPLOYABLE CHILDREN, it must have an A.C.T. or SAT score annual objective, and it MUST BE 10% higher than the A.C.T. or SAT result was for the prior year. But in addition, because of low performance for decades, there must also be a monthly Grade Point Average, or GPA objective TO REINFORCE THE CHANGE, but measured year-to-date monthly and at year-end. the GPA monthly objective should be running 10% higher than it did the previous year, if it was present then, to match with the A.C.T. objective at year-end. It sounds like a lot but this is how behavior modification works. After a few years it will become an automatic effort. Remember that two decades or more of bad habits put you into an automatic mode to keep repeating the same habits, work or other habits.
WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO? Monthly and annual objectives, as well as a FIVE-YEAR GOAL, need to be measurable key indicators of success or failure in the fifth year. A goal, when used to achieve a long-term target, also needs to be achieved or exceeded typically WITHIN 5 years. Its purpose is to take the necessary steps every year between the objective and the goal to exceed both. Your ultimate objective needs to be initially average A.C.T. 29, that you shifted to STEM A.C.T. 29 within 2-3 years with curriculum and graduation requirements also increased to two years of Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics within four years of the start. Our schools are hard work because we operate with very old standards AND HABITS. Obviously, we will need management training for all teachers and managers in the schools first. You do not believe me yet because any change looks terrible when you never changed enough. Many other countries did it and are doing it. We are not inferior in any way, except for the two big problems we have. Any big problem one can solve by breaking the problem up into its components, and learning how to meditate, how to learn, and using the best tutorials, and best professors' lectures on the Internet that cover 1-2 years of the subject if done in one-hour lectures typically of 80-120 hours total. You will be doing what you cannot believe you can learn because you used very old methods. Fear is the only thing you have to overcome.
You are going to overcome the fear that you will have in the beginning because without the problem created by our education system is not a good indicator, and without it, you will be homeless. THIS IS VERY SERIOUS AND NECESSARY TO BE READY INSTEAD OF HOMELESS. YES, YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU THINK AT FIRST, TO BE IMPOSSIBLE. YOU MAY NOT THINK SO AT FIRST. BUT IF YOU CANNOT ACCEPT THAT WHEN MILLIONS HAVE DONE IT, YOU WILL BE HOMELESS. TRYING VERY HARD MADE MANY PEOPLE EXTREMELY WEALTHY. FEAR AND DRUGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL NOT SO FEARFUL, TO OVERCOME YOUR BELIEF THAT YOU CANNOT DO SOMETHING, WILL DEFINITELY PUT YOU INTO POVERTY AND A BAD LIVE. YOUR CHOICE. SO MAKE A DECISION!
The A.C.T. scores have not been improving because the people at every level in our education system keep doing everything the same way as decades ago. NOTHING IMPROVES WITHOUT CHANGING THE WAY EVERYONE IS FOCUSED AND THE WAY THEY WORK. ONE NEEDS MONTHLY AND ANNUAL OBJECTIVES AND AN ANNUAL OPERATING PLAN ON ALL MANAGEMENT, SUPERVISORS, AND TEACHERS. THE MANAGEMENT METHOD, CALLED MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES, WORKS VERY WELL FOR RECOVERY OR HIGH GROWTH, BUT ONLY IF FOLLOWED AS DESCRIBED. The results were poor because there was no management action in a systematic way every week and month to achieve it. That means no gathering of the needed facts, no realization that education must track new technologies as they are used by employers, no survey of what employers' needs were, and who the education competition was, and how they were performing compared to us. Some gathered data changed to make us look better - which we do to this day and lie to the public - and exactly what we have to do to make our education competitive. THIS IS JUST A START, AND WE CANNOT EVEN DO THIS MUCH TODAY WITHOUT LYING TO OURSELVES. THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR MAKES PLANNING IMPOSSIBLE AND THAT IN TURN MAKES EVERYTHING IN SUBSEQUENT actions POORLY EXECUTED AND HARMFUL TO US. THAT IS WHAT A POORLY PREPARED EDUCATION PLAN IS DOING TO US AS A COUNTRY TO THIS DAY TO VARYING DEGREES, WITH A FEW HIGHER PERFORMING STATES, AND THE MAJORITY OF STATES DOING A VERY GOOD JOB TO DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY ECONOMICALLY.
THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON HOW WELL WE EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN. SO...HOW ARE WE DOING? I KNOW THAT WE COULD LIE ABOUT THAT BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN LYING ABOUT EDUCATION TO THE PUBLIC FOR DECADES. I, LIKE OTHERS, HAD NO IDEA HOW BAD OUR EDUCATION BECAME UNTIL I SPENT EIGHT YEARS TO INVESTIGATE PUBLIC EDUCATION. I WROTE A LETTER TO SEVERAL GOVERNORS AND 4 TIMES TO TENNESSEE'S CURRENT GOVERNOR ABOUT THE EDUCATION PROBLEM IN 2019. HE NEVER RESPONDED TO MY QUESTIONS, AND NO ONE ELSE RESPONDED FOR HIM EITHER. He called for an urgent Tennessee congressional meeting for January 2021 to discuss our education in Tennessee. A SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IS NEEDED, AND IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT THEY WILL KEEP USING THE CORRUPTED GRADUATION RATE THAT GUARANTEES UNEMPLOYMENT FOR MOST CHILDREN. What should be a huge concern for everyone in our nation is that no one else in leadership noticed these huge destructive problems IN PUBLIC EDUCATION far too long. We paid them huge salaries and blown trillions of dollars on poorly educating our children. I did my investigation in the US and other countries over an eight-year period at my expense because I love our country, and I do not even get an answer from governors. Has our public education dumbed us down so much, including our leadership? I hope not, but I don't know. The most important thing in all this is not lying to ourselves and the public who pay for their children's education through taxes at one of the world's highest rates.
We are paying one of the top five highest rates worldwide per student in public education. But our public education in most states and the average for the US is one of the worst in the industrialized countries. For example, we are 37th in mathematics. That kind of performance is not good enough for employment after 2023. The new technologies coming in 2023 will replace even most of the four-year college degreed jobs with AI-based cognitive robotics, with 24/7 production, nanometer tolerances, and significantly higher quality, and at typically less than 50% lower cost than what we are capable of doing in 2021. Our education system was degraded so much since 1970 that most people today have no idea of technological trends AND their impact on society even two months ahead, let alone a few years. Education takes years. But because of the decline of our K-12 education, these events will be a great unpleasant surprise to most of our population, but more importantly for the political and public education leadership who does not appear to have enough interest and knowledge that an important part of their job requires.
Why are we not among the top five countries in education worldwide? We are spending one of the highest rates per student in the world, and we are at the bottom of the industrialized countries in math. Why are we asking for more money every year for education? People who have no idea what the problems are always asking for more money.
Establish a limit on the size of central management for school districts: 2% of total full-time school district employees, plus 4 (four) full time employees is very generous. Subcontract food service, accounting and finance, communications to the public, and human resources and a forensic audit once every five years is badly needed.
We pay the income of all people and leadership in politics and public education. For all that, 75-96% of our children we graduate from high school are not even A.C.T. Ready?! Not A.C.T. Ready means that 75-96% graduated with less than 60% knowledge of three high school benchmark subjects plus a reading benchmark test. Raise the required minimum grades higher for prerequisite subjects to 70% knowledge level for all mathematics and sciences. Why do we graduate children who cannot read? Or don't know basic math? Why do we teach only reading and writing with BLOCK LETTERS? Are you expecting the boss of your graduate when he gets a job to write only block letters when sending a note to his employee?? BECAUSE OUR STANDARDS ARE THAT LOW. HOW ABOUT HAVING A STANDARD FOR COMPLETING EACH GRADE? THOSE WHO CANNOT MEET ANY OF THE GRADE STANDARDS ARE NOT PROMOTED TO THE NEXT GRADE. STOP DOING FAVORS FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! WE MUST LEARN TO EDUCATE MUCH BETTER!
Why do we graduate children who cannot even fill out a job application, cannot read, cannot do basic math?
And to make it really bad, we have the historical black/white problem. WE DID NOTHING TO SOLVE IT IN MORE THAN 100 YEARS! THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION IS A GOOD EDUCATION THAT TAKES POOR PEOPLE OUT OF POVERTY. BUT WE ARE NOT CAPABLE OF CREATING A GOOD K-12 PUBLIC EDUCATION THAT OTHER NATIONS HAVE DONE. THERE ARE A FEW REASONS FOR THIS:
We have people heading the state education departments who have no idea why our performance is so bad, reporting to people who seem to have no idea what needs to be done to improve education. But they are well mannered. They hunk the horn first before they hit a tree. They don't answer questions about education. In 1970 about 50 years ago, we started increasing the education budget, but the results did not improve. We must have had a few thousand governors in the 50 states since then. Let me say again that the expenses were skyrocketing, but the poor results went nowhere. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE GOVERNOR WHO STOOD UP AND SAID: "WE ARE GOING TO STOP THE EXPENSE INCREASES UNTIL PUBLIC EDUCATION FIGURES OUT WHY THE RESULTS ARE STAYING TOO LOW. First, we would like to see a plan of measurable actions prepared by a special group of retired CEOs or Presidents of large employers who have more than 10,000 employees.
Teachers are good people. They assumed that teacher training was up to date when it was not. Or their certification was not up to date. Or they were not the right personality for the real classroom and the bad behaviors without the teacher having the real authority to deal with it.. Or they were moved to teach a subject in which they had no training. Or the subject training was not good enough. They needed to know more to not only be able to answer student questions but to make the class interesting, exciting instead of boring, which happens to be common. Both education and political management had no management training. As a result, for most teachers and principals, the environment is not pleasant. The elected school boards do not have enough education in the skills that are needed to succeed as a school, fully manage what they are to do, and the teacher turnover rate is very high. AND...THEY...TEACH...LESS...AND...LESS...AND IF THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH, THEY...FABRICATE... "factS"...FOR...THE...PUBLIC...ABOUT ...HOW...WELL...THEY...ARE...DOING. THE PUBLIC PAYS FOR THIS EDUCATION WITH ITS HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS, ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES PER CHILD IN THE WORLD. THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF SYSTEM WE NEED FOR EDUCATION!
It takes good education and serious commitment to solve such problems, not like our public education, but very good education that is competitive with the three best nations in education. It is the only way children can leave poverty behind. IS IT NOT OBVIOUS ENOUGH YET THAT OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION STANDARDS ARE VERY POOR? IT CANNOT BE ACCIDENTAL BECAUSE NO ONE COULD POSSIBLY DO SUCH A THING IN THEIR RIGHT MIND. PLEASE JUST THINK ABOUT THIS. WHAT COULD BE THE MENTAL STATE OF THE POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP IN ALMOST EVERY STATE, WHO WOULD DO SOMETHING THIS DESTRUCTIVE "ACCIDENTALLY" TO OUR COUNTRY AND DO IT SO WELL THAT 75-96% OF THE GRADUATING CHILDREN ARE UNEMPLOYABLE? PLEASE, LET ME EXPLAIN TO YOU WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE, AND TAKE IT VERY SERIOUSLY.
This cannot be the A.C.T. of mentally deranged, low IQ people. THIS IS NOT ACCIDENTAL. THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE, FROM SCHOOLS AND ABOVE ARE MUCH SMARTER. BIT IT CAN COME FROM MUCH HIGHER ABOVE. When one looks at the politics and education policies, we find some interesting things. Some were kept for more than 100 years that are justified with impossible, incorrect statements. They are also supported with well organized misleading statements to the public and unnatural behaviors, creating slow deterioration that the public would not notice, and part (unions) of the organization has developed a well functioning congressional lobbying operation to fight any change in the OUTSTANDING EFFORT to dumb down the population, except for the wealthy, whose children go to private schools. But no one, not even one governor, ensured the public schools' improvement of education over the years to raise the A.C.T. and SAT scores. This opens the possibility to these actions having been established during the 1800s with the sole purpose to create and control education. LET ME SHOW YOU ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE OUT OF MANY. 150 years ago, agriculture was the single dominant industry, done by individual towns with advice only from the local village people who knew very well what agriculture and its farms require. The education was managed by the local people, like a school board who understood very well the farmers problems and what they needed. They were not the smartest, best educated people in the country, but they were perfect for what the local school and the farmers needed, to educate the farmers' children, so that they return to the family farm better educated. It was perfect. But today, we have hundreds or thousands of industries, and they need employees not only at the home base, but in many other places, including in other countries. Many of these industries have very complicated technical products, that must meet the requirements of many countries, in many technological areas. Where is the expertise to make sure that all their offices can service the products in various countries in various laws and languages? Much more complex situation, requiring much more smart people that they find only at headquarters, because the the smartness and knowledge required by the US company that has to win against other companies' products will not find the qualifications at the local offices/school districts to win. Therefore they need only one place where a central team would be based to decide about future direction, to do well in business. For the same reason, a company or school system optimizing its products and services locally based on an elected local school district board, as the best decision, is absolutely false for two reasons. One is because you will NEVER get the best advice locally. You need the best single team for that, and you should use the best single team, that you find centrally. Second, it is too expensive to introduce the most effective advice for any activity at fifty different places. You spend a lot more money for the worst advice and that is why our state results vary all over the place, and the school district results vary all over as well. I will give you a third reason for a bonus! Elections do not give you the best result and therefore the best advice for your schools. Just think about how well we know people we vote for and what we need that they do! We have no idea is the truth. There wasn't a single one who kept their promise about education. We do not know the people we vote for. What I am telling you is the following. Teachers and principals are hoodwinked by public education as much as we the public. Local board advice was increasingly not useful for a hundred years. Teacher training was not good enough, and the education system became more complex during the same period. We did not do anything other to improve it than spend the most of any country per student. Obviously a lot of it was wasteful. We are talking billions. We must change a lot of things in education for the better. I wonder how far we had been dumbed down as a result. Why would anyone do that? Because they are your enemy. Because they want to control your decisions. Because they want to control the votes. And even our leaders do not realize it. Unless someone explains.
Why is it that Congress and most state leadership cannot solve such problem, but make excuses for it?
I am not for any group. I am an American who immigrated here from hell. There is no possibility for employment for the great majority of children with the technological acceleration we are experiencing! Most, if not all who read this, were made to believe that all children graduate employment ready.
Why is it that no one is standing up and screaming about the fraudulent action that our bad public education is doing in most states?
This is why our poverty is growing at one of the highest rates in the world! If we do not stand up and become very loud about this problem, we will not make it as a country. It is time to realize that our future as a country depends on the excellent education of at least 80% of our children.
Why did the government itself choose to deliver education so poorly that more of our children will be unemployed? Many tens of millions of our workforce will become unemployed practically overnight because of the poor education that they received? Education at all levels as well as political operations and management are generally dominated by employees who did not come from a large company's management structure with a thousand employees or more, but from small organizations where they supervised less than 100 people. The method of management I am describing to you works very well, but it must be followed exactly, as I am describing the definitions and steps right here. The public education organization is like a large organization that needs large organization management training and EXPERIENCE. The problem is that most people think that a successful manager is created by promoting a good employee to a management position.
But without management training, the large education organization performs badly because its leaders do not recognize the importance of management science know-how, and such people cannot recognize management problems and cannot solve what they cannot recognize. That makes general management training very important in education organizations. If one does not have it, that person will not improve anything, exactly for lack of management training and experience. And please do not have such training be organized by the education department of a university. Such a program needs to be organized and conducted by the graduate school of management at a university. The education organizations use management terms, but they ignore the precise definitions that make them work.
Measuring performance in the schools, such as GPA per class and per teacher, per principal and per school, per district and per superintendent, is vitally important. That is the only indicator that shows what areas are doing well and/or need help AND exactly WHERE. We did not measure the results of public education's "operating units" or schools in education in the past down to the level where the actual education happens, and that needs urgent remedy. One does not know enough to see what actions are needed to fix the most important performance problem unless you know the teachers' performance level and STUDENTS in every class. Four one-hour observations of a teacher do nothing for you. You as a manager need to know all that in detail TO FIND OUT HOW TO HELP THE TEACHER IMPROVE. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT ACTION HERE IS "TO HELP THE TEACHER TO BECOME BETTER, AND TO ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS BY WORKING SMARTER, MORE EFFECTIVELY. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY MANAGER. IF EITHER ANY MANAGER OR TEACHER ABUSES THEIR OWN POSITION, e.g., USING SEXUAL HARASSMENT THAT COULD BE PRESENT BOTH ON THE MANAGER'S OR EMPLOYEE'S SIDE, YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE FIRED. Anyone can disagree with me. But how can anyone disagree with twenty years of A.C.T. results being poor and the fact that public education like we had is far from good enough for our children's employability and for our nation's success? I do not believe that any of us would want that. WE NEED URGENT ACTIONS TO SOLVE SUCH PROBLEMS PROBLEM.
The monthly (GPA) and annual (A.C.T.) objectives that I describe are necessary to allow all supervisors and managers to focus on meeting a monthly objective, using the GPA increase over the previous year, AND to achieve a badly needed A.C.T. evidence to improve urgently. We need monthly focus to deliver an annual objective ESPECIALLY IN ORGANIZATIONS THAT PERFORMED POORLY FOR YEARS. Obviously, a long, poorly performing organization will not want to be measured because they never worked under management that knew how to deliver good performance. Please remember that they all worked hard but not focused in a specific way toward the same goal. It is understandable that never working in a management-focused way, they do not see the value of management by objectives. After using the new method exactly for a couple of years, the results will be surprising and good. Unfortunately, that is what we don't do. When I look at how public education in a state plans the coming school year, a massive set of instructions go out to the school districts to find out what they can do. Many hundreds of people get involved filling out forms based on what they have done, and their judgment is limited by past experiences and impossibility thinking ABOUT MUCH HIGHER PERFORMANCE. No one wants to fail. This is a conditioned human reaction after five years of producing poor results, let alone after twenty years or more. The confidence levels are low. Unfortunately, such people fear doing anything differently. They do not even want to visit the highest performing countries in education to learn why they can do much better.
There is a Buddhist saying that is very true: "The mind is everything. What you think, you become." MEMORIZE THIS. Part of that is the fact that what you think is improved ONLY by what you learn both in school and in life. IN THIS CASE, IMPOSSIBILITY THINKING IS DRIVING SUCH PEOPLE NOT TO LEARN FROM OTHERS. REMEMBER THAT THE TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS DID NOT CREATE THAT THINKING. IT WAS THEIR POOR TRAINING, THE LACK OF GOOD, WELL TRAINED MANAGEMENT, AND AN UNTRAINED ELECTED LOCAL MANAGEMENT PUT THEM INTO A BUBBLE THAT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO SURVIVE. What I described to this point about PLANNING the upcoming year is a bottoms-up approach in education, and people may or may not agree with it, but let's assume that it is true. Or read it right here. To plan future performance, one needs precise historical numbers. One needs to know where the top 2-3 competitors stand compared to you and what methods they are using to decide what areas one has to improve what changes in results a well-executed operating plan will bring. Then you need both monthly and annual measurable national test objectives, not only for the entire organization but for each school, and all supervisors, managers, all teachers with individual operating plans that list all their monthly objectives for the year. You need impeccable logic and know-how and no guessing. That way, one can correct a problem that shows in most months to meet the annual objective. Education management has an unusually high number of Master's and Ph.D. degrees in education. However, teacher training at all levels became weaker and weaker with time, even with advanced degrees. But very strangely, other degree programs did not decline at the universities. High-performing countries in education select potential teachers based on how good their personality matches teaching, and they are hired from the top 30% of Master's degree graduates. A few countries where teacher performance and reputation is the highest hire potential teachers from the top 10% of Master's programs in the subject that they would teach. IN ALL COUNTRIES, THE good teacher reputation rose 2-3 years after the excellent results were created. Our teachers are not trained well. They went into teaching with good intent trusting the training and certification. Look at the teacher turnover! And then put 2+2 together. And you get the wrong number! Education management quotes the high satisfaction survey ratings, and no one tells you that multiple-choice satisfaction surveys do not work in a place that has average or bad morale. THE HIGH TURNOVER OF TEACHERS HOWEVER IS ALWAYS A HIGH INDICATOR OF BAD MORALE.
The conclusion is that the 90% graduation rate "objective" is simply a method that gives the false appearance to the public of graduating fully qualified students based on the state test. The Department of Education of a state can modify to lower the test's passing point on one or more subjects and can select such subject(s) for "dumbing down" annually. Any test that the state education employees can modify can falsify children's testing results and not indicate educational achievement in public education to anyone. On the other hand, the A.C.T. or SAT scores cannot be changed by the public education system in any state, it has never been dumbed down to produce higher scores, and it would be the appropriate indicator of what children learned from grade one to twelve. But the national tests are annual and cannot be changed by the education organization to show "better results." WE RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT THE GRADUATION RATE NOT BE USED FOR ANY PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IF IT USES THE STATE TEST RESULTS FOR DECISION MAKING. IN SIMPLE ENGLISH, STOP USING THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE FOR AWARDING DIPLOMAS WHEN ANY GRADUATING STUDENT FROM HIGH SCHOOL HAVE NOT EVEN MATCHED A.C.T. READINESS, WHICH IS A VERY LOW-PERFORMANCE MEASURE. 80% OF THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES IN SOME STATES LIKE TENNESSEE ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY. SUCH CHILDREN ARE NOT GOING TO BE EMPLOYABLE LONGER THAN A HANDFUL OF YEARS AT MINIMUM WAGE. IT IS A TRAVESTY TO HAVE SUCH POORLY QUALIFIED HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES FOR THE MONEY THAT WE ARE PAYING FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR OUR HARD-EARNED TAXES. Not a single child should be graduated who is not even A.C.T. Ready.
Did not raise the low A.C.T. scores. It also did not and does not work because it is not a key indicator of high school performance, AND
A graduation rate cannot be an objective, especially in an environment that has not been performing well. Under such circumstances, the temptation is too high not to show a poor grade but to lower the pass/fail point to produce a passing score, and graduate children, who otherwise would fail. The biggest target for such manipulation is the children in poverty. If the parent has a limited education, they may not understand the details of A.C.T. performance, the new grade names, and the new grade score range, but they will understand the fact that "My little Jimmy graduated." I want to remind you, the readers, that the black and white problem that we allowed to fester for longer than 100 years is a very dangerous thing. We always throw money at a problem in education. It never works! Because the money will be spent exactly the same way as before, changing nothing. What needs change is how we treat people, how we teach, how we treat students, and how we work to improve results. The most important thing in solving this problem is better education FOR ALL CHILDREN, to allow all these children to understand problems and solve them, and to create the opportunity for a better job. We have to understand that children in poverty are not able to have a good parental support system. The single parent generally does not have enough education and time to do all things that normal, well-to-do parents can offer. However, to start reversing poverty, you must provide help to educate the children of any minority group within the education system. High-performing countries do that with much better-educated teachers, a much better teaching methodology. The teacher knows what student is behind, and such students are kept in the afternoon for three more hours to bring their knowledge up daily the right level. BUT WE DO exactly THE OPPOSITE. WE DO NOT TEACH THEM SO THAT THEY LEARN. THEY BECOME LESS LIKELY TO GET A JOB AS NEW TECHNOLOGIES APPEAR, AND SUCH A SITUATION IS CERTAIN TO EXPLODE. WHY IS IT THAT WE DO NOT A.C.T. TO SOLVE SUCH A HUGE SOCIETAL PROBLEM?! WHY IS IT THAT WE FEED THE FLAMES OF HATE INSTEAD? I WOULD RESPECTFULLY SUGGEST THAT PEOPLE IN POLITICS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION THINK ABOUT THIS AND CHANGE. WHAT IS ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN IN THIS WORLD? DEATH AND TAXES? NO. DEATH, TAXES AND CHANGE.
It was and can be manipulated by the state's department of education to show better results by dropping the pass/fail percentage (normally 60%) in one or more subjects from 60% to as low as 30%, in order to raise the grade that students get. It is done quietly so that too much attention is not attracted. With such action, the state education department is lying to the public about where real public education performance is. This kind of action needs law change for purposeful falsification of poor performance. Such practice commits a violation of the basic purpose of education that should be raising the knowledge level of our children, creating a most serious crime by willfully cutting down the employability of our children, their ability to make a living. It limits the education of the public that reduces and destroys our country's economy with a lack of a properly trainable workforce. The graduation rate could be manipulated to create false "high enough" results. For this reason, we must immediately eliminate the use of the 90% graduation objective in any form, and with the substitution of A.C.T. and GPA monthly objective use the direct A.C.T. measurement in Tennessee with a monthly GPA objective, we can raise both and return to a good economy. Any falsification of performance, such as the manipulation of pass/fail points to raise grades, must be backed by laws with very serious penalties.
"The school board is accessible to everyone in the community and is accountable for the performance of the schools in the district."
"In Tennessee, we believe that every student should leave high school ready for success in
postsecondary education and careers. Given that postsecondary training is increasingly a minimum
requirement for most high-demand jobs in technology, healthcare, engineering, and accounting, it is more important than ever that our actions and goals aim beyond high school
graduation and focus on student preparation postsecondary. To this end, the department has four strategic goals."
Measurable objectives support no such rules, and therefore they do not happen. You can read all of them below.
I am sorry to have to say this. We should have recognized a long time ago that our public education is not satisfying employers. Although they complained about it to governors, nothing was done to raise education to a competitive level. IT IS TIME THAT WE CALL HUGE, IGNORANT AND STUPID STATEMENTS exactly WHAT THEY ARE, INSTEAD OF LETTING THEM HIDE UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF CIVIL DISCOURSE TO CONFUSE A PUBLIC WHOSE EDUCATION WAS PURPOSEFULLY DUMBED DOWN BY THE SAME PEOPLE. WHY? SO THAT THE PUBLIC BELIEVES THE LIES THEY WERE AND ARE TOLD BY EDUCATION PERFORMANCE AND THE FANTASTIC FUTURE THEY ARE CREATING FOR OUR CHILDREN. I AM SORRY, BUT THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON TOO LONG! WHY ARE GOVERNORS AND OTHER POLITICIANS IN HIGH OFFICE PURPOSEFULLY ALLOW SUCH HARMFUL COMMENTS AND practices THAT ARE DAMAGING TO OUR CHILDREN, STATES AND COUNTRY! NO ONE CAN CLAIM THAT THE POOR JOB THAT PUBLIC EDUCATION IS DOING IS NOT DAMAGING US. IF WE DO HAVE LAWS AGAINST SUCH DAMAGE TO PUBLIC EDUCATION, WHY HAVE WE NOT ACTED ON IT?! IF WE DO NOT HAVE LAWS TO PROTECT THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION RESULTS BY PUBLIC EDUCATION, WHY DID WE NOT A.C.T. TO PROTECT US FOR MANY DECADES?! BEING 37TH IN MATHEMATICS IN THE WORLD, WHEN WE USED TO BE MUCH HIGHER, IS A VERY SERIOUS SIGNAL THAT OUR POLITICAL LEADERS AND LAWMAKERS SEEMED TO HAVE IGNORED FOR DECADES FOR THE REASON THAT THE SITUATION HAS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND PUBLIC EDUCATION WILL NOT EXERT ITSELF TO DELIVER RESULTS THAT WOULD MAKE AT LEAST 80% OF OUR CHILDREN EMPLOYABLE! WHY? IS NOT SUCH LACK OF action UNCONSTITUTIONAL BY VIOLATING THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS? PLEASE TELL ME!
The best advice always comes from the smartest people who know the truth about how good and competitive their schools are and are honest. Evidently our school did not do that for decades, and are not capable of doing it. The best advice about improving school performance does not come from the elected school board of each school district. Schools need to satisfy the needs of employers with high school graduates. The best advice for that reason would come from a group of senior executives, like a few presidents and CEOs of the large employers centrally for the entire country. School board decisions take time. The decision will be school board majority-based. You could have a good, well-educated school board majority only in places like Silicon Valley, California. Even that would depend on the willingness of the right people to join. Do you really think that you get the best people to run for office every single time? Today, like in all industrialized countries who passed us, we need a small group of the best people nationwide to make such education-related decisions on standards! We want the same high standards in every schoolDo we depend on the average citizens who run for school board in 14,000 school districts to make the best decisions FOR THE NATION? HOW CAN WE BE THAT STUPID? Our education results show for many decades that even if we did it centrally in any of all 50 states, our method could not produce the best national decisions. We need the best people to make decisions about standards and methods in education. If you ask local board members about a problem, they become very unfriendly and defensive. If you want to donate money, they are friendly. They assume that the education system is doing very well because superintendents dress so well. I am sorry, but I heard that too many times. Go to any board meeting. The majority of boards do not have any suggestions for improvement. How would they know? In board meetings, improving education is not discussed. But they spend a lot of time approving spending as if the money was growing on trees. Also, board members get paid with few exceptions $10,000 to as much as $100,000 (Los Angeles, CA) per year. They think they are in a horse race, not realizing that they forgot to get on the horse.
THE INTERNATIONALLY LEADING COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION CAN DELIVER A MORE ADVANCED CURRICULUM THAN OURS IN NORMAL TIME. IF OUR SYSTEM CANNOT DO IT, THEN WE MUST EXTEND THE HIGH SCHOOL YEARS INSTEAD OF PUSHING TEACHERS TO GRADUATE CHILDREN, WHO ARE NOT PREPARED, ON TIME.
5. Our Public Education's Performance Has Been Very Poor For Much Longer Than Twenty Years. Most Likely They Will Not Change, But I Am Hopeful.
Look at the above picture. It looks like the navigation display in the UFO. Do we have to get help from an expert ET to find a solution? No. Our leaders made this mistake, and they have to solve it.
Management by Objectives (MBO) would be the right method to raise organizational performance. The education departments use a few of the MBO terminologies, but they use the few MBO terms incorrectly so that nothing improves. If governors know how MOB works, why didn't they correct their department of education? The governors either do not know how MBO methodology works, or they fear something if they improve A.C.T. or SAT scores. Any other test is not suitable because the pass/fail points could be manipulated to produce higher grades, or the test is not given annually for each subject. Please read what we have under management.
I am telling you some awful things I found in public education. You can best learn about bad things if you investigate it yourself. DO IT! I am telling you enough for everyone to see that we have a huge problem that can destroy the US. I would like to suggest that you honestly investigate. I would also like to suggest that if you are entertaining playing any games, it would be wiser to walk into a small room and open a hive of African bees. I would appreciate any help and would be very grateful if you found some mistakes that I made. The truth is the most important thing.
Very unfortunately, the world of US education is dead against any psychological testing to determine if a candidate for teaching is well matched to the teaching profession. We have to learn to do the right things for our country. It is urgent now because our K-12 education performance dropped down like a stone for decades, and that is NOT the result of our schools doing a good job! They are wrong. The military has been doing it successfully for many decades. A company where I worked was doing it and it was a great place to work. It may not matter in the very low labor-intensive jobs, but I experienced how successful it was on the professional side. Teaching is a very unique position that requires a person with very specific characteristics. In our opinion not every person has the right personality to become a good teacher. How could testing them for the right personality profile be a negative thing? What is more important? Getting a person admitted to a teachers' college because he/she is screaming bloody murder that she wants it, when he/she is the wrong PERSONALITY TYPE FOR IT, or is it more important to find the right type of person who would make an excellent teacher? The children getting a much better education is the most important. That makes the right personality type getting into teaching very important.
Education management would tell me that a mandatory part of graduation from a teacher college is the 6-month or so teaching experience that the student-teacher must pass. A student-teacher is under both school and parental pressure to pass that prA.C.T.ical teaching experience. However, the teacher's job will be different. A lot of pressure will come with the real teaching job when the novelty of the job wears off, that the teaching experience in school will not have. The practical short teaching experience is not the same as a psychological test that determines how good a teacher candidate will fit the teaching vocation. Some people will graduate from a teachers' university and will leave teaching within a few years. The actual teaching experience that tells how a new teacher fits teaching takes 6-15 years of experience to find out. That is the most valuable experience that the education industry will lose, after all the money is spent if the psychological match to the teaching profession was not done. People are always the best in a job that they really enjoy. That's what a candidate or the school can find out up front for $100-200. Money well spent because the turnover costs at least the annual salary of a teacher. I would hope that senior management in teaching understands this difference.
The documentation of public education describes such testing as nonsense and compares such vocation matching psychological tests to a pseudoscience from the late 1700s called phrenology, where they determined the psychological make-up of a person by the location and size of the bumps on one's head. US EDUCATION HAS A VERY PUBLIC NEGATIVE OPINION OF ANYTHING THAT IS BETTER THAN THEY ARE. ACCORDING TO THEM, THE OECD PISA INTERNATIONAL TESTS ARE FAKE TESTS BECAUSE WE ARE 37TH IN MATHEMATICS. This is an incorrect conclusion based on a pseudo-scientific comparison that one would not expect to hear from education management. SUPPOSE ONE CANNOT GET HONEST ASSESSMENT FROM ANYONE WHO SHOWS YOU NOT THE BEST AS OTHERS CLAIM. In that case, YOU ARE DEALING WITH DISHONEST PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT CAPABLE OF CREATING ANYTHING GOOD AND COMPETITIVE THAT ONE CAN TRUST. THAT IS WHAT OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION BECAME BECAUSE OUR POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP DID NOT KNOW HOW TO IMPROVE PUBLIC EDUCATION. AND THEY KNOW AND PRA.C.T.ICE LENIN'S SLOGAN BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE.
, I found that teaching is a unique position compared to other jobs prescreening to ensure that we get the right capabilities and personality profile into teacher training. CONSIDER THAT OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY DEPENDS ON HOW WELL EDUCATED OUR CHILDREN BECOME TODAY. THE CHILDREN'S EDUCATION DEPENDS ON HOW GOOD A PERSONALITY MATCH TEACHERS ARE TO THE TEACHING PROFESSION, WHICH WE DON'T DO, AND HOW WELL EDUCATED THE TEACHERS ARE, WHICH THEY ARE NOT, AND TEACHER EDUCATION DEPENDS ON A SIMILAR CYCLE. THERE EXISTS A HUGE DIFFERENCE TEACHER TO TEACHER, THAT CREATES A HUGE DIFFERENCE AMONG HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES, BECAUSE THE STANDARDS THAT APPLY TO EDUCATION ARE LOW. THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR COUNTRY IF WE GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO DO NOT EVEN MEET EVEN A LOW STANDARD LIKE A.C.T. READINESS. YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT RIGHT HERE. BUT 75-85% OF THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WITH A DIPLOMA IN HAND ARE NOT EVEN "A.C.T. READY!" Please listen to what I found. Part of our poor education, is due to ignoring things that are critical to success, such as making sure that those who want teacher training have a high IQ, the right personality for teaching young children, and in high school, at least five times as much subject-knowledge as the most advanced course they have to teach in the subject, and they must love the subject they teach. You need such qualification to present with infectious enthusiasm to get the students to become interested in the details that one teaches in class.
TEACHER TRAINING REQUIREMENTS IN THE BEST PERFORMING COUNTRIES IN PUBLIC EDUCATION ARE VERY DIFFERENT. BUT WE DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE TO SEE WHY. THIS DOES NOT REFLECT AN ATTITUDE BY POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP THAT PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE TELL YOU THAT THEY DO, WHEN THE EVIDENCE SHOWS OTHERWISE? WHY DOES OUR LEADERSHIP TURN A BLIND EYE TO THIS HUGE PROBLEM? I WROTE TO GOVERNORS ABOUT THIS FOUR TIMES AND RECEIVED NO ANSWER FROM ANYONE.
Teaching above 4th grade in other countries that are very good in education requires both a BS and MS degree, 7 years total, in the same subject that they will teach. Teacher candidates always come from the top 30% of the Master's program in any country. US teachers typically come from the bottom third performers in college. Exception: Finland recruits from the top 10% of Master's programs. In the US many teacher colleges offer a one year Master's program after the teacher training. Ignore such a Master's program. 1-2 years or even 4 on the subject a teacher would teach is not enough. The most important thing in teaching is to have the class really enjoy what the teacher is presenting. The biggest problem I noticed in teaching is THE BORING CLASSROOM. Subject knowledge was low on the teacher side and there was no life in the presentation. Based on what I have seen in classrooms of the countries with the best education, it appears to me at least five times the subject knowledge is needed at minimum and the right personality to teach a class what the teacher must deliver so well that all students enjoy that teacher. We underestimate the teachers' job. It is very clear to me that management training would be not only helpful, but very important for all teachers as well.
The good teachers love their subject and keep up with every new development in it.
They have the right personality for teaching. Two tests that can be downloaded from the Internet for $100 or less, can give an accurate indication of the top 3-5 vocations where the test taker fits well for the rest of their life. The brain area that completes vocational area development is ready for such a test at 22 years of age, and the vocational fit does not change during the life of the individual. One can get some useful indication from age 16, but the same test should be repeated at age 22. This would be of great help to the teacher candidate even if he or she is not a good fit for teaching. They can find out what the vocation is where they will be happiest. That is where they will be most successful. It would be helpful to take the test results to a vocational psychologist, with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, for one session if any questions. The two tests are the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory. The two tests need to be correlated. Do not push children to decide what they want to be. Let that take a natural course with the right tests.
Come from the top 10% of their Master's programs, and
They create fabulous results with children in the A.C.T. 29-34 average equivalent range.
Our teachers are nowhere near that. And that is the people's fault who approved the teacher training curriculum and the rigor of certification. The teaching profession is not one that anyone could do well. It requires a very specific psychological profile to do well as a teacher. Two tests correlated that do this well for any profession are the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory.
The teachers are treated worse than a factory worker. Management training is absent in education organizations and that is the big problem creating it. Teachers who qualify like above described, are very valuable people. They are not looking for and complain about money. They love what they create with children. Those that can produce better results in students, should get better pay. That is why it is necessary to measure the performance of each class for GPA, but it must be coupled with very serious penalties for cheating until the test can be provided and scored securely by a third party. The good teachers love teaching and want to become better all the time, and would not disagree with the recommendations herein. Management needs to treat them professionally and help them to become better.
TEACHERS' UNIONS: complain and defend themselves instead of correcting the problems for the teachers and the population that their poorly performing schools create. They have an image problem because they take the school's side whose poor performance is hurting the public schools as well as the unions associated with the schools. We searched for the goals or objectives of teacher unions on the internet, but found nothing that was clearly stated as such. We would think that a teachers' union would ensure that teacher candidates are tested for personality match to the teaching profession and would make sure that teachers get the right education, and deliver far better student results. Unfortunately they just A.C.T. as if the teachers' training and certification were excellent in every way. That means that the teachers' union does not want better teacher training and better certification. The unions can change and COULD make sure that the right candidates get into teacher training. GOOD TEACHERS should make more money. Approving higher salaries for teachers is an impossibility. But approving an incentive program that is activated with a higher GPA in a teacher's class and A.C.T. achievement would be difficult to argue against.
The great majority of our public schools are doing a very poor job. We are the lowest performer within the industrialized countries. We are paying per student one of the highest rates per student with our hard-earned tax dollars. Salaries depend on "supply and demand" and the quality of the job done. Our employers have been meeting with governors about the poor quality of our K-12 high school graduates for the past 15 years, without any action to raise A.C.T. scores that measure what our children learned from grade one to twelve. NOTHING CHANGED! Public education is delivering poor results for what they are paid per student, and they do not treat the teachers well as they should. AND THEIR EXPENSES AND SALARIES ARE GUARANTEED BY LAW, REGARDLESS OF THE RESULTS! WHY IS IT THAT OUR POLITICAL LEADERS OF BOTH PARTIES HAVE DONE NOTHING TO IMPROVE THE A.C.T. SCORES?! What is scaring them? We recommend that you wear DEPENDS if scared and do an excellent job. Charge it to the school board.
These are hardly the conditions for bringing up the desire for increasing salaries. But not unexpected from people in high positions in politics and education who did not give any thought to fixing education. THE QUESTION IS: IS A SYSTEMATIC DOWNGRADING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION WORTH ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES WE PAY PER CHILD IN THE WORLD, FOR PROVIDING THEM WITH THE WORST EDUCATION IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES?
PUBLIC EDUCATION COMPLAINS AND DEFENDS ITSELF INSTEAD OF CORRECTING THE PROBLEMS FOR THE TEACHERS AND THE POPULATION THAT THEIR POORLY PERFORMING SCHOOLS CREATE. We searched for the goals or objectives of teacher unions on the Internet, but found nothing that was clearly stated as such. We would think that a teachers' union would ensure that teacher candidates are tested for personality match to the teaching profession and would make sure that teachers get the right education, and deliver far better student results. Unfortunately they just A.C.T. as if the teachers' training and certification were excellent in every way. That means that the teachers' union does not want better teacher training and better certification. Most importantly, our public education must stand for having well-educated teachers and management who will raise our public high school graduates to become not lower than fifth in any subject measurement by the OECD PISA tests by 2025. I would also suggest that our public education management and any of their associated publications refrain from degrading the performance of any other education organization and their testing results, foreign or domestic. In addition to its poor results, while we pay them the highest rates per student in the world, we demand 10% per annum improvement in A.C.T. and SAT test results, and having experienced the poor A.C.T. results of the past twenty years, we must prepare other ways and channels to better educate our children than our public education provided. It is always a big source of problems if we support monopolistic operations like US public education is at this point. We need other higher-performing education organizations, with the freedom of transferring at parental request an amount equal to public school spending per student to any other public school, or charter school or private school in the USA or in Canada if the child has been accepted. Charter schools could be a good alternative, if they are national curriculum focused, with mathematics up to Calculus and for both chemistry and physics also included for a diploma and if 90% performance is achieved in both reading and basic mathematics. The charter school charters must include such changes.
Many nations went through a poor teaching period between WWI and WWII. Many corrected it. A few of our schools did as well. A few, because our philosophy is that "locally elected school boards know the best what schools should teach and how." Do you know how old this idea is?! It was this way since the late 1800s, in a purely agricultural economy, where the local farmers knew very well what the children had to learn to do an excellent job on the farms. It was perfect for the period up to the early 1900s. THE EDUCATION COMMUNITY FIGHTS FOR THE SAME LOCALLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD IDEA WHEN IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE LOCALLY ELECTED BOARD DOES NOT HAVE THE EXPERTISE TO HELP MAKE OUR SCHOOLS COMPETITIVE IN TODAY'S WORLD. THIS fact BY ITSELF SHOWS THAT TODAY'S POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE COUNTRY AND WHAT PEOPLE WANT. actions AND LACK THEREOF IN SOME AREAS MAKE THIS VERY CLEAR. They don't even realize that we went from the horse and buggy to the moon, went from local agriculture to international sales in more than a thousand different industries, with huge technological changes during the last 120 years. Today's school board requires much more knowledge, especially as a majority, to make changes to solve the problems we have in public education. Many things delegated to locally elected school boards need to be made nationally on the highest level. Examples are the school curriculum, teacher training curriculum, teacher certification, high school graduation requirements, hiring superintendents, managing superintendents. Also, continuing education for teachers since we are advancing faster in many technologies, better teaching tools, and how to make every class an exciting experience for the children instead of boring. Sit in on school board meetings and see how much time board members spend on improving our children's poor education. Do they make any good changes that increase the A.C.T. scores? The locally elected school board members do not know some vital solutions they are trying to make and do not have time to learn.
Our success depends on how good our workforces are in every industry compared to the top three countries in education. AND THAT DEPENDS ON HOW WELL EDUCATED OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE. I am afraid that we are doing very poorly. The A.C.T. scores in the chart we have here show how much our children are learning from grade one to twelve in our public schools and how poor the results were since the year 2000 and most likely longer. Look at the A.C.T. chart below, showing no improvement for 20 years. In a world where technologies are advancing, we have been falling behind other countries. Such is the price one pays for bad leadership.
It is vital to have the correct monthly GPA objectives (measured year to date) in every single school. The GPA year to date monthly objective is 10% higher each month than it was in the corresponding month prior year, with a monthly operating plan for any teacher or manager in every single school. YOUR RESULTS IN THE SCHOOLS ARE BAD BECAUSE THEY REQUIRE AN OBJECTIVE BUT NOT A CORRECT ONE THAT FOCUSES THE PEOPLE ON WHAT MUST BE DONE. Not having the right measurable objective is a guarantee for failure. IMPROVEMENT IS NOT POSSIBLE EVEN WITH MAJOR CHANGES. Please look at the A.C.T. performance chart FOR THE PAST TWENTY YEARS. IT IS A VERY POOR RECORD. WITH THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES COMING IN 2023-2024 in AI-ASSISTED COGNITIVE ROBOTICS, NANOTECHNOLOGY, AND SPACE SCIENCE, MOST OF OUR CHILDREN WILL BECOME UNEMPLOYABLE. THE FUTURE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF OUR NATION DEPENDS ON HOW WELL WE EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN TODAY IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THEY ARE DOING VERY POORLY.
There exists a terrible idea about what management is within education organizations. Generally, they promote the best worker into management. And he/she does not work out. Bad workers will not make a good manager. But without management training, a good worker also MAY NOT become a good manager of people. An MBA provides a very general introduction to management that is not enough. Some universities offer a very busy two-week post-MBA Advanced Management Program. That is the best program to learn to solve management problems. It is a role-playing of management problems that one has to solve under pressure. Two professors from the graduate school of management and a clinical psychologist supervise 14 hours per day, six days per week. Management problems start developing in organizations if a manager has about 50 employees working for him. Management problems become more sophisticated as the number of employees increase. One major problem public schools have is a lack of such management training for principals and superintendents, contributing to poor results and teachers' high turnover. Management training rarely exists in our public education for principals and superintendents, which accounts for most of our problems today. The curriculum is weak. High school graduates need a lot more than just Algebra in Mathematics and one Science, Biology. I hope that we will make the governors and public education management people think so that they become much better problem solvers. Any organization with poor results can only improve if the organization recognizes its real problems openly to the public and plans well with proper objectives and operating plans. We have done none of that in public education while paying the most in the world per student. No one in the political leadership decided to solve the problem. The poor performance continued for decades. This inaction damaged us. We have been harming the majority of the public. It must be corrected. How can those who caused the damage claim innocence and claim today that they had nothing to do with it? How can they claim that as politicians, they A.C.T.ed in the interest of the people when they were party to damaging the country very seriously from within?
Focus everyone on what they have to accomplish every month. All people who supervise and lead others, especially teachers, must see their results together with their managers to see exactly how they could improve what they are doing. It needs to be an open team discussion about what could work better. That is how one can find the best idea when multiple solutions exist. Not wild, unproven ideas. So look for proven ideas that work. Hostile feelings and hurt egos have no place here. No one is perfect. But the senior person is more experienced. An objective is the measurable MONTHLY key indicator of success or failure under every manager, supervisor, principal, and, most importantly, every single teacher in every single school. For low performing schools like ours, the objective has to be 10% higher than the previous year's actual achievement during the same month. People do not respond to low objectives well. Especially if the objective is annual and not challenging, they just keep working the same way as before with the same results. However, people respond to the challenge of an objective that is a stretch and not easy. In a poorly performing area like education, one must have monthly measurable objectives, but the group's manager must check how his/her team members are doing at least weekly, and the performance reporting must be automated to limit any manual work and focus people and their time on preparation and work to achieve the objectives.
A comment on management terminology that needs to be clear. The word "objective" applies only to the current OR coming fiscal year, with a specific, measurable key indicator of success or failure, like an A.C.T. score that is ten percent higher than the prior year's actual A.C.T. score, supported by a monthly YEAR-TO-DATE GPA (Grade Point Average). You must have such a target to achieve monthly to focus all employees in poorly performing organizations. A "goal" on the other hand, is a target that one would like to achieve during a longer period, like five years. Things can happen during those five years that could change the goal.
THE CHILDREN ARE IN SCHOOL TO BE EMPLOYABLE WHEN THEY GRADUATE, AND 75-84% TODAY ARE NOT EMPLOYABLE. Unfortunately, building up the graduation's and diploma's image in the public eye is useless and harmful if the child cannot get a job. Why did the education system create such problems? Most are misleading the public, while the public schools do not teach most children enough so that our children become JOBLESS! Add to this a few 150-year-old management problems that worked well during the 1800s, but not after WWII. And we make the public's hard-earned tax dollars pay for it at the highest amount per student in the world. I think that for some reason, our political leaders have done nothing. They ARE smart people. If so, then they have a morbid fear of something, and we must find out what and remove it.
In addition to the objectives as described, for every individual identified for objectives, there must be an "operating plan" that lists the objectives, and the tools/material/training they need to achieve their objectives per month, so that both the resources and the results are in the budget, preferably a zero-based budget that was developed as part of planning.
We need to buy an open-ended multiuser database system that is an education management system that can be very useful nationally to eliminate teacher paperwork or minimize it to 10% of current load, and to keep principals and superintendents informed about the public school districts' progress for which they are responsible. With high enough security, automatic tests that are secured can add other management functions to it later. This would cost much less than 10% of the amount of money we waste with overstaffing 14,000 school districts' central management and loading teachers with paperwork.
In correcting problems of this magnitude, one has to A.C.T. firmly and quickly. We are a bit late to this party. There will be big job losses and civil disorder problems, but not as big as we will have if we keep ignoring it further. Our governors and state departments of education ignore several important things. The technological developments fuel our industries successfully ONLY if they have well-trained workforces. That means that:
Our K-12 curricula must advance closely, WITHIN 60 DAYS behind new technologies, with
Management training for all principals and superintendents, and state education leadership.
Teachers need much better subject knowledge and continuing education about new developments in their subjects they teach above the 4th grade.
We cannot allow some practices that are common. We graduate children from high school who cannot read, can read and write block letters only, cannot communicate properly, cannot do basic math and have a bad attitude at work. Children are to learn reading by fourth grade. How can they learn without it?
Use the objectives and operating plans in every school as described.
Please keep in mind that everything is happening faster and the speed of change will increase. The human brain will be enabled to cope with the speed and information content quite easily. Public education ignored this fact too long. Education must learn to adapt to new technologies faster, or education jobs will disappear faster like many other jobs. AI-driven cognitive robotics will allow the robot itself to diagnose the student's psychological profile in the background, and match the teaching style perfectly to the individual student's natural talents, resulting in much faster learning, much easier than today's learning. For the robotic teacher, learning will be not 4-8 semesters, but a few minutes of download. For the robotic teacher, up-to-date Ph.D. level knowledge will be available in ANY NUMBER OF SUBJECTS OR FIELD OF STUDIES. Such capabilities will be available by 2030, the latest.
It is vitally important to have a continuing education program for teachers, especially if they are teaching mathematics, sciences or economics to educate our children much better to improve our workforces. We fell seriously behind other countries in these areas. I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND DECISION MAKERS THAT THE ACCEPTANCE OF ARGUMENTS FROM A GROUP THAT DEMONSTRATED BAD DECISIONS AND LACK OF UNDERSTANDING ABOUT DOING A GOOD JOB FOR 20 YEARS, DOES NOT EARN ANY POSITION TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY FUTURE DECISION MAKING. THAT MEANS ANYONE WHO HAD A MANAGEMENT POSITION IN PUBLIC EDUCATION UNLESS THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT THEY WERE TRYING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OR PROBLEMS THAT WE RAISED IN THIS WEBSITE. RECOVERY IS DIFFICULT ENOUGH WITHOUT GIVING SUPPORT TO THOSE WHO PRODUCED FAILURES WITH OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION. I KNOW THAT I AM ONLY RECOMMENDING. Excellent K-12 education is essential for any industry's workforce to create products and services that are internationally competitive. Employers need new technologies to become more competitive internationally. And they need high school graduates like those educated in the top three nations in public education. Unfortunately, our public education claims to be the best globally, and they are far from it. The employees within school districts cannot and should not be blamed. The blame is squarely on the shoulders of governors and departments of education in every state because THEY SET THE STANDARDS FOR THE STATE, and they created bad morale within every school district that resulted in a very high teacher-turnover in the USA. Employee turnover is a very expensive thing. It typically costs a little more than the employee's annual compensation in any organization. That is another reason why matching a potential employee psychologically to a job is a smart thing to do.
6. Our Situation Is Immensely Complicated By The "Black vs. White", And "Rich vs. Poor" Problems That We Did Not Resolve In More Than 100 Years.
1. The children in poverty, all minorities, have a much weaker family infrastructure supporting them. A number of countries that have a superior education system compared to ours, act on the learning deficiencies identified by the teacher in the morning, and provide make-up classes in the afternoon to correct the gap the same day.
2. A weaker education program, like ours, that does not correct the deficiency the same way as the better system above, will end up with average-to-poor results, like we do.
3. The black and white conflict we had in our US history for 150 years does not speak well of our political leadership. If people want to solve such a problem on both sides, it gets solved in a few years. A purposefully mismanaged education system is very harmful to any festering conflict. One-sided slogans, like black lives matter are symptomatic of the seriousness of the problem that must be solved. As part of the solution of this problem as well as poverty, the education for ALL CHILDREN must be much better, with extra help where ever it is needed to lift THE CHILDREN out of poverty. Do not just hand money out, because it will be gone as before. But instead improve our education system, make sure that it educates ALL CHILDREN for THE FUTURE and not for the past as we have been doing, any needed support services, so that the children will become educated for jobs that can support a family of four. Let them become the instrument of God to end the poverty and ugliness that still exists among us.
7. Our Public Education Is Based On Old Practices, Most Of Which Does Not Work Anymore. Why does public education fight any change to improve?
Our high schools feed the workforce of our various industries.
Our industries' workforces create and service their products everywhere. It is only a better-educated workforce that can create a higher quality product at a lower cost with better profit margins, a product that is easier to use, and is higher quality.
For that reason, our high school graduates must be better educated than the international competition. Instead of being better educated, our high school education fell to the bottom of the industrialized countries in mathematics, the most important subject.
Public Education never takes credit for their poor performance. NEVER. I am sure that Covid-19 will be blamed by them for an even worse performance than before. Who is going to pay the price for the coming record-low performance? The people who become part of the fast-growing poverty, because the public schools are not delivering the needed quality? Those with poorly-educated single parents have no chance because they do not have and cannot have a support infrastructure at home. This is an opportunity to improve.
I am sure that public education was fully funded to operate like it did more than a hundred years ago. WE ARE DELIVERING MUCH WORSE, POORLY EDUCATED WORKFORCE MEMBERS FROM OUR HIGH SCHOOLS, AS A RESULT, AND OUR NATIONAL INCOME FELL FROM 12-14% TO 3-4%. OUR NATIONAL DEBT ROSE TO THE HIGHEST LEVEL EVER, IN EARLY 2021 TO 30,000,000,000,000, FOR WHICH WE PAY AN ENORMOUS INTEREST, THAT WILL BE ABOUT $7,000,000,000,000, THAT WE WILL LOSE FROM OUR EARNINGS. AND THAT ALL HAPPENS BECAUSE WE DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO WHO THE COMPETITION IS, AND OUR STANDARDS IN EDUCATION ARE TOO LOW. THE EDUCATION ORGANIZATION SETS GOALS THAT ARE TOO LOW. STILL, WHEN THE RESULTS ARE DUE, THEY NEVER MEET THE GOALS THEY SET FOR THEMSELVES, AND THEY LIE TO THE PUBLIC.
If the same group of people control the standards and do the work that has to meet those standards, you have a conflict of interest, and bad performance will be the result. WHY? Because it is easier to play games with your standards than for delivering better results, and they have always taken the path that is easier in the short term. That is what we have in public education. These two functions, the education standards and the education itself, need to be independent of each other. High school graduates will end up working for employers. Employers are the "customers" of education. Therefore the opinion of employers nationwide is the most important in the setting of standards. Education's task is to raise current performance by executing what employers need in an excellent manner.
There is an even more important task: Performing on the top three countries' level with the best OECD PISA results. We must achieve average A.C.T. performance at 29 average A.C.T. score for a first goal, with STEM A.C.T. Readiness of graduates at 80%. We are below A.C.T. 21, with less than 25% A.C.T. Readiness. THAT is a very poor result for today and the future that will worsen with the enormous technological changes in 2023. If we do not improve, almost all of our high school graduates will become unemployed within the coming five years.
WHEN THE GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS ARE SET, MANAGEMENT MUST ENSURE THAT IT IS ALWAYS ABOVE WHAT WE NEED, AND ADJUSTED AS NEEDED IN A TIMELY FASHION — NO EXCEPTIONS, BECAUSE OUR CHILDREN'S AND EMPLOYERS' FUTURE DEPEND ON IT.
8. Objectives Our Public Education Has In Tennessee And Other States To Improve Public Education
The following is a publication of the National School Boards Association. Click here to see it. This is their text IN RED that Tennessee government supports explaining the importance of elected local school boards. The COMMENT is ours.
The Importance of Local Governance
"There are six key reasons why local governance is the best way to advance public education," according to the National School Boards Association:" OBJECTIVES AND GOALS ARE SO IMPORTANT THAT THEY MUST BE ALWAYS MEASURABLE, SO THAT THE RESULT IS NOT SUBJECT TO ARGUMENT. IN PUBLIC EDUCATION, VERY UNFORTUNATELY GOALS OR OBJECTIVES ARE MOSTLY VAGUE, AND AN OPERATING PLAN IS NOT USED TO MEASURE THE MONTHLY MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES PLANNED FOR EVERY SUPERVISORY POSITION, TEACHER, SCHOOL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT TO ACHIEVE THE MAIN ANNUAL OBJECTIVE. WITHOUT SUCH, ONE CANNOT TELL WHERE ONE IS, AND IN THAT SITUATION MANAGERS AT ANY LEVEL CANNOT CORRECT ANY SHORTCOMING.
"Education is not a line item in a school board's budget - it is the only item." COMMENT: IS THIS REALLY A KEY REASON TO SHOW WHY LOCAL GOVERNANCE (LOCALLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD) IS IMPORTANT? IS THAT HOW WE GET THE SMARTEST PEOPLE TO PRODUCE THE BEST NATIONAL RESULTS? DID THE PERSON WHO WROTE THIS UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS IMPORTANT? This statement is a meaningless statement. They are delivering very poor education and misstating the facts to the public. We would say that our country's future depends on how good the education of our children is today. We show below in a graph how good the last 20 year's education was. It was POOR. And the outlook is worse when they put into writing such meaningless comments.
How well do we know all persons when we vote for them?
How well experienced is the candidate to do the job they would have to do?
Lastly, do WE voters really know what the job is and what they would have to achieve to do it well?
If local school boards are the most important for education, why are the last twenty years results so poor? Why did we drop to 37th position in the world in Mathematics?
THE ANSWER IS THAT LOCAL BOARDS HAVE THE LEAST KNOW-HOW ABOUT WHERE WE SHOULD BE IN EDUCATION AND WHY.
I am sorry but THE ANSWER TO ALL QUESTIONS IS "NO." The world became too complex for voters to depend on voting alone. An army private gets a security check that is better than the president of the USA today. We have 14,000 SCHOOL BOARDS FOR THE 14,000 SCHOOL DISTRICTS. HOW ON EARTH COULD EACH SCHOOL DISTRICT PRODUCE ACCURATE QUESTIONS WITH ENOUGH KNOW-HOW BY EACH VOTER TO HAVE A VALID AND ACCURATE DECISION WITH VOTING. THIS COULD HAVE WORKED IN THE 1800s BECAUSE THE SYSTEM WAS SIMPLER. BUT TODAY THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. The world is much more complex with a lot of misstatement in both politics and education. And the majority of the population knows it. We have the fastest growing poverty thanks to public education. Those in poverty and many who are not in poverty cannot even tell how good public education is.75-85% of high school graduates are not educated well enough, below 60% high school subject knowledge somewhere, and that is a guarantee for unemployment. Both politics and education is always talking about jobs for those in poverty, but that is not the answer. Help them to get education to the right level to be employable in a well paying job! THAT IS THE GOOD PERMANENT SOLUTION! Why did we not figure it out? The high performing nations figured it out! They provide supplementary education for 3-4 ADDITIONAL hours for children every day! Instead of blaming parents, genetics of minorities, a very stupid thing, assuming that public education is doing a perfect job, and they are far from it.KNOWLEDGEABLE PUBLIC'S VOTE, BUT A SMALL, VERY WELL EDUCATED AND EXPERIENCED GROUP OF EMPLOYER CEOs and PRESIDENTS COULD. Education has a very clear conflict of interest to set standardsTHE SCHOOLS HAVE TO SATISFY EMPLOYER NEEDS. BUT THEY ARE NOT IN A SITUATION WHERE THEY CAN SET STANDARDS Do you get the smartest group of people in the country with 14,000 elections? No you cannot. What this does is it hurts us to develop well educated children who are employable, compared to a national board in education, with the smartest people who set the standards nationwide. We saw for many decades that our system creates bad results. Not having uniformly well educated people guiding education, a board dominated by senior executives from the largest employers would create uniform and correct standards, compared to a collection of standards from 50 states, that is influenced by the school boards of 14,000 school districts. Public education does not want to change at all, at a time when it should be at STEM A.C.T. Readiness 80% already, at average A.C.T. 29. We are below 25% A.C.T. Readiness (not STEM A.C.T. Readiness) at just below average A.C.T. 21 that is less than 25% Readiness. We are below employability with the big technological changes coming in 2023 (AI-driven cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology and Space Science) that will make 75-85% current high school graduates plus 30 million of the existing workforce unemployable in short order. Guaranteed salaries do not motivate people to become much better. But today IS VERY DIFFERENT AND SO ARE THE NEEDS OF EMPLOYERS. Our public education has been failing them for too long. Mark Twain was a very highly respected man back then in the late 1800s. His quote represents dissatisfaction 150 years ago with school boards in public education. You could trust his words better than the promises of governors when they run for the governorship. The idea around 1875 that the best advice for education comes from people closest to the student could be true only when agriculture was the dominant industry and the school was teaching the children who returned home to help the family. But today it is very far from the truth. We have about a thousand industries with much higher technology in the employer environment where our children, today's students are to work, plus the work could be in any country in any of a thousand science or engineering job that required much higher schooling. Only people who are extremely ignorant and stupid could make such a statement in public on the Internet.
"The school board is accessible to everyone in the community and is accountable for the performance of the schools in the district."
"In Tennessee, we believe that every student should leave high school ready for success in
postsecondary education and careers. Given that postsecondary training is increasingly a minimum
requirement for most high-demand jobs in technology, healthcare, engineering, and
accounting, it is more important than ever that our actions and goals aim beyond high school
graduation and focus on student preparation for postsecondary. To this end, the department has four strategic goals." No such rules are supported by measurable objectives, and therefore they do not happen. You can read all of them below.
I am sorry to have to say this. We should have recognized a long time ago that our public education is not satisfying employers, although they complained about it to governors. Nothing was done to raise education to a competitive level. IT IS TIME THAT WE CALL HUGE, IGNORANT AND STUPID STATEMENTS exactly WHAT THEY ARE, INSTEAD OF LETTING THEM HIDE UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF CIVIL DISCOURSE TO CONFUSE A PUBLIC WHOSE EDUCATION WAS PURPOSEFULLY DUMBED DOWN BY THE SAME PEOPLE, SO THAT THEY BELIEVE SUCH STUPID THINGS THAT THEY PUBLISH ABOUT THE REASONS FOR THEIR EXISTENCE OR FOR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES. I AM SORRY BUT THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON TOO LONG! WHY ARE GOVERNORS AND OTHER POLITICIANS IN HIGH OFFICE PURPOSEFULLY ALLOW SUCH HARMFUL COMMENTS AND practices THAT ARE DAMAGING TO OUR STATES AND COUNTRY! NO ONE CAN CLAIM THAT SUCH actions ARE NOT DAMAGING US. IF WE DO HAVE LAWS AGAINST SUCH DAMAGE TO PUBLIC EDUCATION, WHY HAVE WE NOT A.C.T.ED ON IT?! IF WE DO NOT HAVE LAWS TO PROTECT THE QUALITY OF OUR EDUCATION, WHY DID WE NOT A.C.T. TO PROTECT US FOR MANY DECADES?! BEING 37TH IN MATHEMATICS IN THE WORLD, WHEN WE USED TO BE MUCH HIGHER, IS A VERY SERIOUS SIGNAL THAT OUR POLITICAL LEADERS AND LAW MAKERS SEEMED TO HAVE IGNORED FOR DECADES! WHY? IS NOT SUCH LACK OF action UNCONSTITUTIONAL? PLEASE TELL ME!
The best advice always comes from the smartest people who know the truth about how good and competitive their schools are, and are honest. It does not come from thousands on the school district level. Look at the bad results we produced with this idea that worked in 1875, BUT THE WORLD CHANGED AND THE SCHOOLS DID NOT! The best advice about improving school performance does not come from the elected school board of each school district. Schools need to satisfy the needs of employers with the high school graduates. The best advice for that reason would come from a group of senior executives, like a few presidents and CEOs of the large employers centrally for the entire country. School board decisions take time. The decision will be school board majority based. You could have a good, well educated school board majority only in places like Silicon Valley, California. Even that would depend on the willingness of the right people to join. Do you really think that you get the best people to run for an office every single time? Today, like in all industrialized countries who passed us, we need a small group of the best people nationwide to make such education-related decisions! We depend on the average citizens who run for school board in 14,000 school districts to make the best decisions FOR THE NATION? HOW CAN WE BE THAT STUPID? Our education results show for many decades that even if we did it centrally in any of all 50 states, our method cannot produce the best national decisions. We need the best people to make decisions about standards and methods in education. If you ask local board members about a problem, they become very unfriendly and defensive. If you want to donate money, they are friendly. They assume that the education system is doing very well, because superintendents dress so well. I am sorry, but I heard that too many times. Go to any board meeting. The majority of boards, possibly all of them, do not have any suggestions for improvement. How would they know? In board meetings, improving education is not discussed. But they spend a lot of time approving spending as if the money was growing on trees. Also board members get paid with few exceptions $10,000 to as much as $100,000 (Los Angeles, CA) per year. They think that they are in a horse race, not realizing that they forgot to get on the horse.
THE INTERNATIONALLY LEADING COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION CAN DELIVER A MORE ADVANCED CURRICULUM THAN OURS IN NORMAL TIME. IF OUR SYSTEM CANNOT DO IT, THEN WE MUST EXTEND THE HIGH SCHOOL YEARS INSTEAD OF PUSHING TEACHERS TO GRADUATE CHILDREN, WHO ARE NOT PREPARED, ON TIME.
"The school board association sets the standard for achievement (in the states and school districts), incorporating the LOCAL community's view of what students should know and be able to accomplish at each grade level." That was good enough about 150 years ago. How could such an embarrassingly stupid thing go on for this long? It does not speak well of public education being overseen by political leadership.Click here to see it. COMMENT: They do not know enough and do not want to learn. Today's public schools do not require the opinion of local boards. We have about 14,000 school boards in the country. THAT MAKES GOOD QUALITY RESULTS IMPOSSIBLE AND WE NEED GOOD RESULTS. THE POINT IS THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET UNIFORM HIGH QUALITY RESULTS WITHOUT UNIFORM HIGH STANDARDS, WHEN EVERY SCHOOL BOARD MAY HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS, HOWEVER SMALL THOSE DIFFERENCES ARE. HAVING ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS SET STANDARDS OF ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS - I CANNOT USE THE RIGHT WORD FOR SUCH A HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE SITUATION. I can tell you this. Hostile intelligence services, like the Chinese or Russians, who have enough financial resources and very smart people like we do in ours, would help any problem we have to become bigger problems. Think about it. There is strength in a nation that establishes standards for anything on the highest level.
"The school board is accessible to everyone in the community and is accountable for the performance of the schools in the district." COMMENT: That is an impossibility. They set the standards for education that create poor results, and THEY are accountable for school performance that they would have to adjudicate against themselves?! And they do not respond to any question you have unless you support the BOARD'S POSITION. They have done nothing to improve the poor education because the problems are beyond them, so how could anyone assert that they are accountable?
"It is the community member's right as a voter to elect new board members who will work diligently to provide an opportunity for students to receive a high-quality education, which will enable them to succeed in their career, college, and life." COMMENT: The results show conclusively that the locally elected board makes an honest effort based on what they know which is not enough, but they lack the know-how as a voting majority, especially to ensure a high-quality education that would create success in a career, college, and life.
"The school board is the community's education watchdog, ensuring that taxpayers get the most for their tax dollars." COMMENT: We are one of the highest spenders per student, delivering the lowest results among industrialized countries. The currently used school board is too expensive and ineffective to do anything about performance. Ask them what good performance is in A.C.T. or SAT scores. They have no idea. What is very disturbing is that the education system is still behind a management structure AFTER MORE THAN 100 YEARS that is based upon an elected school board, with about 14,000 school boards in the nation, coming from the lowest knowledge base.
SINCE 1800s TO THIS DAY, IF THE POPULATION ASKED WHY DO THE LOCALLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS MAKE VERY IMPORTANT DECISIONS ABOUT SCHOOL SPENDING, STANDARDS, GRADUATING REQUIREMENTS THAT ARE DECIDED UPON ON THE HIGHEST NATIONAL LEVEL IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY? THE ANSWER WAS, "THE BEST DECISION CAN ONLY COME FROM THE LOCAL POPULATION'S ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION." LOOK AT THE A.C.T. RESULTS. THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH PERFORMANCE. IT IS DISMAL.
9. National Education Goals Based On President Clinton's Law In 1994.
"In stressing quality education from early childhood through lifelong learning, the president and the governors adopted the National Education Goals, which were put into law by Congress in the Goals 2000: Educate America A.C.T.. The model standards will help define what it means to reach the third and fourth goals below."
The US Dept. of Education Goals state that by the year 2000 we shall meet all objectives described below:
"All children in America will start school ready to learn." COMMENT: THIS IS TRUE. THEY ENTERED SCHOOL READY TO LEARN. BUT WHAT DO WE DO WITH THEM? WE GRADUATE 75-85% FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHO ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY! THAT MEANS WE MEASURED THEIR READINESS AT ONLY 25% OR LESS. WE RUINED THEM IN SCHOOL. ALMOST ALL OF THEM! WHY DO WE HAVE TO LIE TO THE PUBLIC WHO PAY ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES IN THE WORLD?!
"The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent." COMMENT: Graduation rate is controllable by lowering the pass/fail point in STATE tests, on which graduation is based. Were the pass/fail points dropped at any time below 60% in any subject with a method called "Cut Scores?" ABSOLUTELY! DOWN TO 27%!! The A.C.T. measures what students learned, and it cannot be modified to show higher grades. WE SHOULD USE THE A.C.T. SCORE AS A GRADUATION REQUIREMENT. WE USE THE STATE TEST, THAT THE STATE CAN "FIX" LIKE STATED ABOVE WITH CUT SCORES. We must eliminate high school graduation rates as an objective.
All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including English, mathematics, Science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography, and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our nation's modern economy. COMMENT: REALLY?! THIS WE ABSOLUTELY DID NOT DO. IT IS A BIG LIE I am sorry, but this is not happening, and the A.C.T. scores show that. Why are we passing students with reading and basic mathematics problems to high school AND GRADUATE THEM FROM HIGH SCHOOL WITH THESE PROBLEMS UNRESOLVED?
United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. COMMENT: We are far from being the best in the world in Science and Math, e.g., OECD PISA results show us in math that we are 37th, on the bottom of the industrialized nations.
Every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise citizenship's rights and responsibilities. COMMENT: THIS IS A BIG LIE! We graduate 75-85% of our children who are not even A.C.T. Ready, a low measure, rated in readiness below 25%.
Every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning. COMMENT: Not true.
The nation's teaching force will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all American students for the next century. COMMENT: Absolutely NOT true.
Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children. COMMENT: THIS IS AN UNMEASURABLE LIE. How did we do? Who came up with such brilliant questions at the Federal Department of Education?
The schools develop a product called a high school graduate. Who needs those student-products? The employers. They must meet employers' needs. Employers met with many governors about the poor knowledge of graduates. The graduates become members of the workforce in all industries. Our industries' products and services depend on the education of the workforce. Our workforce is not as well educated as the workforces of 35-40 countries who are our competitors. That makes our products and services less competitive, resulting in less income for our industries and our states and country. This has been a serious problem since about 2008. National income is normally at 12-14%. It dropped to 3-4%, requiring more borrowed money, called the national debt, that is at $30 Trillion in early 2021. That is $30 with 12 zeros after it. That means that our K-12 education should be competitive with the top 3 countries in education. We do not believe in education management that we need to be competitive with those top three countries. We just ignore them. A few of our states are doing fairly well and graduate children above an average A.C.T. 26. The top three countries are scoring the equivalent to A.C.T. 29-34 average. You read the goals and objectives. They are not proper objectives and goals, so they will never be reached. Tennessee and many other states are at average A.C.T. 19.6 and had an A.C.T. objective of 21 average since about 1998. And A.C.T. 21 is a low score. We will show you on the website why they are not doing better and what they must do to achieve 80% A.C.T. Readiness of graduating students that a high school achieves if they have an average A.C.T. score of 29. When your score is as bad as ours in a state like Tennessee, fibbing to the public about their children's "excellent" education is not a smart thing to do. It is a fraudulent A.C.T.. Being smart enough for education departments to manage the results to average A.C.T. 29, and this also requires more attention from governors in some states, would be THE RIGHT THING TO DO, INSTEAD OF DOING WHAT WE FOUND. Just look at the goals they express above and below about SCHOOL BOARDS IN THE STATE DOCUMENTS. PLEASE READ THEM, BECAUSE THEY DO NOT ACHIEVE EVEN THOSE LOW SCORES THAT THE GOVERNORS AND EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS COMMIT TO IN WRITING. THAT IS NOT THE KIND OF COUNTRY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS WANTED! IT IS NOT THE KIND OF STATE THAT OUR CITIZENS WANT FOR THEIR CHILDREN! IF YOU DISAGREE, PUT INTO WRITING HOW GREAT A JOB OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION IS DOING AND BE AS SPECIFIC AS WE ARE!
I would like to teach you something important. When any organization names a goal or objective like a promising slogan, it is - and I am sorry to say it that way - TOTAL BULLSHIT. IF public education reduced the knowledge of high school graduates, the public, especially those in poverty swallow this goldfish because they still believe that political and school leaders tell them the truth. If you look at the objectives beyond such a slogan, they will be false objectives, meaning you cannot measure them, they are not the must important dependable and measurable annual indicator of academic progress or failure, like an A.C.T. or SAT score only.
"In Tennessee, we believe that every student should leave high school ready for success in postsecondary education and careers. Given that postsecondary training is increasingly a minimum requirement for most high-demand jobs in technology, healthcare, engineering, and
accounting, it is more important than ever that our actions and goals aim beyond high school graduation and focus on student preparation for postsecondary. To this end, the department has four strategic goals:"
BUT THIS LEAVES AN IMPORTANT QUESTION UNANSWERED: WHAT DOES "EVERY STUDENT SHOULD LEAVE HIGH SCHOOL READY FOR POST SECONDARY EDUCATION AND SUCCESS" MEAN? WHY? BECAUSE AVERAGE A.C.T. 21 (MEANS ONLY KNOWING HALF OF WHAT THEY TEACH IN HIGH SCHOOL) AS AN OBJECTIVE IS TOO LOW, FAR FROM SUCH A DREAM. What more shall I tell you that our education system is very sick? I can tell you this. When such sickness goes on to dumb down the population for decades, and even highly educated medical doctors IN STATE POLITICS swallow the "GOLD FISH of BS" and do nothing, while the public is being convinced that all is well, THE REAL OBJECTIVE IS WHAT CONTINUES WITHOUT ANY SIGNIFICANT INTERRUPTION FOR DECADES. AND THAT IS TO REDUCE THE POPULATION'S KNOWLEDGE (DUMB THEM DOWN), AND PUSH THEM INTO POVERTY. THAT IS WHY WE HAVE ONE OF THE HIGHEST AND FASTEST GROWING POVERTY IN THE WORLD. Otherwise it would not go on without correction for longer than two years.
COMMENT:Strategic goals or objectives incorporate the plan plus alternatives to be prepared if any changes take place. Strategic goals - according to public education - mean goals that are several years away, like five years away. Our high school curriculum was two years behind the competition since 2016, possibly earlier. Missing are two years of Calculus and its 3 prerequisite courses. Also missing are Chemistry and Physics, one year each. We must start measuring not A.C.T. Readiness but STEM A.C.T. Readiness with average A.C.T. score 29 that represents 80% readiness. We are that far behind as of 2018. The behavior of our public education is a reflection on its leadership. They do not want to change. BUT THE WORLD IS CHANGING INDEPENDENTLY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. They are not interested in how well the best countries in education are doing. OR THEY ARE AFRAID TO SHOW IT BECAUSE THEY ARE SO FAR BEHIND. It is like someone who is so depressed that they just had to become the 37th in the world in mathematics. That's the bottom of the industrialized world. But there are about 165 more countries to pass. They behave as if that was their goal. There is nothing being done in plans that could get us to "Tennessee Succeeds!" The entire country is not succeeding in public educations.
"Graduation Rate: The majority of high school graduates from the class of 2020 will earn some type of postsecondary certificate, diploma, or degree." COMMENT: THIS IS A FIB. THIS IS A STRATEGIC GOAL? HOW DO WE MEASURE IT? WHAT DID WE ACHIEVE? Setting the graduation rate as an objective based on the state test that public education manipulates in the state, to graduate more children with lower knowledge to create passing grades. It is and was a fraudulent move, very damaging move to our children, the state and the country, because we graduate them as if they had normal passing grades in the state tests. Instead, we should be graduating them with an average STEM A.C.T. score of 29 to make as many children employable as possible, and urgently. I would suggest that public education clean up its A.C.T. performance, eliminate the use of graduation rate as a meaningful objective immediately, and start using the A.C.T. SCORE AS AN OBJECTIVE to graduate instead of using a graduation rate objective that is state test based, because that they can manipulate to look much better than the A.C.T.-based measure of performance. WE FURTHER REQUEST AN INVESTIGATION ON EVERY YEAR AFTER 2015, ABOUT THE USE OF ANY METHOD TO MOVE PASS/FAIL POINTS BELOW 60% ON ANY TEST.
"Reading Proficiency: 75 percent of third-graders will be proficient in reading by 2025." COMMENT: The education system willfully creates a handicap to learning after grade two, by not making sure that the children can read and do basic math mentally well enough. We need to know why management was so bad that this was not accomplished. The target date is to late. This is a very serious violation of duties, if it goes unresolved even for a year. Solve it by end of second grade. We have had the READING problem since the 1990s. You have to commit to reading when all students who graduate from high school will be proficient and raise the proficiency to 98%! THIS IS A MEANINGLESS GOAL BECAUSE IT IS TOO LOW!One could legitimately question the performance of those in charge of education in a state if this kind of error occurs.
"A.C.T./SAT Scores: The average A.C.T. (or SAT equivalent) composite score in Tennessee will be
21 by 2020." COMMENT: As history shows, low objectives are generally not achieved. Objectives need to be a stretch. People rise to high expectations. No one rises to low expectations. THIS A.C.T. OBJECTIVE IS TOO LOW AND THEREFORE USELESS. AVERAGE A.C.T. 21 REPRESENTS A LESS THAN 25% A.C.T. READINESS THAT IS AN EASY FOUR-SUBJECT BENCHMARK. PEOPLE SET THE OBJECTIVES LOW BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT TAKES TO MANAGE ANYTHING TO A BETTER RESULT. JUST NAMING A LOW AND SAFE OBJECTIVE DOES NOT MAKE IT HAPPEN! YOU NEED A GOOD PLAN WITH MONTHLY OBJECTIVES ON ALL SUPERVISORY PEOPLE, AND FOCUS ON MAKING IT HAPPEN. The annual objective must be not less than a 10% increase, from the prior year's average A.C.T. score achieved.
"Nation's Report Card Ranking: Tennessee will rank in the top half of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation's report card, by 2019." COMMENT: As usual, a low expectation objective does not work. THERE IS NO PROPER PLANNING, SO WE ARE JUST GAMBLING WITH FOOLISH STATEMENTS THAT DELIVER NOTHING. The objective has to be a 10% increase from last year's A.C.T. score.
The above is typical in education in Tennessee and other states: Grandiose statements that are not measurable, goals that are low and meaningless, nothing was planned seriously to achieve these goals, and will be forgotten. This is how OUR public education works. We cannot get good results this way.
We must do many things quite fast to save our country, but a few things are urgent. Some who read this, especially in public education, I don't think would agree with the word "urgent." How could lawmakers and governors, and the people they hire, approve of such lack of understanding of where education should be for reasonable economic health? For more than a hundred years it is the same as what we had in the late 1800s. Like the idea of local school boards and to base our nation's education on THE LOWEST STANDARDS INSTEAD OF UNIFORM HIGH STANDARDS NATIONWIDE. It did work well in the simple agriculture-based economy with minimal exporting. But the world economy became much more complex, requiring the best-educated decisions in any nation, especially about standards in school management and schools' financial operations. We spent many trillions of dollars on it for more than 100 years! Campaigns like "We are the best" distorted reality and made us worse. How could something like this survive for more than a century? I expect no one to want to change it because governors and education decision-makers do not want to look bad for a month or two. IT TAKES A VERY WELL BALANCED INDIVIDUAL TO SAY THAT "I WAS WRONG." THERE ARE NOT TOO MANY LIKE THAT. BUT MANY THINK THAT THEY ARE RIGHT, JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE VOTED INTO A JOB. That kind of philosophy dates back to the caveman days.
The elected school board idea was working well in the late 1800s when agriculture was the dominant industry. But in today's world, it only produces a national "mishmash" of public education that is without proper focus. I am not critical of state-centered education, other than it multiplies the already too high cost of education compared to what our children get. I would suggest that some DECISIONS should be centralized, MANAGEMENT STREAMLINED AND EDUCATED ABOUT MBO, ANNUAL OPERATING PLANS MANAGED WITH MONTHLY GPA OBJECTIVES AND SOME OTHER CHANGES TO MAKE TEACHERS' JOBS MORE PROFESSIONAL AND RESPECTED, THAT COMES AFTER GOOD RESULTS IN PUBLIC, BUT IT WILL COME WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS ALL to improve the poor A.C.T. results our system delivers in most of our states because our nation's and our children's future depend on it. Examples of these areas are the following.
The definition of annual objectives for each high school needs to be an A.C.T. or SAT score depending on what the state uses, which needs to be 10% higher than the average score achieved in each high school. Since these are annual tests, less than average performance requires a monthly objective based on Grade Point Average (GPA) in every single school, which also reinforces the 10% increase from the GPA result for the same month in the prior year. The GPA objective must be backed up by an annual operating plan for each school, detailing what every teacher, supervisor, manager, and assistant principal must accomplish every month to achieve the monthly objective.
Raise the graduation standard from high school to those only who passed the A.C.T. Ready benchmarks and those who met an average 21 A.C.T. score. BUT IT MUST GO UP TO EVENTUALLY ACHIEVE STEM A.C.T. 29 IN PREFERABLY 5 YEARS.No objections from education, please. This is a low standard. Based on past results, education management will object. They don't have to like it. They just have to do it after their poor performance. By 2023 we have to phase over to not using A.C.T. Readiness but using STEM A.C.T. Readiness. Practically all jobs in the future will require expertise in Mathematics, Economics, and three of the Sciences for a foundation, or you will be unemployed. These are the areas for employment after AI-driven cognitive robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science. There are better methods for teaching than what we use. Teaching children how to learn, we don't do that. We should. Other countries who do better, teach it. There are many superb education tools that teachers could use. But most don't like the idea of having to learn. They are demoralized. That means that you must listen to them and turn them on. Help them!
11. It is important to separate the setting of standards from the group that is to perform the work to satisfy those standards. This is a conflict of interest that we have within education that needs separation.
WE NEED AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL BODY REPRESENTING MOSTLY LARGE EMPLOYERS TO BE THE DECISION-MAKING BODY ON ALL EDUCATION STANDARDS from teacher candidate testing to match the candidate to the profession. These teachers' college curricula must be Master's level for teaching any mathematics or any science. Grading systems in teacher training and K-12 education, teacher certification, and management training for all people who supervise more than ten-fifteen people or management people under them. If undecided, provide the management training program to teachers, assistant principals, principals, and superintendents. Cover also the use of A.C.T. or SAT annual score objectives, GPA monthly objectives, and operating plans for the GPA monthly objectives for teachers, assistant principals, principals, and superintendents. The monthly objectives in grade point average (GPA) ensure the same or higher percentage achievement than the A.C.T. and SAT objectives. We need to adopt in all education organizations on the state and local level zero-based budgeting only with operations level annual planning. In zero-based budgeting, all supervisory positions identify what they will need along with their objectives to help principals and teachers achieve high enough annual improvements in the A.C.T. or SAT scores. Teachers have to accomplish objectives with 15-25 children. There should be no doubt that we consider them the same way as any manager. In fact, their job as managers is more difficult than those managers who manage adults. We said "representing large employers" on the national education board because it is the large companies that management-train all supervisory employees because they understand the best the management dynamics and all the challenges an organization can have. We need that kind of knowledge to understand and prevent the problems that we are having.
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULA MUST INCLUDE CALCULUS AND PRE-CALCULUS MATH, AS WELL AS BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, AND PHYSICS ONE YEAR SUBJECTS, TO BE READY FOR MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES THAT WILL START impactING EMPLOYERS IN 2023. Let me emphasize again that we do not have time to argue and negotiate. If we do not get moving immediately, which we will not do with political control, layoffs will be massive as a result by 2024, and so will be black and white public disorders because hate festered too long. Animals kill to eat. SNAKES LIKE TO EAT EACH OTHER AS A DIET CHOICE. Human beings just love to dislike differences between each other and kill each other for minor differences in appearance or in beliefs, and we like to kill in large numbers. BUT WE MUST LEARN TO SEE BOTH THE GOOD AND BAD THINGS IN EACH OF US AND HELP EACH OTHER ABOUT THE BAD SIDE. AFTER ALL, WE ARE ALL IMPERFECT. WE NEED HELP. WHY DIDN'T WE SOLVE THE BLACK AND WHITE PROBLEM? ARE WE CRAZY ENOUGH TO WANT SELF DESTRUCTION? WE ARE TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED ENOUGH TO DESTROY LIFE ON EARTH. WE ARE NOT PERFECT. WE ALL CAN MAKE MISTAKES. WE CAN VOTE FOR CRAZY PEOPLE TO LEAD THIS NATION, AND WHEN BOTH CANDIDATES ARE A BIG QUESTION MARK, WE ARE ON THIN ICE. BUT THEY CAN PUSH THE RED BUTTON! WE NEED TO HELP EACH OTHER IN VIEW OF WHAT I AM TELLING YOU. WE MUST BE AMERICANS FIRST. NOT BLACK AND WHITE, REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT, OR ANY OTHER DIFFERENCE. I hope that we will be much better educated. NASA says that we have 40 billion planets out there with water and similar temperatures on earth. And WE ARE A YOUNG CIVILIZATION. There could be many who are far ahead of us.
We are a country with enormous physical beauty and with many good and generous people. God created it for us. Like other countries, we also have evil among us, and it is infecting us at all levels of our society. I don't mean Covid-19. I am getting old and too philosophical, perhaps. The Creator gave us the freedom to choose, but TOO MANY OF US INCREASINGLY CHOOSE NOT TO GET INVOLVED, to protect the good and remove the bad. Unfortunately, those who do not get involved in protecting the good help spread the bad by doing so. Individually, we cannot just fight all that WE THINK is bad.
After retirement, I focused on our public education in the US and in the best three countries in education. I decided, rightly or wrongly, that education is the most important thing to fight and eliminate the bad things that are growing. The "bad things" infected our public education, so that poverty and criminal behavior are increasing at a high rate, and education is not keeping pace with the needs of employers who need the new technologies to be competitive. Our public education is in free fall. Our future depends on how well our children are educated today. The world is getting more advanced, and so do highly destructive weapons, and our spirituality is going to the dogs. ARE WE WITHOUT A STRONG ENOUGH AMERICAN LEADER WHO IS IN CHARGE? Not a Democrat or a Republican. BUT A 100% AMERICAN.
Our presidents and governors, who all spoke about the poor education we have while running for office, did nothing to improve A.C.T. and SAT scores, which are evidence of improvement or failure to do so. They all chose not to improve it! Please read below what I found. We have some serious work to do. No one is going to do it for us. My Hungarian father of WWII vintage had a saying: "My son, don't just stand there with your mouth open, waiting for the roast duck to fly into it! Go and do what WE ALL NEED!" We had some very hungry years then after WWII.
VERY IMPORTANT: Most of today's jobs will disappear by about 2025-2026 as a result of Artificial Intelligence use in Cognitive Robotics with their cost dropping very low with Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology and Space Science, along with Cognitive Robotics, will enter the market worldwide, with a huge impact on jobs with the replacement of four-year college degrees that are easier than engineering and science graduate degrees between 2023 and 2030. We warned several states frequently about this starting around 2005 with emails to governors. The great majority of our public schools weakened their Mathematics instead of going to include Calculus and its prerequisites. Same in Science by not requiring Chemistry and Physics for graduation. With being weak in Science and Mathematics we and 75-90% of our children were graduated from high school not even A.C.T. Ready, which is a low standard in four subjects only, PLUS THEY COULD NOT READ OR DO MENTAL MATH. With robotics automating many jobs, the remaining and many new jobs will require graduate-level mathematics through Calculus and three Sciences minimum, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. There will be many new jobs relating to many new engineering and science jobs based on the rapidly increasing new technologies. But about 95% of today's high school graduates are so far behind that they would require two years of All the Math and Science WITH GRADES ABOVE 80% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE. By 2024-2025, a total of four years of remedial work that will be required to start the new college degrees. According to college professors, today's graduates need two years of remedial courses to start the freshman year of a science or engineering program TODAY. We will face a big problem in public education with our children being under-educated by two years, but IN 2024 IT WILL BECOME FOUR YEARS! The people responsible for the resulting unemployment are the heads of the state education departments and the governors who ignored many important warnings, and paid no attention to what the international high performers were doing. Public Education has been patching the curriculum and manipulating the state tests to show better results. We have been seriously damaged by those who managed state education everywhere, with only 4-5 states excepted. I am sorry to say this but every single politician talked about this problem when running for office promising to fix it, AND DID NOTHING UP TO THE AND INCLUDING GOVERNORS AND PRESIDENTS. NOT ONE OF THEM MANAGED TO PASS SOME LAWS THAT WOULD HAVE RAISED THE A.C.T. AND SAT SCORES. We have many decades of this outrageous performance, and the education just kept rotting, since not a single person picked politically, had the background to correct this mindless strategy. I know that many in politics and education will be angry for what I am exposing, but for education, because of the increasing dangers in society and not knowing how to find the best people full time for the job, we created a terrible situation. For example, teacher and management training and a management structure from 1875 prevent even average performance today. We also do not have high enough performance standards. Playing with the state tests to produce higher grades with less student knowledge, poor planning, and poor execution are big mistakes. How could such a thing be happening in the largest economy in the world, our country? It happens when one does not know one's international competition. Or when one does not improve but falls behind. Or when people on the top have no idea how to plan correctly, set the right objectives, and have the right operating plans. Jobs from about 2026-2028 will be mostly Engineering, Science, Mathematics, and Economics - based on today's graduate level, but with many changes, like String Theory-based Mathematics. Or Physics that will include many new things based on Space Science. Nanotechnology will alter manufacturing to nanometer resolution that is one-millionth of a meter or one-millionth of 3.3 feet. Robotics will be able to do almost all of today's jobs. Robotics are and will be better in producing large quantities of the same product at a high-quality level. Thousands of fascinating new sciences will develop, creating new jobs. Much easier learning will become part of every day in about eight years with brain enhancements and ready for faster changes. There will be no boring classes that turn off today's children. Today, too many children learn to hate subjects because the first classes in those subjects were boring. I attended 29 of them in math and Science in several states. I know how they feel. But if you fell behind as our public education did during the last 50 years, it will be not impossible, but much more difficult to catch up. I am not sure that we, who allowed public education to decline relative to the technological advancements, could have leadership that is tough enough to make ALL changes in education to catch up both in the schools and in our workforce. We found many public education areas that prevented us from improving our high school graduates' A.C.T. performance. It was astounding that we did not have the management know-how to this day to take action to improve. What is very surprising is that the people's tax money has been paying one of the world's highest rates per student. However, we managed to drop in the most important area in our children's future, mathematics, to the bottom of the industrialized countries, while public education was misstating its performance to the public for years. I believe that such behavior is called a fraud. The HUGE problem for us in the US is that public education regressed rather than improved. Public Education did not keep up with scientific developments. According to some university professors, our high school graduates need two years of additional education to qualify to start freshman classes in college. With the massive new sciences arriving in 2023, that performance gap will go to 4 years by 2024 because K-12 education has not improved. Political leadership does not change them (e.g., a Governor), although our public pays for each public education student, the highest in the world. We need two things urgently. One is independent employer-based management over public education, and not education department-based decision making on standards. If the Education Department objects, promises a change, looking at the 20-year A.C.T. record, that is not possible without all the changes in all areas below. Show them the 20-year-old A.C.T. performance chart, and ask how an organization that could not plan professionally could set the right objectives? How could they not set it high enough, why they do not have high enough standards and could not deliver good results in decades AND demonstrated zero management know-how? How could they improve? THEY CANNOT. Education is to satisfy employer needs. Not Education DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION needs primarily.'t needs. They can conflict as they have to date. Education wants to look good when they do a poor job. That is ancient human behavior, very primitive and very destructive. Employers know the best what they need in the education of the people they hire. Education has not been effective in managing itself. I wrote to a few governors to help them and to listen to them or anyone they designated to reply to me if I was incorrect. I did my homework in my eight-year investigation of our public education in every state and the top three countries in public education. I did not receive a single reply. I feel that I deserved a reply. I love my country. That is why I did this project at my own expense. I want to help anyone to take serious steps to correct this situation.
WE WILL SOON STEP OFF OF OUR PLANET TO FIND ELEMENTS AND MATERIALS THAT WE NEED. FOR EXAMPLE, TITANIUM IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR US, BUT WE HAVE A VERY LOW SUPPLY OF IT ON EARTH, AND RUSSIA CONTROLS IT. OR ELEMENT 115 IN THE PERIODIC CHART IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP ANTI-GRAVITY PROPULSION. WE DO NOT HAVE ANY ON EARTH. SOME OTHER PLANETS DO HAVE THEM. STEPPING OFF OF EARTH IS A VERY IMPORTANT MOVE FOR MANKIND, AND IT ALREADY STARTED. The future holds enormous, fast-changing opportunities. To succeed, we need to change how we think and recognize how little we know compared to what we will experience during our lifetime. Today, we need to be at peace with the idea that we don't know enough to say that something is impossible. We may say that we are not sure if we as individuals feel that we don't know how to do something. That is what learning does. ESPECIALLY IN THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN, SINCE THE FUTURE WILL BE IN THEIR HANDS, THEIR EXCELLENT EDUCATION IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ACHIEVE. MOST GRADUATING TODAY IN 2020 ARE POORLY EDUCATED, AND TEACHER TRAINING IS AT LEAST TEN YEARS BEHIND AND SO IS THEIR COLLEGE PROFESSOR and the other person who said something unusual, may not be lying or crazy. We need to realize that we may not know enough to judge some things based on what we know today. Or something that most people today don't know. Comments like "Impossible!" are not a good thing because we know very little, compared to what human beings will know in the future. But "Based on what I know today, it does not seem possible" could be a valid statement. BUT IF WE ENCOUNTER SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING OR SHOCKING, THAT WE NEVER HEARD OR SEEN BEFORE, THE BETTER EDUCATED WE ARE, THE BETTER OUR GUESS WILL BE ABOUT THAT OBJECT. THE SAME THING WILL BE TRUE IF WE EXPERIENCE UNUSUAL THINGS IN OUR JOBS IN THE FUTURE. IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS THAT WE ARE GETTING VERY CLOSE TO ESTABLISHING COLONIES OUTSIDE OF OUR EARTH, TO FIND RESOURCES ON OTHER PLANETS THAT WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF ON EARTH. SUCH JOBS WILL PAY MILLIONS PER YEAR, BUT WE WILL NEED MUCH MORE EDUCATION FOR IT, THAN WHAT WE CAN GET TODAY IN OUR POORLY PERFORMING PUBLIC SCHOOLS. IT WILL BE A MAJOR OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR CHILDREN, BUT NOT WITH THE EDUCATION WE PROVIDE TODAY.
We are part of the solar system with our sun. Our galaxy, The Milky Way, an average galaxy, has about 200 billion star systems with planets. Light travels very fast, at 670,616,629 mph. The distances are so great in space that we measure distance in light-years, the distance light travels in one year, or 6,000,000,000,000 miles. The diameter of the Milky Way is 105,700 LIGHT-YEARS or 634,200,000,000,000,000 miles. And the Milky Way itself, with us in it, travels at 1.3 million miles per hour GUIDED BY GRAVITATIONAL WAVES. Light takes about 105,700 years to cross the Milky Way. The Milky Way is an average-sized galaxy. One light-year is a very long distance for us, and there must be a very large number of planets with all those star systems in it.
We can see and detect only part of the universe with our best instruments in 2020. We call it the observable universe. NASA says that we have two and a half Trillion galaxies in the OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE. That's 2,500,000,000,000 times 200,000,000,000 star systems, THE GREAT MAJORITY with one sun and its planets. Many of the planets are older than we are. With these huge numbers, it would be impossible for us to be the only intelligent life, but there is good in everyone also. There must be many that have intelligent life that are many thousands and many millions of years ahead of us both spiritually and technologically. The more advanced intelligent beings existed somewhere, and they can be expected to be peaceful. Otherwise, as their technological skill increases, with weapons getting the most funding, if they do not change and become peaceful, they will destroy each other. It is very important to see the good in all of us. Because we are experts at killing each other for reasons that are in the interest of some mentally unbalanced leader whose ego or mother's honor was hurt. Our history is full of them. That is why our black and white problem must be resolved so that we can see the good in everyone, and help them with the not so good part. THAT WE ALL HAVE. THE SOLUTION IS EXCELLENT EDUCATION FOR ALL, WITH IMMEDIATE EXTRA HELP IN SCHOOL FOR THOSE WHO HAVE A LIMITED SUPPORT STRUCTURE AT HOME. IN ADDITION, TEACH THE CHILDREN FOR THE FUTURE. NOT WHAT WE NEEDED DECADES AGO. THAT IS WHAT WE DO.
Human eyes can see only 10% of the Milky Way with a clear atmosphere on earth. ONE REASON WAS THAT OUR EYES CANNOT SEE BUT ONLY A SMALL PART OF FREQUENCY SPECTRUM. Close to 90% of the Milky Way's mass is dark matter, but we cannot see it, and we don't know what it was yet in 2020. The way we developed on earth, there must be many planets with millions of years more advanced civilizations than we are, and millions with less advanced civilizations. We are just a tiny part of our universe, and there may be an infinite number of universes. Just remember that we know very little compared to what there is to learn in the future. Our future is infinite unless, with our hostile nature, we do not learn to become peaceful and blow ourselves and our planet up. What should worry our leaders is that so far, we could not change our hostility, and so far, we are not taking care of our planet either.
Our solar system is not stationary in space. Nothing is. WELL, PERHAPS AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION IS AN EXCEPTION. As I mentioned above, our galaxy is moving at 1.3 million miles per hour. The universe is expanding as well, between galaxies, and the dark energy is driving that function. Why don't we have many collisions in space? I don't know yet. Everything is moving at high speed. But the RATIO of a sun's diameter to the distance between the sun and the sun's fast-rotating planets appear to be the same huge space or nothing, as what we have between the atomic nucleus diameter and the distance between the atomic nucleus and its electrons. That means that the space between those bodies within galaxies is about 99.99%. If our solar system could be shrunk to the size of a large football stadium, the sun would be the size of a pea, and the planets would be the size of 1-2 grains of sand and the planets would be as far as the last seats, with 99.99% of nothing in the space between them. Not as dangerous as it sounds because the high speed is in huge open space compared to our experience on earth. Hubble measured one galaxy that IS moving at a rate of FIVE TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. That is a fact. But under Einstein's law, that is an impossibility. Space Physics will bring some interesting changes in 2023. We find a much bigger empty area between solar systems in a galaxy and even a much greater distance between galaxies in our universe. Empty means nothing but "dark matter" occupying about 75% of the empty space.
It will be interesting to learn new things in Physics-related to space because some of our Newtonian Physics laws we developed on earth seem to be different. The gravitational system, which we don't understand fully yet, is not constant but proportional to the mass (size) of the structures in space. The gravitational force diminishes with the square of the distance from each structure or solar system, which may have something to do with it. There must be some forces in space that we do not understand yet. We have a lot to learn yet about space Physics. The interesting thing is that almost all elements appear to us as solid when they should be transparent because much more than 99.99% of them are empty. But there are enormous forces within the atom under our normal sun-based illumination frequency. But if we X-RAY illuminate only a large iron object with no sunlight present, the iron object is transparent. Very interesting.
By the way, NASA already found 40 billion planets that have water, and their temperature range is similar to earth. Our kind of biological life could be there. But there could be a life that is different from ours. The point is that it would not be a smart thing to assume that we are alone as intelligent life. There may be intelligent life out there that is minimum thousands of years more advanced than we are. Could they have been observing us right here? Let me ask you this. Could we observe intelligent life that is 1000 years younger than we are without them noticing it? Absolutely. If we are being observed, why would they not do open? The answer would most likely be that we humans kill each other for different opinions, different religions, different skin colors, and so many other silly reasons. We need to be much better than that first, instead of destroying ourselves with the kind of weapons we already have. I suggest that assuming bad things or bad intent about others to deny the truth or do not understand something is not wise. But to learn what they are thinking, well, we might learn something very important. Talking to understand each other is better than hostility. They are thousands of years ahead of us in both spirituality and technology and could destroy us. And to disagree using flimsy "truth" with someone who presents obvious proof about a bad job done is like digging your own grave. We are very close to some interesting jobs that are space-related. So close that our children will be employable in those very high paying jobs. But please understand that without much better public education, that will not be available to our children. We cannot accept as a country not to participate in space programs and fall behind because our political and education leaders are degrading public education. That is why I am enclosing information about the best learning systems and tutorials on any subject below. Our children will need to be better educated about mathematics beyond Calculus and in sciences like Physics and Chemistry. Today they are not required to graduate from high school. But 60 years ago, they were required in the northern states. Interesting.
We must change the way we think in public education before we let our education SYSTEM destroy our country. IT IS BADLY MISMANAGED AND HAS BEEN FOR A LONG TIME. THAT IS THE TREND THAT WE ARE FOLLOWING. WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALLOWING SUCH practices TO CONTINUE?
SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:
Too many of our responsible positions are selected with elections. What and who wins elections? A few decades ago, a person who was a very dependable, well-accomplished member of society could win an election. Then I saw a governor's election. One candidate spent $10 million on advertising to put himself in the best light. The other candidate had only $3 million dollars to promote himself and lost the election. Does the best person win the elections? How about presidential elections? They cost close to a billion dollars to be elected. We had a number of very good presidents. But lately there is too much "sophistication" involved in a contest that big. And then we have school board elections. The position pays zero for small school districts, $20,000-40,000 for medium size, and there is one school district that pays $100,000/year. The cost of getting elected ranges from$5,000 to about $40,000. Do you really get to know which candidate will be the best to educate the children? No. You will get to know the image of the person that an advertising company created. But even more importantly, our country's survival depends on the education of our children and their parents. How many such children do we need well educated to be reasonably successful? 80%. How many do we get today in 2020? About 20% and it is declining.
Lenin of communism fame told his people many times around WWI, that "If you lie to people 1000 times, they will accept it as truth!" A few decades later, before WWII started, Dr. Joseph Goebels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, refined Lenin's quotation into a science, and disinformation theory was born. The large advertising companies are experts at it. As a result, the people vote for a candidate based on the IMAGE and CHARA.C.T.ER that the candidate's advertising agency created. If the advertising company presented a positive image to the public, their work successfully elected their candidate. Therefore, money wins. But the public has no idea who the person is that they voted for. How many times did you hear governors or presidential candidates promise to fix our poor education when they were running for office? I heard that every single time. Fixing education would mean that they would make changes that would raise the A.C.T. or SAT scores, that measure how much our children learned from grade one to twelve. None of them improved education's A.C.T. or SAT scores ever. We need to temper the use of elections when special scientific methods developed for crowd control can manipulate ALMOST ANY outcome. It appears that education is not in good hands when it is in the hands of politicians. The people who are the customers for what education develops are the employers. The employers know best what our education systems need to deliver, including graduation requirements that exceed their needs. Their needs will rise with the deployment of new technologies faster than in the past. Education has not delivered to employers' satisfaction. Governors know that because many employers met with governors about this problem. Quite a few wrote to us as well about how such meetings went. We have a disorganized mess in the departments of education. Their standards and performance evaluations need to be in the hands of a highly qualified group of large industry heads and retired governors. Public education organizations are limited to delivering results as this outsider organization decides. And I thought that the public's education would be very important in creating a country with a successful economy. BUT HERE WE ARE, WITH OUR POLITICALLY MANAGED EDUCATION LEADERSHIP RUNNING IT INTO THE GROUND, AND WITHOUT ANY RESPONSE IF WE ASK QUESTIONS.
In military strategy, "divide&conquer" is more than 2000 years old and was used often to date as a political tool, because it works well. It minimizes the opponent's decision-making ability and other resources. By dividing any organization for ANY reason, the divided group loses significant decision-making strength. ANOTHER WAY OF DESCRIBING IT IS:
YOU LOSE CONTROL OVER STANDARDS AND QUALITY IN ALL AREAS WHEN THEY ARE 100% FULLY CONTROLLED BY THE PARTS (STATES) OF THE NATION, INSTEAD OF CENTRALLY BY THE NATION. FOR EXAMPLE:
How do you justify different K-12 curricula in every state when K-12 is to provide a much better foundation in Math and Science because AI-based cognitive robotics will start replacing many more college-educated jobs in 2023-2024. Nanotechnology and Space Science will start many new jobs that will require much higher mathematics and science education from high school than what we provide today.
Why do governors allow the graduation of children from high school who don't even know basic math, cannot read, cannot read and write the script but can perhaps read and write block letters only?
Why do governors allow in Science and Math to skip Chemistry and Physics, as well as Calculus in mathematics as a graduation requirement in high school, when future jobs will require much higher math and science knowledge?
How did this prA.C.T.ice improve our children's A.C.T. scores between 2000 and 2019? How will what we have done produce the bright outlook on jobs "for all children" that our public education promises in writing?
How can we justify a grading system where state education departments centrally in the state use a method called "cut scores" that selectively drop the pass/fail point in ANY selected subject on the state test? The state test was purchased for many millions of dollars of the people's money meeting the curriculum. Who benefits from making your grades look higher when your knowledge is too low and have states do this individually at will? How do you compare performance with such actions? How does such action improve our children's poor education? how did this improve A.C.T. scores between 2000 and 2019?
The most damaging fact is that we use "90% graduation rate" as an objective to graduate children. The graduation rate is totally under state education department control. The state education departments can modify pass/fail points in the state tests. Graduation depends on the state test.
The fact that year-end results and graduation results depend on the state test shows tremendous pressure at year-end to pass as many children as possible. Several teachers told me that they are under pressure to pass children who would be failures normally. Therefore the state tests cannot guarantee that child education is fairly represented by graduating the child. Such practices make it impossible to accurately compare state test results to represent the knowledge-level of the students. There can be no justification for any of these harmful acts that degrade our children's education. the solution is to use average consolidated A.C.T. scores as an objective, that is 10% above the prior year's A.C.T. result, in every single state to produce valid results at the graduation level from high school. Obviously, the states were given the authority to purposefully falsify testing results to make such results look much better for the public. The states cannot alter the A.C.T. test. We would suggest that the states immediately change the graduation requirements, do not use the current state test-based methods, and use a specific A.C.T. score that represents 80% A.C.T. Readiness as a graduation requirement. We think that such a request is fair and reasonable under the circumstances. We also request that graduation requirements not be decided by the state education departments in view of 20 years of poor performance, but by an independent group of ONE senior officer from the ten largest corporations, plus ONE senior professor from the five highest-performing universities and ONE state superintendent of public education from the four highest A.C.T. score producing states.
The top leaders of the individual states, the 50 parts of our country WHERE WE DUPLICATE MANY EDUCATION FUNCTIONS, that make up our nation have big egos, normal under the circumstances, and a well-trained opponent can defeat them. We have a lot of effort on the SCHOOL DISTRICT LEVEL, AND ALSO HAVE IT IN ABOUT 14,000 SCHOOL DISTRICTS THAT ARE NOT CREATED BY "FRIENDS", BUT COULD BE CREATED BY IGNORANCE OR ENEMIES. Fourteen thousand money-wasting duplications are not very cost effective. The same forces are at play when a country is divided into pieces from the start and does not centralize for the entire group the most important decisions in ANY AREA. That is our situation in the USA. Naturally, people who would like to be the leader or governor would have a bigger ego than those who do not want to be in that position in our case in any state. If you don't know your strengths and weaknesses accurately, you will most likely lose. When your competition trains their people in better schools to be better educated, you will most likely lose. THE TWO WORST THINGS THAT ARE VERY DESTRUCTIVE ARE DENYING THE TRUTH AND FIBBING TO YOUR TEAM, YOUR BOSS AND THE PUBLIC WHO ARE PAYING FOR EVERYTHING THE HIGHEST RATE IN THE WORLD IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. Forget slogans THAT ARE LIES like "WE ARE THE BEST!" "WORLD CLASS EDUCATION!," "EXCELLENCE FOR ALL CHILDREN!" or any other similar comments printed everywhere. Such slogans are created when they are not true. One who uses it covers up a bad job, MISREPRESENTING THE TRUTH TO THE PUBLIC, WHO GET POOR RESULTS IN RETURN. Those who do a good job know it, and the public knows them as well, and their reputation rises, their morale is high without having to make false claims. DO NOT TALK AND BRAG. DELIVER INSTEAD EXCELLENT RESULTS. THAT IS HOW PUBLIC RESPECT IS EARNED.
During the early 1800s, we had one dominant industry: agriculture. Public education emerged in a little schoolhouse, a teacher, and the farming community leaders advised the teacher, after all, the farmers' children's future was in farming. That is how the idea of the school board, elected or selected, was born. It worked very well. The competition was minimal. A hundred years later, different industries developed for transportation, industrial machinery, and others. New products and their industries, like transportation, cars, and aviation, developed faster and faster, and soon, space travel will join them. They were selling and servicing their products nationally, and two world wars accelerated the development of more industries, selling products and services internationally. The countries started centralizing the important education-related decisions, appointing the best people to define standards like the curriculum in elementary and high schools, teacher training and certification, and graduation standards. We were still making most decisions with the local school board about the most important things and education. Then BAM! We went from the horse and buggy to the MOON, IN A HUNDRED YEARS! Hundreds of new industries and new technologies JUST EXPLODED. In public education, the elected school board was and is the BIG KAHUNA in decision making, in a world that later became much more complex, requiring much better education for our children. There was a change. We fell behind other nations in public education, but we spent more money per student than most other nations who passed us. A few years ago, I found two final 8th-grade tests that were more than 120 years old. The great majority of today's high school graduates could not pass the English and Math part of these tests. We will show them to you here. And we started graduating high school students who could not read or do basic math. WE STILL RUN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER A LOCALLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD that originated around the late 1800s. WE ARE THE ONLY COUNTRY THAT THINKS THAT THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS. That is what this website is about. I can only say that it is shocking what I found. Look at the quality of some people we elect, even presidents. Elections would work if we could depend on candidates and governments who are truthful and A.C.T.ed for public benefit. And then we look at our public education, on which our future capabilities depend, I am sorry to say. Money rules. Instant gratification rules. No one stands up to plug a hole in the most important ship that is sinking: public education. WHY DON'T WE SOLVE THE PROBLEMS DECADE AFTER DECADE? If our political and educational leadership recognized them, we would not have them. The local school boards are on the lowest level in the public education's management chain. They were established around 1875!! They know the least amount, but we decided to keep them without a change in authority.
Please remember something as you read this website. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Public education systems are more difficult to manage, than a business. BUT PUBLIC EDUCATION IGNORES MANAGEMENT TRAINING WHEN THEY NEED IT THE MOST. A business must make money, or you will disappear fast — the pressure to be profitable forces a business to pay more attention to doing all things well. You have to make sure that you do not overspend, hire the right people you need, hire managers who had good management training and experience, and deliver good results. You need people who know how to set the right objectives to raise performance without making the job tougher for anyone, and who know that if a group of people delivered a poor performance for years, are not doing their jobs right, and their job focus is wrong. You have income only if you make money. Balancing all of this requires management education and experience. If one does not have such discipline and the right people, one can't even see the problems that do pop up. And you make money only if you are honest and do a good job for your customers. In a business, one has a much better motivation to make sure that the money you spend achieves the results your customers want. You pay much more attention to this because if you do not, everyone loses their job. After all, you go bankrupt. That gets everyone's attention. One needs the same focus in education to do well. But in public education, you have guaranteed funding that makes it even more important to have the same degree of focus and know-how to do well. But you do not have trained management and well-trained people because the standards are low, and decisions are in the hands of locally elected people, who do not understand what we just explained. Today we need a lot more know-how in education than what we had in the late 1800s. The game changed a long time ago. But public education-related decisions went downhill like a huge, destructive snowball. Management know-how is missing in public education.
In public education, you have guaranteed expenses regardless of the quality of the job that you do. There are some standards, but they are set very low. When you set your own standards, it presents a conflict of interest under these conditions. The competition's performance is an important factor in setting your standards. In public education, we have no idea who the competition is. Education's product is a well-educated student. The parents pay a high enough rate to educate or create your product, the student, for the customer who is the employer. Some countries do an excellent job. They have proper objectives, operating plans that work, good well-trained management, excellent teacher training, and treat teachers well. I worked with 80 countries for four decades, and I know first hand. We were hiring and managing local branches in those countries. You have the freedom not to do the above things that businesses must do to survive. Unfortunately, a large enough number of countries did a better job than we did and passed us. Most of the things that businesses must do are also required to produce a good education for children. But that depends on how well those who manage people are trained and experienced in management. But we do not focus on public education with good management. The results are terrible in the great majority of schools. They lie to the public, but bad results are the norm without management schooling and experience, and they like to call it average-to-good to the public. Excellent management training and experience are much more needed in the management of both the education districts and the state education departments to counter-balance the effect of guaranteed funding. But governors do not hire the right people or hold them back, and we do not see an excellent performance. Without management education and experience, no one can recognize management problems.
As a result of management training, you learn to make sure that all people you hire can do their job well. Management is a science. Several sciences are part of it. Ethics are part of it. Employees who are a good psychological match for the job are going to be happy in the job. People who enjoy their job will do very well in it. You can trust those who enjoy their jobs to be the best workers in that job, assuming that they have the education to do well. But a well-trained manager will have to make sure that everyone does an excellent job. That means that everyone in a management position needs to be management trained. Training and being happy in your job become very important because unhappy people cannot do a good job. You can have employees tested before hiring them to ensure that their knowledge and personality fit your team well. These are very important things to achieve good results. Still, the guaranteed expenses in education, lack of management training, old-style teacher training, and lack of accurate performance measurement everywhere within the organization and low standards push education in the wrong direction. You must have a healthy management structure that we do not have and real proven management prA.C.T.ice that we also do not have to improve the results. The future of any nation depends on how good our children's education is today. That makes these points extremely important for our future. Especially since we are not doing well in many areas within the same organization, called public education.
The above comments have nothing to do with privatizing public schools to make them profit-making. What is the best way out of poverty? GOOD EDUCATION and not bad education that children get who are in poverty. EXCEPT FOR ABOUT 5%, public schools are not doing well enough, and the biggest reason for that is NOT WEAK management. US PUBLIC EDUCATION IS NOT WELL MANAGED, AT A TIME WHEN PUBLIC EDUCATION NEEDS BETTER MANAGEMENT THAN A BUSINESS FOR THE REASONS STATED ABOVE. WE NEED TO CHANGE THE TEACHING PROFESSION SO THAT THE TEACHERS KNOW AND LOVE THE SUBJECT THEY TEACH WELL, AND MAKE THEIR CLASSES INTERESTING FOR ALL STUDENTS INSTEAD OF TURNING THEM OFF. Standards for teacher training at universities, Master's level subject knowledge above 4th grade for teachers, teacher testing for personality matching to the profession at all grade levels are essential to achieve that. Knowledge of what the top three countries are doing in education because the profession requires it for knowing what good performance needs to be in a competitive world is also very important. High school graduates feed the workforce of employers, and they have to be internationally competitive. Management training for principals and superintendents, performance measurement of all teachers (GPA performance, not just observation), schools, school districts, and states must be done, with school districts and below monthly, (GPA and A.C.T.), to catch shortcomings and correct them early. Rapid supplemental training for low performers the same day when detected, raising the management structure to meet today's needs, continuing education for teachers, and much better planning and expense control are extremely important to raise low performance.
This is our A.C.T. performance for 20 years, 2000-2019. Just look at it. Is this satisfactory performance? We show below the A.C.T., SAT and international PISA scores converted to percentages. Percentages are easier to relate to good or bad performance. We have always referred to good performance as a B Average, representing more than 80% product knowledge. Today we have to be higher to catch up to what employers need. We have different curricula or list of subjects and subject content that our high schools need to complete. Even within states, we have differences in the curricula. Other countries do not do this because high school provides a strong foundation of knowledge for learning specialized know-how for different jobs, and we fell behind those countries. The idea of a mixture of subjects looks like Hungarian Goulash that looks good, but it will burn to one's rectum, but we need a solid foundation built in, especially mathematics and the sciences for future jobs. So we decided to teach LESS in mathematics and Science. Plus, with different curricula and subject content, how do we compare to others to know how good our education program is? We are not doing well, so the purpose seems to be to make it impossible for the public to tell how good our education is in public schools. Our education system's purpose IS NOT to deliver better education each year in response to the changes in technologies and employers' needs. If the objective was to keep improving our high school curriculum, we would require much more Mathematics, Science, reinstating script reading and writing, and no calculator use in K-12. It stunted the brain's neuronal interconnection activity between ages 6 and 14 to fully develop the math logic part of the brain. That is vital in fast, automatic millisecond calculations and pattern analysis during critical thinking and decision making to graduate from high school. Our education management is trying to find a course to teach children critical thinking and decision making without realizing that both functions require subject knowledge in the problem area AND related subjects as well, without which they cannot make good decisions or to think critically. PUBLIC EDUCATION HAS ALREADY WEAKENED THE CURRICULUM SO THAT IT IS NOT COMPETITIVE, and to make it worse, they allowed the curricula to vary within each state to engineer less educated children. WE HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS RIGHT HERE:
DON'T YOU THINK THAT WE NEED A CENTRAL, COUNTRY - WIDE DECISION ON ONE CURRICULUM FOR THE USA, DECIDED BY THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LARGE EMPLOYERS' CEOs, WHOSE NEEDS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TO SATISFY BY OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS? IF WE HAVE DIFFERENT CURRICULA WITHIN STATES OR IN EACH STATE, AS WE DO, YOU ARE WEAKENING THE STANDARD OF PERFORMANCE FOR EVERYONE. IF ONE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THAT, LOOK AT THE HUGE VARIATION OF PERFORMANCE AMONG THE STATES FROM AVERAGE A.C.T. 26 (EQUALS ABOUT 70% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE), TO A.C.T. 18 (EQUALS ABOUT 15% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE) WITH A NATIONAL AVERAGE READINESS AROUND A.C.T. 21. That is about as scattered poor performance as anything can get. Our education departments have been doing such a bad job for many decades, and leadership never took action to correct the failing system that became the worst among the industrialized countries, at the highest cost per student in the world. Are all of you in leadership proud of what you achieved for the people in public education who are paying one of the highest rates in the world per student? Why are you lying to the people who are paying for it with their hard earned taxes? Why don't you publish your local school districts' result for the public every year comparing it to Finland, Singapore and South Korea instead of lying to the public?
WOULDN'T EXAMINING AND CONSIDERING THE CURRICULUM IN EACH OF THE TOP THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION IN THE WORLD BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PUSHING HUNDREDS OF DIFFERENT CURRICULA IN THE USA? OR ARE ALL OF THEM THE BEST IN THE WORLD? UNFORTUNATELY, OUR MATHEMATICS RESULTS DROPPED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES, AND THE TOP COUNTRIES ARE ON TOP BECAUSE THEY ARE DOING A MUCH BETTER JOB IN EDUCATION THAN WE ARE!
LOOK AT THE 2020 A.C.T. SCORE SCATTER DIAGRAM FOR ALL US STATES TOGETHER, WITH THE SCATTER RANGE FROM A.C.T. 18 TO 26 WITH THE A.C.T. SCORE RANGE OF 1-36. IDEALLY, WE SHOULD BE IN ALL STATES AT AVERAGE A.C.T. 28-29 OR HIGHER, BECAUSE IT REPRESENTS AN A.C.T. READINESS LEVEL AT ONLY 80% WITH 20% OF THE CHILDREN NOT BEING A.C.T. READY. WHY ARE WE NOT THERE WHEN THE TOP TEN COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION RANGE IN A.C.T. EQUIVALENT PERFORMANCE FROM A.C.T. 29 TO 34? WHY ARE WE SATISFIED WITH OUR POOR RESULTS THAT GUARANTEE THAT ABOUT 80% OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WILL BE UNEMPLOYED?
3-4 YEARS AGO, AS AN EXAMPLE IN TENNESSEE, THE STATE EDUCATION PLAN CALLED FOR BEING AT AVERAGE A.C.T. 21 IN 2020. WE HAVE SPECIFIED A.C.T. 21 AS THE GOAL TO BE REACHED SINCE 1998! A.C.T. 21 REPRESENTS A SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE READINESS AT GRADUATION OF 59-60%. IS THAT ACCEPTABLE? WE CHANGED NOTHING IN THE WAY WE OPERATE. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WOULD WORK AS AN OBJECTIVE AND A GOAL. WHEN WE ARE "DOCTORING" THE PASS/FAIL POINTS TO SHOW HIGHER GRADES WITH NO IMPROVEMENT IN STUDENT-KNOWLEDGE, IN ADDITION TO OTHER CLEVER TRICKS TO PASS CHILDREN WHO WERE NOT EDUCATED WELL ENOUGH, WOULD A GOVERNOR STOP SUCH A TREND? IF I AM WRONG, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT GOVERNORS MADE WHAT CHANGES THAT RAISED THE A.C.T. OR SAT SCORES MORE THAN 5%. IN TENNESSEE, NONE DID FOR 50 YEARS SINCE 1970. DID THAT HAPPEN BECAUSE PUBLIC EDUCATION WAS DOING A GREAT JOB? DO OUR CHILDREN, AND OUR STATES AND COUNTRY NEED MUCH BETTER PERFORMANCE? ABSOLUTELY!!
IS IT BETTER TO HAVE EACH OF OUR 50 STATES DECIDE THEIR OWN K-12 CURRICULUM to provide solid fundamental education to support what children must learn later? OR IS IT BETTER TO HAVE A DIFFERENT CURRICULA FOR EACH OF THE 14,000 SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE USA? IS IT BETTER not having firm national standards at the appropriate level for teachers' TRAINING, with matching personality to teaching? IS IT BETTER not teaching management to those who manage schools, school districts, and education departments? IS IT BETTER not to plan to be competitive with the top countries in education? IS IT BETTER to make decisions within the education walls about things with which they are not familiar? Public Education created a massive problem economically for our country. I think it is time to sober up and to make some important changes to produce much better results.
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS CLAIM THAT WE DO AN EXCELLENT JOB FOR ALL CHILDREN. NO, WE DO NOT. 75-85% OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WITH A DIPLOMA ARE NOT EVEN "A.C.T. READY". I do not believe that one could plan successfully a school year unless one knows all of the following very well:
If we are at the start of planning the coming year, and if we know where we want to be by the end of that coming fiscal year, we must also know the resources and skill levels we need to have before WE complete the plan for that coming year. If we cannot plan well, then it is impossible to improve. But worse than that, if one does not plan well, one will fail EVERY SINGLE TIME in multiple education activity areas. For public education, one must know where one WANTS TO BE without any prejudice or without any feeling that it is impossible to achieve where we should be. Unfortunately, we do have such feelings of impossibility because we are untrained in public education management and the planning process. How do we know where we should be? One MUST know where the competition is. For example, where the top three countries in education-achievement are and how they achieve their results. I can already see objections to what I just said because the top three international competitors average the A.C.T. equivalent of 29-34. The second important input education must satisfy the requirements of employers. We are not doing either one of these two. Employers are not satisfied with public education. They complained to governors for about 15 years, and nothing was done about it to date. High schools and colleges feed the workforce in any nation. They design and make the products and services in an international market. If high school performance is not as good in the US as in country X, country X will win business with higher margins IN COUNTRY X BECAUSE THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES INCREASE OR DECREASE THE COUNTRY'S WORKFORCE BASED ON THEIR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION. That is what determines how healthy the national economy is for country X. It is very important to have people in one's team who understand that we must have people who know very well how to do an excellent job every day. A manager cannot accept people who will tell you that they tried very hard but could not do the job well. In education or in any job, the worker may do a poor job and may file a lawsuit to keep his job. One must fight that lawsuit because we simply cannot keep marginal workers in education, because we must do better for both our children AND for our nation's survival. There are people who feel that schools making a profit are evil. But what really counts is how good a job a school is doing to educate our children. The problem with negative profitability interpretation is that our taxes are paying the expenses for public schools only, about $10-12K dollars per student. The private schools MUST do a good job to survive. The public schools have guaranteed financial government support, regardless of the quality of education they deliver. There are low performance-limits for them by each state, but the low limits are very low, and 90-95% do not do a good enough job as they promised for decades in writing. 75-80% of the children we are graduating, are not educated well enough to be employable for five years and will be replaced by AI-based cognitive robotics that will be here in 2023. I can tell you that the following question will get attention fast. If public education does not improve dramatically, why don't we open up tax dollars to good high school students to get a better education IN CANADA or IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS since the public schools were not willing to improve and delivered bad results? Education sets its own standards. That's not a good thing. Employers need to set it, and education must deliver it. If they do not, we need to have a backup for much better education and to expand it. We will have major new technologies influencing what employers need. Most of today's employees will be replaced by robots by 2025, there will be many new jobs, but they will require much better education that our public schools did not and do not have plans to provide. That manager must make certain that all employees working for him/her have in writing the manager's expectation, preferably such that it is measurable in numbers, to see clearly if the job was done well. In today's litigious world, this is necessary, unfortunately. If a manager cannot do that, then that manager failed. Unfortunately, in public education, we have people like that in management positions who don't know how to do a good job as the manager needs it. To be a good manager, one cannot take negative situations personally. You must understand how your workers/team members see the situation. In any case, one's boss has to know the details to help the school or workplace improve its results.
In high-performing countries, teachers graduating from the top 30% of the Master's degree programs in the subject they will teach are very important. The reason is that a teacher needs far better subject knowledge to be an enthusiastic and interesting teacher to make his/her classes very interesting to students. I attended 29 classes when I became interested in education, in different states and school districts, in high school math and science classes. All of them were boring. I am sorry to say. This is not a teacher-created problem. It is a problem of old-style teacher education with a low-level subject knowledge, and the certification is the same. The boring classes turn off students at the very start of getting ready the students for higher-level job training. The subject that they learned to hate may be the ideal profession for them to pursue. This is very important today because we enter a period when new sciences will develop much faster than before. AI robots will eliminate jobs that require less education faster than before. Future jobs will require advanced mathematics, many new sciences and engineering, and economics. Our high school education is very weak in these areas. Our curriculum for a high school diploma is very weak and inconsistent even within the states, and we make decisions about important things in education at the lowest level, the school board level, exactly as that system was created in the late 1800s, not recognizing that we really need higher-level national consistency in education that needs the best brains of employers in guidance, since they are the customers for the product of public education, the student. Education did change. But far from enough compared to the changes everywhere else since the 1800s.
A FEW IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ARE:
The A.C.T. and SATs measure what a child learned from grade one to twelve. Why are we graduating students from high school who can not read or do basic math and have poor A.C.T. scores? Why would we graduate even one instead of keeping that child longer in high school until ready?
Is graduating a child who is not ready but graduated on-time more important than graduating a child 1-2 years later when the child is prepared?
If the high schools cannot deliver a child ready for getting a job on time, does not the state have an implicit obligation by taking the people's money, that happens to be one of the highest in the world per student, under the explicit promise made by the National School Board Association's under the benefits of local governance, and claims of excellence under public education elsewhere?
Should not public education tell the public the truth and nothing but the truth?
How does graduating more than half the students NOT A.C.T. READY, a very modest measure, help the children's employment prospects and our country's economy?
It makes no sense to graduate children from high school with reading or basic math problems. That should be accomplished by grade 4 at the latest. Otherwise, the school system makes it very difficult to learn for the child and downgrades the child's ability to learn every year after grade 4. I would like to see a written comment or a new policy and law from governors about resolving this and other education improvements to make our high school graduates more effective. Otherwise, the question will arise about why they have allowed this problem to exist for decades. Other industrialized countries never graduate a single child with such a huge problem.
Why does the public education system insist on very old practices that do not work today? Please read what I am quoting a few paragraphs below about school boards.
Why is it that neither Democrats nor Republicans have done a single thing in education that increased the A.C.T. or SAT scores, whichever the state uses?!
Why does the state lie to the public instead of telling the truth about public education AND fixing it decade after decade?
If a private school provides excellent education, but your public school does not, should you be able to apply the public school's expense per student toward the expense of the private school for your child? Especially when we have problems with the job that the public school is doing? The parents need that choice, and so does the country. We need better, educated citizens. Any activity that performs poorly needs competition to improve. Who is hurt the most by poor public schools? It is the poor people. Our poverty is growing very fast. Why can't we eliminate poverty like Finland does? By ensuring excellence in education.
OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM performed poorly for many decades. Why? Because no one wants to look bad, and no one knows what needs to be done in the leadership. And no government has the courage to tell the public the truth and organize a sound plan with monthly objectives to improve the job that everyone is doing. If a plan is announced that commits to achieving a 21 average A.C.T. score in the year 2020, they never reach even a low objective like A.C.T. 21, and they just simply do not ever mention that they missed the plan. No courage, no backbone, and total absence of management know-how everywhere, we spend the highest amount in the world or close to it every year, and we do not know how to deliver improving results, and DO NOT WANT TO LEARN. No one ever knows how to do it above them because those people are elected not based on real management knowledge and experience but by the picture that expensive advertising agencies create to present the candidate in the best light to the public. And the best such presentation to the public by the advertising company also has no idea what skill level the job is. That is a nice way of saying that the elected person for governor will not know how to hire the right person to head public education, the person who can increase performance. And if you write to them because you know how to do the job and want to help them, the candidate's fragile pride is hurt, and he/she does not respond. THAT IS WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR A LONG TIME, AND THERE ARE NO SIGNS FOR ANY CHANGE. THEY LOOK FOR CREDENTIALING BUT NOT FOR THE KNOWLEDGE THAT IS NEEDED AND MAKES SENSE. THE END UP HIRING THE WRONG PERSON, NOT JUST MOST OF THE TIME BUT ALWAYS, AND NOTHING IMPROVES.
In the 1800s agriculture was the dominant industry. The great majority of communities had mostly farms around them. The schoolhouse had one teacher, and the teacher, based on some 8th grade final tests I saw from those years, did an excellent job educating the children to become excellent farmers when they rejoined the family farm. The local school board was the perfect advisor then, and the two very old 8th grade tests, more than 120 years ago, were very surprising. I DON'T THINK THAT MOST OF TODAY'S HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES COULD PASS THE ENGLISH AND MATHEMATICS PORTION OF THESE OLD TESTS! We decided more than 200 years ago that we will not have central authority in education back in the 1800s. To this day, the states are responsible for everything within their schools. The elected local school boards are making all spending and operational/management decisions for the public schools in each of some 14,000 school districts. The states are setting very low standards and focus on graduation as the objective, instead of an impartial national test like the A.C.T. or SAT. Like it or not, that puts the decision making right down to the lowest possible level in our nation! When asking the education management people from a governor on down why they do that, the answer is uniform: "Because the best guidance about education performance can come only from the local population of each school district." I was very surprised because that was the reason exactly during the 1800s! Let me explain something that may be worth thinking about and then changing now urgently because everything changed significantly since the 1800s. We have several hundred industries, many different jobs that require a college education. Robotics does a better job at the lower skill level until 2023. Still, AI-based cognitive robotics will replace many more jobs on the low end, while new technologies will produce more jobs than expected, as before in factory automation. Still, the new jobs will require more education. But high school education did not change enough. Schools are to graduate children to be trainable for employers and be prepared to go to college, ultimately feeding the workforce of all industries. The most important fact is that employers use all technological changes to improve their productivity, and the employers' products and services in most industries compete for business worldwide, not just locally. It is their workforce that creates their products and services. If our high school education is not as good as the top three nations in education, the product quality coming from us will not be as good as those from the nations with a better education. That is the reason why we are not doing so well. Our national income is struggling at 3-4% instead of 12-14%, where it should be. The remainder is "financed by the national debt," yet we waste a lot of money in government-controlled operations, which will be at $30 trillion by the end of 2021. That is a very big problem. For that reason, it is not a very smart decision to stay with 14,000 local school districts' elected boards making decisions about what the direction of education should be because they don't know enough to carry out that responsibility today. Each state is doing its own thing, but worse, they delegate many things to the school boards who cannot do it well. Decision making on the lowest level, creating different standards and spending decisions on the level of 14,000 mostly independent school boards and 50 states, creates a broadly differing set of results with a bad average because the standards vary all over within our country. It is a puzzle how this could happen in a country like ours. I think that political control can do it. We became more short-term money focused. Lobbyists who are former lawmakers and have old congressional contA.C.T.s can influence decisions with big money. And that attracts new lawmakers a bit too much. Maybe that is why things did not change. BUT THAT IS WHY WE ARE ON THE BOTTOM OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES TODAY WHEN OUR SPENDING PER STUDENT ROSE TO THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD. HOW COULD SUCH A THING HAPPEN?! WE DO NEED CENTRAL CONTROL OVER STANDARDS OF SCHOOL OPERATIONS IN OUR COUNTRY. OBVIOUSLY, THE STATES WILL RESIST. WHY NOT SET A 10% INCREASE IN THE A.C.T. OR SAT SCORES FOR SUCH A STATE?
Dr. Ray Kurzweil is head of all technology development at Google. His technology forecasts are 90% accurate 30 years away.
Why do we need to have more than 50 different curricula, even with only one subject change? We are graduating children from high school who cannot read well, cannot do even basic math. The level of Math and Science is not high enough at a time when major technology changes are accelerating, INCLUDING AI BASED COGNITIVE ROBOTICS, NANOTECHNOLOGY, AND SPACE SCIENCE starting in 2023. This is a huge technological change, with a much greater impact than anything we had before. That planning in education very irresponsible. As the largest national economy, one cannot afford to under-train its future leaders, and that is what we are doing when we are dumbing down the population. If the game plan is forcing more people into poverty to move toward population control, I understand it.
Why is it that we delegate to the states, who delegate to elected school districts' boards important decisions, like improving teacher training that is too low, teacher certification that is also too low, setting one competitive curriculum nationwide against the three top nations in education?
A.C.T. Readiness is too low for a standard today, and it will change. It is equal to only 61% subject knowledge in only three high school subjects plus a third-grade subject, reading. BUT 75-80% OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE BELOW A.C.T. READINESS, BELOW EVEN 61% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE ON THE BENCHMARK SUBJECTS ONLY? DO NOT BLAME TEACHERS. THEY WANTED TO BECOME TEACHERS, ASSUMING THAT THE TEACHING CURRICULUM, THE GRADUATION STANDARD AND CERTIFICATION STANDARD WOULD BE HIGH ENOUGH TO ENSURE THAT THEY CAN DO A GOOD JOB. IT IS MUCH LOWER. THIS IS BEING DONE RIGHT UNDER THE NOSE OF GOVERNORS. People who are elected can be replaced if they propose anything that touches the way public education works. I met with quite a few of them, and that is how they felt. Look at what changes governors and legislators made that would raise the A.C.T. and SAT scores. NOT ONE EVER. That is the only fair evaluation of improved education. I could not find any.
Does every state need a different curriculum, graduation standards that differ, and so on? We have duplication of jobs and expenses not just in 50 states but in 14,000 school districts. Did that make our education vs. other countries better? Where and how specifically?
Why is it better for us as a country to set different standards with duplicated staff in 50 states and with some functions in 14,000 school districts? It is a very expensive prA.C.T.ice that could be replaced by using better quality people centrally in the country. But on that level, one does not find the quality that one would need at each such decision-making point in education. This method prevented us from delivering better education results, and dumbed-down most of the population, it increased poverty, and it will make many people jobless, because three major new technologies will eliminate the largest number of jobs, will bring many new jobs, that will require much more education. AND THAT WE DO NOT HAVE. These three technologies will bring huge changes we have never seen before. It will bring many high paying jobs, but we, unfortunately, made bad decisions about our public education that did not keep pace with the needs of employers. THE SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS IS BETTER EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOLS SO THAT THE CHILDREN, TOMORROW'S LEADERS, LEARN WHAT WE MUST BECOME, AND GET EDUCATED TO BECOME MORE PROSPEROUS BETTER HUMAN BEINGS, BLACK OR WHITE OR ANY COLOR.
Most, unfortunately, we were not smart enough to resolve a huge cancer within our society called the black and white problem for more than 100 years. One wonders how we, the largest country economy, could be so misguided, and it does not speak well of our senior political and education management. OUR LEADERS DID NOT CARE ENOUGH. THEY LET EDUCATION GO TO THE DOGS. But this is an important part of the education picture. Poor education is harder on minorities. We had something to do with them becoming poor. The wealthy could go to a better school. The poor went to poorly-performing public schools, but they did not have the supportive family structure behind them, like the wealthier people did. I am not in favor of special treatment or paying for old sins ONLY WITH MONEY. BUT IF YOU ARE GETTING THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF DOLLARS IN THE WORLD PER STUDENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AND DO A BAD JOB, MINORITIES GET HURT MORE, AND WE ALL GET HURT. OUR COUNTRY GETS HURT. AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH SPINE AND SENSE OF FAIRNESS TO DELIVER EXCELLENT EDUCATION FOR THE HIGHEST RATE WE HAVE BEEN PAYING PER STUDENT IN THE WORLD. INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN EDUCATION, DELIVERING A POOR JOB! BUT NO ONE IN LEADERSHIP HAS THE CHARA.C.T.ER TO STAND UP AND CHANGE IT AS MANY OTHER COUNTRIES DID. ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A GOVERNOR. IF YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE AS GOVERNOR, PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHO IS. I WROTE TO GOVERNORS THREE TIMES ABOUT THIS PROBLEM VERY POLITELY in 2020 AND NO ONE REPLIED. I do understand that governors may think that they have a lot of more urgent things to do. Maybe we should centralize public education, instead of duplicating an education department 50 times. That's hundreds of people duplicated 50 times. But then we would have to live with one, identical curriculum for everyone meeting one high standard for graduation that would be competitive worldwide. How boring that would be! But we are a nation of people from about 150 countries, and having at least 50 different curricula (that's more than one curriculum) would add more color and satisfy more people even in the small towns because I heard many times from education management that "The best advice for outstanding school performance can come only from an elected sample of the population around all small towns and villages." I read that also in a copy of a document about education that was written in 1875, and I am so happy that we stick to the most important and best decisions so long. (WINK-WINK)
The three major technologies will be here from 2023-2024 onward. That will leave only job opportunities that are dominated by advanced mathematics, advanced sciences, and economics. They are Artificial Intelligence-driven Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology is the second big entry at the same time. It will alter manufacturing TOTALLY, with nanometer precision that is one-millionth of a meter or one-millionth of 3.3 feet. It will drop manufacturing costs and bring significant changes to current sciences. The third major science group will be Space Science, with many new sciences also starting in 2023. WE HAVE DONE A POOR JOB PREPARING MOST OF OUR CHILDREN FOR THESE BIG CHANGES, AND THE OUTCOME WILL HIT VERY HARD, NOT ONLY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES BUT TO A LARGER EXTENT OUR CURRENT WORKFORCE NATIONALLY. The same new technology changes will raise the economy of those nations who passed us in high school performance.
A school creates a product, a "knowledge" product called a "student" that employers need. The parents pay for the development of this product, the student. THE CUSTOMERS for the "products" are the employers. The products always have to satisfy what their customers need. The high school graduates must satisfy what the employers need. Technological developments materialize if employers find them useful, improving employer competitiveness in a world market today. The student product's education must incorporate the new technology-related information promptly FOR ALL "STUDENT PRODUCTS" in their curriculum. What percentage of the high school curriculum would be acceptable to the employee customers? For many decades the great majority of employers were looking for 80% minimum high school subject knowledge, or a B minus average minimum, that is 80% or higher curriculum-subject-knowledge, graduated on time. Low-end jobs will be replaced by robotics. Why? To be competitive. Robotics are less expensive than humans. Robotics can make identical things much faster than humans, at a higher quality than humans. Artificial Intelligence-based Cognitive Robotics WILL HAVE A HUGE IMPACT.
A hundred years ago, a high school curriculum, the list of subjects you needed to complete to graduate, varied state-to-state and within states as well, to satisfy vocational needs that could last a lifetime. That lifetime opportunity has changed during the last twenty years worldwide. Technological changes are growing exponentially, and the frequency of changes will accelerate faster and faster. New technologies emerge faster and faster but will become more and more sophisticated and complicated. Most nations will be changing education to make learning easier. Many other countries already changed, requiring teachers to have a full Master's degree in the subject they teach if they come from the top 10% of the Master's program in some countries. In many other countries, teachers are not hired if they are not from the top 30% in their Master's programs. Japan started two decades ago to teach children from grade two how to learn faster. The top ten countries graduate children from high school in the 29-34 average A.C.T. equivalent score range. WE CHANGED NOTHING OF SIGNIFICANCE. The new technologies will create many new jobs. But the new jobs will require much better education than what our high school graduates were getting. The poor job public education has done for a long time will create major unemployment problems. And most of our leaders just sit there with their mouths open, I guess they are waiting for a juicy cheeseburger to fly in there.
Let me tell you how fast things will change. I am writing this in 2020. A $1000 computer has the same computational power as a small-size animal brain today in 2020. By 2025 the $1000 computer will have as much computational power as the average human brain, that was not dumbed down by public education. By 2045 the $1000 computer in 2020 dollars will have as much computational power as ALL HUMAN BRAINS IN THE WORLD COMBINED! That is ten billion human brains in 2045, 10 billion times the power of the 2025 $1000 PC. Learning will be much easier, more enjoyable, and faster. Reference: Ray Kurzweil et al. Dr. Kurzweil's technology forecasts have been 90% accurate 30 years forward and they were based on Moore's Law. However, Artificial Intelligence will form like a huge worldwide networks, that will share the constant self-improvement at all levels in the huge AI worldwide network. That could create a huge acceleration through the AI networks, while Nanotechnology will speed up the network components with much faster technology with nanometer miniaturization into 3D circuit structures creating much faster and much less expensive hardware network components. That kind of development could achieve faster achievement of the 2045 forecasted price/performance. The lack of K-12 education not keeping up with technological developments could create an enormous economic problem for us as a nation because our political management of education was ineffective, whereas an employer-based management of education would have advanced in parallel with employer needs. Just look at our public education. They do not want to change, they have done a poor job, they did not innovate, they were not interested in learning what their international competitors in education were doing. To make it much worse, putting national education into the hands of the lowest educated elected local school boards of which we have 14,000, each doing its own thing, raises education expenses, and with them being managed in 50 different directions, to any degree, and 14,000 different directions to however small degree, cannot, absolutely cannot do well, and such an education organization can collapse the economy of any nation. It boggles the mind that decision making was left in such poor hand and we do not recognize it and change it to this date. The big problem is that our public education deteriorated, with mathematics on the bottom of the industrialized countries. We would need to recover very fast to avoid MOST economic problems. The education decline relative to technology growth OVER THE PAST 50 YEARS can be overcome, but it will require a huge correction in our public education and continuing education for all in the workforce without delay.
That means that their high school subject-knowledge is below 61%, way too low. For black students, 96-97% of high school graduates are below 61% subject knowledge. A WORD ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: THE INTELLIGENCE MEASUREMENT TOOLS ARE MEASURING ONLY TOP LEVEL SUPER INTELLIGENCE SO THAT THE PUBLIC DOES NOT GET UPSET. WE ALREADY PASSED YOUNG CHILD-LEVEL HUMAN INTELLIGENCE IN 2015. THERE WILL BE MANY CHANGES COMING WITH INCREASING FREQUENCY FROM NOW ON. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THEM BECAUSE MANY NEW DEVELOPMENTS WILL START TO SPEED UP OUR ABILITY TO LEARN FAST AND MORE EASILY IF WE CAN OVERCOME OUR EDUCATION PROBLEM. The fact that we declined in public education makes these future scientific developments much more difficult to learn in the coming 8 years for us, and these new science areas will speed up the development of other new sciences, and it will never end. Whose fault is poor education? Senior political and education management, made very big mistakes during the last 50 years. This is not something that develops normally. Modern warfare developed many tools since WWII to win not by force but by reducing human capabilities that impact our thinking and decision making.
Having an objective to reach is a very good thing, but only when the objective is a key indicator of success or failure, like the A.C.T. or SAT national tests in education given every year. We use these tests, but we do not use them to drive performance in school. We use "90% graduation rate" as an objective that can be manipulated, "doctored" in many ways. It is based on the state tests controlled by the state departments of education, where the pass/fail percentages can be altered to make graduation more achievable with less knowledge. THEY can do many other things, like changing the curriculum or the content of specific subjects within it to "engineer" passing grades. But an annual objective, when done correctly, is not enough to raise poor performance. To raise performance, one needs an annual, safe NATIONAL test that cannot be "engineered" to achieve an objective. Such are the A.C.T. and SAT, but one also needs a monthly objective to keep a steady focus on what needs to be achieved in performance every month. ONE
needs to spot and resolve problems that arise and reduce end-of-year pressures that create cheating when graduation depends on the state tests that can be manipulated, in addition to stopping the incentive to pass under-qualified children we do today. To have the graduation rate to be the objective IS MISLEADING. We do not call it an objective. The graduation rate can be, and it is manipulated within the states. But we certainly name it as the most important measurement that the average person accepts. The education system wants it because they can doctor many things to "raise performance" to the graduation rate with lower knowledge by the children. The population trusts education. Education should have remained loyal to the public. The public paid education per student the highest rate per student. But public education willfully and purposefully delivered and is delivering poor results for those who pay their salaries. WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IF WE DO NOT CHANGE THIS UNETHICAL, FRAUDULENT BEHAVIOR ASAP? Hence the bad results that we have. The objective must be an A.C.T. or SAT score depending on what the state uses, which is a percentage higher than the previous year's actually achieved score. A 10% annual increase of both national test results and monthly year-to-date GPA year-to-date results would be far better as an objective. Being a poor performer, a 10% increase is achievable with correctly used management tools that we describe here. We do not use proper objectives even annually, and we have no management training within education for principals. Superintendents are a big problem. We put important decisions into the hands of elected school boards that worked well during the 1800s, but they are not good enough today since principals know more. Having the school board select superintendents is not a management system that works well. The role of school boards needs to be redefined. It is impossible to get good results on the schools' level, WHO PRODUCE THE RESULTS, without solid, up-to-date management training and management structure. For this reason, we have a management area below dealing with this subject. There will be no improvement without setting up a management structure that works in today's world, where people understand clearly how and why things like objectives and operating plans work very well, but they have to be 100% correct.
Public education makes up its own operating standards. THAT WORKS, IF YEAR AFTER YEAR THEY PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS. BUT IF THEY DO NOT, AN INDEPENDENT GROUP WITH MANAGEMENT EXPERTISE NEEDS TO BE THE ONE THAT SETS THE OPERATING STANDARDS AND MONITORS PERFORMANCE NATIONALLY. The state education departments' responsibility needs to focus on improving the performance of public schools significantly. Past performance results of everyone need to be reconsidered for the future with special emphasis on improving subject knowledge of high school graduates in all math and science courses. Do what teachers and principals need to achieve that. They are the most critical employees to achieve better results and must be treated accordingly. Remember this very well: people rise to high expectations and to objectives that are a stretch but important. On the other hand, small increases in objectives are generally ignored and missed. We can see that education has not worked well for decades, and that is not acceptable at a critical time we are facing today. What are these standards? Understanding and detailing of objectives, goals (they are not the same as objectives) and operating plans is vital. Management training for principals, to develop better superintendents from within, measuring performance per class, teacher, principal and assistants, per school, school district, state, and nation is vitally important. Automating it via a database system that covers all these areas, that can give an instant view of where any operating unit stands vs. monthly objectives is also important. WE ALSO NEED TO INCLUDE IN ANY PLAN, zero-based budgeting, because it is a better method for planning where resources are 100% identified, and it goes very nicely hand-in-hand with planning. All high school principals must become trainees for superintendents, with more responsibilities, and it would be smart to have them be responsible for their feeding schools. I would recommend that school districts do not set and make policies, but states do. I would suggest that the core curriculum be identical in every public school nationally, with mathematics to include Calculus and Science to include Chemistry, Physics, and Biology for a high school diploma. High school graduation requirements must be nationally defined, and be not less than 60% knowledge of all high school subjects at graduation, that must go to 80% as soon as possible. We must keep comparing our own national test results compared to the results of Finland, Singapore, and one more top performer, but exclude China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, because culturally, children are subjected to much greater parental pressure about K-12 school performance than we are.
We need to make BETTER decisions. We need to find the best people, the best solutions to problems, even in the absence of formal qualifications we need to have in decision making the very best people who can make the best decisions FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. I am hoping that our political and education department leadership is totally honest among themselves as they make decisions that are not producing good results. But to be frank, for a country like ours, the largest economy in the world, we must produce much better A.C.T. results than what we did during the last twenty years. We can see on our A.C.T. scores the result of people making decisions who have no idea what competition we are facing in education, and without that information, one cannot even guess where we are and where we should be. There is no way anyone can plan an objective this way, even in a single year, because one is guessing without a sound plan. To top it off, we are short on well-trained teachers, principals, and superintendents. We don't do any meaningful management training, and we do not even acknowledge how poorly we are doing. But like we did in late 1800s, we hand the important decisions to an elected LOCAL school board. Our state education management cannot figure out what was wrong during the last 100 years. The outlook is not promising with that kind of leadership. I am sorry for being so sharp-tongued, but what we do in public education is very wrong. There is a total absence of management know-how in education at all levels. That is exactly why we are NOT doing well with public education. Each state controls its public education, establishing its standards, change curricula even within the same state. Public education and political management are not interested in learning how to do well from the best nations in education. We are not interested in improving. We do not understand how good or bad we are and what we need to do to improve. Simultaneously, the political and education management complains about any other form of education, taking away public education money. No one is taking their money away. They certainly should not continue paying for an education system that maintains poor performance with 75-80% of graduates not being A.C.T. Ready. They are "educating children to be jobless for life." Such schools cannot be called public schools. They should be called PUBLIC FAILURE FACTORIES. I am simply suggesting to them to learn to do a good job instead of complaining about others. Public education is already getting the highest amount of dollars in the world per student and doing a very poor job. And those who perform poorly because the performance threshold is set by public education management, the same way as they set graduation requirements too low, have guaranteed at least the same expense level as they had the prior year. Don't we have anyone within both top political and education management to see what multitude of things we are doing in the management of education that is totally wrong and creates failure?? Well, I will take you through them on this website. And to those of you who think that I am too harsh on education, I am not. But I am angry because poor education is destroying our children's and nation's future. The result is a substantial variation among our states in public education. Tennessee is doing a very poor job, Massachusetts is doing a better than an average job, but not as good as the top countries in education. What stands in the way of all our states performing like the best three countries in education? 1. The big egos elected to head each state, and 2. There are very large differences in education results among our states, meaning that the elected people do not select uniformly good people for the jobs. The same high standards need to apply to ensure a successful future. Is election the best way to do that? How much do we know about a person running for office? How much do WE know about what needs to be done by that person? How many people win an election because they can spend more money on advertising to build their image? Is THAT the best way to select the best people for an important decision that the nation depends on? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
I have to admit that I did not expect to find much that accounts for our public education's poor performance. I was wrong. I noticed the math problems increasingly, especially with high school graduates behind cash registers, and found them very poor readers. They were high school graduates, and I verified every single one of them. I saw this problem more and more frequently and met quite a few people who also noted the problem in interviewing high school grads for jobs. I did not believe them for a number of months, so I joined in on some job interviews that were high school grads. They were as terrible as people told me early on. That is when I started investigating education systematically in the US and in the best three countries in education in detail. As I investigated, what I found in the US did make me angry. Please forgive any angry reactions that may show on this website. I love our country, and I found many things in education that would become very destructive to our country. I even wrote to governors hoping that I made a mistake. I was begging for explanations and did not receive any. NOTHING! ZERO RESPONSE! I believe that as a citizen, especially as a VET who took a bullet for his country, I deserved an explanation. Our nation and our children deserve a much better education than one that puts them below the industrialized nations when our hard-earned tax dollars pay the highest amount for public education in the world. Elementary and high school teachers, principals, and superintendents are not to be blamed. They went into teaching with the best of intentions. It is not their fault that their training and certification is not good enough. It is not their fault that management training does not exist and that the subject training is insufficient. Why is it that governors did not reA.C.T. and solved the problem decades ago? This is not a new problem—all state departments of education report to governors. The governors appoint the head of that department. They are well-credentialed. Why did none of them take the usual management steps to correct the poor performance after going through thousands of governors? I think that those responsible in leadership deserve significant punishment, like having to work for Donald Trump for four years, eating leftover MacDonald cheeseburgers.
As we are today, our loyalty is split between our nation, our state, and the parties to which we belong. Neither party did a single thing to raise the A.C.T. and SAT scores EVER! I hope that we can concentrate on becoming the best nation in education and do with expertise on the international level what our employers and children need long term. Both our children and our country need the best education we can provide. The curriculum is the list of courses that make up what the children need to learn in elementary and high school to be employable. In the US, it is different not only state-to-state but even within the state. IS THAT A GOOD THING? Should not our country meet the one internationally competitive national standard for a high school diploma at or above 80% A.C.T. Readiness? It will have to migrate within to years to 80% STEM A.C.T. Readiness with Chemistry, Physics and Calculus added as prerequisites for graduation, teacher selection, principal and superintendent training, management training for principals and superintendents, a curriculum that is competitive with the top three nations in education? I am sure that many will say that the state level is better in decision making because it creates competition. But just dividing responsibilities weakens decision making unless there is a big enough material incentive to deliver excellent measured results, and that is expensive. I'll give you an example. A group of countries decided three years ago to give one million US dollars to the teacher with the best measured academic results. That really created enormous effort, excellent teachers immigrated there, the results went up, and a very good teacher from another country who immigrated to these countries in the contest won the million-dollar reward. A million-dollar reward is not costly in any US state that is spending a couple of billion dollars MINIMUM on K-12 education, compared to the motivation that one will get. Some school districts are wasting $10-15 million in their school district's central management alone, and nothing is done about it. We waste much more money than that. AND we waste our children. THE ROAD ON WHICH WE ARE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION DOES NOT END WELL. THE MISSTATEMENT OF factS BY SOME POLITICIANS AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING. WHY ARE GOVERNORS NOT CORRECTING IT? WHY ARE WE PAYING ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES IN THE WORLD FROM OUR TAXES PER STUDENT BUT 75-80% WE GRADUATE WITH A DIPLOMA FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHO ARE NOT EDUCATED WELL ENOUGH TO BE TRAINED FOR A JOB? THEY ARE NOT "A.C.T. READY." WE HAVE A CANCER WITHIN OUR SOCIETY. IT IS THE BLACK AND WHITE PROBLEM. EDUCATION IS THE ONLY THING THAT SOLVES SUCH PROBLEM. I COULD BE WRONG BUT MANY TIMES PEOPLE GIVE AN OPINION THAT OPPOSES SOMEONE ELSE'S OPINION, AND AFTER A FEW MINUTES THE PERSON KNOWS THAT HE WAS WRONG. BUT HE WILL STAY WITH HIS WRONG OPINION BECAUSE HE THINKS THAT BY ADMITTING THAT HE IS WRONG, HE IS DESTROYING HIS OWN IMAGE OR PEOPLE WILL THINK THAT HE IS STUPID. IF YOU CAN ADMIT THAT YOU ARE WRONG, YOU ARE AN OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL. SUCH A PERSON WE CAN DEPEND ON. HE CAN LEARN, AND IT TAKES COURAGE TO ADMIT THAT ONE IS WRONG. THOSE WHO CANNOT DO THAT YOU CANNOT DEPEND ON FOR ANYTHING THAT THEY SAY. 94-97% OF BLACK CHILDREN WE GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOLS ARE NOT PREPARED WELL ENOUGH TO LEARN A JOB. IT APPEARS THAT WE HAVE A PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT IS FAR FROM BEING GOOD ENOUGH. WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS.
I DON'T KNOW IF WE HAVE ENOUGH TIME to correct this huge, dangerous problem. Maybe we are too late, but we have to try as hard as we can and do the right thing for our children and for our nation. Our political and education leaders must have known the very obvious problems I found. I can solve them, and I will describe for you the problems, what creates them, and also what solves them. It appears that some well-credentialed people used their expertise to create this dangerous situation to hurt our country. The scheme that made our education slowly progress toward unnoticeable failure goes back more than 100 years. Some go back to the middle of the 1800s. The people who did it were brilliant and cleverly used basic human fears that we developed in ourselves many thousands of years ago.
THERE ARE CLOSE TO TWO HUNDRED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD. WE ARE AMONG THE TOP FIVE COUNTRIES IN SPENDING THE MOST PER STUDENT. SOMETIMES ON TOP, THE HIGHEST SPENDER, BUT IN THE LAST TEN YEARS, NEVER BELOW THE FIFTH IN SPENDING. HOW ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE, THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN? ISN'T THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK OF ANY SCHOOL? WE WERE ONE OF THE TOP COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION BEFORE 1970. Our nation's future depends on how well our children are educated today. Our high school graduates feed the workforce of all industries. That workforce creates our products and services that must be competitive worldwide. That depends on how well our high school graduates are educated. Unfortunately, our high school education declined. WHY? WHOSE JOB WAS IT TO MAKE SURE THAT OUR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION IMPROVED INSTEAD OF DECLINED? Profitability and national income depend on the workforce's education. We compete in an international market against countries that have a much better K-12 education system. When we become less competitive, our income suffers. Normally our national income should be around 12% or more. Today we are struggling at 3-4%, and our national debt will hit $30 trillion in just a few months, with total interest around $7.5 trillion included in the $30 trillion! WHY?! Because 75-80% of our current high school graduates are not even "A.C.T. ready," a low measure of education at 61% subject knowledge, so such children are graduated with less than 61% subject knowledge!! How many? About 3 million such high school graduates annually, for many years. With such workers injected annually into the general workforce, since the workforce creates and services all industries' products, we became less competitive, lower margins, lower profitability, and lower national income than nations with better high school education. At the same time, technological developments are accelerating exponentially, where education standards should rise as well, but ours did not and does not. By the way, I am painting a picture that is more positive than reality in public education. We deliver the worst mathematics results among the industrialized nations. Mathematics is the most important subject in our technology-driven world. Our public education system does not tell the public the truth about their children's education. They misinform to be kind or because they do not want to be blamed. Or because they want to look good, and no one is challenging that. IN GENERAL PARENTS CARRY SOME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CHILD. BUT IN POVERTY THAT RESPONSIBILITY BECOMES INEFFECTIVE. THEY DON'T HAVE MUCH EDUCATION. THEY BELIEVE ANY SCHOOL OFFICIAL, BASED ON WHAT THEY UNDERSTAND. CANNOT EXPECT ANYONE TO UNDERSTAND MORE. CRITICIZING THEM IS EASY. PUBLIC EDUCATION'S JOB ID NOT TO JUST TO PUT A BODY IN THE CLASSROOM WHO HAD NO TRAINING ON THE SUBJECT. OR WHO DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT PERSONALITY AND COMPASSION TO TEACH THE CHILDREN WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE. I MAY BE WRONG, BUT I SEE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION DIFFERENTLY, THAN WHAT I OBSERVED. THEY ARE DIFFERENT THAN THEIR OWN COMMITMENTS AND GOALS, AND DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. BUT I AM NOT WRONG WHEN I SAW THE RESULTSThose parents in poverty who take school employees' answer as a fact when it was a lie deserve some help instead of blame for their children not doing well. The parent in poverty is generally not a high school graduate. THEY NEED HELP AND TRUTHFUL ANSWERS THE MOST.
THERE ARE SOME VERY CLEVER EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN SOME COUNTRIES. WE COULD LEARN A LOT FROM THEM. FINLAND is a good example. The population respects teachers more than any other vocation. WHY? Because they educate the children so well that they graduate from high school with a higher than 29 A.C.T. equivalent average, and the scores are very close. A prospective teacher is hired from the top 10% of the Master's program to teach if they pass some psychological tests to match them to the teaching profession. When hired, they go back to grad school to learn the latest about the best teaching and learning methodologies and learn to diagnose learning disabilities to refer any student directly to the medical community. Then they will work together with a master teacher for 15 years, who qualifies for that position in 15 years. Teachers in Finland solve all the problems that arise in a weekly meeting of teachers. The principal is a general manager, and the teachers do not need help. The curriculum defines what the teachers are to achieve by year-end with their classes. Still, each teacher decides what textbook and teaching aids they will use. They can teach the year's material in any sequence that the teacher feels best or not use any textbook. Textbooks are generally six years behind when published, whereas these teachers in Finland teach totally up to date material. Each country's curriculum is very similar, except for ours, and is upgraded for scientific and technological changes that impact employers and all industrialized countries. We use locally elected school boards to guide our children's education, exactly for the same reason as we did in late 1800s as if nothing has changed since then. We have more than 14,000 school districts, each with elected school district boards to decide how our children should be educated. And decade after decade, education does not improve. I am sorry, THIS is not evidence of good performance by people who CARE
and are doing a GOOD JOB. WHY ARE WE WASTING THE MONEY DECADE AFTER DECADE WITHOUT MAKING OUR EDUCATION BETTER? IS OUR POLITICAL LEADERSHIP UNDER THREAT? WHY IS IT THAT NEITHER POLITICAL PARTY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT EDUCATION THAT SO MANY THINGS DEPEND ON? DO THEY GET A SECRET LOBOTOMY TO DROP THEIR IQ 50%? HOW ON EARTH CAN SOMETHING SO FOOLISH HAPPEN?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE THINKING OF GOVERNORS WHO HIRE THE HEAD OF THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO IMPROVE THE STATE EDUCATION THAT NEVER IMPROVES? Our curricula can be different in any state and even within a state. We are very light on science and mathematics when within a decade at most, only those jobs will survive robotics that will be based on advanced mathematics and advanced sciences. So we decided to teach less mathematics and less in science when other countries' high school graduates cover calculus in math and chemistry, physics and biology in science. I saw a very interesting teaching method in Finland. The teacher divides a class of about 30 into small teams of 2-3 students. The teacher hands a written problem weekly to each team in each subject. The small teams are to investigate using the Internet or the school library and solve the problem during that week. The teacher manages the class by walking around to see how each team member is doing at least six times every day. The teacher can answer questions provided it does not help the students to solve the problem, and the teacher is to help a team only if they are stuck in the investigation. This is how they learn every week. Homework is extremely rare, and testing is not necessary until the middle of high school. They spend the same amount of time in school as we do, but if the teacher finds that someone needs some extra training, that individual gets more training after lunch until five pm, so no one falls behind. The deepest and quickest learning is achieved by remembering the facts and doing something to apply what we learned. This method of teaching injects that into the classroom, along with COLLABORATION that is a very important component of the way we produce almost everything. They improve something every year, and as a result, they get multiple groups visiting them from more than 100 countries every year.
The investigated solution is what they are to learn that week in the teachers' lesson plan. The collaboration within these small teams and their investigation create deeper learning than what most countries do. They produce very high grades once they start testing in the middle of high school, Min-Max spread is around 15%. The teacher walks around to see how the little teams are doing, about six times every day. Her job is not to help unless a little team is stuck. Their schools produce very high grades that are unusually close in range. They see who is fast and who is slow. They assign the slower children to a class in the afternoon to bring them up to date between 2 and 5 pm the same day. Every year they have more than 100 countries visiting them with groups of people to learn what Finland is doing. Finland has no extreme wealth and no poverty. Schooling to several Ph.D.s and medicine is free. Taxes are about 10% higher than ours. Finland is rated the happiest country in the world in a UN survey every year. The curriculum includes ethics but being nice to people, and basic math and reading are included in preschool, from ages 3-7.
First grade starts at seven years of age. Teaching from 3-8 years is delivered through games that gradually get more serious by age 9. The school decides to keep a student on an academic track or vocational track that is very serious, generally ending in a Master's degree in engineering or a science field. After the middle of high school, the student can go back to the academic path for a Ph.D. without penalty. When you visit them, it is like heaven - no discipline problems, everyone is happy. Teachers and students communicate on a first-name basis. They all meet at 7:30 am for breakfast, and later for lunch, again together. They take a 15-minute break every hour, and they play outside. They finish the day at 2-2:30, with no homework, and are told to go home and play. This is the system I would recommend for us. It is a fantastic combination of serious high-level knowledge and recognition of the importance of play.
I met with several inner-city parents. Generally, a single parent in most cases and has a very tough life. I spoke to many. There is a common story. She got pregnant, and he ran away. She had to take care of the baby and did not graduate. Some of you may have critical words for parents in poverty, but if you have not walked in her shoes, this is the time for understanding everything before we decide on solutions. The mother asks a principal how her little Johnny is doing. She is told not the truth, but "Miss Johnson, God, did not make all students for college. But don't worry, Johnny is a smart boy. He could learn a good trade job and make good money." This is not true. This is not true. Robotics will replace the remaining trade jobs. And here is an example of how the deep sadness and misunderstandings develop. In the poverty area, the parent is barely surviving. The only friend, the child has, is the gang. Everyone wants to belong—especially children. And so the black and white problem grows, because our education is poor, the parent cannot afford to spend enough time, the child is going to boring classes, and his gang is socially developing him because they are the only ones who care. We don't even care enough to improve education for anyone. For all children, the black and white problem develops. Trade jobs will be replaced by AI-driven cognitive robotics faster than a student writes "mickey mouse" with block letters. The solution is a good education for ALL CHILDREN. Our schools and education require people who have compassion, who understand what we are talking about, well-trained teachers, so raise the teaching colleges standards much higher. Require a full Master's program to teach mathematics or any sciences and use people to teach our children who love their subject, keep up to date with it because they love it, and let that love infect all the children in his or her class. You cannot teach well unless you are THAT KIND OF PERSON. We need much higher standards in our schools than we have. YOU CANNOT COMPROMISE STANDARDS BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TEACHERS. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHY POVERTY IS BEATING DOWN THE PARENT. And if you blame anyone, especially those in poverty, and if you can only view the problems of poor people through your relative wealth-blinded eyes, then go to the poor people, ask them your questions and learn what reality is for those less fortunate. A gentleman from Oak Ridge National Labs, who had a different opinion about parents in poverty, wrote to me and blamed the poor parents. When I asked him what solution he would propose to fix the poor parents, he had none. I don't know how an intelligent person can be so insensitive and be critical without any idea of what he would do to solve the problem. I would expect at least that much from any Ph.D. THE COMING DAMAGE: VERY LARGE LAYOFFS BECAUSE OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION HAS NOT BEEN RESPONDING TO EMPLOYERS' NEEDS. We throw money at the education problems that did not solve the problems for decades. Many employers explained this situation to governors during the last 20 years, but the schools did nothing.
GROWING POVERTY, AND THE MORE THAN 150-YEAR OLD BLACK AND WHITE CONFLICT IS A VERY DANGEROUS PROBLEM FOR OUR COUNTRY.
PEOPLE ARE BEGGING FOR JOBS, BUT ARE NOT GETTING THEM. WHY CAN'T WE SOLVE THIS PROBLEM? JOBS ARE NOT THE SOLUTION! THEY WERE NEVER THE SOLUTION.
EDUCATION IS THE SOLUTION FOR BOTH POVERTY AND THE BLACK/WHITE PROBLEM. IT IS A GOOD EDUCATION THAT WILL GET ONE A GOOD JOB.
WITHOUT A GOOD EDUCATION ONE CANNOT GET A JOB, BUT OUR EDUCATION BECAME POOR. WE ARE ON THE BOTTOM OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES IN MATHEMATICS.
THE CHILDREN WILL END UP IN A FEW YEARS UNEMPLOYED. A POOR, DECLINING EDUCATION, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PUBLIC IS NOT AWARE, IS NOT A FRIEND'S WORK. IT DUMBS DOWN THE PUBLIC SO THAT THEY CAN BE CONTROLLED MORE EASILY OR BECAUSE THEY GET VIOLENT WITHOUT THINKING AND THEN WE CAN FIRE HOSE THEM OR SOMETHING SIMILAR. THIS IS AN ENEMY'S WORK. I saw recent groups demonstrating, with the leader screaming, "Kill all whites!!". I heard from a group screaming the same about blacks. We need to be reminded to think. SO THINK! What do you think will happen if the blood starts flowing on both sides in the streets because incompetent management and poorly trained staffing in critical positions produced very poor results? BUT THEY WERE WELL CREDENTIALED! The A.C.T. results tell you something more important. Within public education, we hire people to fill job openings. But there is no one with authority it appears who has any idea about how to interview to find the RIGHT PERSON for the job. That happens to be an important part of management. We look at the state's guide to plan the coming year. It is massive but wrong and cannot improve results. We look at how the schools operate and find many problems that make improvements impossible. We hire credentialed people who don't know how to manage the jobs for which they were hired. The biggest problem is not the principals and teachers. The biggest problem is poor teacher training and certification standards, absence of management training, and poorly performing basic things.
Instead of resolving the black&white problem, we are increasing hate that we should have resolved a long time ago. The increasing hate evolved into special interest groups who demonstrate to amplify it, and the declining public education supports it also. How could we put this awful thing behind us? NOT WITH INCREASING HATE. I believe that a more internationally competitive curriculum education would be the right solution to this problem if we graduate children with an 80% A.C.T. readiness minimum, that would happen with a graduating class scoring an average A.C.T. 29 score. In my work to research our failing education, I found several examples of black high schools graduating kids, 97% of whom are not prepared to learn any job. They are not even A.C.T. Ready, which is a fairly low standard based on A.C.T. 21 average of 3 high school subjects plus reading. That is very bad. AND IT IS NOT ACCIDENTAL. I decided to sit in on 29 science and math courses total in four states' high schools. They were boring. No exception. No one can learn in a boring environment. Not an adult nor a child! Especially poor black and other minority children whose single parents were not educated. And this is the only way for them to get out of poverty, but we make it difficult. I noticed that black children were very quiet. Why? So I found a chain of charter schools in New York with 40+ schools that take only poor black inner-city kids, AND THEY ARE SCORING HIGHER THAN MOST PRIVATE SCHOOLS in NYC! Do you think that the black kids in New York have far better genes than the black and white kids a bit further south?? Of course not. THEY HAVE BETTER EDUCATED TEACHERS AND MANAGERS, A CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR ALL OF THEM, A BETTER CURRICULUM THAT IS OPEN TO ANYONE, AND A WELL DOCUMENTED TEACHING METHODOLOGY FOR EVERY COURSE THAT THEY ALSO MAKE AVAILABLE. THEIR NAME IS SUCCESS ACADEMY SCHOOLS. I am begging you all, including governors, to do more for those not educated well enough to become better educated. THE fact IS THAT OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION IS DOING A POOR JOB. THE WEAKER AND LESS EDUCATED ALWAYS GET HIT THE WORST. IT IS THE WEAKEST PART OF OUR POPULATION THAT IS GROWING BECAUSE THE EDUCATION SYSTEM'S OUTPUT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. If we created part of a big problem, let alone all of it, don't governors have an obligation to fix it? Why did this happen? Are the politicians we elect to high office unable to improve things? Are intelligent people on the highest and wealthiest level, who do not want to risk their financial position, threatened? People in growing poverty can become a big financial load on a country. If poor public education contributed to increasing poverty, and it did, with education under government control, don't we have an obligation under the constitution and as a human being to correct it promptly, instead of destroying people's lives? Even wild animals are better than that. They kill to eat. We, humanity, kill people just to destroy them because they are a little different in color, religion, nationality, the way they speak, and on and on. Do you know why that is not a good thing? Because our technology is increasing more rapidly, but our spirituality is in the gutter. We do not search for and see the good in others when we all have good and bad in us. Our weapons are part of it, and they are becoming more destructive. We are not perfect, and we all make mistakes due to decisions based on hate, sometimes for ridiculous reasons. With today's weapons, we could destroy every living thing on this earth due to how we feel about each other. I am writing this website because I care about my country and its people. There will be many who do not appreciate it. Unfortunately, almost everyone can see that most of our children who graduated from public high school lately know a lot less. When you read what I found, you will become a very surprised believer. I don't know if I or anyone could be different from our political leaders under the circumstances they face and take no action to solve the education problem, especially after seeing how some politicians A.C.T.ed after the 2016 presidential election. I am hopeful that the good in all of us will do the right thing peacefully to make some changes to save our country. Just remember that we all have good and bad in us. None of us are perfect. We CAN do good to others or do bad things to others.
CREDENTIALED PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT IF THEY ARE A GOOD FIT FOR THE PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED and A.C.T.UALLY SOLVE PROBLEMS AND DELIVER EXCELLENT WORK. WHEN HIRING IN EDUCATION, WE DO A GREAT JOB, HIRING CREDENTIALED PEOPLE. BUT OBVIOUSLY, THEY CANNOT DO THE JOB WELL ENOUGH. THE RESULTS ARE POOR. We have to be much better to succeed as a nation in the future. I found that the locally elected school board majority interviews and hires SUPERINTENDENTS, a very important position that makes or breaks a school district's results. WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM WITH SUPERINTENDENTS, because the management know-how is missing, and the results depend on them. WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM WITH TEACHER TRAINING. We have too many children graduating with poor reading and basic math skills. We cannot be playing nice in this case. If they cannot raise children to excellence by the end of grade four, such teachers need to be replaced, or we have to automate this area with AI-driven cognitive robotics. Our performance is poor. I BELIEVE THAT WE MUST ELIMINATE/REMEDY URGENTLY ANYTHING THAT CONTRIBUTES TO BAD RESULTS. High-performing countries in education have been hiring teachers who have a Master's degree in the subject that they will teach if they are a good personality match to the teaching profession based on tests. People who have a good foundation in math and science on a Master's level and were principals in high school with A.C.T. or SAT results rising for five years would be the right candidates for the superintendent. MAKE IT KNOWN THAT IMPOSSIBILITY THINKING WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR. WE WANT PEOPLE WHO ARE FOCUSING ON HOW WE CAN INCREASE THE RESULTS AND WHAT THAT MEANS. Unfortunately, in a poorly performing organization, one does not have people like that. That is why the performance is poor. Come to think of it, not only the candidate, but those interviewing the candidate need to be also well qualified in these areas, plus they have to know how to interview and decide on the right candidate and not just depend on the headhunter's background check, like we do in education districts.
MANIPULATION OF STATE TESTS TO CREATE GRADES THAT LOOK GOOD, BUT WITH LESS KNOWLEDGE, SEEMS TO BE THE CUSTOM NOW. I read in an education website that Grade Point Average or GPA gives the best indication of the job candidate's exact knowledge and the job he does. It makes good sense, but it is not as secure as the national tests A.C.T. and SAT. The A.C.T. AND SAT are annual tests. The GPA could be a terrific "continuous" test if the testing would be in the hand of a testing company like the A.C.T. or SAT, keeping test results updated daily, scoring tests automatically, showing year-to-date GPA per student, per class, per teacher, per principal, per school district, per state and nationally to the top three countries in education annually. The testing function would need to be under an independent group of senior management people from the biggest employers, who would also be setting the standards for teacher training certification, teacher curriculum, teacher psychological qualification tests to be administered before teacher training. The GPA would be the best indicator if all states required the same number of different subjects with the same information in the same detail as the top three internationals' curriculum. The same standards for every high school in every state cover the same information in every state. And finally, if the states' tests would be identical in every state. BUT NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. ALL STATES WANT THE OPTION OF CHANGING THE PASS/FAIL POINTS IN THEIR STATE TESTS ANNUALLY, "TO MATCH THE COMMON CORE REQUIREMENTS," THEY SAY, BY LOWERING AND NOT RAISING THE PASS/FAIL POINTS IN STATE TESTS. UNFORTUNATELY WHAT THEY CLAIM IS IMPOSSIBLE, BECAUSE PEOPLE IN EDUCATION MANAGEMENT ARE NOT MAKING THE EFFORT TO IMPROVE THEIR BAD RESULTS. With the current method, this practice leads to declining performance. Why? Because we already know that if performance is too low, instead of making the course content higher, they would rather lower the pass/fail points. This area is extremely important. All standards and policies that define what education departments must achieve should not be under the control of education departments. Because if a government-based organization is producing bad results as education does, it is much easier to do things like dropping the pass-fail percentage in tests to get higher grades than improving the way we teach. And then you teach less and less, and by doing so, we are dumbing down the population. One can see that by looking at the chart with 20 years of A.C.T. scores. The A.C.T. chart shows that when we are one of the highest spenders in the world per student in public education, BUT we deliver the worst results among industrialized countries. There has been no effort in the past to raise our declining public school results, and in mathematics, we dropped to the bottom of the industrialized countries. WHY? Because high technology developments are coming at a faster pace, employers use new technologies almost immediately. Still, our schools do not teach them, and the graduating high school students become less and less qualified for the jobs that employers need to fill. This presents a huge growing need for better high school education that teachers are NOT prepared to do. THAT INCREASES THE DEMAND FOR AI-DRIVEN COGNITIVE ROBOTICS THAT ARE MUCH MORE SKILLED, FASTER, AND CREATE BETTER QUALITY PRODUCTS THAN HUMANS+CURRENT MACHINERY. IT WILL REPLACE A LOT MORE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES AND ABOUT 30 MILLION WORKFORCE MEMBERS WITHIN FIVE YEARS BY 2026. DAMAGE: VERY LARGE LAYOFFS BECAUSE OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION HAS NOT BEEN RESPONDING TO EMPLOYERS' NEEDS.
READING, BASIC MATH AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Today the high school graduate can read and write block letters only. You mean their boss writes them a note, and they cannot read it? Yes, we make brilliant decisions in public education. For example, our children graduated from high school, but they cannot read or do basic math and cannot communicate properly. THAT IS REALLY BRILLIANT! We graduate them that way! Who is the national education leader who does not enforce standards that are to be done to a high enough standard in every state?! Doesn't anyone in senior political and education management realize that we create this damage in grades 1-3 and handicap the children's ability to learn and earn? This low skill level presents a significant disability in making a good enough living. It looks like the governors are a taco short on the combination plate, but they are smarter than that. Who and what is creating these problems? This is not the formula for jobs with enough income. This is not the formula for building a prosperous country. The formula for increasing hate between the haves and have nots can get very ugly. This alone is the formula for creating big damage to our country with blood on the streets. This has not been resolved for several decades. I would love to hear from governors in states like Tennessee about why such a problem lasts for many decades instead of a year or two. This is not the only deed by our public education that is destructive. We will present more below. DAMAGE: NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE USED BY EMPLOYERS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMPETITIVENESS AND INCOME. BUT THEY ALSO CHANGE THE WAY THEY WORK A LITTLE OR A LOT DEPENDING ON THE TECHNOLOGY. TO QUALIFY FOR JOBS, OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION NEEDS TO IMPROVE, AND THE A.C.T. SCORES WOULD SHOW THAT IMPROVEMENT BY GOING UP. IF THE A.C.T. SCORES OF OUR GRADUATES ARE NOT IMPROVING, WE ARE WEAKENING OUR COMPANIES' AND INDUSTRIES' WORKFORCE, THEIR INCOME AND OUR NATION'S TAX INCOME, DAMAGING IT SERIOUSLY. PUBLIC EDUCATION DID NOT IMPROVE IN 20 YEARS, AND THAT, IF THIS TREND CONTINUES, IT WILL DAMAGE OUR COUNTRY VERY SERIOUSLY. WE SEEM TO BE IGNORING THAT.
WHY IS IT THAT THE LEADERSHIP IN A SCHOOL DISTRICT DOES NOT KNOW ENOUGH TO RAISE THE A.C.T. SCORES MUCH HIGHER TO PREVENT A DISASTROUS OUTCOME FOR THE NEW GENERATION? SHOULD NOT WE BE AT 80% A.C.T. READINESS MINIMUM? YES, WE SHOULD BE BETTER THAN THAT FOR OUR CHILDREN TO BE EMPLOYABLE A.C.T. READINESS REPRESENTS ONLY THREE HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS PLUS READING, A THIRD GRADE SUBJECT, PASSED AT 61% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE LEVEL. NOT TOO LONG AGO, WE HAD TO PASS ALL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS AT 60% KNOWLEDGE LEVEL. WHAT KIND OF SCHOOL SYSTEM GRADUATES CHILDREN WITH LESS THAN 60-61% HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE TODAY? WE GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL 75-84% OF GRADUATES WHO ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY. BLACK CHILDREN ARE GRADUATED 94-96% NOT A.C.T. READY. THE AVERAGE PERFORMANCES THAT GOOD NEWS FOR OUR CHILDREN? ARE WE IMPROVING? TO ME THIS IS DeSTRUCTIVE PERFORMANCE THAT IS VERY CLOSE TO DESTROYING US AS A NATION. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? THIS TREND IS NOT TO IMPROVE US. IT IS A TREND TO DESTROY OUR ECONOMY. PLEASE SHOW ME IN WRITING THAT IT IS NOT SO! I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT THE GOVERNORS' ANSWER WOULD BE TO THAT QUESTION. WHAT WE HAVE IS A VERY POOR EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT NO ONE MANAGES AT EVEN THE GOVERNORS' LEVEL TO PRODUCE EMPLOYABLE CHILDREN. BUT EVEN THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Why do we have such people working in any school district or at any level above the school districts in management positions who are guessing to solve problems and failing instead of learning proven methods? THERE ARE MANY COUNTRIES NOW WHO PERFORM BETTER. Our results are poor, and our people do not trust anyone else. Do you know what that means? A bunch of people are in charge who do not understand what the problem is, and no idea of what the solution is. Why can't others above them HELP to correct the problem? Because the actual practice in education is to first cover your rear, try not to broadcast that you don't know your job, you hire people to take the blame because you have no idea what the problems are and cannot find out how good a problem solver the candidates are. Such failing people have no idea how to solve problems, and in both education or anything else, they get the job as a result of friendships. Unfortunately, we have too many such people in management positions in education.
Why do superintendents allow poor performance in their organization and do not want to learn about better ways from the high performing countries in education? Do they know what to do? What do the A.C.T. results tell you? It tells you that our children are getting a poor education
If you let half the people go in the central management in all medium and large school districts and transfer the money you gain to the schools, would the results drop or go up? If you did the same in the schools and transferred the money to central management, would the results drop or go up? Why do you waste money and deliver poor results?
Does any governor or anyone within education management ask these questions? And now let me ask you if you reduced the number of people by half in the state departments of education and spent that money in school classrooms or on incentives for high-performing teachers, would the results go up? I think you are getting the picture.
If you allow central management at any level to grow because someone had an "interesting" idea in a poorly performing organization, would the results go up? When you do not have management training, and the results are unacceptable, the people on top WILL NOT MAKE GOOD DECISIONS AS OUR RESULTS SHOW.
The bad results are not the teachers' and principals' fault. They all went into teaching with the best of intentions. They all assumed that the teacher training and certification would match what employers WILL need, plus a little more. YES, THAT IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE. But instead, they were educated based on standards that are too old and too low, some even go back to the 1800s! It is the fault of people above them, the "standard setters." "Why don't the "standard setters," like governors, take action to respond to poor school performance and technological changes?
State departments of education have a lot to do with all the questions we are raising and more. It would be helpful to click here to read about this issue.
DAMAGE: VERY LARGE CHANGES THAT CAN DESTROY BUSINESSES ON A LARGE SCALE, AND WITH IT THE ENTIRE ECONOMY OF OUR COUNTRY, GOVERNORS DO NOT RESPOND AND SOLVE THE PROBLEM IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION HAS NOT BEEN RESPONDING TO EMPLOYERS' NEEDS. THAT IS A HUGE INCENTIVE TO GO TO ROBOTICS.
BAD FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL DECISIONS: This is only one example of many but it makes the point. This is a significant sign of bad management to have people in any organization who think that spending money on consultants is the right way to solve a problem with something that millions of schools solved worldwide a long time ago. The much bigger problem is why do we have to hire consultants for tens of thousands of dollars to learn how to do a good job in any subject, like Reading and Basic Math in grades 1-3?
Good consultants are rare. They are good people, but most are unemployed, using consultancy to survive and find the right job. A good choice for them, but you need someone very good at what you need. You are talking to them because you don't know how to teach reading as an example, AND YOU DO NOT WANT TO LEARN, BECAUSE YOU WANT SOMEONE ELSE TO BLAME IF IT DOES NOT WORK. A PERSON LIKE THAT HAS SERIOUS SELF CONFIDENCE PROBLEM. THIS KIND OF PERSON DOES NOT DO A GOOD JOB AND IS UNLIKELY TO HAVE GOOD RESULTS. A GOOD MANAGER WOULD KNOW exactly WHAT KIND OF SKILLS HE NEEDS ON HIS TEAM, AND BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS TEAM'S RESULTS, WOULD LEARN FIRST WHAT HIS/HER TEACHERS ARE LACKING TO PRODUCE GOOD READING RESULTS INSTEAD OF DEPENDING ON A CONSULTANT. A good manager in education does know what skills are needed and reads up on how to teach reading and what method is best in education for it. Then, pick the best school in the country in reading scores, visit them for a few days to find out what they do differently—that kind of manager you can depend on to do anything very well. A New York charter school, Success Academy Schools, has excellent results in everything. They teach children by the end of first grade how to score high under NY state requirements in reading, one of the best in the US. The solution to this problem begs for looking in the mirror and acknowledging openly our shortcomings and why we did not take any action to solve it a long time ago. Self-defense is worthless in a case like this because a teacher should have the talent to know or find out how to teach reading to 1-3 graders. There is another thing that is very important in this example. The objective is to teach children in the shortest amount of time and improve that constantly. With reading, the children need to be fascinated by and enjoy the teacher and what they read. That requires excellent subject knowledge and the talent of loving your subject as a teacher, being excited as a teacher who presents a fantastic story and transferring that feeling to everyone in the class. That requires teachers with exceptional talent who search for ways to become better at what they do every day. Lastly, you learn best by not just knowing but also doing something and becoming excellent with it. What tells you the truth about this is the GPA score in any class. Acceptance into teaching programs ignores that. Education training in colleges and universities is not good enough in the US. And management training for anyone who wants to be superintendent someday is even more important. Develop them from high school principals because the supply is not good enough. Appointment to a state education superintendent ignores those qualities, although you could test for it since 1970. A word for superintendents: There are conmen, ESPECIALLY in poorly performing organizations. They are excellent planners but only for themselves. They are excellent communicators to achieve what they want for themselves. They are knowledgeable and can beat you. Always focus on a person's performance. It would help if you focused on doing an excellent job in your schools because we are not there yet. It is not smart to become friends with a person who is within your organization. What he or she most likely wants is a big raise that comes with your job. DAMAGE: VERY LARGE LAYOFFS BECAUSE OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION HAS NOT BEEN RESPONDING TO EMPLOYERS' NEEDS.
JUST A FEW COMMENTS THAT APPEAR TO BE UNRELATED. BUT THEY ARE RELATED. Animals kill for food. We human beings developed to be fighting each other for food initially, and that developed into killing each other for "very important reasons" like skin color, being a different religion, nationality, or anything that makes us different from each other. We have been killing each other for such differences on a huge scale. We learned to trigger wars starting a very long time ago, and many wars did not start the way that we told the public. Some of those people who had a COMPARTMENTED Top Secret clearance in the US military know about such details. We read and hear on the news, but we can feel that more and more information is missing in the news as years go by, and if we knew about it, the truth would look different from what we think without that information. Such programs are very sophisticated today. They existed as very important population control methods since 1910 in a very visible form in communism and in Hitler's Germany. We should remember that when we think of the way we A.C.T.ed on the political side since 2015. It was very destructive. The lying and actions against OURSELVES can destroy any country. We deserve much better. Maybe we need a system change, where loyalty to the country is much higher than loyalty to any party. With a president being a Democrat or Republican, after he is elected, the decision was made, and it is time to support our president, like it or not. But check each one psychologically and for general health, I/Q test, financials, and criminal history at minimum as a requirement to run for president or governor, log the promises they make, and publish the status of the promises made every month. Never allow any nepotism. The job is difficult enough, and we saw how it could divide a nation and harm the nation if we continue the ugly behavior after an election. WE BETTER LEARN TO BE AMERICANS FIRST. The wealthy and powerful influencers could legitimately see part of the population as highly destructive potentially to all and especially to them. Groups of powerful people perhaps see population growth as a major problem. Some groups see the solution as fast population reduction, with a lot of blood flowing in the streets. Based on what we found, one group with significant power and influence made huge money from wars. When one dumbs down a population, their judgment drops significantly. Everything deteriorates. Voting can be controlled today under disinformation theory based on lying often enough to the people or providing incomplete information to control their views (news and advertising). However, technologically, highly destructive weapons exist in too many countries, where people could make a mistake since none of us are perfect, and that could destroy us all. We found that our education has been in decline for a long time. But I can tell you this! We found a very systematic set of practices in public education that is dumbing down the population. It is a brilliant design created by highly intelligent people. We all judge based on what we think and not necessarily based on what we know as a fact. We learn so much every year, with accelerating discoveries, that we will never know everything. Although most school employees in public education, all the way up to a governor, all think that they do when producing very poor A.C.T. scores. To understand the problem, never think that something cannot be true or cannot be done. We need to think that it could be true and learn to investigate it to find out.
We need to make enough money as a nation, with national income at 12-14%, instead of struggling at 3-4% as we have been. For that to happen, our industries have to be more innovative than those in other countries. More innovative means designing products and services that help people do things easier and better, with the latest in technology, with larger profit margins. They are using "management by objective" and "zero-based budgeting" to be aware precisely every month how the needed expenses produce the right quality in products, people, and services. A database system software can show automatically to the minute how all key indicators are progressing in our normal operations against an operating plan we made before the start of our fiscal year. With the right management people, we can change the way we operate to find good solutions to problems popping up when "Mr. Murphy of Murphy's Law fame pops up from a street corner along the way". Nothing is perfect, problems can pop up because of it, and it can be enormous fun to solve them fast. Having well-trained management beyond an MBA is of great value, from planning the spending and the needed work objectives everywhere is absolutely vital for any organization from 100 employees and up. People who worked in small organizations or partnerships may be excellent in their jobs, but they may not recognize the need for focusing people on what needs to be achieved, to what standard. We will focus on public education with this website because we are not doing well enough in education, as you will see. OUR CHILDREN'S AND COUNTRY'S FUTURE DEPENDS TOTALLY ON HOW WELL, OR POORLY, OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN, COMPARED TO THE TOP THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION. IF EDUCATION BECOMES THE INTERNAL ENEMY OF A NATION BECAUSE THEY ARE DOING A POOR JOB OVER DECADES, THEY ALSO DO EVERYTHING SLOWLY, SO THAT THE PUBLIC REMAINS UNAWARE. SIMULTANEOUSLY THEY ALSO FLOOD THE PUBLIC WITH "GOOD NEWS" THAT ARE NOT TRUE ABOUT EDUCATION. AND THEN, THAT NATION CAN BE DESTROYED EASILY. Lenin of Communism fame is very famous for something he frequently said: "If you lie to the public a thousand times, they will believe it as truth!" We are too close to that moment. Read below what I found out during an investigation of US education and the best countries in education in the world at my own expense, with my own eyes and observations. We have some big problems to solve. This FORM OF DESTRUCTION CAN BE MORE HARMFUL THAN THE ATTACK OF AN EXTERNAL ENEMY. IT NEEDS TO BE TREATED ACCORDINGLY.
Our schools' responsibility is to deliver well-trained graduates to satisfy the needs of employers. How well are our schools doing? NOT WELL. Are all the children they graduate employable? CLOSE TO 80% ARE NOT EMPLOYABLE, AND MORE THAN 90% OF BLACK STUDENTS ARE NOT EMPLOYABLE. I FOUND A FEW SCHOOLS WITH POOR INNER CITY BLACK CHILDREN WHO ARE PERFORMING BETTER THAN THE AVERAGE PRIVATE SCHOOL. IT CAN BE DONE! IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT THAT WE DO AN EXCELLENT JOB FOR CHILDREN OF ALL COLORS, AND TO PUT BEHIND US THE OLD "BLACK& WHITE" PROBLEM ONCE AND FOR ALL.
In 2023-2024 Major scientific developments will create hundreds of new sciences, millions of new discoveries that will automate more areas within our industries than computers did alone. Artificial Intelligence in cognitive robotics will eliminate most jobs that are four-year college degree based. Still, many new jobs will be created in many new science and engineering fields requiring life-long learning due to nanotechnology and space sciences emerging. The future of employment will be suddenly in areas of advanced mathematics, economics, many new sciences, and engineering on a master's degree level, moving toward Ph.D. degrees. The truth is that learning at the high school level became very difficult because our teacher training and selection became weaker, resulting in too many boring classrooms. Not the teachers' fault. With teaching becoming much easier with cognitive AI robotics, learning itself will become easier to open the gates to the majority of students in graduate schools, with very interesting lifetime learning. But to take advantage of this, our current high schools must improve in teaching our children.
It is the employers whose opinion is the most important in defining their potential employees' education level and graduation standards. Employers would be better to determine the standards of public education, not the education departments. It is the same with the K-12 curriculum nationally to ensure our schools' BECOMING THE BEST IN THE WORLD TO SATISFY OUR EMPLOYERS FUTURE NEEDS IN TRAINED EMPLOYEES.
The US or state or school district education system should not have a decision-making role in graduation requirements for high school students in the listed courses or curriculum in this area for conflict of interest reasons. It should implement a national standard only to employers' satisfaction.
Too many of us in this world dislike or do not trust anyone different in some way. Anyone with a different opinion than we have about things like religions, politics, different skin colors, nationality does not mean that we cannot be friends accomplishing great things together. Many of us also believe that we are always right when we all know so little compared to what we will learn in a couple of decades - if we have an interest in our world. We often dislike others just for being "different," even without knowing what that difference is. Such differences can create conflicts, small or large,, and even wars if the conflict is between people on the highest level. In education district school boards, we often see people who believe that simply being on the board means that their opinion must always be true, just because they were elected. We live in a world where nothing is perfect, but beauty, goodness, ugliness, and evil behavior exist everywhere, and none of us are perfect. We do not have enough of us yet to see both the good and not so good in each other, and hopefully, we learn to become more helpful with each other. The important word is to learn to love each other in a general sense and HELP and make each other and our world a better place. The most helpful thing we could do is to achieve this in everything we do, especially in public education. But if this is the problem, put aside what you cannot change AT THE MOMENT, and keep going forward.
Several countries who were colonial powers used slavery a few hundred years ago. Only WE ended up this long with an ugly black/white problem even today. It is still very much alive. Is it helpful? No. Is it a major problem creator? Absolutely. What is the best problem-solving tool for it? A better life for those of us who are less fortunate. And that can happen only WITH EDUCATION OF THE POPULATION THAT IS AMONG THE BEST THREE OR FOUR IN EDUCATION IN THE WORLD, TO SATISFY THE NEEDS OF EMPLOYERS. WITH the US being the largest economy worldwide, it is necessary for us to be there. High school education and its prerequisite schooling have the biggest impact. It is "THE huge pipeline" that feeds the workforce everywhere, in government, in all industries, and in higher education. It is becoming more important for the future. By the end of high school, a good education focused on the right subjects gives us the best odds to coexist with robotics are: advanced Mathematics, excellent Communications and Reading, and the new Sciences with changing Physics on top.
Age 3-6 is the period with the quickest learning (speed of neuronal interconnections in the brain is exactly that), making preschool vitally important. Between ages 3 and 20, there is a specific order of months or years during which the neuronal interconnections get interconnected to learn specific groups of subjects. If we do not learn a subject like mental mathematics so that we can learn to calculate mentally within the elementary school years, then that area in the brain remains poorly prepared for life, as learning ability slows down more as we get older after age 6-8. A baby is born with 100 billion brain cells or neurons. As we learn to see, hear, speak, muscle coordination during 12-18 years of schooling, the speed of neuronal interconnections begins slowing at an increasing rate. The interconnections slow faster if the child does not learn enough, and learning becomes more difficult. So those children who go to boring classes will have a greater problem in learning as they get older at an increasing rate. That is how some people turn out to hate subjects like math. In the high-performing countries, they accept teacher candidates into the teaching programs with high IQ Master's degree graduates in the subject that they will teach, who love their subject and talk to students with an infectious enthusiasm that the children will enjoy. The teacher whose profile and education is different, whose teaching the children find boring, those students will end up hating that subject, which could be very important for the children in the era of robotics. Our children may end up disabled in the area for mental math because of calculator use at a K-12 age. That will make them poor critical thinkers and decision-makers. By the end of high school, our high school students need to complete Mathematics through Calculus, Physics (space science is bringing major changes there), Nanotechnology/Material Science, Chemistry, Artificial Intelligence with Cognitive Robotics, and Economics, and their prerequisites. Yet what we plan to teach in the curriculum is too little and does not prepare them well. Music and Art are also important for right brain hemisphere development that is also key in decision making.
We are beginning to be concerned about why the departments of education have made decisions to:
Teach less, skip teaching some subjects,
Drop the pass/fail points from 60% to as low as 30% in one or more subjects to show higher grades and graduation rates.
We focus on and target "90% graduation rates" in high school and do everything in the book to make it look good. One can "doctor" the graduation rate, lie to the public just to look good, and graduate less educated children.
But if the schools had a high enough A.C.T. or SAT score that all students take, it would show the real knowledge of high school graduates that the education industry will not want to do. They do exactly what a crude saying represents: "Please don't @#$% on my shoes and tell me that it is raining." It sounds like an effort of the puppet master in the old puppet theaters.
GOVERNORS, IS IT NOT TIME TO LET SUCH practices GO? NEVER COMPROMISE WHAT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE.
In most states: Weak teacher selection, weak teacher training, and certification, mostly boring classes result in students disliking the subject and the jobs that require it. Low teacher morale, high turnover of teachers, 8% are leaving the profession, 8% are leaving the school district. Multiple-choice satisfaction surveys are poor problem identifiers and can guide the teacher away from the problem's real causes to look better to the public. The "puppet masters" on top doing this to teachers, principals, and the public.
Curriculum weak in Science and Math compared to the international curricula of nations who are passing us. What other countries do is not important - some say. NOT SO. WE COMPETE WITH THEM. THAT MAKES THEM VERY IMPORTANT FOR US TO KNOW WHAT THEY DO WELL AND HOW. WE WILL EXPLAIN IT SHORTLY.
Some schools with black students receive twice as much funding per student as the other schools in many places. This is a local superintendent decision. BUT 94-97% of black school graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready, a very low standard. 80% of other high school graduates are also not A.C.T. Ready. Obviously, the money is going to the wrong places and the wrong people in our schools. Obviously, the management is weak at all levels and cannot figure out what to do, and teachers are not trained well. This is not the employee's fault. It is the fault of those who set the standards/requirements. THROWING MONEY AT A PROBLEM IS NOT THE SOLUTION, BUT THAT IS WHAT WE DO. HOW MANY DECADES DO YOU NEED TO SOLVE IT? Better and more education is the solution. Why are we degrading our education? Well, it dumbs down the public. That makes selling the public ANYTHING easier. Only an enemy would do that. This would be only one of many things such an enemy would do. And such an enemy would not want to be visible.
Never give an organization or school money to solve problems, and leave the decision about where to spend it to those who created the bad results. You, the superintendent, must investigate and know what failed and what the solution is, and give the money only if the superintendent and the principal of the problem high school agreed on the solution. Just doubling the expenses for a high school when it does not work after two years, is a bad performance by both the superintendent and the principal. We not only make such stupid mistakes, but we have been doing it for 20 years because we are afraid of the parents' reaction. We have to be a lot smarter than that, and we must have the courage to do the right thing. We do not have the courage, because management training is missing.
We have to stop thinking in terms of elementary education, high school, and college. Think of them for the future in terms of a continuously increasing learning process for life that is much easier to learn than today. It will increase faster and faster throughout life from now on because jobs will become highly specialized, in narrower, more advanced fields. Learning will become much more comfortable and more fun toward areas where our natural talents lie.
Public education has not changed and improved much for us in many decades. They are defensive and not progressing with the changing technologies. They are hurting our national industries and their income. Children will do much better in about eight years because public education, unions, and politicians did not want to embrace change so far, but they will by then. If they wanted to improve, we would not have the poor education performance today in most public schools. When we do not want to learn and change to become better because of self-serving fears, we ALWAYS pay the price for it later. ONE CAN LEARN A LOT, QUITE EASILY, BY USING SEARCH ENGINES OR EXCELLENT TUTORIALS THAT ARE AVAILABLE ON ANY SUBJECT FROM THE INTERNET. Unfortunately, our public schools do not teach our children enough about our subjects for employability. Again, BORING CLASSES TURN OFF STUDENTS. IF YOU HAVE DOUBTS, SIT IN ON SOME MATH AND SCIENCE CLASSES UNANNOUNCED IF POSSIBLE. THEN GO TO A COUNTRY THAT EDUCATES ALL CHILDREN WELL, LIKE FINLAND, AND SIT IN ON THE CLASSES. Such poor preparation could take us back through a very bloody road to the stone age. The cure is to ensure excellent education for children of all colors, competitive with the top countries in education. Why have we not done that?! THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION. If you have time, ask governors and higher-level politicians, including past presidents.
Our future success or failure depends on how well our products and services compete with the world's three best nations in any product area. You see, we deal internationally now and for a century now. We have hundreds of industries. Agriculture is one of them. I can demonstrate to you that our K-12 education has never kept up with changing technology, product changes, and market changes where we sell our products. I found two final 8th grade tests. Most of today's high school graduates could not pass the English or Mathematics portion in states like Tennessee and others.
I contA.C.T.ed several governors more than once about the poor education results we have and did not receive a single reply from anyone. I understand that taking steps in that direction is far riskier for a governor than for me. But our public education must perform much better.
There are only about 5% of the high schools in the USA that are graduating well-trained students compatible with the international high performing countries. Some of them graduate all students who entered these high schools BEST COUNTRIES. We need 75-80% graduating on such a high level for our economy's benefit to pay off the national debt slowly. Professors we contA.C.T.ed believed that our high school graduates in 2018 required two more years of remedial training to start attending the first year of a college program. The K-12 education-related unions do not want to change anything to raise the A.C.T. scores. Our average nationally is close to A.C.T. 21, with only 22% of the graduates A.C.T. Ready. We should be at MINIMUM AVERAGE A.C.T. 29 in 2020, with 80% of graduates being A.C.T. Ready, instead of 22%. A.C.T. Readiness is a low qualification representing 61% average subject knowledge on four subjects only. It is nowhere near what the high performing countries achieve. We need at this stage to be at an average A.C.T. above 29. The top ten countries in education are graduating high schools, the A.C.T. 29-34 equivalent knowledge area.
IF OTHER COUNTRIES CAN OUTPERFORM US THIS MUCH-AS THEY DO, THEN WE CAN SAFELY CONCLUDE THAT THE GREAT MAJORITY OF OUR K-12 SCHOOLS ARE DESTROYING OUR FUTURE. WHY? BECAUSE OUR FUTURE DEPENDS TOTALLY ON HOW WELL WE EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN TODAY, COMPARED TO THE BEST THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION.
Click here to read A.C.T.'s STEM COLLEGE READINESS BENCHMARK. Read it very carefully, public education managers. There is a very important message here for you, but with a great degree of sensitivity, because PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THEIR CUSTOMER. OUR INDUSTRIES COMPETE WITH OTHERS FOR EVERY DOLLAR. THE QUALITY OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES CAN HELP THEM OR HINDER THEM IN THE COMPETITION BECAUSE IT IS OUR HIGH SCHOOLS THAT FEED THE WORKFORCE OF ALL OF OUR INDUSTRIES. THAT MAKES K-12 EDUCATION SO IMPORTANT THAT WE MUST NOT ACCEPT ANYONE IN A MANAGEMENT POSITION IF THEY CANNOT PRODUCE EXCELLENT RESULTS. But we don't do that and have never done it. After about five years, all organizations develop their work ethics and how they do their work. That is what produces the results. A new leader is needed who knows what to do, changes the way they work, and if that leader is correct, then the results will improve. That is what a person who is an excellent manager can do if given a free hand.
American public education has done a terrible job to date, and it appears that public education is trying very hard to create the impression of a much better performance than what we really have, damaging the future of our children and country by doing so. We explained to you on this website what A.C.T. scores mean as a percentage of subject knowledge and what A.C.T. Readiness means. It is a standard that A.C.T. negotiated with the teachers' unions, at also 58% knowledge level on ONLY FOUR HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS. it is a low standard for performance today at 61% knowledge level and ONLY FOUR HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS! Our achievement level nationally is average A.C.T. 21 as well, which equals a shameful 58% subject knowledge ONLY. And now for something even more important! 80% of our graduates in Tennessee are not even A.C.T. Ready qualified. Many states are similar. This is such a low-performance level that it cannot be possible that those directing it do not want to destroy our country. Our international competitors, the top ten, score an A.C.T. equivalent level average between A.C.T. 29 and as high as 34, which represent 80% - 99% subject knowledge in their curriculum subjects. Their curriculum covers more on every subject than we do, plus, PreCalculus, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics plus fluency in two foreign languages, some of them with the same class hours as we have but no homework.
There is a conflict of interest if you have the same organization setting the standards for themselves without considering the top three competitors internationally. To create a bigger problem, the education organizations not only set their own standards in every single state, but still to this day delegate the management and direction of education to an elected local school board SINCE 1875 of which we have about 14,000 nationally for each school district.
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE THAT YOU VOTE FOR AT AN ELECTION? WE KNOW ONLY WHAT THEIR ADVERTISING AGENCY "SELLS US, IN THE BEST LIGHT". DO YOU GET THE SMARTEST PEOPLE ON A LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD TO BE ELECTED? YOU GET A MIXTURE. WILL ALL THE ELECTED LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD IN EVERY ONE OF ABOUT 14,000 SCHOOL DISTRICT KNOW, HONESTLY, WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO IMPROVE EDUCATION AS A VOTING MAJORITY? NOT A CHANCE. IT IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY. THAT IS THE REASON WHY WE ARE DOING POORLY. DURING THE 1800s IN AN AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY WHERE YOU EDUCATED LOCAL CHILDREN WHO WOULD GO BACK TO THE FAMILY FARM, THIS SYSTEM WORKED WELL. TODAY THE RESULTS SHOW THAT IT IS NOT WORKING WELL ENOUGH. JUST THINK ABOUT HOW ON EARTH IT WOULD HAPPEN THAT CENTURIES HAVE GONE BY, AND NO POLITICIAN FIGURED OUT TO THIS DAY THAT THE "MANAGEMENT DECISIONS" ARE NOT COMING FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO IMPROVE EDUCATION IN TODAY'S WORLD, BUT INSIST ON HAVING THE 1875 SYSTEM IN PLACE TO MANAGE MOST OF THE EDUCATION, AND 50 GOVERNORS DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER WHAT TO DO OR ARE AFRAID TO CHANGE. Think about this and think about the fact that our children's and nation's future depend on people. Regardless of what anyone says, we cannot argue with the bad A.C.T. results FOR TWENTY YEARS!!
Education management has no idea how to improve our high school education results. That is where we need to be to create a competitive workforce for all companies. The high school graduates feed the workforce. That is what our industries and our nation's income depend on. Education's job needs to be to deliver the results under standards that are created by our industries without fail. Why is it that we could not figure this out a long time ago? Why are we still using the management structure that education had in the 1800s? Why is it that highly educated people are trusted only in education when they created bad results decade after decade? Why are the highly intelligent people in our leadership unable to solve such a huge problem that our education created? WHO IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY? IF THIS IS WHAT VOTING PRODUCES, AND IT APPEARS THAT IT DOES, WE HAVE A GIGANTIC PROBLEM THAT IS KEPT FROM THE PUBLIC WHO ARE PAYING FOR IT!!
IT SHOULD BE VERY CLEAR TO EVERYONE THAT WE MUST RATE OUR PERFORMANCE WITH STEM A.C.T. READINESS BUT WITH A 28 A.C.T. AVERAGE (80% high school subject knowledge). PUBLIC EDUCATION WILL BE AGAINST IT AND WANT TO CONTROL ANY NEW STANDARD. ANYONE WHO HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION DURING THE PAST 20 YEARS AND WAS PARTY TO THE BAD RESULTS, SHOULD NOT CONTRIBUTE TO ANY STANDARDS, OBJECTIVES, TEACHER TRAINING GUIDELINES, GRADUATION STANDARDS. THE LAST TWENTY YEARS OF A.C.T. PERFORMANCE WAS A LESSON FOR ME ABOUT BAD PERFORMANCE, PEOPLE WHO LIE SO THAT AN OUTSIDER'S IDEA IS NOT CONSIDERED FOR IMPROVEMENT, DAMAGING OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION IS NOT A POLITICAL GAME. IT IS A SURVIVAL GAME FOR OUR CHILDREN AND NATION. They managed such powerful dominance over education via their unions and more than a thousand partnerships nationally, who make a lot of money on the back of citizens to save our children by improving education, they make an excellent living out of this, and the public education did not improve any - they became worse. Education is managed politically with political influence. Do you disagree? Look at 20 years of A.C.T. performance. A.C.T. Readiness is only a four-subject benchmark with the average passing point at A.C.T. 21 (the 4 are A.C.T. qualification points 22, 22, 23, 18). A.C.T. 21 represents less than 61% readiness. AND OF THOSE WE GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL, MORE THAN 75% (IN TENNESSEE 84%!!) ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY QUALIFIED, MEANING BELOW 61% READINESS, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 0% AND 61%. THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS EXTREMELY POOR PERFORMANCE. BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH. STARTING IN 2023, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DRIVEN COGNITIVE ROBOTICS WILL TAKE MILLIONS OF JOBS AND AT LEAST 30 MILLION JOBS FROM THE OUR WORKFORCE. MANY EMPLOYERS COMPLAINED TO GOVERNORS ABOUT THE POOR PUBLIC EDUCATION SINCE ABOUT 2005. AS A RESULT, NOTHING WAS DONE TO IMPROVE PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Important Actions in Management
Actions, that are missing or done poorly in public education. Strangely the actions suggested by public education, ensure that public education does not improve.
TODAY A NATION NEEDS UNIFORM HIGH QUALITY IN EDUCATION OF ITS PUBLIC, SET BY THE BEST QUALIFIED PEOPLE, AND NOT BY THOSE WHO ARE PART OF A GROUP, LIKE PUBLIC EDUCATION, THAT PRODUCED POOR RESULTS FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. THE STANDARDS MUST REFLECT WHAT EMPLOYERS NEED AND WHAT THE TOP THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION DO. SUCH A GROUP NEEDS TO BE MADE UP OF SENIOR MANAGEMENT FROM LARGE EMPLOYERS (two thirds) AND UNIVERSITIES (one third, Mathematics and Sciences) ONLY, CONSIDERING NON-ROBOTIC JOBS ONLY AND CONSIDERING THAT THE FUTURE JOBS WILL BE DOMINATED BY MATHEMATICS, SCIENCES AND ECONOMICS WITH EXCELLENT GRAMMAR AND READING SKILLS. SUCH A GROUP NEEDS TO SET AND ENFORCE EDUCATION STANDARDS FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOULD BE DELIVERING WHAT THE STANDARD-SETTING GROUP SPECIFIES.
Why is management training and management experience vital to education success?
Why does its absence create failure?
MANAGEMENT INTRODUCTION: Management is a high-stress job, unless one's personality suits it well. Not everyone can be a good manager. Often, an excellent worker gets promoted to a management position, but few such good workers will make a good manager. Also, one will not be good enough even if one's personality is a good match unless that manager had good training first in management and was an excellent performer. In an education system like ours, we accept poor performance presented to the public as "EXCELLENCE FOR ALL CHILDREN". Bad things can happen. An average or a poor teacher is getting promoted to principal because he/she becomes a "friend" of the superintendent. He did a poor job as principal. He befriended the next superintendent to be promoted to head all schools, and he still has the job ten years later, BUT NOTHING IMPROVED! NOTHING! HOW CAN SUCH A THING HAPPEN? HOW MANY CHILDREN'S LIVES DO YOU THINK THIS PERSON DESTROYED BY MAKING THEM UNEMPLOYABLE? THE PUBLIC PAYS ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES PER STUDENT. HOW MUCH WILL BE THE INDIRECT COST OF SO MANY POORLY EDUCATED CHILDREN? THE TOTAL DIRECT AND INDIRECT COST OF EMPLOYING AND PROMOTING SUCH A POORLY-PERFORMING PERSON WILL EXCEED MANY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. THIS IS WHERE MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND KNOWLEDGE CAN BECOME THE MOST IMPORTANT. IT APPEARS THAT IN EDUCATION WE ARE COMPLETELY IGNORING IT. Who gets damaged very badly by such superintendent decisions? Who will be jobless because of it? The children. If you do not measure the performance of WORKERS AND MANAGERS IN EDUCATION, HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE? THE BIG QUESTION BECOMES: WHY DO PEOPLE IN THE EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR UNIONS DO NOT WANT US TO KNOW HOW GOOD THE RESULTS ARE IN EACH CLASS AND EACH SCHOOL? THERE IS NO WAY FOR THE RESULTS TO GO UP UNLESS THE PERFORMANCE OF EVERYONE IS MEASURED AGAINST THE RIGHT OBJECTIVES. ANY ORGANIZATION NEEDS A WELL TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED MANAGER TO DO THIS AS WELL. A GOOD MANAGER YOU WILL LIKE BECAUSE HE/SHE IS A GOOD LISTENER, WILL TEACH YOU A LOT OF THINGS TO MAKE YOU MUCH MORE VALUABLE TO THE COMPANY, WILL BE ALWAYS FRANK AND WILL BE YOUR BEST ADVISER. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO MANAGERS WHO WERE NOT TRAINED IN MANAGEMENT. If you measure teachers' and managers' performance in education, you will know where they are and help them improve. You can make sure that they are prepared for the job well enough to prepare our children. That is the best situation that they can have. BUT THE STATE HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT THE COLLEGE TRAINING FOR TEACHERS IS COMPETITIVE WITH THE BEST NATIONS IN EDUCATION, ALONG with CERTIFICATION FOR THE SAME LEVEL AND TEST AS WELL FOR A CANDIDATE BEING THE RIGHT PERSONALITY FOR TEACHING. UNFORTUNATELY WE DON'T DO THAT IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. To plan for increased results, you have to know exactly how your people are doing. It would help if you had precise figures for that. You have to know where you are, to IMPROVE, to reach a planned target. You have to know what talent and knowledge you have available for growth. In planning growth, you do need to know what you want to achieve and have a good idea monthly what it will take to get there. If you don't do that, you just guess and wait for a few lucky breaks, which does not produce good results. FOR SCHOOL RESULTS FIND OUT HOW TO PLAN. UNFORTUNATELY, WE HAVE SUPERINTENDENTS WHO ARE NOT TRAINED, GUESS A LOT AND THEIR RESULTS GO NOWHERE. WE HAVE TO CHANGE THAT. Most importantly, you cannot deliver a precise, targeted achievement if you do not know precisely where you are. Management is not a game. You cannot plan growth and get good results WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT RESOURCES YOU HAVE. YOU CANNOT IMPROVE RESULTS WITHOUT KNOWING PRECISELY WHAT KIND OF JOB EVERYONE IS DOING ON YOUR TEAM, WHAT THEIR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES ARE, AND YOU WILL NOT KNOW THAT WITHOUT MEASURING THEIR PERFORMANCE. THE MEASUREMENT CANNOT BE SOMETHING THAT CAN BE ARGUED. IT MUST BE A RELIABLE NUMBER THAT WILL SHOW SUCCESS OR FAILURE. If the number of people working under you increases, you will need more management training periodically because MANAGEMENT COMPLEXITY WILL INCREASE WITH THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES UNDER A MANAGER. When the most important measurable results are not good enough, you have a management problem for sure. You have to find out where. IF YOU DO NOT MEASURE PERFORMANCE, USING A PERFORMANCE INDICATOR THAT IS MEASURABLE BY A NUMBER in education, an A.C.T. score relative to the prior years' average A.C.T. score. Or the SAT, depending on which one your state is using, then improvement is impossible. These two tests are the most reliable because the state education organizations cannot change the pass/fail point in them like some states do to show better results. Why do people like that still have their job? That is why we need average A.C.T. objectives that are 10% higher than the prior years' performance, UNFORTUNATELY, BECAUSE SUCH action CHEATS THE PUBLIC WHO PAY FOR THE POOR EDUCATION WE PROVIDE, AND PAY THE HIGHEST RATE PER CHILD IN THE WORLD. WHY DO WE TOLERATE SUCH BEHAVIORS?!
THE IMPACT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES ON EDUCATION CANNOT BE IGNORED. BUT OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM IGNORED THEM. EMPLOYERS NEED SUCH TECHNOLOGIES TO MAKE THEM MORE COMPETITIVE. THAT MEANS THAT EMPLOYERS NEED AN UPGRADED WORKFORCE, AND TO THAT END, OUR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION MUST BE UPGRADED AS WELL. NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT WE WILL SEE FROM 2023 ONWARD WILL HAVE A MASSIVE impact THAT MANY PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW YET. OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ALREADY NEED TWO YEARS OF REMEDIAL LEARNING AFTER HIGH SCHOOL BEFORE THEY CAN START A COLLEGE FRESHMAN PROGRAM. WHY IS IT THAT OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM DOES NOT SEE THIS, BUT COLLEGE PROFESSORS AND OTHERS DO?! The three technologies are Nanotechnology, AI-driven Cognitive Robotics, and Space Science. Ray Kurzweil is the most accurate technology forecaster, with 90% accurate forecasting thirty years forward, for several decades now. Let me site a relatively simple forecast of his. By 2025 a $1000 PC will have the computation power of a human brain. But by 2045, the $1000 PC will have the computational power of all human beings combined. That is ten billion times the power of the 2025 PC. The same technological evolution speed applies to the three new technology areas that will be here from 2023 on. Artificial Intelligence (AI) passed average human intelligence in 2015. It is growing faster. If you doubt it, and know someone who works at DARPA, ask them. DARPA is between 50-60 years ahead in technology compared to what public knowledge is. Russia and China have similar technology groups. Nanotechnology takes us to the nanometer scale (one-millionth of a meter that is 3.3 feet) to create and make anything, most likely creating many new sciences with a huge boost in material science. It will substantially lower manufacturing cost in almost everything, with much higher quality and speed than today. Space Sciences will also impact material sciences in a big way, and it will very quickly result in space travel and mining operations with robots on other planets and solar systems that we do not have enough of, like Titanium or materials that we do not have on earth like Element 115 that is a critical component in anti-gravity engines that is not public knowledge yet. These new technologies will replace many jobs and create more, but those jobs will require a higher level of education and constant learning in the future. But we put ourselves into the unfortunate position of becoming a country with declining education. We could have been on top, as we were before 1970. Education must improve A LOT, or we will become, I am sorry to say a dumbed-down broken nation. We are in a very dangerous position with big problems and with possible solutions that require more education.
We are showing here a conversion table from A.C.T., SAT and PISA scores to a percentage score for each test. We used percentage scores for a long time, the percentage score in this case represents also the percentage of subject knowledge to make the A.C.T., SAT and PISA scores more meaningful. The test providers confirmed this. WE HAD SEVERAL VERY DANGEROUS MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS TO DATE: EITHER BAD OBJECTIVES OR BAD OPERATING PLANS, all wrapped into BAD ATTITUDE AGAINST CHANGING WITH THE TIMES that represent the results of technology changes. EACH OF THESE MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS CAN DESTROY AN ORGANIZATION BECAUSE IT PRODUCES BAD RESULTS. What keeps a poorly performing school district to stay alive? Guaranteed expenses by law are at least as much as the prior year's expenses. This removes THE MOST IMPORTANT INCENTIVE FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE, SO THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION MUST BE BETTER TO COMPENSATE. BUT THEY DO NOT NOT CONSIDER MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE TO BE NECESSARY. THAT RESULTS IN NOT EVEN RECOGNIZING MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS, AND THE ORGANIZATION DIES AS A POOR PERFORMER UNLESS THEIR EXPENSES ARE GUARANTEED. This situation would make any good performer organization a poor performer, and sitting in for one hour to observe a teacher four times a year is not a good measure of performance and can create sexual harassment when performance standards and performance measurement is not based on results. As a result, what develops is an environment where performance dies and where most who have been the subject of sexual games need their jobs and keep quiet. That is what happens when performance measurement is absent, and it is amplified by not having any management training at any level in education. What are the schools to achieve? 100% of graduating students are employable graduates, and they are educated in all high school subjects as the graduates are in the best three countries in education. We produce graduates with an average A.C.T. score of 20.7, representing only 58% of subject knowledge when graduating. Those three countries produce high school graduates with subject knowledge in the 80-97% area, which is the same as an average A.C.T. score of 29-34. Possibly more, because in math and science they cover more than we do, plus the graduates must pass a matriculation test covers all high school subjects. The score on that class counts as 50% of the final high school graduation grade. They are significantly ahead of us. That means that those countries are creating products with a better-educated workforce with much better profit margins. We ended up losing entire markets for that reason. If you walk into other than a food store, check out how many foreign-made products they have. The OECD PISA test is the product of a very well managed organization that tests 15-year-old children for the most important subjects in 79 countries. We dropped to the bottom of the industrialized countries in mathematics, and that is horrible news. Our Public Education system has not been professionally managed, our teacher education and certification are unacceptably weak, and both teachers and principals are not supported and treated professionally. It was reasonable for them to assume that both teacher training and certification would be competitive. That is why we have a very high teacher turnover rate. Our employers have complained about this to governors since 1995. Why? Because the high school output joins the workforce of our companies. Their products' quality must be competitive to capture business with suitable margins to have sufficient government income at 12%+. We are struggling at 3-4% because our workforce is not trained well enough, depending on poor public schools. I am sure that the people who work in education here want their country to succeed. But the education results they provide is not friends' work. Who is responsible for the poor, destructive performance? Always the person to whom education reports in every state. We have to find out why this is happening and fix it urgently. Any organization that performs poorly or could perform poorly must not be in charge of setting their own objectives and goals and setting any standards of performance that cover the key employees level of training (teachers, principals, superintendents), certification of the key employees, make the curriculum competitive, the graduation requirement must be competitive. In the management structure, you must make sure that you pick out the most experienced teachers, with each such teacher supervising, HELPING, not more than ten less experienced teachers.. I remember asking a person who managed the principals of all schools the objectives that he has to deliver, and he answered that the new state test would not be available for two years, so "How could I possibly do anything." HE WAS NOT THE BIG PROBLEM. BUT HE NEEDS TO BE WORKING IN A JOB THAT CAN USE HIS TALENTS. A school district cannot have this kind of person managing ANYTHING. BUT WE DO. Lastly, societal problems must be solved because such problems grow at a very high rate, which is the most destructive in any society. Like our old black and white problem. We are at a point where each side is riling up people to kill all whites or all blacks on the other side. This OLD unresolved problem can destroy all of us. Solving this must be at the top of the list. Keeping a big problem like this alive can kill us. Most people in any group cannot be bad, so obviously, all black people or all white people are not bad. THE DAMAGE IS: POOR RESULTS IN THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN WILL RESULT IN UNEMPLOYMENT, BECAUSE OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION DOES NOT HAVE WELL-TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED MANAGEMENT. OUR NATION'S FUTURE SUCCESS OR FAILURE DEPENDS ON THE EDUCATION OF TODAY'S CHILDREN. IT DEPENDS ON HOW GOOD OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM IS TODAY. IT IS FAR FROM BEING GOOD ENOUGH. MANY PEOPLE WORKED HARD FOR THE TAX DOLLARS, THAT PAYS THE HIGHEST RATE PER STUDENT IN THE WORLD, AND PROFESSORS TELL US THAT OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES NEED TWO YEARS OF REMEDIAL WORK TO START A FRESHMAN PROGRAM. 80% OF OUR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE CHILDREN WHOSE ACHIEVEMENT ON A.C.T.'S FOUR-SUBJECT BENCHMARK IS BELOW 58-61%. THEY ARE POORLY-EDUCATED WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS. DON'T WASTE TIME DEFENDING PUBLIC EDUCATION. THERE IS NO POINT IN DEFENDING IT. 5% OF HIGH SCHOOLS ARE EXCELLENT. 95% ARE NOT.
MANAGEMENT AND OBJECTIVES. Without an objective of what you have to achieve, people will do what they will think is important, and you will get results that will not be uniform and coordinated, much less than what you think. A long-time president of IBM had a very true saying, but we don't think about it. PEOPLE DON'T DO WHAT YOU EXPECT. THEY DO WHAT YOU INSPECT!" But you cannot do that with an annual objective only in a poorly performing organization even if you picked the right kind of objective but annual only, without the monthly objectives. A year is too long to reinforce new behaviors. That is what you have to do. To get better results, you have to change the way your people work. To achieve that and change behavior and the way people work, one must have monthly objectives that every supervisor and manager must reinforce a few times weekly by knowing what has been accomplished. People forget, don't remember, people slip back into the old habit. You cannot get the best performance with an annual objective for this reason. Since there is no reliable monthly test, we can use a Grade Point Average (GPA) measured year-to-date to focus people more frequently on what we have to achieve. This is very important when we are trying to get good performance out of a poorly performing group because they are working in a specific way producing results that are not working well. The outcome or result is always related to how we do things and what we do at work. To change that, the managers and supervisors need to change the way the group works, but we change the old habit during a shorter period than a year. People accomplish more if focused on what has to be done. That is what we are doing. And you will find that the work becomes easier when done this way.
Let's say that they want you to increase the results by ten percent. If you ever did 30-50% increases, it is nothing. But if you struggled with staying the same, it feels terrible and impossible to do. In the turn around of a poorly performing organization, one will find many people who cannot drop old habits and, even more importantly, old fears. Talk to people in groups, listen more than you talk. Learn from therm. Promise what you will do short term, and make sure that all promises are kept. You already worked as an animal very hard and could not reach A.C.T. 21 as an objective. The average A.C.T. 21 score is UNACCEPTABLE because that score's A.C.T. Readiness is only 22-23%. Too LOW!
You will find that by planning well, having good, well-trained people, and objectives used as I explained, a ten percent objective will take less work than the old objective you missed. It is also enormous fun to be part of a well managed growing organization. Remember that if the ground rules change in management in the right direction by a well-trained manager, you should not associate the objectives with the required effort under different ground rules in the past. Part of one's job also becomes one where you can think up creative ways to produce even better results that do not require more resources. Before you suggest it, make very sure that the idea works. If it does, it is a big plus for you. If it does not work, it is a minus. Always remember that it is everyone's job to improve the education of the students. If you want really big plusses, and if you come up with ideas that work, you can become a very valuable employee. That makes the bad education situation an outstanding opportunity for workers who are excellent AND CREATIVE.
THE RIGHT OBJECTIVE MUST BE A HEALTHY STRETCH. PEOPLE RISE TO EXPECTATIONS, BUT PEOPLE IGNORE AN OBJECTIVE THAT REPRESENTS ONLY A SMALL INCREASE. BUT TO FOCUS ALL EMPLOYEES ON THE OBJECTIVE, ALL SUPERVISORY PEOPLE NEED TO HAVE AN “OPERATING PLAN.” THIS IS YOUR TOOL THAT ENSURES THE ANNUAL OBJECTIVE BEING REALIZED IN THE A.C.T. SCORE AND IN THE GPA AT YEAR-END. The A.C.T. is annual, but it is the most reliable, and the states cannot change it - very important. Depending on what the A.C.T. objective is, raise the annual GPA to the same percentage increase. There may be a difference between your A.C.T. and GPA increases. Adjust the GPA increase percentage to achieve the planned A.C.T. increase as you track performance in the adjusted monthly GPA objective. The same teachers need a monthly lesson plan detailing the monthly objectives and the steps the teacher must take during the month to meet every monthly objective by a specific date. Also, list what resources you need to make the monthly GPA objective happen. This can be an excellent learning experience to find out what teaching method would work for you, and you can learn what these methods are in the best three countries in education. Always dedicate some time to read about how those countries achieve their results. I will tell you that the two countries you should focus on every time are Finland and Singapore. Countries that would not be so valuable would be China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, who have outstanding performance because the parental pressure is enormous on the children, accounting for better results. There is no way American parents could do that. HOWEVER, look at them also for innovative ways they use to solve teaching problems. But to be where they are in PISA results, their education has to be well managed, with excellent techniques. For example, Japan teaches children between grades 1-4, how to learn faster. Others are following them. I heard from high-level people in our education management that "Learning how to learn is a STUPID thing," whose "superior" education system delivers the worst result in the industrialized world. There is no single governor or politician who openly proposed a single change that would increase the A.C.T. scores. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? They propose things that cost more money but do not improve the children's knowledge and scores.
GPA objective measured monthly as Year-to-Date (YTD) is vital in every single school. At school-year-end, the GPA YTD must be 10% higher than the previous school year's GPA YTD achieved. At our current low-performance level, we need, at minimum, a ten percent increase annually. Objectives and operating plans used in education to date are unmeasurable, very low (low confidence), and are not a key indicator of success or failure. Therefore they cannot accomplish better results.
Lean down the central office staff to below 2% of total employees in a medium or large school district, and allocate the savings to schools or funding for a software project for automating all manual data entry required by teachers and generate management reports automatically..
You do not need babysitters with teacher salaries. What I mean is that we cannot afford to be tolerant of class-disrupting student behavior to get attention. The response has to be zero tolerance. The school policy must not be lawsuit anticipation from parents, but doing a much better job with excellent results for most children. The acceptable result is an average A.C.T. 29 score or higher. Why? Because in a group, it represents 80% A.C.T. Readiness, that is not a high measure. We are far from it. A few parents want their children away from home and do not care about their learning. Such children need the most help, or they will have hell right here for the rest of their lives. NEVER place the blame on parents UNLESS YOU KNOW how to solve it. Especially those in poverty had a tough life and not much parental guidance. In some states, the school can issue a ticket to the parent for behavior problems. Apply any savings to raising the subject knowledge of high school teachers in any science and mathematics courses and learning the best methods in speeding up learning. Solve the reading problem and basic math problem in all K-12 classes urgently. That should happen within three months. Find out why we have a problem teaching reading for more than 20 years and think very seriously about why such a teacher should be teaching in a school. Or even pre-school, because we are not using well the 3-6-year-old period in children when this is the fastest period in neuronal interconnection activity in the brain, otherwise called "learning."
Free up teacher time to increase preparation time, and provide what they need for becoming better teachers. We are not doing that well enough.
Allocate the same amount of money per student in each school. The double-spending budget per student we have tried now for more than 20 years. It did not help to improve performance. It takes significant ignorance to keep spending like that for more than 20 years, and then you don't see improvement, but you are afraid of the parental reaction. If some idea did not work for a couple of years, you must stop it. Why don't you take a trip at your expense since you screwed up and visit a high performing country to find out what works? I could not find anyone in education management who did that. WHY DO WE KEEP SPENDING THE PEOPLE'S MONEY IN AREAS WHERE IT DOES NOT INCREASE EDUCATION AND EDUCATION RESULTS?
Allow a fair number of the best elementary school teachers from mostly black schools to organize visits to Success Academy Schools in NYC. They have outstanding results. Visit for three days each, learn how they do it, what tools and practices they use and implement anything that can help us raise black children's performance. This has to be urgently accomplished. NO SHORT CUTS.
Complete it NOW! Not next year. Those teachers in the schools for black children who achieve a 3 A.C.T. point increase in this school year, give a 10% bonus on their annual salary.
For a goal to be prA.C.T.ical as a guide to enable a school district's performance to improve, we need to improve several areas. The elected board must know exactly where the individual schools' performance is, where it should be, and why, and exactly what areas need to be improved to get there for us to be competitive with THE BEST THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION. They must know why the individual schools in the school district are not delivering higher results. They must know exactly what and where the individual schools are in the school district's performance relative to the best competitors' performance internationally and their strengths and weaknesses. These are very important questions to be on track to reach competitive performance. This is a task that elected local school boards cannot do based on the last 20-years' A.C.T. Readiness and scores' performance.
We need to create or change a few laws that would protect the public from damaging outcomes, as public education has done to this country. that is why we are not doing well enough in our public schools today.
"MANAGING BY WALKING AROUND" (Peters et al) IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF ACHIEVING EXCELLENT RESULTS. Management By Objectives or MBO is the best tool to FOCUS on an entire organization in management. It is the most important tool to create good results. Results are the result of how all people work. If one does not have well-understood, specific measurable monthly and annual objectives, that are the key indicators of success or failure, such as the A.C.T. score for annual measurement and GPA computed year-to-date for every school's monthly performance. WHY? Because you must know how the operating units of your organization (the individual schools) that create the results (each school) are doing. This way, we spot a problem early and can correct it to achieve the annual objective. That is what good managers do.
Another method that is called Management By Walking Around is also needed. This method calls for walking around, saying something good and cheerful to employees, asking how they are doing, changing anything, and why. You can feel the morale just by walking around in an organization. But this way, as we suggest, you will know for sure how the employees feel, and you can pick up ideas for implementation that only those know well, who encounter the problem during their work. I would suggest 60 minutes per day be dedicated to this task. You will not be able to get enough information, but in one or two weeks or a month at most, they will add up. Never use this method to attack anyone. Use it to learn and to see opportunities to deliver better results. Showing your face to your team is very important in finding out what you may have to do because, as a manager, you are likely to find out that there will be lots of problems that pop up, but you will be well informed to solve each of them quickly. NEVER HIDE A PROBLEM FROM YOUR BOSS. WORK TOGETHER TO FIND A GOOD SOLUTION AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. DO THE SAME FOR THOSE WHO WORK FOR YOU.
WHAT WE PRESENT HERE IS THE MINIMUM THAT ONE MUST DO TO IMPROVE EDUCATION. ATTITUDES MUST CHANGE. WE HAVE NO REAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS IN PLACE IN OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION AND NEVER DID. WHAT ONE SEES ON THE A.C.T. CHART OVER 20 YEARS IS THE POOR PERFORMANCE WITHOUT ANY MANAGEMENT GUIDANCE. WHAT ARE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES WITH AN OPERATING PLAN MUST INCLUDE NOTHING LESS THAN WHAT WE HAVE HERE. WHAT YOU HAVE TO ACHIEVE IS A 10% INCREASE IN THE AVERAGE CONSOLIDATED A.C.T. SCORE BY JULY 2021, FROM THE AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE OF 2019. IF YOU DO WHAT WE RECOMMEND, AND MAKE AN HONEST EFFORT, YOU SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM ACHIEVING IT. The management definition of a goal, sometimes called "vision" in education, is what an organization targets several years, typically five years away. WE MUST ACHIEVE AN A.C.T. AVERAGE OF 29 IN FIVE YEARS OR LESS, AND AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE OF 22.5 BY JULY 2021 IN OUR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS. If you do not do it in less than five years, you will have terrible things happening.
Unfortunately, this is not something that an elected school board committee knows enough about in today's world. The "locally elected board" idea was implemented around the late 1800s. It did not change. Late 1800s's, PEOPLE!! WHY DON'T WE MANAGE HOSPITALS OR ANY OTHER THING IN LATE 1800s's STYLE? We had only an agricultural industry with a locally elected board BACK THEN, selling AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS close to home. The students in the school were typically the local farmers' students, and this arrangement worked very well. We started up several new industries about 50 years later, and a lot more of them after WWI, now into international trading. These were big changes, with several new sciences and quotations from famous people before 1900 started spreading negative comments about school boards. The increase in new technologies started mushrooming from then on. We went from the horse and buggy to the moon. Everybody abandoned the local school board idea in other nations by WWII because the knowledge was not there. Today I do not think that having a locally elected board in almost 14,000 school districts is doing the job well. The voting majority will rarely have the right people with the right knowledge. An elected committee will be very slow, will not spend time learning and investigating, and wants to be celebrated, but they did not improve the education system. Suppose education departments cannot do this fast, without understanding and compassion. In that case, WE MUST REPLACE THEM BECAUSE THE CURRENT LEVEL OF EDUCATIONAL KNOWHOW AND THEIR LOW LEVEL OF TRAINING AS A VOTING MAJORITY CAN AND WILL DESTROY US. BOTH A MONTHLY AND ANNUAL OBJECTIVE, AS DESCRIBED HERE, IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO REMEDY LONG-TERM PROBLEMS WITH RESULTS. THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY OF RECOVERING WITHOUT THESE OBJECTIVES BEING ADHERED TO exactly. THE OBJECTIVES MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN OPERATING PLAN. A MINIMAL OPERATING PLAN DESCRIBES THE OBJECTIVES OF ALL MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISORY PERSONNEL AS WELL AS TEACHERS. THE OBJECTIVES AND OPERATING PLANS MUST BE FOR EACH AND EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL BECAUSE THEY ARE PRODUCING THE RESULTS. THE METHOD IS VERY USEFUL FOR ANY GROUP WITH MORE THAN 100 EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE NOT BEEN PERFORMING WELL FOR MANY YEARS, LIKE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. I MAY BE MENTIONING SOME NEW CONCEPTS FOR THE READERS WHO WERE NOT MEASURED EVER BY HOW THE PEOPLE PERFORMED AND ACHIEVED UNDER THEM. Set an AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE as an objective as you plan for the coming fiscal (financial) year what you could or could not anticipate. Meeting the five-year goal is a serious business. It is not just something or "interesting ideas" that people pull out of the air as they do in politics and education to date. An objective MUST BE ACHIEVED, REGARDLESS OF SOME factORS THAT ONE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL. IT INVOLVES JUDGEMENT ABOUT COMPLEX SITUATIONS AND BECOMING BETTER AT BUILDING A MORE RESILIENT MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION. A GOOD MANAGER IS NOT BOTHERED BY ADMITTING TO HAVE MADE A MISTAKE. HIS RESULTS ARE GOOD, AND THAT IS WHAT COUNTS. IN EDUCATION AND POLITICS, SUCH A PERSON IS RARE. NOT BECAUSE THE PEOPLE ARE NOT GOOD, BUT BECAUSE IN POLITICS APPEARANCES ARE MORE IMPORTANT, AND SINCE EDUCATION REPORTED TO ONE FOR MANY YEARS, A LOT OF POLITICAL practices AND METHODS RUBBED OFF ONTO EDUCATION IN THE USA. THEY BOTH WANT TO BE IN THE LIGHTS, BEING PRAISED REGARDLESS OF REAL PERFORMANCE BECAUSE THEY HAVE EXCELLENT SOCIAL SKILLS. Employees don't do work as you expect. They will do WHAT YOU INSPECT. It is a huge conflict of interest to have a poorly performing organization to set its objectives, standards, and goals when its funding is guaranteed by law. IN A VERY BADLY PERFORMING ORGANIZATION, WE NEED CONSEQUENTIAL REWARDS FOR BOTH GOOD AND BAD PERFORMANCE AFTER A YEAR OF MAJOR CHANGES IN OBJECTIVES OR OPERATING STANDARDS. The education organizations MUST HAVE excellent performance: a nationally centralized INDEPENDENT management group needs to create a framework for standards and objectives and monthly operating plans within every single school. Many other countries figured this out by WWII. WHY COULDN'T WE?! This fact alone is a 25-30% probability indicator that US education is being influenced by a group that does not want change and good performance.
We are spending a fortune on duplication of people in every state AND EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOOSTING THE SIZE OF CENTRAL MANAGEMENT IN ALL OF THEM, without knowing what they are to do and how to do it. WE NEED THE MONEY IN THE SCHOOLS IN ACTIVITIES THAT PRODUCE HIGHER AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORES, LIKE AN AVERAGE A.C.T. 28 THAT IS ABOUT 80% KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS! NOT A.C.T. 21 THAT IS 25% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE ONLY!! There are standards for the size of central management organizations, and if they grow beyond it bad things happen with performance. Good ole boys' clubs form, protecting their own highly paid positions, and hire more people around them to protect themselves and not because it is needed for performance increase. This is easy to do with superintendents who do not know what to do. The superintendents do not have a performance increase objective attached to the headcount. It increases with a clear understanding that the positions will be eliminated if the performance commitments do not materialize in either year one or two. Why so strict? In a badly performing organization, several management people want the job of the superintendent. Their past achievement has not been good, and they can "snow" a superintendent who is not management trained well. And such a superintendent will find the suggestions of this person "very interesting" and may implement suggestions from such a person, but the superintendent will fail. Mr. "snow-job" takes his position because no one is trained to see through such a person in a poorly trained operation. When you have such a person who delivered bad results, removing him or her is very important because such a person will pave his own way and place obstacles in the superintendent's path. Badly performing organizations are a happy hunting ground for people like that. You may want to keep in mind that animals kill to eat. A lot of human beings hate others for things like a different color, accent, origin, religion, or any other difference, and we human beings kill each other at the drop of a hat. Just look at all the massive killings in war. And people in a high position start wars and some people become very wealthy as a result of wars. Some day we may grow out of such behavior. Since technological advancement includes weapons that could destroy us all, and since we do not seem to be improving spiritually, how long can we avoid self-destruction?
MANAGEMENT AND OBJECTIVES. WHAT IS AN OBJECTIVE WHEN IT REFERS TO GROUP ACHIEVEMENT? In management, an objective is preferably a number so that it is clear to everyone and cannot be misunderstood. The objective must be measurable to know if it was achieved or not. The objective must be a key indicator of the organization's success or failure. For example, the A.C.T. or SAT scores are the best for measuring what a child learned through elementary and high school, with A.C.T. or SAT depending on which the specific state uses. They would be the most accurate annual indicator of what the child learned from grade one to twelve. The student's score should be reflecting the percentage of all subjects knowledge from grade one to eleven because the test is taken before the twelfth grade is finished. Good or acceptable knowledge is represented by A.C.T. Readiness, if it is at least 80%. In the old days this would have to be a B- average that employers wanted in average or better paying jobs. 80% A.C.T. Readiness means that the student had an average A.C.T. score of 27-28. We are measuring learning, based on what the school was teaching in accordance with the curriculum. The purpose of the objective is to focus the entire organization on what has to be achieved in the fiscal year. Without an annual AND monthly objective of what you have to achieve, people will do what they will think is important, and you will get results that will not be uniform and coordinated, much less than what you think. A long-time president of IBM had a very true saying, but we don't think about it. PEOPLE DON'T DO WHAT YOU EXPECT. THEY DO WHAT YOU INSPECT!" But you cannot do that with an annual objective only in a poorly performing organization even if you picked the right kind of objective but annual only, without the monthly objectives. A year is too long to reinforce new behaviors. That is what you have to do. To get better results, you have to change the way your people work. To achieve that and change behavior and the way people work, one must have monthly objectives, that every supervisor and manager must reinforce a few times weekly by knowing exactly what has been accomplished. People forget, don't remember, people slip back into the old habit. You cannot get the best performance with an annual objective for this reason. Since there is no reliable monthly test, we can use a Grade Point Average (GPA) measured year-to-date to focus people more frequently on what we have to achieve. This is very important when we are trying to get good performance out of a poorly performing group because they are working in a specific way producing results that are not working well. The outcome or result is always related to how we do things and what we do at work. To change that, the managers and supervisors need to change the way the group works, but we change the old habit during a shorter period than a year. People accomplish more if focused on what has to be done. That is what we are doing. And you will find that the work becomes easier when done this way.
Let's say that they want you to increase the results by ten percent. If you ever did 30-50% increases, it is nothing. But if you struggled with staying the same, it feels terrible and impossible to do. In the turning around of a poorly performing organization, one will find many people who cannot drop old habits and, even more importantly, old fears. Talk to people in groups, listen more than you talk. Learn from therm. Promise what you will do short term, and make sure that all promises are delivered. You already worked as an animal very hard and could not reach A.C.T. 21 as an objective. Average A.C.T. 21 score is UNACCEPTABLE because that score's A.C.T. Readiness is only 22-23%. Too LOW!
You will find that by planning well, having good, well-trained people, and objectives used as I explained, a ten percent objective will take less work than the old objective you missed. It is also enormous fun to be part of a well managed growing organization. Remember that if the ground rules change in management in the right direction by a well-trained manager, you should not associate the objectives with the required effort under different ground rules in the past. Part of one's job also becomes one where you can think up creative ways to produce even better results that do not require more resources. Before you suggest it, make very sure that the idea works. If it does, it is a big plus for you. If it does not work, it is a minus. Always remember that it is everyone's job to improve the education of the students. If you want really big plusses, and if you come up with ideas that work, you can become a very valuable employee. That makes the bad education situation an outstanding opportunity for workers who are excellent AND CREATIVE.
THE RIGHT OBJECTIVE MUST BE A HEALTHY STRETCH. PEOPLE RISE TO EXPECTATIONS, BUT PEOPLE IGNORE AN OBJECTIVE THAT REPRESENTS ONLY A SMALL INCREASE. BUT TO FOCUS ALL EMPLOYEES ON THE OBJECTIVE, ALL SUPERVISORY PEOPLE NEED TO HAVE AN "OPERATING PLAN." THIS IS YOUR TOOL THAT ENSURES THE ANNUAL OBJECTIVE BEING REALIZED IN THE A.C.T. SCORE AND IN THE GPA AT YEAR-END. The A.C.T. is annual, but it is the most reliable, and the states cannot change it - very important. Depending on what the A.C.T. objective is, raise the annual GPA to the same percentage increase. There may be a difference between your A.C.T. and GPA increases. Adjust the GPA increase percentage to achieve the planned A.C.T. increase as you track performance in the adjusted monthly GPA objective. The same teachers need a monthly lesson plan detailing the monthly objectives and the steps the teacher must take during the month to meet every monthly objective by a specific date. Also, list what resources you need to make the monthly GPA objective happen. This can be an excellent learning experience to find out what teaching method would work for you, and you can learn what these methods are in the best three countries in education. Always dedicate some time to read about how those countries achieve their results. I will tell you that the two countries you should focus on every time are Finland and Singapore. Countries that would not be so valuable would be China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan have outstanding performance because the parental pressure is enormous on the children, accounting for better results. There is no way American parents could do that. HOWEVER, look at them also for innovative ways they use to solve teaching problems. But to be where they are in PISA results, their education has to be well managed, with excellent techniques. For example, Japan teaches children between grades 1-4, how to learn faster. Others are following them. I heard from high-level people in our education management that "Learning how to learn is a STUPID thing," whose "superior" education system delivers the worst result in the industrialized world. There is no single governor or politician who openly proposed a single change that would increase the A.C.T. scores. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? They propose things that cost more money but do not improve the children's knowledge and scores.
GPA objective measured monthly as Year-to-Date (YTD) is vital in every single school. At school-year-end, the GPA YTD must be 10% higher than the previous school year's GPA YTD achieved. At our current low-performance level, we need, at minimum, a ten percent increase annually. Objectives and operating plans used in education to date are unmeasurable, very low (low confidence), and are not a key indicator of success or failure. Therefore they cannot accomplish better results.
Lean down the central office staff to below 2% of total employees in a medium or large school district, and allocate the savings to schools or funding for a software project for automating all manual data entry required by teachers and generate management reports automatically.
You do not need babysitters with teacher salaries. What I mean is that we cannot afford to be tolerant of class-disrupting student behavior to get attention. The response has to be zero tolerance. The school policy must not be lawsuit anticipation from parents, but doing a much better job with excellent results for most children. The acceptable result is an average A.C.T. 29 score or higher. Why? Because in a group, it represents 80% A.C.T. Readiness, that is not a high measure. We are far from it. A few parents want their children away from home and do not care about their learning. Such children need the most help, or they will have hell right here for the rest of their lives. NEVER place the blame on parents UNLESS YOU KNOW how to solve it. Especially those in poverty had a tough life and not much parental guidance. In some states, the school can issue a ticket to the parent for behavior problems. Apply any savings to raising the subject knowledge of high school teachers in any science and mathematics courses and learning the best methods in speeding up learning. Solve the reading problem and basic math problem in all K-12 classes urgently. That should happen within three months. Find out why we have a problem teaching reading for more than 20 years and think very seriously why such a teacher should be teaching in a school. Or even pre-school, because we are not using well the 3-6-year-old period in children when this is the fastest period in neuronal interconnection activity in the brain, otherwise called "learning."
Free up teacher time to increase preparation time, and provide what they need for becoming better teachers. We are not doing that well enough.
Allocate the same amount of money per student in each school. The double spending budget per student we tried now for more than 20 years. It did not help to improve performance. It takes significant ignorance to keep spending like that for more than 20 years, and then you don't see improvement but you are afraid of parental reaction. If some idea did not work for a couple of years, you must stop it. Why don't you take a trip at your expense since you screwed up and visit a high performing country to find out what works? I could not find anyone in education management who did that. WHY DO WE KEEP SPENDING THE PEOPLE'S MONEY IN AREAS WHERE IT DOES NOT INCREASE EDUCATION RESULTS?
Allow a fair number of the best elementary school teachers from mostly black schools to organize visits to Success Academy Schools in NYC. They have outstanding results. Visit for three days each, learn how they do it, what tools and practices they use, and implement anything that can help us raise black children's performance. This has to be urgently accomplished. NO SHORT CUTS.
Complete it NOW! Not next year. Those teachers in the black schools who achieve a 3 A.C.T. point increase in this school year, give them a 10% bonus on their annual salary.
MANAGING BY WALKING AROUND IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF ACHIEVING EXCELLENT RESULTS. Management By Objectives or MBO is the best tool to FOCUS on an entire organization. Poor results are the result of how all people work. But so is excellent performance. If one does not have well-understood, specific measurable monthly, and annual objectives that measure the key indicator of success or failure, such as the A.C.T. score for annual measurement and GPA computed year-to-date for every school. WHY? Because you must know how the operating units that create the results (each school) are doing. This way, we spot a problem early and can correct it to achieve the annual objective. That is what good managers do.
Another method that is called Management By Walking Around is needed. This method calls for walking around, saying something good and cheerful to employees, asking how they are doing, changing anything, and why. You can feel the morale just by walking around in an organization. But this way, as we suggest, you will know for sure how the employees feel, and you can pick up ideas for implementation that only those know well who encounter the problem. I would suggest 90 minutes per day be dedicated to this task. You will not be able to get enough information, but in one or two weeks or a month at most, they will add up. Never use this method to attack anyone. Use it to learn and to see opportunities to deliver better results. Showing your face to your team is very important in finding out what you may have to do because, as a manager, you are likely to find out that there will be lots of problems that pop up, but you will be well informed to solve each of them quickly. NEVER HIDE A PROBLEM FROM YOUR BOSS. WORK TOGETHER TO FIND A GOOD SOLUTION AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. DO THE SAME FOR THOSE WHO WORK FOR YOU.
ALL actions THAT WE PRESENT HERE IS THE MINIMUM THAT ONE MUST DO TO IMPROVE EDUCATION. ATTITUDES MUST CHANGE. WE HAVE NO REAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS IN PLACE IN OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION AND NEVER DID. WHAT ONE SEES ON THE A.C.T. CHART OVER 20 YEARS IS THE POOR PERFORMANCE WITHOUT ANY MANAGEMENT GUIDANCE. WHAT ARE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES WITH AN OPERATING PLAN MUST INCLUDE NOTHING LESS THAN WHAT WE HAVE HERE. WHAT YOU HAVE TO ACHIEVE IS A 10% INCREASE IN THE AVERAGE CONSOLIDATED A.C.T. SCORE BY JULY 2021, FROM THE AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE OF 2019. IF YOU DO WHAT WE RECOMMEND, AND MAKE AN HONEST EFFORT, YOU SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM ACHIEVING IT. The management definition of a goal, sometimes called "vision" in education, is what an organization targets several years, typically five years away. WE MUST ACHIEVE AN A.C.T. AVERAGE OF 29 IN FIVE YEARS OR LESS, AND AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE OF 22.5 BY JULY 2021 IN OUR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS. If you do not do it in less than five years, you will have terrible things happening.
To enable a school district's performance to improve, we need to improve several areas. The elected board must know exactly where the individual schools' performance is, where it should be, and why, and exactly what areas need to be improved to get there for us to be competitive with THE BEST THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION. They must know why the individual schools in the school district are not delivering higher results. They must know exactly what and where the individual schools are in the school district's performance relative to the best competitors' performance internationally and their strengths and weaknesses. These are very important questions to be on track to reach competitive performance. This is a task that elected local school boards cannot do based on the last 20-years' A.C.T. Readiness and scores' performance. For a goal to be prA.C.T.ical as a guide to enable a school district's performance to improve, we need to improve several areas. The elected board must know exactly where the individual schools' performance is, where it should be, and why, and exactly what areas need to be improved to get there for us to be competitive with THE BEST THREE COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION. They must know why the individual schools in the school district are not delivering higher results. They must know what and where the individual schools are in the school district's performance relative to the best competitors' performance internationally and their strengths and weaknesses. These are very important questions to be on track to reach competitive performance. THIS IS A TASK THAT ELECTED LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS CANNOT DO. HONESTLY NOW...WHY DO WE NEED THEM? THE EXPENSE FOR 14,000 SCHOOL DISTRICTS' ELECTED BOARDS IS VERY HIGH FOR THE VALUE THEY CAN PROVIDE. THE MONEY COULD BETTER SERVE THE TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOLS.
We need to create or change a few laws that would protect the public from damaging outcomes, as public education has done to this country.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST MIXED WITH A HUGE MANAGEMENT MISTAKE TO KEEP GOVERNING PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MODERN TIMES THROUGH LOCALLY ELECTED BOARDS. WHY COULDN'T GOVERNORS NOTICE THE FOLLOWING MISTAKE. There is a conflict of interest if you have the same organization setting the standards for themselves without considering the top three competitors internationally. To make it more interesting, the education organizations not only set their own standards in every single one of our 50 states but delegate the management and direction of education to an elected school board, of which we have about 14,000 nationally. The decision-making majority of these elected local school boards vary widely. Most will have no idea what to do. A few like in Boston could be good. BUT UNIFORM GOOD-QUALITY DECISION MAKING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH SUCH A MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE TODAY. OBVIOUSLY, WE DO NOT NEED STANDARD SETTING OF VARIOUS QUALITY IN SCHOOL DISTRICTS. WE NEED UNIFORM, EXCELLENT STANDARDS SET FOR THE ENTIRE NATION. Management by local school board results in mostly poor decision-making and POOR RESULTS. THIS KIND OF MISTAKE CANNOT CREATE A GOOD EDUCATION FOR ALL. The majority of elected school boards have no idea how to improve our high school education results. That is where we need to be to create a competitive workforce for all companies. The high school graduates feed the workforce, on which the product and service quality depends. That is what our industries and our nation's income depend on. Education's job needs to be to deliver the results under standards that are created by our industries without fail. Why is it that we could not figure this out a long time ago? Why are we still using the management structure that education had in the 1800s? Why is it that highly educated people are trusted in education when they created bad results decade after decade? Why are the highly intelligent people in our leadership unable to solve such a huge problem that our education created? WHO IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY? IF THIS IS WHAT VOTING PRODUCES, AND IT APPEARS THAT IT DOES, WE HAVE A GIGANTIC PROBLEM THAT IS KEPT FROM THE PUBLIC WHO ARE PAYING FOR IT!! But we cannot solve the big problems unless the K-12 education graduates 80% A.C.T. Ready students.
Unfortunately, this is not something that the majority of elected local school board committees knows enough about in today's world. The "locally elected school board" idea was implemented around late 1875. We still use the same way to manage school districts!! It did not change. Late 1800s's PEOPLE!! WHY DON'T WE MANAGE HOSPITALS OR ANY OTHER A.C.T.IVITY LATE 1800s's STYLE? WHY DO WE MANAGE OUR EDUCATION DISTRICTS LATE 1800'S STYLE? We had only an agricultural industry with a locally elected board BACK THEN, selling close to home. The students in the school were typically the local farmers' students, and this arrangement worked very well. We started up several new industries about 50 years later, and a lot more of them after WWI, now into international trading. These were big changes, with several new sciences and quotations from famous people before 1900 started spreading negative comments about school boards. The increase in new technologies started mushrooming from then on. We went from the horse and buggy to the moon. Everybody abandoned the local school board idea in other nations by WWII because the knowledge was not there. Today I do not think that having a locally elected board in almost 14,000 school districts. The voting majority will rarely have the right people with the right knowledge. An elected committee will be very slow, will not spend time learning and investigating, and wants to be celebrated, but they did not improve the education system. Suppose education departments cannot do this fast, without understanding and compassion. In that case, WE MUST REPLACE THEM BECAUSE THE CURRENT LEVEL OF EDUCATIONAL KNOWHOW AND THEIR LOW LEVEL OF TRAINING AS A VOTING MAJORITY CAN DESTROY US. BOTH A MONTHLY AND ANNUAL OBJECTIVE, AS DESCRIBED HERE, IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO REMEDY LONG-TERM PROBLEMS WITH RESULTS. THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY OF RECOVERING WITHOUT THESE OBJECTIVES BEING ADHERED TO exactly. THE OBJECTIVES MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN OPERATING PLAN. A MINIMAL OPERATING PLAN DESCRIBES THE OBJECTIVES OF ALL MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISORY PERSONNEL AS WELL AS TEACHERS. THE OBJECTIVES AND OPERATING PLANS MUST BE FOR EACH AND EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL BECAUSE THEY ARE PRODUCING THE RESULTS. THE METHOD IS VERY USEFUL FOR ANY GROUP WITH MORE THAN 100 EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE NOT BEEN PERFORMING WELL FOR MANY YEARS, LIKE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. I MAY BE MENTIONING SOME NEW CONCEPTS FOR THE READERS WHO WERE NOT MEASURED EVER BY HOW THE PEOPLE PERFORMED AND ACHIEVED UNDER THEM. Set an AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE as an objective as you plan for the coming fiscal (financial) year what you could or could not anticipate. Meeting the five-year goal is a serious business. It is not just something or "interesting ideas" that people pull out of the air as they do in politics and education to date. An objective MUST BE ACHIEVED, REGARDLESS OF SOME factORS THAT ONE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL. IT INVOLVES JUDGEMENT ABOUT COMPLEX SITUATIONS AND BECOMING BETTER AT BUILDING A MORE RESILIENT MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION. A GOOD MANAGER IS NOT BOTHERED BY ADMITTING TO HAVE MADE A MISTAKE. HIS RESULTS ARE GOOD, AND THAT IS WHAT COUNTS. IN EDUCATION AND POLITICS, SUCH A PERSON IS RARE. NOT BECAUSE THE PEOPLE ARE NOT GOOD, BUT BECAUSE IN POLITICS APPEARANCES ARE MORE IMPORTANT, AND SINCE EDUCATION REPORTED TO ONE FOR MANY YEARS, A LOT OF POLITICAL practices AND METHODS RUBBED OFF ONTO EDUCATION IN THE USA. THEY BOTH WANT TO BE IN THE LIGHTS, BEING PRAISED REGARDLESS OF REAL PERFORMANCE BECAUSE THEY HAVE EXCELLENT SOCIAL SKILLS. Employees don't do work as you expect. They will do WHAT YOU INSPECT. It is a huge conflict of interest to have a poorly performing organization to set its objectives, standards, and goals when its funding is guaranteed by law. IN A VERY BADLY PERFORMING ORGANIZATION, WE NEED CONSEQUENTIAL REWARDS FOR BOTH GOOD AND BAD PERFORMANCE AFTER A YEAR OF MAJOR CHANGES IN OBJECTIVES OR OPERATING STANDARDS. The education organizations MUST HAVE excellent performance: a nationally centralized INDEPENDENT management group needs to create a framework for standards and objectives and monthly operating plans within every single school. Many other countries figured this out by WWII. WHY COULDN'T WE?! This fact alone is a 25-30% probability indicator that US education is being influenced by a group that does not want change and good performance.
We are spending a fortune on duplication of people in every state AND EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOOSTING THE SIZE OF CENTRAL MANAGEMENT IN ALL OF THEM, without knowing what they are to do and how to do it. WE NEED THE MONEY IN THE SCHOOLS IN ACTIVITIES THAT PRODUCE HIGHER AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORES, LIKE 29 THAT IS ABOUT 80% KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS! NOT A.C.T. 21 THAT IS 25% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE ONLY!! There are standards for the size of central management organizations, and if they grow beyond it bad things happen with performance. Good ole boys' clubs form, protecting their own highly paid positions, and hire more people around them to protect themselves and not because it is needed for performance increase. This is easy to do with superintendents who do not know what to do. The superintendents do not have a performance increase objective attached to the headcount. It increases with a clear understanding that the positions will be eliminated if the performance commitments do not materialize in either year one or two. Why so strict? In a badly performing organization, several management people want the job of the superintendent. Their past achievement has not been good, and they can "snow" a superintendent who is not management trained well. And such a superintendent will find the suggestions of this person "very interesting" and may implement suggestions from such a person, but the superintendent will fail. Mr. "snow-job" takes his position because no one is trained to see through such a person in a poorly trained operation. When you have such a person who delivered bad results, removing him or her is very important because such a person will pave his own way and place obstacles in the superintendent's path. Badly performing organizations are a happy hunting ground for people like that. You may want to keep in mind that animals kill to eat. A lot of human beings hate others for things like a different color, accent, origin, religion, or any other difference, and we human beings kill each other at the drop of a hat. Just look at all the massive killings in war. And people in a high position start wars, and some people become very wealthy as a result of wars. Some day we may grow out of such behavior. Since technological advancement includes weapons that could destroy us all, and since we do not seem to be improving spiritually, how long can we avoid self-destruction?
Operating with silly unmeasurable objectives backed by a very low-performance target like A.C.T. 21, creates a multitude of problems that also drop performance. We do not seem to have the management experience to know how to create good results in our schools. Worst of all, most people in the education communities' management think that they know enough just because they were hired or elected. No person in any school district wants to visit school systems that perform well to learn how they do it, and they do not want to learn anything to create better results. This is "The ostrich with head in sand" method in practice. Teacher morale is bad and justified. The structured satisfaction surveys that the states use are not a good indicator of morale because the outcome is limited to fixed questions and answers. Such tests can steer the result to a conclusion like "we need more money." When morale is bad or unknown, one needs an open-ended test where the employee steers the test with guaranteed anonymity. In a poorly performing environment, no one will put effort into valid morale measurement instead of a technique that encourages only "nice answers." Such highly secure online tests are available. Who is responsible for the bad results? The state education organization without exception, their boss, most superintendents, but we are not including principals and teachers, who are trying hard without much help from above.
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THE PARENTS WILL FIND OUT SHORTLY THAT THEY WERE MISINFORMED FOR DECADES BY THE PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM, when little Johnny will try to get a legal job and cannot get one. There will be a lot of anger in the streets. I went to the inner cities and talked with them. They have a terrible job. The teacher's unions influence lawmakers against passing any laws to change anything within the education system to improve the results, as measured by the A.C.T. or SAT scores. We are graduating as many as 80% of graduates who are not even A.C.T. Ready.
THE SPECIFIC INDICATOR OF EDUCATION PERFORMANCE IS THE A.C.T. SCORE IN MOST STATES. IT SHOWS HOW MUCH OUR CHILDREN LEARNED FROM GRADE ONE TO TWELVE. FLAT RESULTS ARE NOT GOOD. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE FLAT PERFORMANCE IS IN A LOW-PERFORMANCE AREA, LIKE AN AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE 21 WITH ONLY 20-25% OF GRADUATES A.C.T. READY. A.C.T. Readiness is a low requirement, representing only four high school courses with an average A.C.T. score of 21 (23, 22, 22, and 18). A.C.T. Readiness represents only a chance of 50-75% for the A.C.T. Ready student to pass only four freshman courses that are the same subjects as the A.C.T. benchmarks were. A CHANCE TO PASS ONLY! But that's not all. In Tennessee and a number of other states, 80% or more of the graduating children are not even A.C.T. Ready. Among black students, 94-97% ARE NOT A.C.T. READY. This is is a very low measure in today's world, far from enough to live even in a shack. This kind of performance creates a bunch of desperate high school graduates who will get into trouble on the streets, along with about 30 million workforce members whose education is only a high school diploma.
WHY?
Because education is responsible for delivering what employers need. Employers use new technologies to be competitive. Public education needs to satisfy what employers need in their curriculum. Because of that, the A.C.T. Readiness will be increased. If you do not believe, talk to an A.C.T. vice president.
Most of our employers compete with the products of other nations both domestically and internationally. Our high school graduates feed the employers' workforce. The workforce creates employers' products and services. If they are not educated well enough, their work quality will not be competitive enough with countries with a superior public education. We need to be competitive with the top three countries in education that graduate children with an average A.C.T. 29-34 equivalent score as the average of all high schools. This performance level always looks impossible for low performers because they think they are doing their best. But there are techniques/tools to create better results, and we do not use them. One needs to achieve where we should be: We do not measure performance per class or school. How can anyone know where you are in achievement if you do not measure it? How can you tell if one school or a class is behind? But more importantly, to reach a targeted performance level, you have to know very precisely where you are if you want to achieve a specific performance level.
We don't know exactly where we are in education every month, but we find out at the end of the year AS A SURPRISE. It is not possible to improve something as a surprise. One has to know how to plan precisely each month, and how much one needs to achieve that to achieve each year's objective. Without knowing how to do that, education cannot improve to a level where our children and country will be successful. One cannot achieve such a thing by just trying. You have to know something called Management By Objectives very well because every single element in that method has to be one that works. In education, there are no precise instructions about how to make it work. Without proper training and experience, the low level of performance we have cannot be raised to a competitive level. IT CAN ONLY BE RAISED WITH MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO) IF IT IS DONE PERFECTLY. If one learns how to use it, one can achieve a ten percent increase in performance, with less effort than doing nothing well enough to get good results, as we do now. Education departments will argue that it is a business method that does not work in education. Well, good judgment will not come from an organization that produced terrible results for more than 20 years. Second, Management By Objectives works well with any medium-to-large organization that wants to achieve anything, and public education is a large national organization with a management structure that cannot produce good results for several reasons and did not produce good results for many decades.
A FEW DECADES AGO WE GRADUATED CHILDREN FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHO PASSED EVERY SINGLE HIGH SCHOOL COURSE AT A SCORE THAT WAS REPRESENTING MORE THAN 60% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE. A FEW YEARS PRIOR TO THAT, WE GRADUATED ONLY THOSE CHILDREN ABOVE 70% KNOWLEDGE OF ALL HIGH SCHOOL COURSES. ALL THAT TIME EMPLOYERS WERE LOOKING FOR EMPLOYEES WHO HAD AT LEAST A "B" AVERAGE THAT IS 80-89% KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF ALL HIGH SCHOOL COURSES. AND THEN, A FEW YEARS AGO A.C.T. READINESS MEANS THAT THE A.C.T. SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE GRADUATE IN ONLY FOUR HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS IS AT 58-61% OR HIGHER. THIS WAS A HUGE DROP. A.C.T. READINESS INDICATES ONLY THAT THE STUDENT HAS A 50 - 75% CHANCE TO PASS ONLY FOUR FRESHMAN LEVEL COURSES IN THE SAME FOUR SUBJECTS AS THE A.C.T. READY BENCHMARKS. IN TODAY'S WORLD, THIS IS A VERY LOW STANDARD. BUT IN A STATE LIKE TENNESSEE AND OTHERS, 80% OF GRADUATES ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY. A.C.T. READINESS IS AN EDUCATION SYSTEM PROMPTED STANDARD NEGOTIATED BETWEEN A.C.T. AND AND EDUCATION AUTHORITY. They are somewhere between 40% and 60% high school subject-knowledge when graduating from high school. Such low high school performance is a guaranteed failure that would endanger our country's survival, even without new technologies. What gives it a real muscle for self-destruction is the fact that three major new technologies will be here in 2023: AI-driven cognitive robotics, which will replace many jobs with a four-year degree, with huge layoffs in the workforce. Nanotechnology will replace the way we manufacture things with nanometer precision (one-millionth of a meter or yard). It reduces manufacturing costs significantly about almost everything, making sciences like Materials Science gigantic. Our success or failure depends entirely on how well our education system is going to learn how to educate. Some countries, like Japan, teach that in grades 3-4. Yes, it is possible to learn faster and easier, and we will show you below very good sources about how to learn that. Today, in our country, we allowed education to become pitiful by not standing up for each other, not writing to governors to fix this outrageous education system, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, BY NOT STANDING UP FOR OUR COUNTRY! We learned to judge others and do it very well. But in public education, we have been doing a terrible job. We can hire a person in many school districts with a Ph.D. in education, who does a terrible job, when the real task of schools is to satisfy not education's but the employer's needs. THE CHILDREN GRADUATING WOULD NEED TO GET A JOB FROM EMPLOYERS AND DO IT WELL. RIGHT? We see all part of dumbing down because education is the primary target for those who want to dumb us down. For pretty high dollars, we graduated almost all children without them being employable. Over several years of doing this damage, the cost of social support of our unemployable children is already impossible. We do not have enough national income to support it. And all along, those who manage education tend to forget that a boring classroom turns off everyone, and that depends on the teacher's personality, training, his/her ability to be entertaining and his/her love of teaching and the subject he/she is teaching. This kind of thing is not the teacher's fault. Teaching success depends on a very special person, and we do not check the required characteristics for teaching as part of acceptance into teaching programs. Let me give you another example. The elected school board hires a superintendent who never managed a single school. They had 64 schools in the school district, with 6,000 employees. He never supervised an organization with more than 50 employees. The elected board did not check anything in his background, accepted the headhunter's background check of the candidate, and the headhunter received from the elected board a $110,000 commission check. Nothing improved under this superintendent. But he did befriend a school principal whose school was the worst performer for seven years. So the new superintendent promoted this principal to be in charge of all 64 schools! Another eight years went by, and there is no improvement. During all this, about 80% of the children are graduated with results below 60% subject knowledge level that is unacceptable for minimum wage candidate at best.
IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY WE WENT FROM THE HORSE AND BUGGY TO THE MOON! WITH ENORMOUS GROWTH IN AN INTERNATIONAL SETTING IN MORE THAN HUNDREDS OF INDUSTRIES AND MAJOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES. That increased the employers' needs for better educated high school graduates. Education as a field became more complex, and such changes require more education and change in the management structure nationally to make better decisions to set uniform and competitive standards nationally. We need to be competitive in education to help the national workforce and our various industries to become more competitive. Local school boards cannot do that uniformly nationwide. One would need a national board of education made up of high level retired successful management talent representing a few important industries to set education standards for management and teacher training, testing standards, graduation standards nationwide. The job of state education would remain to deliver public education as defined by the national board of education. They would require a board majority of people to be very well informed about management and international standards in education. It is really unbelievable that we do not recognize to this day in the year 2020, 170 years after late 1800s, the magnitude of such change that is needed in education like a national curriculum standard, graduation requirements competitive with the three best nations in education, management structure and training! ALWAYS LISTEN TO PEOPLE, BUT WATCH WHAT THEY DO. THAT IS WHERE THE TRUTH IS. WITH NEITHER REPUBLICANS' NOR THE DEMOCRATS' PARTY HAS SHOWN ANY INTEREST IN IMPROVING OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. WE ARE PAYING ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES IN THE WORLD PER STUDENT. THEY ARE OUR HARD-EARNED TAXES THAT ARE PAYING THE HIGHEST RATES FOR THE WORST EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES.
THREE MAJOR TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE HERE IN 2023-2024 WITH A MUCH GREATER IMPACT THAN COMPUTERS DID. One nanometer is one-millionth of a meter. A meter is 3.3 feet long. If you have very good eyes, you cannot see AND recognize anything smaller than 200 nanometers. Atoms of elements are less than one nanometer in size. Robots will be released soon, which could be COVID-19 size (100-140 nanometer diameter), fly anywhere, self-replicating, and Artificial Intelligence programmable. They could enter the bloodstream and go anywhere programmed to do fantastic things in medicine as an example. But we will need highly educated people to create them and defend against them, like with any other technologies. We, the Russians and Chinese, have a super-secret high technology operation whose results are 50 years ahead of anything that we are aware of. Our super-secret organization is known as DARPA. It includes a number of very famous technical departments at universities like MIT, CAL-TECH, and a few others, and part of almost all aerospace companies. That means that we have things out there that we cannot even explain. Technological advancement will become surprisingly faster and faster during the coming 25 years. In 2025, the $1,000 (in constant dollars) PC can perform the same number of math operations as one human brain (Kurzweil). In 20 more years, the $1,000 PC will be able to do ten billion times as many computations than in 2025 (Kurzweil). We will see similar changes in everything. EVERYTHING!! Our public education today requires two years of remedial training to start a college program. We are already that far behind. Unless we get much more advanced high school training compatible with the top three performing nations in education right now, our children will be unemployed by 2025. Do not defend 95% of our public schools because most of those who run the state education department, who report to a governor, are hurting us and our country with poor performance, and the politician and education leadership in charge have not done anything about it over many decades. This is the kind of thing that could destroy us unless we change public education in many areas without any negotiation whatsoever. When an "industry" like education has been producing poor results for many decades, but they are lying about it to the people who pay the highest amount per student in the world with our hard-earned taxes, people don't know that and accept it as normal. It is disgusting that our political leaders do NOTHING about it. In the case of public education, why would anyone insist on favoring an education background for superintendents? It is an industry that has been poorly managed, poorly performed for many decades. There are many outstanding well-trained retired senior managers out there who not only know more about what they as employers need, they have been totally ignored, and are well trained in management, who could do a far better job. You would be getting far better-experienced talent this way than with the old method. When you are a superintendent, lacking real management training and experience as our superintendents do, and the elected board can't even ask you the important questions, and you don't do your homework on the superintendent candidate before hiring him, you will never do well. Please do not be offended because that is what the evidence shows. Learn and become better than the rest! Give such a man a free hand. Do not have the local school board controlling him. Have his monthly objectives and operating plan control him. The locally elected school board system was established during the 1800s, in the agriculture industry, in a local market setting, where the students were born into farmer families. The management structure worked well then. But when we went from the horse and buggy to the moon during a hundred year period, with enormous technological changes that changed our employers' needs and all governors did the same thing, NOTHING! Such uniformity indicates directed action from above. Who did that, and why? But our public educations did not do a thing to upgrade. The governors were responsible for that
Robots can do higher quality, highly repetitive jobs, 24/7, much better than a human being. The second big change, Nanotechnology, will manufacture things at a much lower cost, WITH NANOMETER PRECISION. A nanometer is one-millionth of a meter. A meter is about the same as 3.3 feet. Picture the nanotechnology manufacturing method as "pouring" one-nanometer layers at a time. Nanotechnology will also cause the development of great changes in other technologies, especially in materials science. Unfortunately, if our education quality remains poor like now and coming to education late, it will hold back the employers' deadlines that is a deadly development. And the employer loses the competitive edge if they are not first to market with a reliable design. FINALLY, Space Science will be the third new technology at the same time in 2023, which will certainly alter what we teach in Physics, Chemistry, and Materials Science along with others. This trio of major technologies coming in 2023 will have an enormous effect on practically all technologies, sciences, engineering, AND JOBS that today's population knows. But we should not forget that all such outcomes have a positive and negative side also, and all human beings have a very important right granted to them from above, called the freedom to decide and choose. So, there is not much to fear unless we keep destroying our future with our declining public education. Our future existence depends on the education of our children today. Unfortunately, the schools oppose any change, and their performance grew into a major handicap to succeed as a nation. The teachers' unions just want more money and did nothing to improve school performance. They have substantial lobbying power in Congress to ensure no changes for improving education. We have MANY partnerships that advertise that they can make a difference to improve education and solicit donations to achieve that. Much of the donated money goes to ensuring their wealth. But how come that education did not improve? Because they are not what they say they are. Sometimes if you eat lunch with a friend in a large Mexican city, a poor, teary-eyed child interrupts, asking for money to eat. So I offer them lunch. But they insist that they need money. Some people who collect money from other wealthy people for education are worse. They just found an opportunity to con people for their own financial gain. Such organizations simply take advantage of the situation instead of raising education along with the improving technologies. Are the past twenty years' education results accidental? It appears that our governors, lawmakers, and departments of education could not do anything about it. The keywords are, "It appears."
IS THERE A SPECIAL TALENT WITHIN EACH OF US?
Buddhism is a respected and the most peaceful philosophy. It also has a substantial medical research base that was developed by a group of Buddhist monks over a two thousand year period, and especially in brain-related neurology, that releases natural restorative powers in the human body, through combination of deep meditation and guided imagery. The medical science in Buddhism is called Ayurvedic Medicine. This is a specialized area within the Buddhist monks who developed outstanding methods and even medical solutions during the last two thousand years, to use the human body's internal, God-given capabilities to solve health problems using the natural capabilities programmed into us human beings. Today we use only about 4-6% of our brains, and we know the least about the brain, about how it works and what capabilities exist within it, in the 94-96% of the brain, that we, humanity, cannot use yet. Einstein was estimated to be using 8% of his brain, so there must be enormous powers in the remaining 92% that we are not using yet.
Buddhist monks say that “The mind is everything.What you think, you become.” Think about that. Our thinking is limited by what we know - some facts and what we assume. That makes both formal and informal education extremely important. Deep Meditation is a very important tool to open up one's thinking.
Another important Buddhist belief is that all human beings have a built-in high level talent, they will be the happiest when using it, and they will be most successful in a job that is based on it. Let me offer you a few examples, and please look at them but, most importantly, think about them. Each of the following are young raw talent who will make it big I am sure. They have a natural talent that make the person perform on the highest level with minimal or no training. If one has to get educated in the special field, the training itself seems to come easily and it is very enjoyable. They exist in any field, any profession. Everybody has something like this, and some day we will be able to find it in everyone. I am showing you examples in music and a magician performing, but this capability seems to exit in all professions according to Buddhism. Think about the fact that we tend to believe that we know everything. People who know less tend to believe that their opinion is the truth. Somewhere along our personal development we discover that we know very little compared to what we will learn as humanity over 100 years. Earth is one of the younger planets, and we are a young civilization. Can you imagine how far our knowledge developed in just 100 years? Imagine how much we will know as humanity in one million more years. There are trillions of planets that are more than a billion years older than we are. The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know. NASA identified 40,000,000,000 planets that have similar temperature to ours. It would be very silly to think that much more advanced life than we are cannot be out there.
To see examples, just click on them below.
Listen to and observe the young person's skill. I want you to notice something. Watch their body movements. They feel the music! It all comes from within the person! For example, when you are dealing with one's natural talent, we see a loving emotion emerging with what they do. This is perfection. It can be in any job. We all have it. We just don't know yet how to find it. In case of music, this feeling creates body movements in rhythm that takes over their body. You can see that they love what they do. There is a definite special connection between them and what they do. Steve Jobs, during the late 1970s, before he became very famous, told me about this a long time ago. He quit school and went to India for a year to be with Buddhist monks. The monks discovered what his special talent was, and without Steve even recognizing it, he changed. He started Apple and made it a fantastic company. He was tough on employees because he could see solutions to problems much faster than others. He told me that we provide the same education to all children, which is OK and necessary IF IT IS DONE WELL. But to discover your unique talent, you have to follow your special interests that pop up from an early age. SPEND 30 MINUTES A DAY TO MEDITATE ABOUT WHAT IT COULD BE. WHEN IT COMES UP, YOU WILL TRY IT AND SEE IF YOU LOVE IT. IF IT FEELS ENJOYABLE, DON'T JUST TRY IT, BUT BECOME EXCELLENT AT IT AS LONG AS YOU ENJOY IT. YOU MAY DROP IT, SO BE IT. BUT THIS IS HOW YOUR SPECIAL TALENT WILL POP UP. When you feel that real special talent, you will not give it up and quit it. Do not ignore your regular education. He got excellent grades always but quit to go to India. The special talent will just pop up someday, and you will enjoy it like nothing before. You will become the best at it because you enjoy it. You will not want to quit your special talent. DO NOT ACCEPT ANY PRESSURE BY ANYONE to do additional things that you do not feel strongly about. The money will become less important to you. But doing what you love will make you very happy, and all of a sudden, the money will come automatically. Don't forget. "What you think...you become." But what you learn as a fact is what can enhance what you think. By learning, I mean, not just in school. Everything you experience is learning. Read about what interests you. See videos that interests you. Tools like Google are fantastic places to learn. Learning to read very well and being very well trained in basic math or watching programs with real experts about the subjects you love will be very helpful and make further learning much easier. However, I want you to know also, that we graduate from high school too many students who cannot read or use basic math well by 5th grade. It must be learned very well by fifth grade. Learning starts at the fastest rate from birth by brain nerve cells (neurons) starting to interconnect at a very high rate. A healthy brain has about 100 billion neurons at birth. Learning itself is the interconnections of neurons forming in the specific order of "wiring" up specific functions in the brain with a limit on the time within each function to finish the "wiring" job for each function. For example vision starts first, hearing is next, basic math and reading between age 3 and 10, etc., etc., and vocational fit, in the ideal vocations for the individual is finishing around age 21. So vocational testing should take place after 21 years of age. We can test for it today with the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory, but they must be correlated. Both can be downloaded from the Internet for $100 and would recommend that one session with a vocational psychologist, Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology would be highly recommended to explain any questions one has Our schools push students toward a vocation from late elementary school on, and that could have a negative effect on the natural development for an individual's natural vocational talent. Our public schools do a poor job by teaching the basics poorly as measured by the SAT and A.C.T. tests by high school graduation, in the right developmental order, especially with mathematics and the sciences, the only areas that can protect against early replacement of jobs by robotics. Decisions without understanding the problems they create and by approving decisions not realizing the damage that their lack of knowledge creates should is not appropriate on a lower than central, national-level.l the fact that calculator use in the schools and during tests halts the full development of basic mathematics and we have experienced shocking inability of high school graduates to do a simple subtraction. But the biggest problem that is and was caused by calculator use was the fact that the when you do not develop deliver the the brains basic math capability is that internal math operations in the brain as part of important functions like in decision making at a much faster rate are also paralyzed and THAT limits employability severely. The latest solution by the education leadership is to teach critical thinking. Critical thinking and decision making uses the brain for speed if the brain's mathematics are well developed. Forgetting that for decision making and critical thinking, one must also have to be competent in the knowledge area within which the problems are AND and other peripheral areas that are related to the problem as well. It is very harmful to us as a country to have unqualified people making many decisions.
Our teacher education declined, and management training for principals and superintendents is not a requirement before consideration for selection to these positions. It should be. Our public education decreases the chances of employment for our children and the workforce, with a lack of good enough education, creating a problem for employers. If a company's workforce is better educated than the competitor of that company, the company with a better educated workforce will have higher quality products with better margins and they will win more business, higher profits and taxes. As a result of our declining education vs. the technological improvements, the national income dropped like a stone from a normal 12-14% to 3-4%. We borrow money to make up for it. It is called the national debt. By the end of 2020, it will be close to $30 TRILLION. How much is the interest in this debt? Close to $8 TRILLION dollars, $8,000,000,000,000! The $8 Trillion interest is dead money. We have to pay it back. We had to borrow it because our industries' products did not sell well enough internationally or domestically. Why? Because several other countries have a better-educated workforce by their high schools than we do. Are most of our public schools "failure factories" instead of schools? It seems that way. The more important question is: "Will my child be unemployed for life?" AND "How can our country survive this way?" WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM.
We searched, but could not find any action and change in public education by top Republicans or Democrats or Education leadership, that would increase our A.C.T. scores. But they promise things about improving our public education when they run for office! To date, do nothing to improve education to raise the A.C.T. scores after they get elected. That is the measure of what children learned from grade one to twelve, and along with a psychological match to the teaching profession and being a top 30% graduate in a Master's program for the single subject that they would teach after 4th grade is the critical requirement for high performing countries in teaching beyond 4th grade. I spent a lot of time in more than 50 countries in my work and an extended amount of time in the top three countries in education. They don't promise, they don't have slogans like "Excellence for all children," BUT THEY DELIVER EXCELLENT RESULTS. They promise things about improving our public education when their politicians run for office. THEY DELIVER. We found many things within our public education system during the last ten years in management structures and operations that block the possibility of good performance. We do not believe that teachers and principals are to be blamed for poor performance. But the state departments of education and those in charge are responsible. A teacher or principal wanted to become a teacher. They were accepted into a teacher training program, with all parties' assumption that both teacher training and certification would ensure their success. The program acceptance, training, and certification are not high enough, and such a condition cannot produce good results. Add to it lack of management training for principals and higher positions that oversee more than 100 employees. It is not viewed as necessary, but nothing succeeds without excellent planning and execution, requiring substantial management training. Education did not advance enough. Although we went from the horse and buggy to the moon in a hundred years, with more than a thousand new Science and engineering jobs becoming important after WWII, education did not keep up with them to this date. It appears that the biggest problem to date is the teacher training program becoming the greatest contributor to boring classrooms (I sat in on 29 of them), and neither Republican nor Democrat leadership did anything about the most critical problem that our future depends on as a nation. But I care, and hopefully many others care as well.
OUR CHILDREN ARE GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL BEING POOR READERS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO MAKE CHANGE FROM A HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL, AND THEY DO NOT SEEM TO KNOW VERY SIMPLE THINGS DURING JOB INTERVIEWS. Most cannot even fill out a job application. WHY IS THAT ACCEPTABLE? They should be good readers by fourth grade because being poor in reading and basic math from the fifth-grade handicaps any future learning. Reading and basic math are necessary for learning through both elementary school, high school, and after that on the job. Our future as a country depends totally on the education our children get today.
I just saw a TV program in which the superintendent of a large school district said that we should eliminate testing. The moderator asked him, "How can you tell without testing that the children learned something or not?" The superintendent of the school district with black children said, "I LOOK INTO THEIR EYES AND I CAN TELL!" It is scary even if only one superintendent would say something this outrageously stupid, because their education should be good enough, if they graduated, to prevent opinions of this kind even in one superintendent. The qualification standard must be strong enough to ensure that no such person, not a single one can become a teacher or manager in an education organization.
If employers who hire our high school graduates complain to governors about their education, and they do, then nothing happens to improve the schools to raise the A.C.T. and SAT results. We have a big problem that needs to be solved urgently.
As one can see on the above chart, our public education has not been doing well enough in almost all of our public schools. There is enough public experience to indicate the same as well for at least fifteen years. why was it not corrected to date? we dropped as a result to the bottom of the industrialized countries. we deserve better for the highest prices we pay per student in the world. We need better education for our children and country to survive. An increase in employees' education is always needed to follow closely technological advancements because employers always use them to become more competitive. Education standards always need to follow technological developments quickly to increase our students' education to meet employers' needs after they graduate. Unfortunately, our public schools do not do that and fell behind. What is the gap between where our high schools are and where they should be? We heard from university professors often the answer. In 2019 we heard that for a high school graduate to start attending the freshman year of a university program, the high school graduate needs two years of remedial education first. So the gap is a minimum of two years. In 2023 we will see the entry of three technologies: Artificial Intelligence-driven cognitive robotics, nanotechnology, and space science will open hundreds if not thousands of new science and engineering fields. The gap will double to four years. If we do not change our high schools to the level of the top countries in education, many of today's high school graduates and tens of thousands from our current workforce will become jobless within a few years.
I attended many board meetings. there was never any time spent on how to improve education. zero time over many years!! but they spent a lot of time on approving more money. there was zero time spent discussing why the school district spends eight-to-ten times more money on central management than what normal size is. there is zero time spent on examining why every single position is important or not in central management. This is a huge problem because if you are too high in the central management area, you are paid the highest salaries, and the results are so poor that it is a question whether or not anyone in that large group knows what they are doing. The normal percentage in large school district central management is less than 2% of the total number of full-time employees. Central management is most often 8-12% of the entire school district's employees. One gets much better-unbiased work from normal-sized central management. Why? Because they are smart people and realize that one could do a better job by delegating some of it to where the action is, where the results come from, the schools! That is where the money should be spent on expert knowhow. The best reason for not overspending in central management is the fact that the A.C.T. results are poor. That, in turn, means that the money is not going to the right places. It should go to where the results are created, the schools. But where in the schools? Now you do have to know who is performing and how well. But there is opposition to measuring teacher and school performance. You have to change that because if you do not have a measurable annual A.C.T. objective in every high school and a monthly GPA objective in every school. A manager must know what every person under the manager needs to do very well to raise results instead of listening to "interesting ideas" from inexperienced people who never had good results but can amaze you with BS. In education, it is very common to find managers who have no idea what they and people under them must know to do an excellent job. we do not have such talent, and there will not be such talent without management training.
IF YOU LET POORLY PERFORMING PEOPLE GO, YOUR RESULTS WILL NOT GO DOWN. IF YOU LEARN HOW TO HIRE GOOD PEOPLE, IT WILL GO UP. BUT LOCALLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS ARE NOT TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED TO DO THAT, AND SUPERINTENDENTS NEED TO REPORT TO PEOPLE WHO DO FOR BEST RESULTS. WHY CAN'T WE FIND SUPERINTENDENTS WHO CAN DO A GOOD JOB? THE GOOD ONES LEARNED WHAT MANAGEMENT IS ALL ABOUT, AND THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE A COMMITTEE THAT DOES NOT HAVE THE NEEDED KNOWLEDGE AS THE BOSS, WITH THE SUPERINTENDENT'S FUTURE DEPENDING ON IT. THEY WILL DO BETTER WITH A SINGLE BOSS WHO KNOWS EXACTLY HOW TO ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS. THE CURRENT SCHOOL BOARD SYSTEM WAS USEFUL ONLY DURING THE AGRICULTURAL YEARS OF THE 1800s. But elected boards from the local supply of talent do not have the right knowhow to raise school performance. We think that 20 years of experience shows that quite clearly. Such people can be manipulated much more easily by other groups who also do not have the knowhow or have ill intent. And with such people having the authority to direct the more experienced guy is not a formula for good school performance. With our public education heading south for such a long time, the local school boards are not improving but the opposite. This kind of management philosophy and structure that resides in the school boards of more than 14,000 school districts in our nation can only create bad results. There are only 5% of all public schools that produce good results. The fact that such a dysfunctional management structure still exists is a clear indication that the public is being dumbed down with a less than needed public school competence that will keep going down unless it is revised. The problems with this situation are:
Elections can be "arranged" for a specific person to win. This is a serious subject under Psychological Warfare, Disinformation Theory, a highly advanced science, based on Lenin's quote of "If you lie a thousand times to the public about the same subject, they will accept it as truth." Repeat slogans often like "WE ARE THE BEST IN 'XYZ'," and make sure that the PUBLIC never receives news about who really is the best in 'XYZ'." Both communism and the nazi party used this method.
If you dumb down the public, by dumbing down their schools, you can convince them faster of anything, and the disinformation campaign will last longer. But it is aided by normal human behavior of covering your shortcomings instead of accepting them and learning to become better.
Drive important decisions to the lowest level of the population. Repeat often that it should be the local people who make the best decisions. That is how our system was made to decline for more than 100 years.
Paralyze the management structure of the country and paralyze selectively any specific national function under government control by appointing a board of the local population to make all important decisions. Again, it is basic human nature to be elected to what one believes is an important position, and most believe that if they got elected, they are qualified to make important decisions. If you do not notice early enough and change what is happening, you lose.
Whoever set up this system during the 1800s was brilliant, and an expert on human behavior to make use of it so brilliantly. I am citing only two such examples now. Still, it is very surprising that many other countries followed a much better education system, while we hypnotized ourselves repeating that "WE ARE THE BEST" slogan after WWII, initiated by the same group that started in the 1800s! It was sold to the public as a way to save the self-esteem of poorly performing children as "Johnny, you can do it! You are the best!!" We took the bait.
It is also a basic human trait to defend yourself to survive if the results are not good. We see this in education, but if the qualification requirements were low, we should not blame such people but organize to raise such people's knowledge. HELP THEM.
It is impossible to get out of a dilemma like the way education operates today by being defensive, and covering up if one is in top management, or becoming hostile if someone brings up the topic. When things do not work in a group, it is vital to put anger and self-defense aside and compare yourself openly against the world's best to know exactly where you are. Remove poor performers, and get the right people to help you to close the performance gap. Acknowledging frankly that you did not know how to do this is important. Create a monthly plan to correct the problems, and tell the public truthfully on a monthly basis the successes and failures in working your plan. A PERSON WHOSE EGO ALLOWS HIM OR HER TO SHARE SUCH ACTION OPENLY WILL CORRECT THE PROBLEM. OTHERS WHO CANNOT DO THIS, CANNOT AND WILL NOT.
HOW CAN INTELLIGENT PEOPLE MAKE SUCH POOR DECISIONS? This is the most damaging to our future success with not only our children's education. Our country's future depends on how well our children are educated today. We are the largest economy in the world. We need a lot more high schools that graduate children with a minimum 29 average A.C.T. score. Unfortunately, we are so bad that our schools think that an A.C.T. 29 average is impossible to do. Bad attitude is the result of bad management. They call it "realistic outlook." If so, then meet the average performance of Singapore and Finland. And I really do not want to hear stupid arguments like "We are much bigger and that makes it impossible", or "We have minorities and that makes it impossible", when we are creating minorities with poverty as a result of poor education at the highest rate in the world. Back in the 1800's we had only the agriculture economy, driven by local clusters of farms around each town. The local families owned these farms, doing an excellent job, one generation after another. The local people were well qualified to advise the local school teacher. That is the time when all the needed knowledge to guide education using the local people made sense, and the schools did a good job. That is how local school boards developed and did a good job for many years. But the world changed faster and faster, and a lot of new industries were created, and we started selling our products locally, AND in other countries. The schools had to teach more subjects. Going from the horse and buggy to the moon created new sciences, and more knowledge became necessary. The population was increasing, and so did wars that demanded more advanced weapons. Animals kill other animals to eat. But we, the people, evolved struggling with each other and killing each other at the drop of a hat. We are still that way.
Today, we can kill not just next door, but anywhere on this planet. The increase in sciences and technologies required improvement in teacher and student training, but both became worse instead, AT A TIME WHEN WE WILL EXPERIENCE ACCELERATING TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES LIKE NEVER BEFORE. Schools became more complex as well, and some nations' schools have changed for the better and adapted, but others, like us, did not. The population could not make many decisions about the education of the local villages, but we decided to keep the locally elected school boards for decision making, when such decision making in today's much more complex world required better-educated people on a national level. Bad results are not accidental. They are the result of politicians appointing unqualified people with bad ideas to very important positions.
Education in a changing world that cannot stay the same. And we have a big problem as a result, in great part because we do not have well-qualified local people making important education-related decisions in more than 13,500 school districts nationwide, with different standards and rules flying around. The result is a decline in the performance to a very low current level. It is also more expensive, with huge duplication in more than 13,500 school districts. We certainly need much better standards for teacher education, certification and our children's curriculum, and such decisions should be made with better, more knowledgeable people centrally for the entire country. Why would such decisions have to be different for different states or school districts? They should not be different. That is what the high performing countries do. They know everything about us. But we know nothing about them. It appears that our leaders do not care and do not want to know about some very important things on which our future depends. Well, kick them out of education! The education community always fights being measured on performance. In other industries we measure to find out where we are weak. In education we sit in on a teacher only four times a year for one hour!!! Is that a good way to measure performance? Absolutely not. Look at the results. When results are bad, teachers are not doing a good job, because their training was poor, and it is, because their management does not know how to manage because they are not trained well, or because their personality is not a good math for teaching, and that happens to be very important in most jobs.
THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE PUBLIC VOTING WHEN THE PUBLIC'S EDUCATION DECLINED AS OURS DID. THE WORLD AROUND US BECAME MORE COMPLEX AND SOPHISTICATED. HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE YOU VOTE FOR? HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU HEAR FROM THOSE RUNNING TO FIX EDUCATION? MANY TIMES. DID THEY IMPROVE PUBLIC EDUCATION? THEY MADE IT WORSE. I AM SORRY, BUT HOW CAN ANYONE COME UP WITH SOMETHING THIS FOOLISH? IS THIS HOW IMPORTANT EDUCATION IS TO THE POLITICAL AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP? Never judge the words. Always watch for what education management and politicians do. Why? Because it applies to all planning, if any, all management of execution to non-existing measurable objectives, and totally lacking any management knowhow to change the way the organization works, without which the bad results to date cannot change. Also, because you simply cannot get a well enough educated school board MAJORITY by electing them, who are experienced enough to make equally good decisions today, that is competitive with the best nations in education. Our children's highest success or dismal failure in school depends on how well our schools educate them. BUT more importantly, OUR COUNTRY's ECONOMY depends totally on our children's education today. During the last 100 years, having elected school boards is one reason why our public education is dropping like a stone. But we found ten other measures that ensure failure, performed by the state education departments with the governor's blessing - everywhere. In addition, the elected local school boards duplicate functions where decision making SHOULD BE uniform for the nation, and it is duplicating staff in 13,500 school districts, with good people who are well-intentioned, who do not have the right education and experience for the decisions that they have to make to improve education. This is like 13,500 blindfolded people getting into their cars but have absolutely no idea about where to go. But they step on the accelerator anyway because they were paid to do so. You do not need any more proof than the poor A.C.T. records for decades, which are among the worst in the industrialized countries. The state education departments, the governors, and lawmakers are not standing up to the education lobby and unions. No laws were proposed that would require changes within the educational organizations. Why not? The poor results are created within those organizations with the "help" of education lobbying organizations, who could vote out any politician whose proposal they do not like. This is a classic, bad management structure that can only go down, where the education organization is poorly performing, obviously because of poor, insufficiently educated self-serving decisions. Such decisions must be made centrally as in every country, except with the best people we can find, with the central decision-making group's responsibility to set standards and a framework for objectives' achievement IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST who are totally independent of the education organizations.
It is a fact of life, especially since WWII, that new technologies are emerging faster and faster, like an exponential curve. It is not increasing fast because some scientists like to get excited. It is increasing to make our industries and military more competitive because only then can our country get enough tax income. It is a technological improvement that can ensure all industries' competitiveness to sell more products and services. It must be at a price that leaves enough taxes for the government to exist normally with its services. That includes technological development in research centers, the military, administrative services, political management services like Congress and education. Our education is a poor performer, when we spend the most on education in the world, and fell to the bottom of the industrialized countries.
We do not have high enough reserves, and when we have things like COVID-19 or war or high crimes, we as a country have to borrow money. We are struggling at the 3-4% income on the government level that is not enough. Normal would be 13-14%. That is why the national debt is increasing to unreal levels, and the interest on it will be around $8 trillion by the end of 2020, on a total debt plus interest of $30 trillion. Education spending in the USA is the highest in the world with a bad performance that weakens our industries resulting in less tax income.
The poorly educated children will not be able to get legal jobs, but they will be hungry and will make a lot of children. Crime will rise. We cannot make up for the failure of our public education. We do not have enough money to help them with education to make up for the weak K-12 education because the brain slows down enough by 20 years of age significantly by high school graduates who did not learn enough. That will result in riots. Big riots. and that will cost a lot more than education expenses every year.
Wealthy people will not be free of these problems. They are the only source of money by then, and I am sure they believe they can escape losing it. We are so large that if we do not correct this situation, it will have a major economic impact on practically every country. So all in education management, plus lawmakers and political leadership, since they have not done enough to correct the education problem they created, will probably get a medal for doing a fabulous job. Read the Harvard Business Review article from 1991, 30 years ago, by clicking here. It identified the problem well, and in 30 years, nothing was done to increase the A.C.T. and SAT scores. I do not think that our country and population deserved it. I don't think that such people, who destroyed such an important thing, can perform well enough to be part of a future solution. It is time for us to call such action exactly what it is if we want to improve to the level of the top competitors.
We have done a very poor job in most of our schools, and there were many meetings between governors and employers during the last ten years to correct this problem. Read this excellent article from 1991 (https://hbr.org/1991/03/does-business-have-any-business-in-education). Our public education never responded other than becoming worse. Why is it that most of our governors are not fixing it? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE:
I could be wrong. If I am, I would like to know where.
The people involved fear some danger to themselves. That can be solved, but their leaders chose not to do it.
No action to solve this problem is NOT a friendly A.C.T. in our country. Think about how important education is for ANY COUNTRY AND ANY CHILD. Is this the A.C.T. of enemies within? Or is it just a lack of knowhow?
We must answer this question with firm decisions and actions to correct the education problem URGENTLY. It is not rocket science, as you will see.
With close to 80% of our high school graduates not even qualified as A.C.T. Ready. A.C.T. Readiness is a low achievement level today, and 80-90% of our current high school graduates will not be employable with AI/Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science created changes in employer-needs after 2023. Our standards and results are poor. The leadership must know that the last twenty years' poor results in the above chart and prior come from public education being done poorly, especially in states like Tennessee. The standards are low. Monthly measurable academic objectives do not exist. Good performance CANNOT BE DONE WITHOUT SUCH FOCUS, especially in individual schools, like in monthly "Grade Point Average" (GPA) AND annual A.C.T. objective for high schools and their feeder schools and the school district (monthly and annual objectives). We need to delegate some central management authorities to high school principals if we want them to deliver aggressive growth in student results. An operating plan also does not exist that shows what measurable results and GPA each manager, supervisor, teacher, and principal is to accomplish monthly in each school. The schools produce education results, and we don't measure performance to know how we are doing?! With their monthly results not being focused for decades, there is no way to improve schools so that our children will be employable. In any work, including teaching and school management, you must know what specific, measurable result you want to accomplish, like a particular GPA score, and what you have to do to achieve it. In a competitive world, you must be producing one of the best results.
Successful teachers have very interesting qualifications that I found to be identical in the top ten countries in education. We must focus on that. The principals must focus on and control this area.
Beyond 4th grade, in the higher performing countries, a successful teacher requires:
A high I.Q. and high energy,
Teachers come from the top 10-30%
of university graduates, who have a Master's degree in
the subject they will teach after the 4th - grade. Teachers are never
transferred to teaching a different subject. US teachers come
from the bottom 30% in performance and are often assigned to teach a subject on which they had no training.
A personality matching to the
teaching profession is very important: the candidate needs to be
very open, friendly, but firm, exciting presenter of his/her subject. In the US two tests CORRELATED can match a candidate to a vocation with 100% accuracy, where they will be happiest and will do well. The two tests are the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Psychological Inventory. One can download and take both from the Internet, for $100 total for both. After taking it, take it to a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology who specializes in vocational psychology for interpretation. One such session would be useful.
The teacher loves the subject he/she teaches so that
he is aware of technical developments and the job possibilities
within it.
He/she teaches with infectious enthusiasm because the teacher loves the subject he/she teaches.
Keeps
learning on his/her own about new teaching methods, AND IMPROVES HIS/HER RESULTS EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
He/she wants to be the best at whatever he/she does,
Very interested in knowing
first-hand how his job is done in countries that are very
successful in education. Such a teacher will visit at least one such country at his/her expense. All because of his/her drive to become
the best.
Uses on his/her own the new, better teaching tools available on the
Internet to improve his/her results.
Some may say "Good luck in finding such teachers". There are many out there who could be like that. The problem is that the supply of teachers is declining. You know why? Because they and principals are not treated well. They do not have enough backing on dealing with discipline problems. They should be THE AUTHORITY in the classroom. They are overloaded with things like paperwork and are not given enough preparation time for classes, which is an important thing in all countries where the quality of education is high. They are being set up as the fall guy when the poor education is found out by parents, and they had nothing to do with it. The teacher education in teacher colleges are declining, and the certification is weak. One would logically assume as they choose their college, that the education would be good and a bit higher than even in the high performing nations. Factory workers are treated better and they are not as important as teachers are. And then to complete this picture, the elected boards pick terrible superintendents with results that were far from good, and many take the headhunters' background check of the candidate. All superintendent candidates will appear as nice people but don't know how to create good results, and had no management training. An MBA is too light for management training. The best courses in management are called Post MBA Management Training, typically 2-4 weeks long, 16 hours a day six days/week, 90% role playing specific problems, typically supervised by a clinical psychologist, and two professors from the graduate school of management of large universities. And everybody believes that we have an education system that is managed well, because the teacher satisfaction surveys say so. I looked at those tests. They are structured, multiple choice question-based. Such surveys do not work because the answers can steer the teacher to a conclusion that favors the school system and its unions. High turnover, that is above 2.5% per school district means that it is not a good place to work. And the system is hiding its problems instead of correcting it. The A.C.T. scores and Readiness shows clearly that the knowledge they deliver to our children is far from enough, and as new technologies arise, the education system makes it worse by falling behind without any training to become good enough, whenever new technologies arise. And who gets hurt the most, the poor people whose poverty is rising as the failing education system pulls the rug from under them. In a situation like this, the low A.C.T. performance is more than enough for those in leadership to take immediate action to raise the A.C.T. scores to 80% readiness satisfying the needs of employers. BUT INSTED PUBLIC EDUCATION CONTROLS EVERYTHING NOT TO BE INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE, THAT OUR EMPLOYERS ACTUALLY NEED, AND THEY FOCUS ON MAKING THINGS LOOK GOOD, WHEN IT IS A DISASTER THAT CAN DESTROY OUR COUNTRY. THIS IS NOT RIGHT, AND OUR LEADERS DO NOTHING ABOUT IT, IT SEEMS. I AM VERY SORRY, BUT THIS IS WHAT WE, THE PEOPLE HAVE.
Our country's future depends on the education of our children today. BUT FOR THE FUTURE TO BE GOOD, LEARNING CANNOT BE BORING. IF IT IS BORING, NEITHER A CHILD, NOR AN ADULT WILL LEARN A THING. IT HAS TO BE INTERESTING AND FUN FOR BOTH THE TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS! I investigated our education in the USA and the countries that are the best in education. I am describing what I found, and the actions that WE NEED to take and why, because not doing so will create huge problems for our country. It is THE ANNUAL NATIONAL TESTS that cannot be changed by state education departments.
TEACHERS' UNIONS are major influencers in education. They are very well funded and they are the ones who work with our Congress to get what they want. When 95% of our public schools do a very poor job like in the last twenty years, it appears as if the teachers' unions do not care or create the problem with too much enthusiasm. They should be for our schools to significantly increase our A.C.T. and SAT scores because those two tests show what our children learned between grade one and twelve. So far education has been a "one size fits all" program where too many different curricula exists, and extremely few of the curricula are robust enough to be up-to-date with employers' needs. We wish to make sure that our high school graduates' average A.C.T. score is graduating with at least 80% knowledge of the courses they have taken in high school. That means an average A.C.T. 28 score. Some countries perform better than that. We are around 60% high school subject knowledge or less. That puts pressure on high technology companies to create an education robot. AI-assisted cognitive robotics will be able to do an excellent teacher robot, that can diagnose psychological problems as a background, diagnose natural vocational strengths in any person as a background task, and deliver the necessary educational materials optimized for the individual child. Education will become individually optimized, highly motivating as a life time program, that will be much easier to achieve for a Ph.D. than a high school diploma today. I saw the prototype robots. They will be able to do a much better job than today's public schools. We have to understand that what most public schools produce today is unacceptable. When the graduating students cannot read and write using script, but write only with block letters that are not suitable for taking notes, and they cannot do simple basic math, but WE GRADUATE THEM WITH A DIPLOMA THAT WAY.
The states purchase the state tests. The companies that supply the tests have to provide the tests to meet the official curriculum by law. The curriculum is the list of subjects and what each subject must cover for 12 grades. The states run the new tests first to see the results first, without distributing the results to the public or the schools. If the results are "not satisfactory," and so far they were not satisfactory to the state, the state department of education modifies the pass/fail point of one or more subject tests to produce a higher final grade, with a "Cut Scores" method. Not too long ago, a graduating student from high school had to pass all high school subjects to graduate. That meant passing all subjects with a D score or higher, above 60% correct answers in each and every high school course at the end of each course. In the high performing countries in education, they also take an end of high school course covering all high school subjects, and it counts as 50% of the final graduation result.
I am proud to be a US citizen, I am a disabled VET, and I will do whatever I need to do to call attention to this enormous problem that APPEARS TO BE PURPOSEFULLY created. The problem created so far can destroy any country and destroy our country unless we improve the school system to an average consolidated A.C.T. score of 28, representing 80% high school subject knowledge. I did not benefit financially for doing this work from anyone or any organization. What I found, endangers our children's future and our country the most. IF SOMEONE STEALS A BICYCLE, IT IS A CRIME. BUT WHAT POLITICAL AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IS DOING TO US IS NOT A CRIME?! NO LAW WAS EVEN PROPOSED EVER ABOUT POLITICAL AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT PEOPLE WHO DID THIS TO PUBLIC EDUCATION. SHOULD NOT THEY BE IN JAIL? DO TODAY'S GOVERNORS FEEL THAT SUCH ACTION IS ALL RIGHT? OBVIOUSLY, THEY FEEL THAT WAY OR HAVE ZERO COURAGE TO DO WHAT IS ETHICAL AND RIGHT FOR THE COUNTRY'S POPULATION. I could not believe it when I saw it. To make it worse, decades go by, and no one is acting to correct it within political leadership or education management. Education changes the way we think, and we become better - or worse if our education is not successful or directed to be an instrument of destruction. IT IS DESTRUCTIVE NOW. Why did some people do this, and why did they get away with it? AND WHY DO THEY KEEP DOING IT! THEY DID IT WITH THE PUBLIC'S HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS. IT IS DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT NO ONE IN POLITICAL MANAGEMENT, LIKE GOVERNORS, AND NO ONE IN STATE EDUCATION MANAGEMENT, LIKE STATE BOARDS OF EDUCATION OR STATE SUPERINTENDENTS OF EDUCATION, KNEW THAT PUBLIC EDUCATION WAS SET UP TO FAIL. SEE SOME REFERENCES UNDER "ACTIONS" BELOW. IT WAS DONE BY SOME VERY INTELLIGENT PEOPLE DURING THE 1800s.
When the results are not good enough, you need to work smarter, AND CHANGE TO BECOME BETTER! ONE CAN LEARN HOW TO DO BETTER WHAT ONE IS DOING EVERY TIME. Why don't we know how to do that? Some people do not like change. Some people do not want to learn. A hint: People are not born that way. The more they enjoy something, the more they want it. BUT if something is boring, an adult or child will easily lose motivation and not want to keep doing it. THAT IS HOW CHILDREN LEARN TO HATE SUBJECTS LIKE MATHEMATICS OR SCIENCE. Treat them poorly; they get turned off immediately. I'll cover this in more detail further down, and that will help. It appears that those who should have improved the management of education during the last twenty years had and have no idea how to improve it. Or did not want to improve it. They hate teaching. That is why it is very important to use teachers trained on the Master's level in the subjects they teach, love the subject and talk about it with infectious enthusiasm. Someone has to make sure above every school that the right type of person is teaching all subjects. MAKING SURE THAT THIS IS DONE IS WHAT A MANAGER'S JOB IS. YOU CAN LEARN IT LIKE ANYTHING ELSE. But I discovered that management training is not important to those who manage in education - and that is a BIG PROBLEM. How to graduate our children with the best possible A.C.T. scores and knowledge is a big problem. One can do that very well only if ONE understands and loves the job they have. This should be managed centrally in the US, and should be a federal requirement to be applied everywhere. The argument against it is that with such a requirement, you will not have enough candidates. No one in politics or education realizes the fact that without knowing enough about management, your objectives and planning is not going to be good, and then it is certain that you will produce bad results. In fact, people do not view management as a necessary skill and promote people into management who did a good job in non-management jobs before. Big mistake. And most of them fail because higher political and education management does not know because they never found out why management is needed. The same people believe that to be in education management. You have to be a teacher first. Once you have 200-250 employees, the management part of the job becomes dominant enough, so that a retired person with large organization management who was formally trained in management will do an infinitely more successful job even if he was never a teacher. Why? Because an employer knows a lot better than anyone specialized in education, about what the employer's needs are in education because that is what public education is to satisfy, BUT DOES NOT.
When classes for children or adults are boring, they are a turnoff, and one not only does not learn enough but learns to hate the subject. I attended 29 high school science and math classes total in various states. They were boring, and the teachers did not know the subject well enough. NOT THEIR FAULT. They wanted to become a teacher. Logically one assumes that if you spend money on getting a teaching degree, your education will teach you enough, and the certification will reflect the same. We don't do that. We dropped teacher education during the past 35-40 years, and to make it worse. Education organizations do not educate superintendents in management, have no idea how to interview, and hire people like one who was teaching for one year, then managed food service, security, and accounting for many years. Then the school district's elected board hired him or her as superintendent with a $100,000 raise. That is an incredibly bad decision that has a very high direct cost and an enormous cost in uneducated children and its damage to the economy and the quality of children such people have. And they will procreate a lot.
Why is it that neither Democrats, nor Republicans have improved our poor education in more than 20 years? THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT CLUE TO FIX THE EDUCATION PROBLEM. The two parties compete for control. That is a good thing. The problem is that they are self-serving and not country-serving. The fact that they are powerful in controlling the country does not remove the fact that if they are in danger, they are willing to damage the country to get an upper hand. They have been doing that increasingly since 2000. Why such two groups have not taken action to fix public education, is strong evidence that for them, public education and the public is not important. If you dumb down people, they can be controlled much more easily. Lenin said, "if you lie to people 1000 times, they will accept it as truth!" This has been an extremely important technique to control people. Think about elections. How many candidates promise things, but do nothing? How much do we really know about them? Practically nothing. They use "advertising", a well developed science within "disinformation theory" to control people to succeed. We pay them, and they control us. They could be useful or useless to those who elected them. Are they becoming more useful, or more useless? Their achilles heal is telling truth and nothing but all of the truth. Most politicians make promises at election time about education being a huge problem and promise to fix it. They get elected and do nothing much about it. We, the people, pay the highest price per student in the world for it. Our children's and country's future depend on it.
Why is it that for the highest dollars per student, using the people's hard-earned tax dollars, our public schools produce the worst educated high school graduates in the industrialized countries. Where is the job to professionally oversee where and how the people's money is spent? A simple audit is not effective enough. A "forensic audit" is an excellent investigative tool. It is probably five times as expensive. IT NEEDS TO BE DONE by a major national accounting firm that cannot afford to blemish its reputation. BUT IT IS A LOT LESS EXPENSIVE THAN THE MONEY BEING WASTED IN EDUCATION, AND IT IS THE ONLY TOOL THAT CAN REDUCE THE MONEY WASTING AND THE POOR RESULTS. CONSIDER THE HUGE COST OF THE INDIRECT DAMAGE LIKE POOR EDUCATION WILL COST AS WE ARE BECOMING WORSE.
Look at the chart again. Remember that new technologies always require K-12 education to improve, because employers will use them, the new jobs require more knowledge. Therefore more education and the old jobs go to robotics. Of the jobs that robots can do, they are better than we are in producing high-quality products faster at a much lower cost than we human beings can do. They are improving in intelligence faster than human beings can, and could learn today as much as what a child learns in eight years in less than a minute, with a simple download. In just a few years, they can do that with the knowledge of a Ph.D. in most subjects. It is Artificial Intelligence that can "learn" to use and apply the massive subject knowledge, and all of it is doubling every two years at most.
I spent a lot of time in Japan. I saw that forty years ago, the Japanese schools started teaching children under fourth grade how to learn faster, and all the large Japanese companies like Toshiba paid for a Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo for managers to make the manager more useful for their company and country. Of course, increased income went with it. Japanese are more traditional, honor more their country, develop better quality in more areas than we do, and quickly apply new technologies. If you are a visiting foreigner in Japan, you are an outsider. You will not be able to learn about many things. I was lucky to be an insider in Japan. Being invited to Japanese homes is one sign of real friendship, and it is not done for any other reason then real respect and friendship. And it is experiencing their homes that open the door to the real Japan. The University of Tokyo is like Harvard University in the US. We do not teach learning faster in our elementary schools.
Another interesting country is Singapore. Very small, but everybody loves the place. It is very hard to keep a tropical country clean. Yet in Singapore, you arrive, and the streets and subways are clean, no littering, everything is beautiful. The population is a Malay, Indian, and Chinese mixture; the religion is Islam. They have zero natural resources, they became excellent in high tech manufacturing, banking, transportation, their military is trained by Germany and Israel, the schools are one of the top three in the world, and they are very successful as a country. To run any government brach, they hire a certain number of years the best experienced large business talent with a history of success every time. Education is part of central government planning on the highest level. They compare everything against the best in the world. That all tells you why their education is on top. Our education management tells me that when you are small, it is easier to be the best, and they do not have the minorities that pulls our education down. The size of the country does not make it harder to have good results. Success in education or any other group activity depends on things like management-trained managers, everyone knowing what they have to do well each day, each week, each month, and for the entire year. Classes that all children find interesting instead of boring, teachers whose personality is well matched to the job, teachers who were in the top ten percent of their classes in a Master's program in the subject that they are teaching. Precise objectives and graduation requirements that are competitive with the top three countries in education. More about this below.
OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST CREATORS OF POVERTY IN THE WORLD WITH OUR POOR EDUCATION. 80% GOING ON TO 90% OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WILL NOT BE EARNING ENOUGH MONEY THE WAY WE EDUCATE CHILDREN IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THEY WILL BE HOMELESS UNLESS THEY MAKE MONEY ILLEGALLY. THEY ARE DEFENSIVE INSTEAD OF FIXING EDUCATION. THEY LIE TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT EDUCATION. AND THEY GRADUATE MOSTLY UNEMPLOYABLE CHILDREN. OUR LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO FIX IT. OR THEY DO NOT WANT TO FIX IT BECAUSE THEY FEAR SOMETHING IF THEY DO TRY TO FIX IT. MANAGEMENT KNOW-HOW IS MISSING BOTH IN OUR EDUCATION AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. IS THAT A FORMULA FOR SURVIVAL OR FAILURE? Please read here what I found before you disagree. Then decide. We will show you what the problems are and where.
Normally the highest person is the most important in an organization, if he/she is well trained and experienced in management and if he/she has 100 or more people under him/her. But in education, we do not have management trained people in positions that require it, and that is a big contributor to our poor results. THEREFORE, FOR US, GOOD TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE TODAY IN ANY SCHOOL DISTRICT. We have too many people who would agree with our education being poor - they would say, but you can count on one hand the people who are willing to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. That includes their unions. If I am 75% correct, and I believe that I am 100% accurate with our proposed actions, then we, as a nation, have a huge problem with public education destroying our country. Most schools do not deserve the "school" name because they are FAILURE FACTORIES and do THAT very well. Our education management speaks about how we Americans do not respect teachers like other countries' population does. But they know nothing about other nations. I do. In many nations, they do respect teachers more. But that always happened as a result of the good job they have done. Unfortunately, we don't know what a good job is, and that is why our results are poor. It is not because of the good people who decided to be teachers. Our teacher training programs and teacher certification, along with the curricula, are much weaker than those of many other countries. The teachers are trying with what they have; they are frustrated; their morale is low. Their superintendents never had management training; their subject knowledge is too low. We need to ensure that potential teachers meet the following:
Teacher Requirements For Good Results
Our objectives to improve public education need to be based on the following trends.
Within one year of any new technology or science introduction, high schools' curriculum needs to include increasing information about the new technology or Science. The Kurzweil chart shows the increase in calculations that a $1000 computer will do, and this man's forecasts are 87% accurate. Please look at this chart and remember what it tells us. We are getting very close to the $1000 PC in 2025, that can do as many calculations as the human brain does per second. In only 20 more years, the $1000 computer or PC will do as many computations per second as what all human brains could do or about 10,000,000,000 human brains combined by 2045, and the computer will be much smaller than the nail on your small finger and its peripheral equipments will be tiny. We cannot even imagine them now in 2020. Think about what that means when robots use that much computer power, with artificial intelligence that will be about a million times faster than human intelligence. Read and learn about it first, then think about what good or bad things could such technology do. It does not mean that humanity will be destroyed because we already know how to use that high computational speed to multiply the brain's power during the 2030s. But it will require a well-developed and educated healthy brain. It would not work with an undereducated, recreational drug infected brain. That could take a child who studied hard and did not get involved with drugs out of poverty very easily and could bring us into a much happier world. The big problem is the coming ten years, before 2030, during which the existing public education could eliminate the possibility because political and education management are reducing our knowledge, they are dumbing the population down. It is quite easy to show that with what we found.
Dr. Ray Kurzweil is the best technology futurist, with a record of 87% of his predictions being correct and on time. Education leadership should read his books. It would be exciting and beneficial to explain such technology trends in high school classes. More importantly, when we do not incorporate new technology changes in the curriculum or don't know how to make our education a positive experience for most of our children, our education failed us. Example: requiring only Algebra 2 and Biology for high school graduation when we needed Calculus and Chemistry plus Physics about 50 years ago, is the same kind of damaging move as lowering pass/fail points in the state test to produce higher grades. We are making a science out of "how to teach less and look better to the public as we dumb down our children and adults so that they vote for the candidate or spending that we want."
There is a very urgent need to raise the knowledge of high school graduates as soon as possible.
The US education department needs to be aware of any changes in the curricula, teaching methodology, teacher training programs, K-12 graduation standards in the three best nations in education, especially in Science and Mathematics, and adopt such new information and standards in our education system TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY COMPETITIVE TO SURVIVE.
The other traditional side of education has to do with the knowledge of subjects specified in the state curriculum to make better decisions in a changing world and to be employable. But that cannot help if the curriculum and quality of education is not competitive with the best three countries in education. The majority of public high school graduates in most of our states cannot read well enough, cannot do basic math, read and write only block letters, and cannot fill out job applications. The poorly performing public education is costing us the most per student in the world. Instead of improving year by year, we teach our children less and less. We do things that stunt brain development in critical areas and use methods that worked in late 1800s but not after the industrial developments that started accelerating after WWI. Our political leadership, lawmakers, and our weak education management do nothing to improve, and the top leadership is certainly smart enough to do it correctly but has not done that for many decades. WHO IS HOLDING A GUN TO THEIR HEAD TO DO NOTHING TO IMPROVE PUBLIC EDUCATION? MEANING INCREASING THE AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORES FROM BELOW 21 TO 29 THAT CORRESPOND TO INCREASING A.C.T. READINESS FROM A VERY POOR 58% TO 80% SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE, BASED UPON ONLY FOUR SUBJECTS TO BE "A.C.T. READY" OF A GRADUATING CLASS TO 80% A.C.T. READINESS? We will show how low "A.C.T. Readiness" is. It requires only four specific subjects' knowledge out of four years of subjects. We used to require 60% minimum knowledge of ALL high school subjects ten years ago to graduate. Consider also that in a state like Tennessee, more than 80% of those who graduate from high school with a diploma are not even A.C.T. Ready. Our political leadership is not thinking that we should improve our children's knowledge to be employable to average A.C.T. score 29 to achieve 80% A.C.T. Readiness because the education management feels that such a goal is impossible. When we have low expectation objectives that are unmeasurable, yearly instead of monthly, and are not a key indicator of success or failure, it will not improve. That is what we had in place for decades, and it is a major contributor to operating education without any guidance to achieve good results.
Why do our high school graduates' results need to be competitive and be at the same level as the top 3 countries in education? "WELL, THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" - SAY SOME PEOPLE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. THEY ARE WRONG. WE USED TO BE THERE ABOUT 50 YEARS AGO. WE MUST BE THERE NOW MORE THAN EVER. THERE ARE GOOD REASONS WHY WE ARE DOING SO POORLY. ALL ORGANIZATIONS WE STILL USE AND DO SOME IMPORTANT THINGS EXACTLY THE WAY WE DID IN THE LATE 1800s. Teacher training declined.
Every time a new governor is elected, he/she hires a new state commissioner/superintendent of education. We have significant technological changes that the public schools do not follow. We allowed education to be controlled by politicians and to be controlled by locally elected school boards WHO UNDERSTOOD NEITHER THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NOR WHAT THE CHILDREN HAD TO LEARN TO BE COMPETITIVELY EDUCATED. We have 14,000 elected school boards in the nation, all doing their own thing. These are huge mistakes that can only produce failure. We will deal with this in more detail below. The national and state management structure does not work, and the current MANAGEMENT structure will not work.
Our high school graduates will be employed by a company's workforce. Almost all companies' products and services are sold not only domestically but internationally. When we go shopping at home, we will see that many products are made in other countries. Both the quality and profit margin of products depends mostly on the workforce's high school education level for job training or additional college training. If our high school education is worse than those high schools whose products we see in our stores, most likely, their high schools did a better job of educating their high school graduates. Such a situation results in fewer sales, lower profit margins, fewer taxes paid, which results in less national income. Normally that income would be 13-14% to pay for all federal programs. We have been struggling at 3-4%. When that happens, governments have to borrow money, which becomes the national debt, which will be about $30 Trillion for us by the end of 2020. The interest portion of the national debt will be close to $9 Trillion by end of 2020. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR PUBLIC EDUCATION DOES A POOR JOB.
So, where is the problem? The A.C.T. scores show very poor results and very poor readiness for college or employment. The A.C.T. shows what our children learned from grade one to twelve. This is the teachers' fault. Right? That is not true. A high school graduate decided that he wants to be a teacher. He makes a fair assumption that the standards for the degree in teaching are at the right level for at least the first five years of teaching and that the same is true, along with the knowledge of the subject that he will teach. It is a fair assumption by the high school graduate that all of these things are true. But they are not true. Both THE elementary and high school has done a poor job. As a high school graduate, the student has reading and basic math problems, only one subject in Science, Biology, BUT not Physics, and Chemistry, that are more important. The classes were boring, so the student ended up hating the subjects. None of us could learn in a boring class. But we could certainly learn to hate the subject. The trouble is that cognitive AI robotics will start replacing jobs in 2024 that are not based on sciences that are changing under the influence of Space Science, Advanced Mathematics, English, all at the Master's level - if the new high school graduates want to survive. The good news is that the new robotics will be much better than teachers anywhere by about 2029, and the children from then on will be much better educated. But the time before then will become a big problem because we are graduating about three million children per year who are so poorly trained by high schools that they will be jobless. Thirty million of the existing workforce will also become unemployable because they were not educated well enough to be trainable for the new jobs. For a solution, the management structure needs change, management training is necessary for principals and above, the standards for teacher training needs change, so does certification, and performance needs to be measured by a national test plus GPA, and education laws need updating along with continuing education for teachers in the subject they teach.
There are a few important facts that also apply and are necessary for providing good-to-excellent education. No adult or child will listen, enjoy, and learn from a boring presentation where the presenter does not know the subject well enough and has to go to the textbook for an answer. I attended 29 classes in high school science and math 8-10 years ago. Then I went to the three best countries in public education to investigate their systems in detail; for about 40 years, I spent time several times annually in 10 countries initially that grew to 80 countries worldwide later. I am very familiar with cultural differences that could make or not make excellent ideas transferable to the US culture. I saw some smart children in every class in the US who could ask good questions. The people we need as teachers in the class are one whose personality is upbeat, has a master's degree in the subject, loves the subject enough to keep up with new developments, and teaches with infectious enthusiasm to turn on all children their subject. We could test people for such qualities for a long time. That is what the high performing nations do in education. To achieve that, you could take two tests to find out the best fitting profession for you where you will be happy if you are 20 years old or older when taking these tests. It takes that long for the relevant areas to develop in the brain, but they do not change as you get older. We will always do the best job when we are happy in that job. The test names are the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory. You can download both from the Internet for $100 total for both tests.
We operate in an "international economy." We trade internationally to satisfy customer needs internationally, NOT LIKE IN late 1800s. We advertise and develop products and services for all countries to be sold everywhere, including other countries. Around 1995 many of us noticed that our high school graduates could not figure out the amount of change for a customer if the electric power went off in the store. This is a grave matter because it involves some brain functions not operating well enough. At my own expense, I spent ten years investigating US education in every state from every angle and did the same in detail in the best three education countries. We were far behind in many areas as if we were using 150-year-old methodologies. In many important areas, from management structure to standards and subject knowledge, our public education is doing exactly that or less. I know, because I found TWO, more than 120-year-old 8th-grade final tests that most high school graduates today could not pass. To ensure that they were real, I found elementary school textbooks for English and Math from the same period, when we had only one dominant industry called agriculture. The world changed a lot since then, and we went from the horse and buggy TO THE MOON. That brought enormous technological changes everywhere, but not in education. The great majority of today's high school graduates could not pass those old tests. We will show them to you further down. IT APPEARS THAT IN BOTH ENGLISH AND MATHEMATICS; WE TAUGHT MORE TO 8TH GRADERS AT THE END OF THE 1800s THAN WHAT WE TAUGHT TO HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES TODAY, MORE THAN 120 YEARS LATER. MANY OF US NOTICED AFTER 1995 THAT YOUNG CASH REGISTER OPERATORS COULD NOT MAKE CHANGE IF THE ELECTRICITY WENT OUT AT A STORE. LATE LAST YEAR, I HAD TO PAY A $23.00 BILL IN A STORE. THE ELECTRICITY WENT OUT, AND I PAID WITH A $50 BILL. THERE WASN'T A SINGLE CASH REGISTER OPERATOR OR SUPERVISOR, WHO COULD FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH CASH I SHOULD BE GETTING BACK. THEY WERE ALL HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES, I VERIFIED. THERE SHOULD NOT BE A SINGLE SUCH POORLY EDUCATED HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE ANYWHERE. < >
Why would anyone or a nation do that? What does such a move do to the nation? It dumbs down the people who graduated from public school. That's about 80% of the population. But it is progressive. Every few years, you dumb down the public a little more, the public does not notice, but we are creative people! In about 50 years, the public's knowledge can be downgraded by 50%. This is a very important science related to military operations in psychological warfare, called disinformation theory. It goes back to V. I. Lenin's favorite saying: "If you lie to the public a thousand times, they accept it as truth!" We, of course, would not use it. Not even in the running for an office to be a member of congress at any level. Especially not in elections, not in political decisions, after all, we represent what the public, "The American people want...". This is a phrase that we all hear from politicians often. It rests easy because we would never do to "the American people" what public education is doing. Wait a minute...if our public education is doing that, they are doing it to American children on whom the country's future depends. Who is running public education I wonder. It is not managed the same way as other US government departments, with an annual budget approved, an annual operating plan approved with national quality control to compete with the world's best. Public education is an orphan; standards are not the same nationwide for anything. And each state fully delegated operational and spending decisions to the elected board of each school district. Anyone should understand that you cannot get good results that way. But you certainly get varying low performance when an elected body of the local population is in charge of things that they know nothing about.
The OECD PISA tests show how we are doing as a country compared to other countries. One country, China, shows only the top four school districts' results. Do not use China, Macao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan as an education system from which to learn. The parental pressure in these countries is enormous on the child seven days per week to study to be the best. Children normally do homework until midnight, and by 6 AM, they take the train/subway to school. The most effective teaching methodology and teacher selection methodology is in Finland. In our opinion, that method is transferable to the US. Their graduation rate is high, and the grades are also high, with a small difference between the highest and lowest grades. Their teaching methods are very friendly, without pressure, and with playing emphasized. In teacher selection, they emphasize the candidate being in the top ten percent of the Master's class in the subject that they would teach, psychological testing for the right personality for teaching. They will be an assistant teacher for 15 years, but all teachers are totally independent in planning the course's sequence, what books, teaching materials they want to use. There are no discipline problems. Their minorities are black African, gypsy, and Lapp tribes, but with good results by all. Education to a Ph.D. in any field, and medical services are free, worker benefits are better than ours, but they are not a socialist economy. Poverty and extreme wealth (beyond $10 million) do not exist, and UN tests always show the population to be the happiest in the world. National level economic and business planning includes education and medicine on the same level as the major industries. That is the highest level of education in any country. But with the US, SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG, and NO ONE HAS THE COURAGE TO STAND UP AND FIX IT. So let me suggest a few questions to think about.
What do you want to achieve as a governor or superintendent? NOT WHAT THE PEOPLE FAR BELOW you believe they can achieve. When performance is very low like ours, and your people are not well trained and never had to change the way they worked, and you never had the experience to manage growth at a higher rate than 10% per year, it is a huge mistake to base the objective on their opinion. You should know exactly where the shortcomings are, if you don't know how to raise the raise the group's performance, you better hustle and learn, BECAUSE WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE DESTROYED BY LOW PERFORMERS WHO HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT MANAGEMENT AND HOW TO IMPROVE THE JOBS BEING DONE. WE DO NOT NEED PEOPLE WHO SIT ON SUCH PROBLEMS FOR DECADES! BUT WE DO EXACTLY THAT. Let me give you just one example, out of many that I found. In 1997 and years prior the reading performance OF OUR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES IN TENNESSEE WAS BAD, AND WE SHOULD HAVE SOLVED IT BY 4TH GRADE!! AS USUAL WE DECIDED TO THROW MONEY AT IT AND DID NOT SOLVE IT. WE BLEW A FEW MILLION DOLLARS ON CONSULTANTS, NOT RECOGNIZING THAT MANY LAID OFF PEOPLE GO INTO CONSULTING AND THEY ARE NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER. WE HIRED THE CONSULTANT FULL TIME. WE DID NOT FIND OUT WHAT SCHOOL IN WHAT COUNTRY IS THE BEST IN READING, AND VISIT 2-3 OF THEM TO LEARN HOW TO TEACH READING, BECAUSE MOST SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD TEACH READING SUCCESSFULLY. THE TRIP WOULD HAVE COST $10K PER PERSON, AND ONE COULD DO IT. IT COSTS LESS THAN MILLIONS. YOU GAIN A PERSON WHO BECOMES YOUR EXPERT, THERE WERE EXCELLENT TEACHING AIDS ON THE INTERNET FOR READING, SO THE PROBLEM COULD BE SOLVED IN TWO YEARS AT MOST. I DID THAT. SO IT CAME TO LIGHT IN 2017, 20 YEARS LATER, WE STILL HAVE THE SAME READING PROBLEM. SO WE DID exactly THE SAME THING, THE CONSULTANT SOLUTION. How could people be so astute in school district management, and why is it that the state department of education does not have the checks and balances in place to make sure that such a thing does not happen?! Our standards are way to low. We graduate children who are very poorly prepared. Why hurry? If we cannot graduate them with enough knowledge in twelve years that they should not be graduating from high school. The objective has to be a measurable key indicator of graduating student knowledge, both monthly and annually per school, as a goal five years away, and as an objective during the coming fiscal year. What level/percentage of A.C.T. Readiness is to be achieved in graduating classes is a very important part of planning, because A.C.T. Readiness is such a minimal requirement that such graduates will not be employable with the new technological developments coming in 2023-2024.
What do you need in: people, their schooling and employment history, DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY, equipment, money, and automation of testing and achievement vs. the objectives of every teacher, principal and other supervisors/management people AND WHY WE NEED SUCH RESOURCES to meet the OBJECTIVES AT ANY AND ALL LEVELS. These things must be known at all levels each month, so that you know what is not working as planned, to decide what must be done to meet the year's objective.
Adjust the system nationwide, but you must achieve A.C.T. Readiness at 100% of those who graduate short-term. The constant dropping of standards and requirements we saw during the last 20 years MUST BE ENDED NOW. THE PUBLIC MUST BE TOLD THE TRUTH and ALL OF THE TRUTH. The public's hard-earned money pays for our poor public education, and that HAS TO CHANGE NOW. UNFORTUNATELY, TOO MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT GETTING VOTES MEANS THAT THEY ARE QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB. A VERY LONG TIME AGO, IN A MUCH SIMPLER WORLD IT WAS TRUE, BUT NOT TODAY.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already passed average human levels in the USA with high school education and will rapidly pass us in most fields within five years by 2025. AI-driven cognitive robotics (they can learn faster than a human being and can obtain answers from search engines like Google about anything in milliseconds for the right decision) will replace an additional 30 million people from the existing workforce in just a few years as a result of the marginal high school education they were provided by our public schools. A major contributor was and still is our poor public education system, with less than 5% exception. We will show below that our public education did not keep pace with technological developments for about 50 years, which is degrading our workforce and national income. The effect will be twofold. We graduate 3.6 million students annually who would be destined to the workforce of our various industries. The great majority of them, 74-84% are unemployable. Second, the existing workforce, 30 million will also lose their job for the same reason. All these losses could have been greatly reduced if our public education maintained compatibility with the top three primary and secondary education countries. Is that all? Not yet. We have something that is far more dangerous. It is called the "black/white problem" that went unresolved for more than 100 years now. In fact, it became worse during the last 12 years. We have been building a huge powder keg in this area by us doing a very bad job in public education. AND, WE HAVE DONE A SUPERB JOB TO CREATE A FUSE BY IGNORING OUR POOR PERFORMANCE IN EDUCATION, THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT THIS INCOMPETENCE IS LIKELY TO PUT ON THE STREET AT A TIME WHEN OUR NATIONAL INCOME IS VERY LOW. STILL, OUR NATIONAL DEBT WILL BE EXTREMELY HIGH, AT $30 TRILLION BY THE END OF 2021. A RESOLUTION OF THIS PROBLEM WOULD REQUIRE URGENT action UNDER CENTRAL AND NOT STATE CONTROL TO ENSURE RAPID IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION RESULTS AT MINIMUM 10% PER ANNUM. I AM DESCRIBING THE STEPS REQUIRED TO DO SO UNDER "actions" BELOW.
Having said all that, we are making enormous advances in biological computing as well, and in 5-8 years, it will be possible to use brain implants to increase IQ, thinking, and learning. We should also remember that we can do far better even today if we enjoy the teacher who is very interesting and his explanations are fascinating, and his/her behavior shows that he really cares about helping the children to enjoy his subject. The future from 2030 on will solve the education problem. I have already seen teacher robots and others in Japan, being tested in the real work environment. Buddhist monks had significant achievements in neurology, focusing on making human beings happier, healthier mentally, and correcting physical brain abnormalities that were created by early childhood trauma. According to them, we all have within us some unique capabilities that show up during the teen years, and they are likely to lead to work that we will enjoy the most. That is the vocational area where we will be the best. Steve Jobs went to India, spent one year with such monks, and it had an enormous impact on him professionally. I met him a few times, and as a friend, he was very nice and brilliant and could see things in life that the average person could not. The Indian experience speeded up his mental performance enormously, and that made him difficult to have as a boss because in meetings, he could see immediate solutions to problems, and he wanted to see the problems solved immediately. So the mechanism is within us to be doing something that we are going to become very good at. But the education we get is a "one formula fits all", and it cannot be optimized to the unique individual talents. The basic math, science level does need to be developed in school, and we are not doing it well. But developing them much faster along with the unique emerging talent will be possible within 8 years with AI driven cognitive robotics that will be here by 2023-2024. With their teaching robot by 2028 we will educate much better faster than any human being could do, matched psychologically to the individual student. It will be affordable by any family and will be the right tool to reverse poverty growth. If people in education today do not want to improve much faster than they have been doing to allow our children's deterioration, they will not have a chance for improvement for future jobs, of which there will be many. Big changes are coming between now and 30 years of now, much bigger than what we can imagine for the better unless we destroy ourselves.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO
NOTHING!"
Edmund Burke, Irish/American statesman, 1776
Those good men, our political leaders and law makers of BOTH parties, did NOTHING that raised the A.C.T. scores!
URGENT actions NEEDED
TO TURN PUBLIC EDUCATION AROUND
Education (the high school curriculum and graduation requirements) needs to track the technological improvements AND the average of the top three nations in education. Why? Because our industries will adopt the technological improvement quickly because technological improvements are released for them to reduce expenses. We went from the horse and buggy to the moon! That carried many technological improvements that mandated the incorporation of pre-calculus mathematics and a year of Calculus, plus Chemistry and Physics. To this day, we have not added them to the curriculum. In a number of states like Tennessee, we are graduating children who cannot read or do basic mathematics well. Our goal of 80% A.C.T. READINESS IS TOO WEAK WILL SUFFICE ONLY UNTIL 2024 AT MOST. THE TECHNOLOGICAL ACCELERATION THAT WE WILL SEE FROM 2020 WILL BE MUCH HIGHER THAN ANYTHING WE HAVE EXPERIENCED BEFORE. A GROUP OF NATIONS ARE ALREADY READY FOR IT, BUT WE ARE NOT BECAUSE OUR EDUCATION AND STANDARDS WERE ALLOWED TO STAY LOW AND DETERIORATE. Any improvement by us will require us to achieve a much higher standard because the only jobs that may survive robotics UNTIL 2025 AT BEST will be those that will require an MS in Mathematics, Science, Engineering, or Economics. To achieve that will not be more difficult for students, but teacher development will require frequent upgrading in education methodology and subject knowledge to a much higher level by 2024. IF WE CANNOT ACHIEVE THAT, THE COMING TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE SUPERIOR EDUCATION ROBOTS BY 2025-2028 TO REPLACE OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, because our schools demonstrated that they do not want to improve.
WE SHOULD not be spending money on other than an excellent education, the needed technology for networking, and the presentation of best teachers and professors in the nation to be used in all classrooms, for maintenance of improving A.C.T. scores 10% per
year MINIMUM. But it must be part of a written fiscal plan per school.
One cannot improve without helpful tools the way one works after 20 years of poor performance. There must be a measurable monthly GPA objective in every school and in the school district, which is also 10% higher than the prior year's annual GPA everywhere. When performance is not planned, not measured and not visible, you get no improvement. When performance is 25% below normal expectation, you can bring it up only with Management by Objectives. What should be our readiness for our graduates to be employable? At or above 80% minimum. The education community cannot be acceptable when they did not produce but only 17% readiness in Tennessee and 26% nationally. Such children will not be employable within a couple of years. We have to be internationally competitive in order to raise our national income high enough to pay off the national debt and improve sufficiently the workforce of all our industries to make our products and services competitive. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, AND PEOPLE WHO PRODUCED POOR RESULTS IN THE PAST NEED TO BE REPLACED. WE ARE AT A VERY DANGEROUS POINT IN OUR DEVELOPMENT. WITH A NATIONAL DEBT AT $30 TRILLION, AND HAVING A PUBLIC AS POORLY EDUCATED AS WE ARE IN 2021, WE NEED HIGHLY DISCIPLINED MANAGEMENT TO SURVIVE.
Reduce school district central management staffing to UNDER 2% of total school district full-time employees who do a good job.
Teach all principals how to do a zero-based monthly budget and GPA-based monthly performance planning to achieve a 10% annual increase in the annual average A.C.T. scores.
All principals and superintendents must have management training. All people who do a non-management job but are excellent do not NECESSARILY make good managers, YET THAT IS HOW WE PROMOTE. We have too many of those. And those who managed 50 people with outstanding results may not do well with 500 people under them. The management job gets more sophisticated as the number of employees under the manager grow. This applies to experience with Military management as well.
American teacher training at universities declined as well during the past 20 years. Our teacher colleges must select mathematics and science teachers from the top 10% of the Master's PROGRAM graduates from both BA/BS and Master's level programs in the single subject they will teach, with close attention to the ideal qualification/personality match for teaching all children above 4th grade.
We cannot improve teacher results without doing this. And we cannot improve teacher pay without far better results.
We must keep only employees who deliver FAR BETTER RESULTS THAN IN THE PAST. Use of zero based budget planning is very important for performance planning FOR ALL MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISORY PEOPLE. Start with all high schools first against an A.C.T. score objective that is 10% above the prior year's average A.C.T. SCORE achieved.
Justify all jobs based on how they contribute to a high school's operation to increase the A.C.T. score at least 10% over the prior year's average A.C.T. score. If that cannot happen, why keep them or hire them?
Any school district must communicate
TO THE PUBLIC, ESPECIALLY TO PARENTS, only the truth and nothing but the truth about education achievement. Currently, this is totally
ignored.
Provide a $100,000 financial incentive for each of the top ten high school principals in the state who exceeded 10% A.C.T. growth, and recognition plaques to teachers and all principals who exceed a 10% higher GPA than the prior year's GPA, or more than 3.5 GPA, whichever is
lower. Do not dismiss the power of incentives. In Dubai plus two other countries, a single $1,000,000 annual incentive to the best teacher brought fantastic results for 2018 and 2019.
Graduate only those who are A.C.T. Ready, keep those IN HIGH SCHOOL who are not, for up to two more years. BY 2025 WE HAVE TO TRANSITION TO STEM A.C.T. READINESS, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WILL INCREASE JOB SURVIVAL.
Keep a voting-public record of all
elected school district board members on all votes that would
reduce spending or (or except for those that) increase education
results. Locally elected school district boards of education do not
and cannot contribute to improving our education system. Their
voting majority does not have enough know-how. Appointed boards can
be very helpful (e.g., in the form of US Public schools is one called
a "charter school").
K-12 Education MUST BE INTERNATIONALLY
COMPETITIVE because high school graduates feed the workforce of all
American companies from design to manufacturing. The quality and
price of our products depend on the training of the workforce. We
have to compete internationally with our products, and as our high
school education declined compared to other countries, our profit
margins declined, and so did our national income from about 14% to 4%. We are one of the
top spenders in the world per student, but we dropped to the bottom
of the industrialized countries in performance. We decide K-12 curriculum and
depth of subjects within it, teacher qualification criteria,
teacher training curriculum competitiveness require very well
qualified people on the national level. We delegated everything
under education to the states, who delegated almost all
decision-making to the more than 14,000 school districts' elected
school boards. There are several big problems here. One is enormous duplication of staff, and all of them not the best in the
country. Most of them would not understand what we are talking
about here. A very flat large organization that depends on locally elected boards cannot have the right management know-how to
be successful with the existing prerequisites and experience. And
the explanation in its favor that the best advice for how education
needs to be improving comes only from the local population probably
worked 150 years ago, but today it can only fail. Just look at the
record we have documented here. What is most dangerous for the
nation is the fact that no correction has taken place in the last
100 years in everything relating to education: management structure
and methodology, standards in every job, performance and spending
management, employee competence and level of performance
internationally in a competitive world.
Public schools dominate about 80% of the
K-12 education in every country. That makes them a "monopoly". A
monopoly can control the country to ensure that no other type of
school system can enter the country. A monopoly does not have to do
an excellent job of staying in control. They can be doing a
poor job in most schools as education is in the USA. They promote
themselves to the public as a school that is much better than they
really are. Understand A.C.T. or SAT scores so that you can
understand how well they are doing. Do not trust the state
test scores because most have been dumbed down. They say bad things
about any other different school, even if they are much
better at educating your child. We will tell you more here. Be single-minded about the school for your child. Care only about how
well educated their students are by comparing A.C.T., SAT or
NAEP (primary school test) scores. Or find out which is the best
high school is with A.C.T. scores, and ask the principal about
which primary school is best.
It is not possible to turn around bad performance
without ALL OF THE ABOVE STEPS. In 2016, we were the highest
spenders per student in the world. We dropped to 40th in
mathematics internationally that year, among 15-year-old high
school children, and that is very bad news. We spent and kept
spending the people's money for public education, our hard-earned
tax dollars. But the poor job we did and do in public education
will result in massive joblessness for our children and
grandchildren for life. Whose job was it, and is it to deliver one
of the highest results for the high spending in education? The
money was enough, but where did it go? Certainly not for the right
people in the right places in education districts. The remedy would
be a forensic audit of medium to large school districts and
changing people and projects that have not been productive.
76-84% OF CHILDREN WE GRADUATE TODAY (94-97% OF BLACK CHILDREN!!) ARE SO POORLY PREPARED THAT THEY WILL BE UNEMPLOYABLE! Anyone can keep denying this fact, but our education results are unacceptable for any demographic group. We have been paying the highest rate in the world per student for this unacceptable poor performance. I love my country and will do my best to prevent its destruction, or would be the happiest if some responsible people could show me that I am wrong. Our education is a major civil disorder creator. Are we creating it purposefully to "reduce the population?" In two years time, the public will discover that they paid for education the highest amounts in taxes in the world for decades and their children cannot get a job after 2024. Our "black/white" history has been going on for more than hundred and fifty years, unresolved, and education having the smell of being fraudulent (expense per child from our taxes is the highest in the world, but the results dropped to the bottom of the industrialized countries, purposefully dumbing down the population), what we are doing has to be the all-time dumbest strategy that would be the worst problem-solving solution, but here it is! Please, someone, explain this to me in detail and in writing if I am incorrect. Some will have to pay, but if we do not admit first, it will be discovered soon, and the reaction will be violent. I hope that I am wrong.
As a result of our public education, we fell from the top to the bottom of the industrialized countries in important subjects, especially in mathematics. We were told how well our public schools are doing by our education management everywhere -- and now we find that what they told us was not true. THERE HAS NOT BEEN A SINGLE PERSON IN PUBLIC EDUCATION LEADERSHIP WHO STOOD UP TO FIX IT IN MORE THAN 20 YEARS OR LONGER. NOT ONE! Our parents are told by the schools that we are doing fine as students when we are not. If that is untrue, many children may be unemployed for life because we are already two years behind, according to discussions with college professors. Did any governor care enough to do some things that raised the poor A.C.T. scores? NOT ONE. WE HAD THOUSANDS OF GOVERNORS SINCE 1970, BUT THEY ALL PROMISED WHILE RUNNING FOR OFFICE TO FIX EDUCATION AND TO RAISE THE A.C.T. SCORES AND TO MAKE OUR CHILDREN EMPLOYABLE. NOT ONE OF THEM STOOD UP SEEING THE QUICK INCREASE IN EDUCATION EXPENSES. STAFF GROWTH AS THE RESULTS WERE DROPPING AND SAID THAT WE ARE NOT GOING TO KEEP INCREASING THE SPENDING UNTIL WE FIND OUT WHY WE ARE NOT IMPROVING. AFTER WE SEE THE APPROPRIATE IMPROVEMENT, WE WILL DISCUSS WHAT EXPENSES WE CAN CUT AND WHAT EXPENSES COULD GO TO IMPROVE THE EDUCATION RESULTS. NONE OF THEM TOOK STEPS TO CORRECT THIS SITUATION.
In 1997 I noticed that we are graduating children from high school who cannot read well and cannot do even basic math. This negligence IN EDUCATION MANAGEMENT handicaps students through high school and for life to this day 23-24 years later. Instead of visiting a few schools anywhere in the world at some minimum expense compared to what the indirect cost of this problem will be without quick resolution, education districts hired consultants without looking at a good school that did the job very well, which is the best and also the least expensive solution to solve such problems. Few consultants are good. They are generally people who lost their jobs, and they do consulting until they find a good job again. The spending went into millions, but the problem went unsolved for more than twenty years now. But we are starting again with the money-wasting consultant approach. After rediscovering the problem again, we did the same thing. The problem went unsolved. Teaching reading is not a complex problem. The most effective and least expensive solution is to visit a couple of schools that have the best results both in reading and in all subjects, in the USA or anywhere in the world. It is important to visit and see the best in any field. Find out exactly how they do it. In parallel, find and read a few good articles about how they teach reading and math in countries with an excellent education system, like Singapore, and Finland. They are much better in education than we are. Then you know what you have to do and how. I found an excellent school network called Success Academy Schools in New York. They take poor inner-city black children, for less money than what traditional public schools get, AND THEY GET HIGHER GRADES THAN MOST PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN NEW YORK. I walked into a lunch room there, picked out a lively table of 8th graders, and just said hi, telling them how hard their job is that they have to read 50 books every year. This tiny girl jumped up, told me that I was wrong and described what the teacher did to engage everyone's imagination and the fact that 3 days later they could "see" what was happening in their mind in the story, and it was better than TV. That was a fantastic and very specific introduction to teaching reading. When I left, the little girl yelled after me that she is on the 87th book this year!! And I learned the trick to teaching reading from an excellent witness. They all loved reading and talked about what university they will go to and graduate what year. They referred to each other by name and what year they will graduate from their university. By that time, we had a bunch of very enthusiastic children around us. It was a fantastic experience! One always learns best by observing the best people in the best performing group in the best nation, and then doing it yourself. Much better than any other method, and it may cost the school only $3-4K. Hiring a consultant will cost the school $100K-1,000K. It will not work, because to successfully hire anyone, you have to know how to do the job well and what has to be done. How do you determine otherwise how good the consultant is? We become the best in something by brain-learning, but to become really excellent we have to jump in and do the job to train the brain, the motor nerves or any other part of the brain to become really excellent about the task. Unfortunately, in most schools, they know a lot less than what is required for excellent performance. When the 20-year A.C.T. record is as bad as it is on our chart, you generally do not have the right people on top for high performance. High performing people do not stay in a poorly performing organization. We will further explain a much more serious problem: the use of calculators created in children in mental mathematics is very important for autonomous mental mathematics that is vitally important in decision-making and analytical thinking in adulthood. We managed to paralyze it by using calculators. It is not too much for a voice response, but in tasks that require fast, automatic calculations like decision-making, which all human beings need.
The following information is to explain some things for the A.C.T. chart and graph below. The A.C.T. measures what our children learned from grade one to twelve. As an annual national test, the A.C.T. is the test of choice for about half of our states, covering about 55% of all graduating students. It appears that most state tests are not good indicators of performance because the state departments of education alter them to show higher grades for less subject knowledge, by dropping the passing points to get a result that graduates more than 80% of graduating children. They call the method Cut Scores in state education departments. We wrote to some governors as much as three times, and we did not get a reply from anyone.
15-25% somewhat prepared, like today, is far from enough. Why is it that those good men and women who are our political leaders, our public school management, and our lawmakers of both parties did nothing to increase the A.C.T. and SAT scores to be among the best five countries in education when our spending per student is the highest of all nations? SOME OF THEM TOLD ME THAT THERE IS A THREAT FROM THE "EDUCATION PEOPLE" TO VOTE US OUT IF WE PROPOSE ANYTHING THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE. THEY ARE NOT FROM "SICILY", THEY JUST WATCHED
Human behavior, pride, making students feel good about themselves when they are not doing well and such are not always helpful. Being truthful and understanding is better. Even after three years of bad performance, if the boss does not say anything, everyone in that badly performing organization believes that the poor school results may not be bad but average-to-good. It is a normal human charA.C.T.eristic to show your performance in a good light only. But it can happen with lies, or truth or both. Low performing organizations will stretch the truth to LOOK BETTER to their customers, UNLESS THE LAW REQUIRES THE SPECIFIC TRUTH IN SPECIFIC AREAS THAT DEFINE THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW GOOD THEY ARE COMPARED TO THE BEST % IN THE WORLD IN THE SAME PRODUCT OR SERVICE AREA. WE NEED SUCH LAWS, AND PUBLIC REPORTS THAT ARE NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH IN EDUCATION. Imagine the attitudes after 20 years of poor performance. "A.C.T. Readiness" indicates only:
An average of 50-70% minimum subject knowledge (A.C.T. scores 18-23) of only four subjects (like 50-70% good answers in a test) called "A.C.T. readiness," is not a sufficient minimum standard ANY MORE. That means that the A.C.T. Ready child has a 50% or 75% CHANCE ONLY TO PASS THE SAME FOUR SUBJECTS ONLY ON THE FIRST YEAR, FRESHMAN LEVEL IN COLLEGE. That is nothing compared to the level of knowledge we need for employment that can survive robotics for ten years. The level of readiness coming out of high school is not good enough. A.C.T. Readiness cannot be A.C.T.'s doing because the state education departments are doing many things to create higher grades for less knowledge. The education system does not want to raise A.C.T. Readiness because 75-80% of those children they graduate are not even A.C.T. Ready. Consider also that A.C.T.'s income depends on our school system, and our public schools fight against any change to improve A.C.T. scores. The education system in every state A.C.T.s against any change or improvement. All the new technology areas are accelerating faster. The graduating requirement from high school needs to be ABOVE WHAT WE HAD A FEW YEARS AGO, WHICH WAS 60% achievement minimum in all high school subjects. We need central control of all standards in every state to increase our chances of recovery. WE NEED TO BE ABOVE 70-80% KNOWLEDGE LEVEL IN ALL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS. OTHERWISE, IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR OUR INDUSTRIES TO SURVIVE. The nations we compete with have A.C.T. 29-34 equivalent average results when graduating. Our high schools give a diploma to more than 80% of graduates in Tennessee, who are not even "A.C.T. Ready" and that is below 60% knowledge level of four high school subjects only.
About 84% of the children we graduate from high school in Tennessee are not even "A.C.T. Ready." Not too long ago, we graduated students ONLY if they had a higher than 60% subject knowledge IN ALL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS. That was called a D or better grade-performance in all subjects. Many employers and colleges did not accept graduates with such low performance like a D. The current level of performance for being "A.C.T. Ready" is much worse than that. We wrote to governors about this huge problem in states like Tennessee 3-6 times, and no one replied. Too many people from the political leadership and education organization tell the public "tall stories." TOO MANY OF THEM ARE CONMAN who just make money from the poor performance of schools and they take the donors for a ride. No response from a governor three times is not good news. A person who is doing well responds proudly with facts. A strong leader who knows what is happening in his/her organization is honest, truthful, has a good plan to solve the problems, and welcomes suggestions because they may learn something significant and useful. An election is a contest of self-promotion. Just think about how well you knew the candidates before you voted for them. Their message captured you. Our governors promise to fix public education certainly captured me. But his lack of action, and not even answering letters certainly educated me, and such experiences should educate everyone. What good are they doing "beside basking in the lights, as the government is playing their favorite songs?" The education problems are not important for them. THEY ARE VERY BUSY DOING OTHER MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN OUR FAILING EDUCATION.
The A.C.T. results are solid evidence of how much a child learned between grades one and twelve. So what? Your child's ability to make a living depends on it. And the future of the entire country depends on it. And they all believe that they are doing a good job. Welcome to our public schools. Honesty with the students and parents so that their expectations for employment are realistic would be most helpful. But they are telling parents that "God did not make all children for college work. But your little Johnny is smart, he can learn a trade, and do well!" is an unadulterated lie because all such jobs will go to robotics within five years, by 2024. I attended 29 classes in 15 different school districts in Science and math. The new state superintendents always attend three classes, preannounced in the newspapers. The most common complaint we heard from high school students during the past 15 years was that the classes are boring. After finding a few interesting things about our education programs, I visited the best three public education countries to learn how they are getting better results. They were averaging an A.C.T. equivalent score between 29-34. Half of the final graduation grade is a test that they take on all four years of ALL high school courses.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO
NOTHING!"
Edmund Burke, Irish/American statesman, 1776
Those good men, our political leaders and law makers of BOTH parties, did NOTHING that raised the A.C.T. score.
It is useful to look at the 20-year average annual A.C.T. results of Knox County, TN, the state of Tennessee and the USA high school graduates above without any explanations first. You will notice that 20-years of A.C.T. results are flat and not improving. Others' opinions can influence all organizations. I would suggest finding out about the published results first. Just look at the results above. Focus on finding out how well our high schools are doing, looking at their A.C.T. results for 20 years. If they are doing a bad job, like a less than 22 average A.C.T. score, they are graduating with only a 25% knowledge of the high school subjects. THE MEASURABLE RESULT (e.g., AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE HOPEFULLY above 26) OF ANY MANAGEMENT CHANGE, DEPENDS TOTALLY ON THE ACTUAL MEASURABLE PRIOR FIVE-YEARS' RESULTS OF THE NEW EMPLOYEE(S) PUT IN CHARGE. For the past twenty years, the A.C.T. results were poor. Who can really think that a headhunter will find a good superintendent candidate when we have poorly performing schools almost everywhere. 74-86% of public high school graduates are that low, and we graduate them with a diploma. If the schools are doing an excellent job, like a 29-34 average A.C.T. score, the same as what the top nations are achieving who passed us, their opinion would be valuable. Your child's and the country's future is at stake. That makes primary and secondary public education a very important thing to ensure a normal future for the entire country.
The high schools have the most important job in any country. After graduation, our children become a national workforce in every industry, in every company, and government jobs. It is the workforce that creates and makes the products and services in all industries. Some high school graduates go on to get university training and be at the high end of the workforce. The quality and price of the products and services depend on how well educated the workforce is AND HOW WELL THEY KNOW WHAT THEIR COMPETITORS ARE DOING. IT IS TRUE IN EVERYTHING THAT IF ONE DOES NOT KNOW ONE'S COMPETITION 100%, THE COMPETITION WILL BEAT YOU WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. THIS IS NOT A GAME. KNOWING A FEW THINGS ABOUT THEM, SECOND HAND IS NOT ENOUGH. AMERICAN EDUCATION AND POLITICAL MANAGEMENT KNOW NOTHING, ZERO, ABOUT THE HIGH PERFORMING COUNTRIES IN EDUCATION. The best products will be the most popular in features and also in price. And that depends on the high school education of the workforce in the country that creates the products. Government jobs do not make or create money. THEY USE THE PUBLIC'S TAXES. Public education is one of them. Public education depends on the taxes that private companies and individuals pay. That's called national and state income. The national income is normally 12-14%. But we have been struggling with only 3-4% as national income. It is not enough, and it depends mostly on the education of our national workforce. And then the government has to borrow money called the national debt, on which we have to pay a very high national interest to the landers. If you read this, you will hopefully understand that the quality of high school education can raise or lower national income, which depends mostly on our high schools. Our high schools are not doing well enough, and that creates a huge problem. That can destroy a country from the inside.
The high schools' job is to create a "product," called the high school graduate, who is employable in a job that pays enough to maintain a family of four. Think of the employer as the "customer" for the "student" It is essential to understand that what the high schools teach must be what the employers need, and our schools must teach it very well. NOTHING LESS, preferably more. The reality is dismal in public schools. Read about "A.C.T. Readiness" below. 80% A.C.T. Readiness or an average A.C.T. score of 27 is the minimum for "well enough trained high school graduates today" for tomorrow's jobs until 2024 only. We have a huge technological impact coming in 2023. The employers' needs from high school graduates are increasing with changes in technology. The schools may argue with you about this, but obviously, for your child to be employed, his/her employer must be happy with your child's education/knowledge. By 2023 we will have three major new science groups, A.I.-driven cognitive robotics, space science, and nanotechnology, a change much bigger than what computers created. Every time new technologies arise, they will influence the way employers work and change their jobs. There will be a big change in jobs, emphasizing Mathematics beyond Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics is becoming the most important Science. Reading and good mental Math, English Composition, and Economics are also subjects that today's high school graduates need to master very well. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace many jobs. That means that most of our schools are not doing a good job. The parents must supplement the children's education using a great supply of outstanding and inexpensive learning aids and tutorials on the Internet. We are providing a list of the best below. In the A.C.T. performance chart, the Internet's teaching material is vital because teacher training became weak. The important thing is that the "customer" for the "products" that high schools graduate are the EMPLOYERS. OUR SCHOOLS MUST SATISFY THE NEEDS OF THESE EMPLOYERS, WHO HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT OUR POOR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION TO GOVERNORS FOR THE PAST TWENTY YEARS, WITHOUT ANY HELP BY THOSE GOVERNORS TO RAISE THE A.C.T. SCORES. ANY MONEY SPENDING THAT DOES NOT RAISE THE A.C.T. SCORES IS WORTHLESS IN IMPROVING OUR POOR RESULTS. EVERYTHING IS GETTING MORE COMPLEX AROUND the US PRACTICALLY EVERY MONTH. THE WORKERS NEED MORE KNOWLEDGE, BUT OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION, THE A.C.T. SCORES SHOW, IS NOT GOING UP. THAT IS NOT GOOD NEWS.
This is our biggest problem. The signs are all around us. The old American courage is gone. The A.C.T. results have been too low for 20 years or more. Neither party did anything to fix it. The A.C.T. scores remained low. Our founding fathers' great ideas are trampled. Money is king. Too many of us worldwide hate and even kill each other for ridiculous reasons like different opinions, appearances, languages, or religious beliefs. We have been struggling with a historical black/white problem for more than 100 years. A good education would be critical to fix it. Why is our children's education not important enough for the governors from either party to raise the A.C.T. scores for 20 years or more?! UNBELIEVABLE! Have we all become slaves to something evil? People with extreme wealth and the best education in small numbers can control anything. Not necessarily bad. The key to our survival is "our public schools must be among the best three worldwide in education." Read here how poor we are. And we human beings could have fixed all of this on a large scale, with the right leadership in every state. Poverty in the US is growing at a high rate instead of decreasing. The education system blames poverty for the bad education results. Not true. Bad education creates graduates for low paying jobs only. Bad education creates poverty. US public schools became the most expensive per student in the world. Most of our public schools' education became the worst in the industrialized world. We should not have slogans like "Excellent education for any child!" How about "POVERTY FOR EVERY CHILD!" It is a lot closer to the truth. The American public education system has been declining for a very long time, dumbing down the high school graduates, and "misinforming" parents and the public. The international PISA test shows us too far behind. An article in one of the major American education publications claims that we are number 1 in the OECD PISA tests worldwide. A huge lie, and without any government agency taking any action whatsoever to apologize for delivering poorly educated children who will be jobless. They could be fixing it instead. But they don't. WHY? Politicians propose something because "the American people want it, deserve it or need it." NO THEY DON'T! Their "representatives" convinced the public with promises that are not kept to give them money for advertising to fight and deliver the promises made. This kind of behavior is not so common. EXCEPT FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. From governors on down, they delivered NOTHING that raised the A.C.T. scores. Our public education is in bad shape, perhaps with only 5% exception. How come we do not hear any support from politicians for actions that increase the A.C.T. scores? Is it the parents who want their children unemployed in the future?? "SPEAKING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" must be it! Or is it the governors? Why is it that governors do not make changes in our public education that raise the A.C.T. scores?. Why do you allow education publications to publish not just small lies but major ones, like America is number one in the OECD PISA international tests in mathematics, when we were 25th at best in the past, closer to 40th most of the time? A.C.T. Readiness benchmarks pass you at a 23 A.C.T. score at best, which represents only 22-24% good answers on a test, in 4 high school subjects only, which is very low performance. Why do you allow 74-84% of children who do not even meet A.C.T. Readiness to graduate from high school? And for black students, you graduate 94-97% who do not meet the low A.C.T. Readiness!! Our education system should make sure that 90% or higher A.C.T. Readiness graduates. Not just 16-26%. They cannot even hang on to jobs for a month that way. A decade or so ago, we used to graduate only those students from high school who passed all four years of high school courses above 60% good answers in every single high school subject. In the last few years, 74-84% of high school graduates do not even meet the four subject benchmark test that passes only 25% of subject knowledge called A.C.T. Readiness. Do our political leaders and governors want our children unemployed? And you allow people with such low performance to be employed or to be decision-makers on our education. We are doing what Edmund Burke warned us about in 1776. Such low performance has been dumbing down our children in public schools
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO
NOTHING!"
Edmund Burke, Irish/American statesman, 1776
Those good men, our political leaders and law makers of BOTH parties, did NOTHING that raised the A.C.T. and SAT scores! OUR HARD_EARNED TAXES PAID THE HIGHEST RATES PER STUDENT IN THE WORLD, BUT DROPPED OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION TO THE BOTTOM OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES. It would be reasonable if governors could explain why they did this, and what their plan is to restore our MINIMUM high school A.C.T. readiness to 80% of the graduating classes.Those scores show reliably every year what our children learnt by grade twelve.
In business, there is a natural control to help keep the organization healthy. If you do a bad job, like the great majority of our public schools, your customers disappear within a few months, and you are history. No one will use you, and public education would be gone, and someone better would take the bad schools' place. Why do we treat poorly performing public schools preferentially? Their money is guaranteed by law, regardless of the results. AND! The law says that your child must go to one of them, EVEN IF THE SCHOOL IS DOING A POOR JOB ACCORDING TO THE STATE. THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE STATE'S DEFINITION OF IT APPEARS THAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS DO NOT HAVE ANY CHECKS AND BALANCES BETWEEN THEMSELVES AND THEIR CUSTOMERS, THE EMPLOYERS. ALSO, THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OVERSIGHT OF SPENDING, AND THEY WASTE A LOT OF MONEY. THAT IS WHY WE PAY THEM THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS PER STUDENT, BUT THEY ARE DELIVERING THE WORST EDUCATION. PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOULD NEVER EVALUATE THEMSELVES. IT IS THE EMPLOYERS WHO SHOULD JUDGE HOW WELL THE HIGH SCHOOLS ARE PERFORMING BASED ON A NATIONAL STANDARD THAT IS COMPETITIVE WITH THE TOP 3 COUNTRIES IN HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION.
Unfortunately, the laws require attendance of PUBLIC EDUCATION by students, without the parent being able to use the amount of money spent on a child's education, which is $11,000 from taxes. The education laws also guarantee the schools at least the same amount of money for the new school year from the people's taxes that the school district received the previous year, REGARDLESS OF PERFORMANCE. THESE ARE THE CONDITIONS THAT PRODUCE BAD SCHOOLS AND THE WORST OF MONOPOLIES TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC. THERE IS NO RISK TO THEM IF THEY DO A BAD JOB. AND THAT IS HOW MORE AND MORE OF OUR SCHOOLS BECAME "FAILURE factORIES." But by being so bad in providing education, they are graduating the great majority of our children (75-80%) so poorly educated that they will be jobless, in poverty.
The future (2030) education curriculum comparable to high school today, will need to rise to Master's level UNIVERSITY work (2018) equivalent knowledge by age 18, in 2030. We need a much stronger foundation in basics in both elementary and high schools. E.g., mathematics beyond Calculus, 5-8 different groups of sciences, communications, and economics with psychological analysis included so that the future workers can be re-educated for much narrower, much more advanced knowledge that can be optimized for the natural talent of individual children. The future will bring many highly specialized jobs that will have a short duration with fast technology changes. That will require constant learning for life. This will include inorganic supplemental brain implants by 2030 to raise the human brain capacity and power much higher. Such "high school" education can be accomplished only with AI-driven cognitive robotics that will educate people with a fantastic "Education-in-the-Pocket" product, with knowledge updates literally in seconds. I see the possibility of yet unknown sciences and knowledge popping up as a need from one day to the next, with a short job duration because new developments will overtake the old job that fast. Falling behind in education today is becoming a very dangerous thing in the USA for the 2020-2030 period, although I believe it will greatly benefit humanity. We understand in a very limited way only by formally and informally what we get educated on in the broadest sense. But the knowledge that humanity is to learn as yet is infinitely huge. Yet we A.C.T. and pass opinions as if we knew everything today, when we know virtually nothing yet.
I have some very good news for tomorrow's students. Today's education is like a "one size fits all suit". Very few teachers are the type of personality and educated well enough in the subject they teach because the university curriculum was not strong enough in education, who have the knowledge and personality to create very enjoyable classes to motivate all students. They are not the problem, teacher candidate matching to the teaching profession we don't do, although very good tests have been available for many decades. If students feel that the classes are boring, they lose interest in the subject. In the highest performing school systems internationally, for teaching above 4th grade, they test the top 10% of the Master's program psychologically in the needed subject for which a teacher is needed. That gives the school a high IQ candidate who knows the subject better than the American teachers and psychologically a better match for teaching than the American teacher who was not screened and happens to come from the lowest one-third of university performance. Teaching will undergo a huge technological change. Buddhism is more like a guide for a peaceful life than a religion. They may have multiple "gods" for various earthly values (that we call saints), but they would qualify more as spiritual leaders for specific human needs. Many of their monk's two-thousand-year-old teachings apply to the successful correction of neurological and other problems, for which Western medicine does not have good solutions. They and a few other cultures also believe that all human beings have specific and very high talents that would make them in such a job very happy and successful. Steve Jobs of Apple Computer was a good example. One may also see such unusually high natural talent in sports, in talent shows for young children, in music and in Art, but they could be such talents in any vocation. Such talent shows as a naturally high degree of interest in a specific activity that parents should support to have the child become as good as he/she wants in addition to normal school. Unfortunately, the current form of educating groups of children could only support a national curriculum and teacher training and certification standards. BUT Teaching will go automatic with AI and cognitive robotics by 2025-2027. It will be able to recognize such unique talents and psychological interests in the background of an AI component and find out how and what educational option could be more effective for any individual student to maximize his.her interest. And it will be able to do it anywhere without today's education methods, by 18 years of age with a complete university education. AND THE CHILD WILL LOVE IT. Until that new system delivers graduates, the current education system is so dangerously low. The education management system is so poor that the idea of destroying our country from within is a real possibility.
PLEASE LOOK AT THE A.C.T. PERFORMANCE CHART COVERING 20 YEARS. HOW WELL DID WE DO? WHAT GRADE WOULD YOU GIVE OUR A.C.T. SCORE PERFORMANCE? DID IT GO UP IN 20 YEARS as technological changes materialized? Twenty years of bad A.C.T. performance in our public schools will not provide the school employees, the state department of education, or the governors with any credibility for promising a better performance change. They all promised a fix, and changed nothing that would raise the A.C.T. scores. Standards get established from the top of the organization on down. If the education results are bad, who is in charge of education? It is the state's governor. Therefore, the governors, the legislators are also without any credibility because they wasted AT LEAST 20 years and created as a result, great damage BY NOT INITIATING ANY action TO RAISE THE A.C.T. SCORES in our children's education, on whom the future of our country depends. We will be paying a very high price in lives for this huge mistake, not having remedied for 20 years or longer. The public was hurt badly, and they were not even told the truth. INSTEAD OF EVERYTHING DECIDED BY AN ELECTED BOARD IN EACH OF 50 STATES, EVEN IF THEY ARE VERY SMART AND EXPERIENCED PEOPLE, THEY CANNOT PROVIDE A GOOD, UNIFORM NATIONAL DECISION. THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON HOW WELL WE EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN TODAY. THE 20-YEAR A.C.T. CHART CLEARLY SHOWS WHAT THE ORGANIZATION CREATED FOR EDUCATION AROUND late 1800s, IS STILL THE SAME IN ALL KEY MANAGEMENT AREAS. WE DID NOT CHANGE IN VERY IMPORTANT AREAS TO THIS DAY. IT IS CLEAR THAT AT LEAST DURING THE LAST 20 YEARS, LIKELY LONGER, WE DID VERY POORLY. WE HAVE HUNG ON TO TOO MANY OLD AND INEFFECTIVE WAYS OF MAKING DECISIONS, WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF TALENT. THAT WORKED WELL ENOUGH DURING THE 1800s. But the world became much more complicated during the 1900s, requiring much more experienced talent than what we could find in all states. Look at the A.C.T. chart. For 20 years, we are in a bad performance area and not going up. With such results, no one can claim that we have done a good job. We must centralize education-related standards as other countries did about 70 years ago. That is why they passed us. You cannot expect other than poor results if you continue with locally elected board guidance. If one elects such guidance, do you think that the best people will jump up and run for such an election? If you elect such people to guide education to one of the world's best in all 50 states? We delegated virtually all decisions to individual school districts' elected local boards. THERE ARE 14,000 OF THEM IN THE USA. That is insane. The education system is almost the same as what we had in late 1800s for the village school for the surrounding farms. They worked well then. We went from the horse and buggy to the moon since then. That is a huge technological change. But our state education departments still insist that it is the locally elected board that knows the best what our children's school should achieve. The jobs are very different today. And we think that things like teacher training and certification standards, objectives and operating plans of individual schools are good enough for our children to be employed? They are far from good enough. Such standards need to be the same nationally since WWII, and the standards need to be competitive with the best countries in education.
The biggest mistake the education community can make is to be defensive. Unfortunately, they keep doing it. Our children were poorly educated for decades by our public school system. Only total public honesty without any fibbing, and a total restructuring and a lot of school employee training of our system can save our children. The objective must be to raise average A.C.T. performance from 21 to 27 minimum. Our competitor nations are already producing graduates in the A.C.T. 29-34 equivalent range. We all must work together to solve this problem. We certainly cannot do that with the currently used authority WITH THE RESULTS OF THE PAST 20 YEARS, from the governors on down, to set objectives for teacher training, goals and objectives, curriculum, and operating standards. They must be controlled by an independent, highly-educated retired CEO of major corporations who are to employ future HIGH SCHOOL graduates. As part of solving this problem, we cannot afford hateful behavior between black and white folks. WE MUST CHANGE THAT NOW. Everyone must forget and forgive. No conflict is one-sided. Both sides are contributing to the conflict. If you all do not listen, our country will break apart with no winners. The only thing that can save us is the willingness on all sides to get educated as much as possible so that we all become smarter to understand this self-destructive problem. Everyone has a good side and a bad side. See the good in others. We don't do enough of that. You see, none of us are peaches and cream. Education is the only thing that can save us. And we have a huge job to do to recover. Those who created the last two decades of poor performance cannot change the way they work, and how could we trust TO IMPROVE those who made bad decisions, created bad results for 20 years, to create all of a sudden good results. WE HAVE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY BECAUSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION'S AND POLITICIAN'S POOR PAST PERFORMANCE. How can we trust such people to get us into the top ten countries in K-12 education in the world?
The governor hires the state superintendent of education on whom the education results depend in the state. One wonders if they know how to do their job. The results have been bad for decades. Nothing changes. Do they think that such a person has to come from the education industry, which happens to be a total failure in public education? Yes. You will not find excellent management people in any organization that performs badly, like public education in the USA, except for a few states like Massachusetts and Connecticut. Good performers do not join bad organizations. If they do, they will leave it quickly. When public education hires new management employees at any level, they need a person who has been a successful management talent with large organizations and has turned around such large organizations already. There is no such person in education. We have been producing bad education results for decades, because no one in political leadership had any idea about solving the management problems. Many had fathers who created very successful family businesses, but the son's did not have the same drive, energy and know-how. In the last few years, our public education has declined in results even faster than before. How could that happen? Those who do a bad job always describe their job as much better than reality. Too many people assume in education that if they are hired, they know their jobs very well - that is why they are hired. They don't want to learn, but their boss and bosses' boss does not know either what to do. They could visit an outstanding school to find out what they should do, but "if anyone finds out" doing that is a sign of weakness. As a result, enormous mistakes are made in this paralyzed management environment. Anyone who does not like what they do is prejudiced. Combined with "Lenin's law" of "If you lie to people a thousand times, they believe it as true," this is especially bad for the inner-cities' poor people, because the public school system is not honest with them in simple language, and they give them false hope.
When the people in poverty discover that their child cannot get a job, we will have major problems in our streets. We are very close to that now. This is what we should be very concerned about. AND THIS IS WHY WE MUST USE AN A.C.T. SCORE FOR ANNUAL HIGH SCHOOL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT A.C.T. PERFORMANCE AS THE OBJECTIVE BECAUSE THE A.C.T. GIVES AN ACCURATE INDICATION OF WHAT OUR CHILDREN LEARNED FROM GRADE ONE TO TWELVE. A 90% GRADUATION RATE MEANS NOTHING UNLESS GRADUATION AND THE DIPLOMA REQUIRES 26 A.C.T. AVERAGE OF EVERYONE WHO IS TO GRADUATE. ONE CANNOT IMPROVE WITHOUT KNOWING exactly WITH A MEASURABLE KEY INDICATOR OF PERFORMANCE, WHERE ONE STANDS AT THE START AND WHERE ONE WANTS TO BE MONTHLY AND ANNUALLY. IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT, THEN YOU WILL NOT ACHIEVE ANYTHING.
Please remember the following. We found many low-performing high schools and a few great ones also. See them here. The high schools that are on a level where they should be (80% A.C.T. Readiness/subjects knowledge = average A.C.T. 27), produce less than 5% of our graduates. 5% of graduates is much less than what our economy needs to be competitive. We need more like 80%. We met three high school graduates who could not figure out the answer to "50 minus 23". There should not be even a single such 4th-grade student, let alone a high school graduate. Many brain functions use the area of the brain that does basic math. We allowed students the use of calculators during classes and tests starting about 20 years ago. We no longer required memorizing multiplication tables, mental calculations, and even doing mathematics on paper during primary and secondary schooling. Unfortunately, the mathematics area of the brain did not develop fully as a result of such decisions. The brain automatically uses this area very fast for other brain functions such as critical thinking, decision-making or pattern recognition. The states did this by not consulting brain-specialized neurologists in education-related decisions about changing policies or practices. Not teaching Art and music, especially classics, impacts brain hemisphere neuronal interconnection development, impacting the same brain functions.
We have a major problem because our future as a nation depends on today's high school graduates. We went from the horse and buggy to the moon! Our public education has been regressing relative the technological increases in all industries, and it did not keep up with all the new technological developments that employers needed. To make it worse, we are graduating from high school children who could not read and write well enough, read and write block letters only, could not fill out job applications, and could not learn simple things. 76-84% of those children who are graduated with a diploma do not even meet A.C.T. Readiness, a very weak qualification level because A.C.T. Readiness is based on meeting only four benchmark subjects at less than 60% knowledge level of those four benchmark courses. THAT IS A VERY LOW STANDARD. We have two 8th grade final tests below as examples, that are more than 120 years old. Many high school graduates could not pass them today. Having attended many high school science and math classes, they were boring. NO PERSON, YOUNG OR OLDER, WILL LEARN ANYTHING IN A CLASS THAT IS BORING. Difficult to believe unless we sit-in at a few school board meetings and look at the past 20 years of A.C.T. performance. Go to a school board meeting, please. Ask how they are doing and what needs improvement. Write down the answers. It will be "we are doing OK, but we need money." Then, write down how much time they spent on "how to improve our children's education." Ask at the meeting what actions they are planning, who is to do what by what date, to improve the A.C.T. scores. Make notes on what they say. You will be asking very good questions after you read this website.
Teachers' unions and other education-related unions: you are party to the poor public education performance of our public schools. Our country's survival depends on the education of today's children. Are you doing things to dumb down our children? I hope not. Like it or not, you are a very influential part of public education, and public education is doing very poorly. I would think that it would be very important for you to ensure that our high school graduates are competitively educated if compared to the top three countries in education, but we are far below them. Why are you not helping us to become one of the best three countries in the world in education? Why are we giving diplomas to 80% of the graduating children who are not even A.C.T. ready?
According to college professors in 2018, our high school performance was too low. It requires high school graduates to complete two years of remedial courses before they can start the first freshman courses of a college program. By 2024, our high schools will be not 2, but 4 years behind what our employers need. THAT is going to damage our economy very badly.
What makes school courses difficult for a child? This is extremely important. Bad experiences with something, repeated 3-4 times, conditions children or adults to expect additional similar experiences to be bad. The Buddhist philosophy of "What you think,...you become" becomes "What you believe,...you become" with conditioning. Boring classes create children who learn to dislike ANY SUBJECT, and without any solution to solve the problem, they learn to dislike that subject or subjects. I heard many times from children that school is boring. It is the teachers' job to make the classes VERY interesting and entertaining for the children. It requires a unique personality to be an excellent teacher. Some tests can determine that. The Strong Interest Inventory correlated with the Myers-Briggs Intelligence Inventory can do that. A child who finds school a boring, bad experience cannot do well. Selecting the right kind of profile for teacher training acceptance will make or break any school's performance. We will discuss this in more detail below.
We have another very serious problem. Only better education could solve it. I did not find this problem in other countries. Too many white and black people believe that the other is inferior. Our public education level is responsible for that. In Tennessee and many other states, 94-97% of the graduating black students are NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY! IN TENNESSEE, 84% OF THOSE WHO GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL ARE NOT EVEN "A.C.T. READY," WHICH IS A VERY LOW PERFORMANCE INDICATOR. Moreover, we spend twice as much in schools PER STUDENT than in those with white students. SO I FOUND A SCHOOL CHAIN CALLED SUCCESS ACADEMY SCHOOLS, WHO TAKE ONLY POOR INNER CITY STUDENTS. GUESS WHAT KIND OF GRADE THOSE CHILDREN ACHIEVE? THEY SCORE ABOVE 90% AND ARE BETTER THAN MOST PRIVATE SCHOOLS. IF THEY CAN DO IT, SO COULD WE IF WE HAD LEADERSHIP WHO A.C.T.ED IN COUNTRY'S BEST INTEREST. The locally elected school boards believe in those states that money is the solution, and in most problem solving, including this one, money is not the solution. That just means that elected school board members have no idea how to solve performance problems, don't want to learn how to solve such problems, but they do want the extra $25,000 dollars every year to spend on themselves. Better education requires better teachers trained on the Master's level in the subject they teach. Teachers who come from the top 30% of their university training. Teachers who are a good psychological match for the profession, working under management trained in management, had excellent results. That is the most important solution to this problem in most of our states. A good education is the only remedy to fix both our education and our old black and white conflict problem. We found a charter school with 46 schools in New York City, that takes only poor minority children, the majority are poor black children. They are scoring higher than most private schools! A public education system that operates as poorly as ours can destroy the entire country.
The poor education for black folks and other minorities will be the fuse that WILL BLOW US APART. We warned about this problem as very urgent in 2010. Education would be the only remedy to solve it, but very interestingly, both our politicians and education management would prefer to do nothing about these two huge problems. We need to fix our non-existent teacher selection program, our poor teacher training programs, the lack of management training in education, and why no governor has done anything to raise the A.C.T. scores. PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUST DELIVER MUCH BETTER EDUCATION IF WE WANT OUR COUNTRY TO SURVIVE. Look at the A.C.T. results. The great majority of public schools are destroying our country.
Please look at the graph below. One can verify the numbers on the Internet or by contacting A.C.T.. For the time being, look how high the percentage of high school graduates are who are NOT READY TO BE EMPLOYED OR TO BE TRAINED FOR A JOB each year (those who are not "A.C.T. Ready"). The great majority of today's graduates will be jobless very soon. We will cover this decision also in detail.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO
NOTHING!"
Edmund Burke, Irish/American statesman, 1776
Those good men, our political leaders and law-makers of BOTH parties, did NOTHING that raised the A.C.T. scores!
OUR HARD-EARNED TAXES PAID THE HIGHEST RATES PER STUDENT IN THE WORLD, BUT PUBLIC EDUCATION DROPPED OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION TO THE BOTTOM OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES. It would be reasonable if governors could explain why they did this, and what their plan is to raise our MINIMUM high school A.C.T. readiness to 80% of the graduating classes. A.C.T. Readiness means that the graduating high school student passed only four subjects with an A.C.T. score between 18 and 23, which is at or below 25% product knowledge in a test. To make it worse, 76-84% of our graduating children ARE NOT EVEN A.C.T. READY, meaning they don't even know 25% in four subjects only! The A.C.T. scores show reliably every year what our children learned by grade twelve. The state test results are dumbed down regularly by the state education department under the governor. They dropped the pass/fail points from 60% good answers to as low as below 30% good answers each year, for one or more courses that produce higher grades with less knowledge. Let us mention here that a few years ago our children had to pass every single high school course in 4-5 years of the high school above 60% good answers (D score), and in most schools at 70% good answers. We dropped with this, and with many more actions/methods/practices, public high school graduates' knowledge very significantly. We will cover them all.
Other nations improved their education systems with more expertise, and improved teaching methodologies. The reason given for this was that delegating total education responsibilities to the states happened "because it was not in the US Constitution at the USA's formation and approved in 1789. Why was this a bad reason? Because the results are BAD. LOOK AT THE A.C.T. SCORES! The US Constitution was amended as needed since then, 27 times! The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. Then all states delegated all management and other decisions to the elected boards of local school districts. We have more than 14,000 of them in the USA. They are all doing their own thing without centralized standards, and we hear even today from them that we control education on the school district level because "THE BEST GUIDANCE FOR OUR SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN COME NOT FROM THE NATION CENTRALLY, BUT FROM THE ELECTED LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS REPRESENTING THE LOCAL POPULATION." THAT REASONING IS FROM THE MID-1800s. It was appropriate then. But after we went from the horse and buggy TO THE MOON, other nations kept education up to date with the huge technological advances. It is difficult to understand why such a very limited decision still dominates US education, with politicians in control who do not seem to understand that their actions are damaging our economy on a large scale. This idea worked well until about 1900, for more than a century. PLEASE CHANGE SUCH DECISIONS TO ONE INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL GROUP OF RETIRED LARGE COMPANY CEOS WHOSE COMPANY IS INTERNATIONALLY SUCCESSFUL, BECAUSE THEY REPRESENT THEIR FUTURE EMPLOYEE NEEDS THE BEST. THOSE ARE THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO COULD APPROVE NATIONAL STANDARDS: TO CONTROL GRADING AND TESTING STANDARDS, TEACHER TRAINING STANDARDS, TEACHER SELECTION, AND QUALIFICATION STANDARDS, K-12 CURRICULUM, TEACHING METHODOLOGIES, TEACHER COMPENSATION POLICIES, TEACHER PERFORMANCE EVALUATION STANDARDS NATIONALLY. The education results have been poor for 19 years or more under state political control. The entire nation's standards need to be raised to improve results. The standards need to be made by an independent, highly educated standard, and the states are to improve the education results under those standards.
The small single-classroom school houses did a good job in mathematics and English focused on mostly agricultural production, and very simple manufacturing. Please look at two 8th grade final exams more than 130 years ago:
one is from 1895, and
the other is from 1912. We are showing here how much tougher the
8th-grade education and tests were more than 120 years ago. Many of today's high school graduates could not pass these eighth-grade final tests. But then, something happened after WWI. We started advancing in more and more areas of sciences and mathematics, AND WE WENT FROM THE HORSE AND BUGGY TO THE MOON, AND THESE EFFORTS RESULTED IN MILLIONS OF NEW DISCOVERIES IN THOUSANDS OF NEW SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, MEDICINE AND WE COULD GO ON FOREVER. MANY OLD JOBS DISAPPEARED, BUT THE BIG CHANGES CREATED MORE NEW JOBS. EDUCATION HAD TO INCREASE FOR THE NEW JOBS AT ALL LEVELS, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL, UNIVERSITY LEVEL, AND GRADUATE LEVEL LIKE DOCTORATE PERFORMANCE IN MOST FIELDS. AFTER WWII, EDUCATION ON THE ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL INCREASED ACCORDINGLY IN MANY COUNTRIES. BUT NOT IN THE USA. When hiring people within school districts or on the state level, those hiring have no idea how to check the background and how to interview. In many cases, the local interviewers think they know what the problem is, but have no idea within school districts what they need to change to get better results, and don't know what kind of talent they need to hire. Political control and political management influenced all education-related decisions more and more after WWI. Even after the millions of technological advances, we stayed with the old slogan of "The best decision can only come from the local population's elected school boards to improve education." This idea worked well in the agriculture-based economy of the 1800s, but not after WWI when we went from the horse and buggy to the moon, with incredible technological discoveries that are accelerating faster and faster as you are reading this report.
But American public education broke with the old belief of the 1800s coupled with the power of law-making politicians whose fuel became the worshiping of money FROM LOBBYISTS. Lobbyists are generally retired Congress members, who changed from being paid off by lobbyists to being the lobbyist for more money. Not all of them, but enough in numbers to control Congress's decision-making for specific interest groups or industries. Are we a Democracy that we try to sell to other countries? Even the Greeks decided about two thousand five hundred years ago that pure democracy creates huge disorganization and conflicts followed by failure. So several different democracies exist by different names. BUT WE HAVE BEEN SELLING IT TO OTHER COUNTRIES, combined with creating incredible losses of our young people and leaving the country that we left after capturing them, in an economic mess. In Japan and Germany, we stayed and helped to rebuild the countries. The American generals in charge were outstanding in doing so. But most importantly, we created close friends and allies from two powerful enemies. But in many other cases, as of late, we left quickly after destroying the countries, without help to recover. This reminds me of Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan and others. They have to rebuild. Something to think about. Vietnam did an excellent job to recover.
By WWII, we were the only one of the industrialized nations who stayed with the late 1800s's belief of "The best decision can only come from the local population's elected school boards to improve education," that held us back as others passed us. And important to note that politicians always propose something in the name of the people. "The American people want "XYZ" that I am proposing." It's possible that 0.0001% of the public heard something about it. There is a limit at which point we can drop down to the "level of cavemen," losing everything with these old beliefs as we are getting dumbed down. We are only halfway there in 2020 - exactly. The closer we get to that point, the more difficult recovery will be. We are too close to that point, beyond which recovery is impossible with a law making body of former lawyers mostly, who can argue for and be part of either side that pays more. This is not negative thinking. It is called trend extension in decision making. In this case, you look at a reliable measure of annual performance (A.C.T.) trend for ten years minimum compared to the trend of your top ten competitor countries' annual performance in the same period - it doesn't look good.
The philosophy born 200 years ago, about managing education is the same today: "The best decision can only come from the local population's elected school boards to improve education," is the most damaging to our future success. Why? Because it applies to all planning, if any, all management of execution to non-existing measurable objective, and lacking any management know-how to change the way the organization works, without which the results cannot change. We will not get smarter ELECTED school board members in ANY OF THE 14,000 school districts, with their incredible duplication of people and expenses, and the education results that will make almost all of our children jobless! You simply cannot get well enough educated school board MAJORITY by electing them, who are experienced enough to make equally good decisions today, that is competitive with the best nations in education. Our children's highest success or dismal failure in school depends on how well our schools educate them. BUT more importantly, OUR COUNTRY's ECONOMY depends totally on our children's education today. Having elected school boards during the last 100 years is one reason why our public education is dropping like a stone. But we found ten other actions that ensure failure, performed by the state education departments with the governor's blessing - everywhere. Besides, the elected local school boards duplicate functions where decision making SHOULD BE uniform for the nation, and it is duplicating staff in more than 14,000 school districts, with good people who do not have the right education and experience for decisions that vary among them. This is almost like 14,000 blindfolded people getting into their cars, but have no idea about where to go, but they push the accelerator down anyway, and there is no way they can succeed. You do not need any more proof than the poor A.C.T. records for decades, which are among the worst in the industrialized countries. The state education departments, the governors and lawmakers who do not seem to stand up to the education lobby. No laws were proposed that would require changes within the educational organizations. Why not? The poor results are created within those organizations with the "help" of education lobbyists, who could vote out any politician whose proposal they do not like. This is a classic, bad management structure that can only go down, where the education organization is poorly performing, obviously because of poor, insufficiently educated self-serving decisions. Such decisions must be made centrally as in every country, except in ours, with the best people we can find, with this central decision-making group's responsibility to set standards IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST! The education organizations MUST be implemented with excellent performance: the nationally centralized INDEPENDENT management group directs in objectives and monthly operating plans within each school. If many other countries figured this out by WWII, WHY COULDN'T WE?! We are spending a fortune on duplication of people in every state AND EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOOSTING THE SIZE OF CENTRAL MANAGEMENT IN ALL OF THEM, without knowing exactly what they are to do and how to do it. This just makes every school district worse. There are standards for the size of central management organizations, like 4 people plus one percent of the total number of employees, and if they grow beyond it bad things happen with performance. Operating with silly unmeasurable objectives backed by a very low-performance target like A.C.T. 21 creates many problems that also drop performance. We do not seem to have the management experience to know anything to create good results from the top down. Worst of all, most people in the education communities' management think they know enough because they were hired. No person in any school district wants to visit school systems that perform better, and they do not want to learn anything to create better results, BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT SUCH VISITS WOULD INDICATE THAT THEY DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO DO THEIR JOBS WELL. Morale is bad and justified. The results could not be worse. The structured satisfaction surveys that the states use are not a good choice because the outcome is limited to fixed multiple questions and four possible answers. Such tests can steer the result to a conclusion like "we need more money" and the real problem remains hidden. When morale is bad or unknown, one needs an open-ended test where the employee steers the test. Such highly secure online tests are available. The responsibility for bad results rests with governors, the state education organization without exception, most superintendents, but we are not including superintendents, principals and teachers, who are trying hard to do the right thing without much help from above.
School boards started gathering a bad reputation by the late 1800's. Relying on the important decision's of standards, curriculum, and elected school board members having the highest authority for decisions, when they know far less about education than an assistant teacher. With majority of voting decisions within a board, who were not trained and experienced in management. Same in subject knowledge, in determining if we need to improve and by how much per subject. Or in teacher training, or interviewing people to be the new superintendent, who has a history that demonstrated increasing the national test or any measurable results, such an elected board as a group decision, simply cannot do well. But to give such authority by law to such a group shows not enough skill from a governor on down to change with the times. So, American education became the most expensive per student and dropped like a stone to the industrialized countries' bottom. Not being able to improve teaching but making teachers' jobs more difficult, not being able to hire good superintendents whose future depended on the elected board, who have no idea what bad performance is, have no idea how to fix a problem by throwing money at it. You see, having a boss who is unqualified will not be able to attract good experienced management talent who can improve things. The board members are good people who want to do good. Still, most of the elected board is not trained and experienced well enough to direct even a 50 person organization, let alone one with 100-10,000 employees. With political influence without "measurable academic achievement objectives" in every school with a national test and not a state test, it is not the path to success. Having untrained, inexperienced people for the jobs to prepare our children for building a better tomorrow is not the path to success. The qualifications, standards and objectives within education must be centralized with the best highly educated and experienced people who are independent of public education. The education of our children cannot be based on those organizations who could not deliver better results for decades and presented to the public a much better picture than reality was. They lied to the public, "purposefully misleading the public, who pay for it all." It is a fraudulent action that needs to be investigated. And to prove our point, look at the evidence presented below, and after you do, YOU DECIDE what you want for your children, grandchildren, and your country. But you have to focus on A.C.T. score results. The A.C.T. score shows what the child learned from grade one to twelve.
THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK THAT OUR HIGH SCHOOLS ARE TO ACCOMPLISH. THAT WILL HAPPEN ONLY IF THE ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS' PERFORMANCE IS OUTSTANDING. DO NOT LET ANYONE MISGUIDE YOU BY SAYING THAT "THERE ARE OTHER THINGS THAT ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT." BETTER EDUCATION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR BOTH: OUR CHILDREN AND OUR COUNTRY. THE CURRENT LEVEL OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IS EXTREMELY POOR. WE WILL SHOW BELOW ALL actions APPEAR TO BE PAST AND CURRENT actions, DONE PURPOSEFULLY, TO DUMB DOWN 95-99% OF OUR NATION. We will explain to you what you need to know to pick a good A.C.T. score target. Never let anyone tell you, referring to your child, that God did not make all children for college. What is true is that God did not make MOST children jobless. BUT OUR STATE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS UNDER THE GOVERNOR CERTAINLY DID BY NOT TAKING CORRECTIVE action! OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN DECLINING FOR A LONG TIME AND GETTING WORSE. THEY ARE DOING IT AT THE HIGHEST COST IN THE WORLD PER CHILD. YOU SHOULD ASK YOUR GOVERNOR VERY POLITELY IN WRITING ABOUT WHY CERTAIN THINGS IS DONE, BECAUSE IT APPEARS TO BE DAMAGING, and YOU WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND IT. WE DID NOT GET AN ANSWER. MAYBE YOU WILL.
A
VERY IMPORTANT POINT: We, and probably every country, can have emergencies that take more money to survive, at a time when we are disabled to make more money. It could be an infectious disease for which no defense exists when it breaks out. It could be a natural disaster that comes as a surprise, like a major earthquake or a
volcanic eruption, that is not predictable. Or it could be believable, but we dismiss its possibility. It was like a bloody revolt when tens of millions of people could no longer get a job because their educators did not teach the information they needed. We must realize that to have a
safety net, we are dependent on the quality of our public education, creating a boring school that does not create good results. We set the wrong standards, with 14,000 school districts' elected boards just doing their own thing. For that to happen, we would need to enforce having a much better trained and managed public school system that operates with the right objectives and follows an annual operating plan with monthly GPA objectives that are 10% higher than the prior years' actual performance. We must understand that people who worked in a poorly performing organization view their performance as normal, do not want objectives, or be measured, and view anything above 2-3% improvement in performance as an impossibility. Look at the chart covering nineteen years. We never managed to increase the performance more. Schools never operated under a performance objective with monthly operating plans focusing them on what they must accomplish. School employees just came to work, doing things the same way as they did a hundred years ago. When you do not change the way you work, you will keep getting the same results. That is why the K-12 public school performance did not, and will not improve until we introduce major changes. As a result, we just stayed in a poor performance area for much longer than 20 years.
Charter schools are a different version of public schools. They are also USA public schools. Traditional public schools like to publicize "facts" like charter schools are not better they take money away from your children's public schools. All of which is "true" (wink, wink). Please understand that when the truth is bad, the offending people have to make up "facts," they lie, and they DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL. As a result, they are destroying the employability of most of today's children. So what do you have to do to look better? You follow uncle VLADIMIR LENIN'S ADVICE, WHO SAID MANY TIMES THAT "IF YOU LIE TO THE PUBLIC A THOUSAND TIMES, THEY WILL ACCEPT IT AS THE TRUTH." And disinformation theory was born. Charter schools have an appointed board of business leaders and members of the local public school management and teachers - UNFORTUNATELY. The traditional public schools have an elected board of local people AND PAY THEM in most cases. To win a school board election, it will cost about $15,000 in advertising. To win a governorship, you need to spend $10-15 million in self-advertising. In one case, a governor candidate spent $3 million to get elected. His opponent spent $15 million and won. AND INTO POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS WE GO IF YOU DONATED ENOUGH TO THE CANDIDATE. HOW GOOD THE CANDIDATES ARE, DOES NOT MATTER. All of them promise to fix education when running for office. AND NONE OF THEM DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Please do not object. Just look at 20 years of A.C.T. scores and the fact that about 80% of we graduate are not even A.C.T. READY - and that is a very low measure of knowledge compared to what employers needed. The traditional public school board member gets $25,000 per year, as an example, in Knoxville, TN, for at least four years, and there are no term limits. Naturally, the school board member does not care about the money (wink, wink), and will understand what they have to do to improve the already "excellent" performance of the school system (wink, wink, wink!) by screaming, "We need more money!!!". The prerequisite is a high school diploma, and the candidate does not know anything about education and how to improve it. Look at the comparison of charter vs. traditional public school performance right here. The charter schools get less money than the traditional low-performing public schools do. Black student performance is generally very low, with a MINIMUM of 94%, not even A.C.T. Ready. I heard all kinds of ideas about why. I decided to find one that accepts only poor, black, inner-city children. A charter school started in 2006 in Harlem, called Success Academy Schools. Today they have 46 schools and a waiting list of 19,000 families. Their results are excellent, and they passed almost all private schools. I visited them, but I could not convince any school districts to visit and learn. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON VISITED THEM FROM TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. They even put their curriculum and teaching methodology on the Internet free for any school. There are too many people in most traditional public schools who are taco short on the combination plate. IT IS RECOGNIZED THAT THEY ARE DOING A POOR JOB THAT DAMAGES THE CHILDREN "THEY EDUCATE POORLY." THE HUMAN IGNORANCE AND BIG EGOS MOSTLY BY PEOPLE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION WHO REFUSE TO LEARN AND DID NOT KNOW ENOUGH WHEN THEY STARTED, TRYING TO HIDE BAD PERFORMANCE THAT IS NOTICED BY MORE AND MORE PEOPLE IN PUBLIC. WHY IS IT THAT BOTH PARTIES AND ALL GOVERNORS AVOIDED MAKING CHANGES IN PUBLIC EDUCATION THAT WOULD INCREASE A.C.T. AND SAT PERFORMANCE TO INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE LEVELS?
We would like to explain something very basic about debt and excessive spending in general. If you must pay for something right now, but you do not have
the money, you can borrow that money. But the amount you must pay back will be higher. The difference is called "interest." You will end up with less money in the future because you will have to keep paying interest on the money you borrowed ages ago. That's not a good thing.
How big or small is the total interest due? Is it insignificant? When I
found out, I was shocked. Our national debt is
23.6 TRILLION dollars on March 24, 2020. The total interest IS ONE
THIRD OF THE NATIONAL DEBT AT 8 TRILLION DOLLARS! The COVID-19 virus problem will increase it more rapidly because we had insufficient money in reserve. AND THAT IS A BIG PROBLEM. THAT BIG PROBLEM IS OUR POOR
HIGH SCHOOL PERFORMANCE THAT HAS BEEN WEAKENING THE WORKFORCE IN ALL
INDUSTRIES AND THAT REDUCED NATIONAL INCOME, RESULTING IN THIS SITUATION.
WHAT WILL WE DO IF A HURRICANE HITS THE EAST COAST OR A VOLCANIC
ERUPTION OR A BIG EARTHQUAKE HITS US? ALL OF THEM ARE HIGH PROBABILITY
EVENTS FOR THE USA. HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION MUST BE
INCREASED ASAP TO A NATIONAL AVERAGE 27 A.C.T., BECAUSE THE CURRENT LOW PERFORMANCE
IN BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, WITH 3 OUT OF 4 GRADUATES NOT
EVEN MEETING THE LOW "A.C.T. READINESS" STANDARD HAS BEEN WEAKENING OUR
NATIONAL WORKFORCE FOR SEVERAL DECADES.
Please look at the graph below. For now, concentrate on the three
horizontal lines in the middle of the graph, and what they are.
They are 20 years of A.C.T. scores for the USA, Tennessee, and the Knox County school district in Tennessee. These scores are a fact, the real scores for 20 years. Just think about what they tell you. This single school district alone is costing us MORE THAN 500 MILLION dollars per year. So
Tennessee must be costing what? Many Millions. And how about the entire USA? BILLIONS!! It appears that 80% of the children will not get a job for more than minimum wage until 2023. Cognitive robots with Artificial Intelligence that passed average human intelligence will replace 95-98% of low-end jobs. Just think about this situation, as we investigate below to find out why and what we must do. By the way, the national debt is now
above $210,000 per person IN 2019 including our children. Only a very healthy economy could pay it back. BUT THAT REQUIRES A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
WITH CHILDREN WHO ARE ALL "STEM A.C.T. READY," WITH AN AVERAGE 26 A.C.T. SCORE
TODAY AND RISING WITH THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES. "STEM A.C.T. READINESS" (75%,
MINIMUM 26 A.C.T. AVERAGE) IS WHAT OUR SCHOOLS SHOULD ACHIEVE. NOT JUST
ORDINARY A.C.T. READINESS (MINIMUM 18-23% A.C.T. READINESS, representing only 0%-24% subject knowledge in four subjects only, a very poor performance level). BUT 80% OF THE CHILDREN WE GRADUATE CANNOT EVEN ACHIEVE THAT. LET ME SAY IT AGAIN: THEY GRADUATE THE MAJORITY OF OUR CHILDREN, NOT EVEN "A.C.T. READY." THAT MEANS NO POSSIBILITY OF EMPLOYMENT. WE WILL PROVE THAT BELOW. EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW THIS.
Who is responsible for such low public school performance?
The inner city folks, many times single parents, limited education,
working hard manual jobs, not enough money. I spoke to them. We have
no idea how difficult their life is. The most common answer they told me was that "My boyfriend got me pregnant. When he found out, he ran away. I could not finish high school. I work my fingers to the bone every day. I am dead tired by the end of my work every day. I don't understand what the schools tell me about my child." Very sad. The well-to-do parents can help their own children easily. How does anyone propose we increase poor children's performance?
Education results are the responsibility of state governors. Look at the chart. The education results are bad. Is that why school districts' expenses and salaries are guaranteed the money by law, regardless of the job they do! We have one of the highest expenses per student in the world, but our education results are the lowest among industrialized
countries. During the 1990's we found that the children we graduate could not read properly. We spent a few million dollars on consultants instead of getting a few teachers educated to teach reading. Today in 2020, we have the same problem that never changed. We hired a consultant again. Today's poorly performing school districts do not go to high-performing schools to determine how they teach subjects where performance is too low. They do not search the Internet for some fantastic education tools that we have there. The result is that they have no clue what they are doing wrong, and with such laziness, they hire a consultant, and they don't know if that consultant can do the job. Many are just unemployed. By hiring a consultant, the elected board doesn't know any better. The new expense will increase the school spending, and the "maintenance of effort law" in education guarantees that level of spending for the following year. The elected board members majority and education management at almost all school districts just sit there without updating the education laws because the lawmakers are afraid of being replaced at reelection time by the education lobby.
We first raised the problem to governors about education ten years ago in Tennessee. Wrote to the previous governor seven times and the current governor four times, but not a single response from anyone. Not even one. The states are continuing to make no changes that could raise the A.C.T. and SAT scores. We need about a 30% improvement in them now in 2020. To solve the education problem, it will be possible with cognitive robotics with artificial intelligence. It will be far superior to what we have today in 2020. But it will be possible only 5-8 years from now. We cannot wait with changes, because Covid-19 will hit our economy hard. The national debt is likely to rise to at least $30 trillion in 2020 alone. The current education system is damaging the workforce of all industries. The public anger that will result from it will keep the destruction alive, pumping the national debt much higher. That could break us. For that reason, we believe that we must get our public education to a STEM A.C.T. readiness level to 27 average A.C.T. score urgently. We waited too long without improvement.
It appears from many years of poor performance that the management people from the
local school boards and superintendents to the state superintendents of
education and governors have no idea what to do or are afraid to
change anything when performance is bad. The US Department of
Education website even has a comment about no business practices are
applicable to education. The fact is that the best modern business
methods relating to achieving objectives, hiring and managing people and
financial operations are used not only in business but in ANY
SUCCESSFUL GROUP ACTIVITY where the money is spent to achieve anything, Not
using and preventing such methods in public education where the
academic results are below the results of the top ten nations in
education is extremely negligent and must be changed.
The biggest mistake perhaps that one makes in organizations is this: hiring
someone, without the hiring manager knowing exactly how to do the job,
or hiring a consultant
to find out both what the problem is and how to do the job. That means
that the great majority of management people not only don't know the
job, for which they are trying to hire a person, but they don't know what they have to achieve in measurable terms in
their own job and they interview the potential employee without being
able to ask the right questions to find out if the potential employee
can do the job or not. Such employees do not even make an effort to learn what they don't know, and they are not doing the job well.
Public education organizations are full of people like that. The results are bad, and they have no idea how to fix it. The same goes for hiring consultants. If you don't know precisely what a potential employee needs to do, what he/she needs to achieve, and to what standard, you will not hire the right person.
To
make the national debt-related interest payments disappear. We have to be able to make enough money to pay off that debt. To make that a
reality, our high schools must graduate far better-educated students than we graduate today. What does that mean? Today, our high school graduates have an average A.C.T. readiness (explained below) of only 24-26% nationally. That is not good enough, and will explain below why. The schools may tell you that we are doing fine. They may tell you that I am pessimistic. You be the judge. One
thing is a fact. To go anywhere, including achieving anything, you must know honestly and precisely first WHERE YOU ARE, where you stand,
exactly. Without that, you cannot decide what to do and plan the monthly
or weekly steps you want to achieve to get to where you want
to be. We must TRY to graduate 95%, but...with all graduates "A.C.T. Ready", and that would take an average A.C.T. score at or above 27 in 2021. Several nations perform better than what A.C.T. 27 represents. But they have excellent controls over education, and we have none. For example, their teacher candidates are from the top 10% of Master's programs in the subject that they would teach. They do not appoint a teacher who was not trained to teach that subject. Unfortunately, we do. The teacher's personality and IQ are matched to the teaching position to ensure that teaching is what they love the most as a profession. Then they are under the guidance of a senior teacher in that subject who demonstrated success for 12-15 years. WE WILL DESCRIBE BELOW WHY AND HOW THAT CAN BE
ACHIEVED. WE ALL must UNDERSTAND THAT FIRST. Only then can we start improving our workforce everywhere. So that our industries can win more business with higher profits. So that they can pay higher wages and more taxes wisely. So that we pay down that huge national debt. So that we have the money to IMPROVE LIFE AT HOME, and also to do
more good in the world where too much suffering exists.
I
remember that around 1970 and before, I saw great demand in about 90
countries for American-made products, IN ANY PRODUCT AREA. Everyone thought that American products are the best. Obviously they were at that time.
If something changes slowly in our lives, like a 1-5% annual change, we human beings do not notice such a small change.
After 1970 we slowly started seeing foreign products that the public liked better. A few years after losing several products to companies in other countries, we started losing entire industries to other countries. We became very vocal and blamed the lower wages in those other countries. I saw during my international
trips that we were wrong. Most big winners automated manufacturing much faster than we did. And then I saw that we started losing entire industries, like electronics, heavy machinery, textiles, etc. We all saw more and more foreign products in American stores. Decades later, I found out that the countries whose products passed ours started to improve their public education system immediately after WWII. But we did not recognize that we were competing internationally with our products and services and losing business to other nations. Yet we kept telling our children and to each other that we are the best in the world in everything. AND WE WERE. SOME TIME AGO
FOR ABOUT TWO DECADES.
IF YOU DO NOT KEEP YOUR EYE ON YOUR COMPETITORS, BUT THEY KEEP AN EYE ON YOU SO THAT THEY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, YOU
DO NOT STAND A CHANCE. THEY WILL WIN. Someone in our country got us into the habit of telling our children that "Johnny, you will win! Because YOU ARE the best!" That's like telling the
one-legged man that "Johnny, you can win the 100-yard dash at the
Olympics, if you believe that you can!" The truth is that you will win if you study hard and prACTice a lot to become the best-educated, and you always keep learning during your life to be the best. YOU ARE BLESSED IF YOU ENJOY
BEING VERY GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO.YOU CAN BECOME EXCELLENT AT WHAT YOU ARE DOING ONLY IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU ARE DOING. WE FOCUS ON MONEY A LITTLE TOO MUCH IN TODAY'S WORLD. FOCUS ONLY ON WHAT YOU ENJOY DOING. THE MONEY WILL COME.
Not
knowing precisely what competitors or opponents are doing, and thinking that you are the best, is a prescription for certain failure. We did, and we do exactly that even today. We did not do our homework on foreign competitors in public education, and we are not doing it today. . Many other countries passed us. That explains why our industries' competitiveness dropped;
we lost entire industries to competition (e.g., television,
electronics, heavy machinery, and others), because the workforces of many other nations became better educated. They started improving in 1946.
We have not started improving our education
system yet. But we started destroying public education without any delay when others improved. We will explain examples in the upcoming sections of this website. New technologies always require more education in the workforce AND IN OUR SCHOOLS. The computer industry hit our jobs hard.
We are going to experience even bigger technological changes from 2023 on,
with Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science as a start, with a huge impact on education. We are two years behind as of 2018, according to college professors who are dealing with yesterday's and today's high school graduates. If the high school A.C.T. average does not rise by 10% minimum annually, we will be four years behind the international competition by 2023-2025, and then the national income drop and resulting unemployment could destroy us.
Looking
at the A.C.T. scores and A.C.T. readiness percentages above and the low A.C.T.
benchmark scores in the table above indicate that the student is only
25% prepared in the top four Benchmark subjects to be passing with one
exception: English. For that subject the benchmark score is 18,
representing only 10% readiness only, meaning 10% good answers in a
test. But the US education system chose this benchmark for English.
“A.C.T.
READINESS" became a very low achievement for public education. It will not get any student into a position of remaining employable longer than a
few years unless the student graduates with an average A.C.T. score at 28-29,
minimum today in 2020. The reason for this is that the countries with which we compete to achieve a satisfactory national income have a better-trained workforce than we have due to our declining high school education compared to our technological advancement. Those countries graduate from high school with average performance in the A.C.T. 29-34 range, depending on the country. This is because the success of all industries in any country depends on the training level of workforces in those industries, and that depends on the education level of high school graduates.
What has been very disturbing during the last ten years is the discovery that our own department
of education in each state is not doing anything about the
deterioration of our public education. I wrote to the governor seven times in eight years about what we observed. Not one response to my questions from anyone. Then I wrote to the next governor four times,
and again not one response from anyone. The things that should be done very well were not done well. And the bad things that should not be done were done - very well. It appears to this day that most are done purposefully to ensure poor results.
Examples:
The challenge is that 74% nationally and 84% in Tennessee of those who graduate high school with a diploma, are not even A.C.T. Ready. Nationwide...the children learn some subjects in any school year, and forget too much of it each year. One has to learn how to learn first, and THEN learn in different and fun ways in all subjects and keep playing with it so that it becomes fun. In the high performing countries they know very well what qualifications have to be for a successful teacher. Any teacher, including assistants, has to be high IQ, who completed a 6-7 year Master's program in the subject he/she would teach. The teacher has to be in the top tThirty percent of his Master's program, loves his own subject, can give many examples of fun work with his subject today and in the future. Such a teacher has enormous fun as a teacher, making his/her classes the most interesting and better each year, because he or she loves performing for the children and learn more about his/her subject every year. The great performers do not mind if their performance is measured against objectives. They WANT to find ways to learn how to become better.
URGENT ACTIONS NEEDED IN OUR SCHOOLS
PLEASE NOTE: The term "goal" and "objective" are not interchangeable. Under Management By Objectives, a goal is a measurable, long-term key indicator of performance, e.g., five years away. But an objective is the measurable key indicator of performance in the next fiscal year. Monthly objectives in the same year are very important and are measured in Grade Point Average or
GPA.
We have about 14,000 school boards in the US, and our education is far from what it should be. The school boards did not help to create well-educated children. Look at the A.C.T. results. The education departments need to focus on delivering much better educated high school graduates per the standards defined by a group like a national board of employers. When you mix defining standards in the groups that are doing work to deliver to those standards, you will not get the best quality. It is a conflict of interest. We must separate those two. Employers have been complaining to governors about high school graduates since about 2010. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET UNIFORM HIGH-QUALITY RESULTS WITHOUT UNIFORM HIGH STANDARDS NATIONWIDE, WHEN EVERY SCHOOL BOARD MAY HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS, HOWEVER SMALL THOSE DIFFERENCES ARE. I can tell you this. Hostile intelligence services, like the Chinese or Russians, have enough financial resources and very smart people like we do in ours. They would help any of our problems to become bigger. Look at the OECD PISA international test results we display here. WHO IS ON TOP? CHINA! Think about it. There is strength in a nation that establishes standards for anything on the highest level. BUT WHEN 14,000 DIFFERENT SCHOOL BOARDS CAN MAKE EVEN TINY CHANGES, WE CANNOT IMPROVE. GET RID OF ALL INEFFECTIVE OLD practices. YOU WILL SAVE A LOT OF MONEY FOR IMPROVING THE AREA THAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, OUR SCHOOLS! OUR EDUCATION STANDARDS ARE NOT THE SAME IN EVERY STATE. MOST ARE VERY POOR. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT ENFORCE NATIONAL STANDARDS, AND EACH OF 50 STATES ARE DOING THEIR OWN THING. WE MUST SET ALL EDUCATION STANDARDS CENTRALLY IN THE US. EDUCATION IN EVERY STATE MUST DELIVER IT WITH THE WORK THEY DO IN EVERY STATE. "THE BEST IDEAS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION COMES FROM THE LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS" WHO DELIVERED VERY MIXED POOR RESULTS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TODAY. IT IS A VERY STUPID IDEA THAT CHINA LIKES VERY MUCH.
Eliminate URGENTLY the push/goal for a 90% graduation rate because it is worthless. USE THE A.C.T. FOR GRADUATION. The graduation rate depends on the state test results, that can be and ARE manipulated by the states every year to pass children in one or more subjects toward graduation, who otherwise would fail. Management also creates enormous pressure on teachers at year end to pass children who would otherwise fail to meet the 90% graduation rate. Indirect measurement schemes do not work. Graduation rate would be indirect. But the A.C.T. score is an accurate measurement of what children learned from grade one to twelve. It measures that knowledge without anyone being able to manipulate the test to show better result. But they miss the idea of keeping an eye on monthly progress and that makes the year end result a BAD surprise. The A.C.T. needs to be supported for that reason by monthly GPA objective. Our objective must be to make children from poverty and minorities trainable and employees were looking for a minimum B average for a long time that is equal to 80% A.C.T. Readiness which is the same as an average 29 A.C.T. score. It looks high and impossible because we did not do a single thing to improve teacher training, changing teaching methodology up-to-date, graduating children who cannot read well or do basic math by third grade, making both learning and teaching very difficult. You must measure both child and teacher results. How can you improve otherwise? You can't. We cannot reverse poverty without making sure that we do a good job educating the children.
Good results depend on well-educated workers WHO ENJOY THEIR JOBS and do excellent work as a result. However, THAT IS NOT ENOUGH. Reaching a 90% graduation rate and average A.C.T. score of 21, has been a ridiculously low goal/objective of our school system since about 1995 but NEVER REACHED! You know why? Because it is impossible to have a 90% graduation rate at A.C.T. 21. Focusing on 90% graduating rate is a false objective because it never worked and it opens the door to cheating. The important goal is jobs that pay enough. That depends on the education. That really means graduates whose average subject knowledge is about 23% ONLY! The subject knowledge would have to be 80% or higher, and that would require an average 28 A.C.T. score.
We need measurable MONTHLY objectives that are a key indicator of how our children are doing in every class, GPA in every single school (monthly) and A.C.T. (yearly) based, in every high school classroom, school and school district and state, available to the public on the Internet. When the results are bad like ours, focusing everyone in every school district on academic achievement objectives is a good way to improve, after decades of poor performance.
Children cannot learn in a boring classroom. I found in the USA and the high performing countries that the teachers' subject knowledge has to be at the Master's level and come from the top 10-30% of the Master's programs. Teacher candidates must be tested for having the right personality for teaching. Have a high IQ, love their subject enough to keep on top of any new developments in that subject. Teachers can give examples about many different jobs within his/her subject. The teachers are so enthusiastic about the subject that the teacher's enthusiasm infects the students. The classes of this teacher are always fun for the students. The great majority of US teachers are not trained well enough, may not like their subjects and his/her classes are boring. The teacher training standards declined in the US. CONTINUING SUBJECT and teaching methodology education ARE VERY IMPORTANT FOR US TEACHERS.
Management training is extremely important for principals, superintendents, I would also recommend basic management training for teachers. They have to manage a class to success.
We believe that the most important thing any public school should do, is what the schools are claiming falsely: EXCELLENCE. What is EXCELLENCE?! It is a minimum average A.C.T. score of 29 (indicates that 80% of our graduating students are ready and not just 20% in the graduating classes) because it represents 80% readiness of the students we graduate to be employable. Today, as the chart shows, about 80% of graduates are NOT A.C.T. ready, a standard that guarantees unemployment today.
We do not have a "subject-knowledge maintenance" program covering every school year, and our students retain only 25-30% of the previous year's subject knowledge, let alone all high school years' subjects.
We are approximately 50 years behind the high performing nations in teaching methodologies, management, student-teacher relationships. We do not match teacher candidates to the teaching profession before selection for admission to teacher training. Teacher education declined to a poor level, yet we pushed out the older teachers who were better trained, and the new young teachers' turnover rate became very high.
Copyright(c) 2008-2021 V. Spencer
This is a work in progress.
76-84% OF CHILDREN WE GRADUATE TODAY (94-97% OF BLACK CHILDREN!!) ARE SO POORLY PREPARED THAT THEY WILL BE UNEMPLOYABLE! Anyone can keep denying this fact, but our education results are unacceptable for any demographic group. We have been paying the highest rate in the world per student for this unacceptable poor performance. I love my country and will do my best to prevent its destruction, or would be the happiest if some responsible people could show me that I am wrong. Our education is a major civil disorder creator. Are we creating it purposefully to "reduce the population?" In two years time, the public will discover that they paid for education the highest amounts in taxes in the world for decades and their children cannot get a job after 2024. Our "black/white" history has been going on for more than hundred and fifty years, unresolved, and education having the smell of being fraudulent (expense per child from our taxes is the highest in the world, but the results dropped to the bottom of the industrialized countries, purposefully dumbing down the population), what we are doing has to be the all-time dumbest strategy that would be the worst problem-solving solution, but here it is! Please, someone, explain this to me in detail and in writing if I am incorrect. Some will have to pay, but if we do not admit first, it will be discovered soon, and the reaction will be violent. I hope that I am wrong. 
about the published results first. Just look at the results above. Focus on finding out how well our high schools are doing, looking at their A.C.T. results for 20 years. If they are doing a bad job, like a less than 22 average A.C.T. score, they are graduating with only a 25% knowledge 
of the high school subjects. THE MEASURABLE RESULT (e.g., AVERAGE A.C.T. SCORE HOPEFULLY above 26) OF ANY MANAGEMENT CHANGE, DEPENDS TOTALLY ON THE ACTUAL MEASURABLE PRIOR FIVE-YEARS' RESULTS OF THE NEW EMPLOYEE(S) PUT IN CHARGE. For the past twenty years, the A.C.T. results were poor. Who can really think that a headhunter will find a good superintendent candidate when we have poorly performing schools almost everywhere. 74-86% of public high school graduates are that low, and we graduate them with a diploma. If the schools are doing an excellent job, like a 29-34 average A.C.T. score, the same as what the top nations are achieving who passed us, their opinion would be valuable. Your child's and the country's future is at stake. That makes primary and secondary public education a very important thing to ensure a normal future for the entire country.
Other nations improved their education systems with more expertise, and improved teaching methodologies. The reason given for this was that delegating total education responsibilities to the states happened "because it was not in the US Constitution at the USA's formation and approved in 1789. Why was this a bad reason? Because the results are BAD. LOOK AT THE A.C.T. SCORES! The US Constitution was amended as needed since then, 27 times! The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. Then all states delegated all management and other decisions to the elected boards of local school districts. We have more than 14,000 of them in the USA. They are all doing their own thing without centralized standards, and we hear even today from them that we control education on the school district level because "THE BEST GUIDANCE FOR OUR SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN COME NOT FROM THE NATION CENTRALLY, BUT FROM THE ELECTED LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS REPRESENTING THE LOCAL POPULATION." THAT REASONING IS FROM THE MID-1800s. It was appropriate then. But after we went from the horse and buggy TO THE MOON, other nations kept education up to date with the huge technological advances. It is difficult to understand why such a very limited decision still dominates US education, with politicians in control who do not seem to understand that their actions are damaging our economy on a large scale. This idea worked well until about 1900, for more than a century. PLEASE CHANGE SUCH DECISIONS TO ONE INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL GROUP OF RETIRED LARGE COMPANY CEOS WHOSE COMPANY IS INTERNATIONALLY SUCCESSFUL, BECAUSE THEY REPRESENT THEIR FUTURE EMPLOYEE NEEDS THE BEST. THOSE ARE THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO COULD APPROVE NATIONAL STANDARDS: TO CONTROL GRADING AND TESTING STANDARDS, TEACHER TRAINING STANDARDS, TEACHER SELECTION, AND QUALIFICATION STANDARDS, K-12 CURRICULUM, TEACHING METHODOLOGIES, TEACHER COMPENSATION POLICIES, TEACHER PERFORMANCE EVALUATION STANDARDS NATIONALLY. The education results have been poor for 19 years or more under state political control. The entire nation's standards need to be raised to improve results. The standards need to be made by an independent, highly educated standard, and the states are to improve the education results under those standards. 
highest authority for decisions, when they know far less about education than an assistant teacher. With majority of voting decisions within a board, who were not trained and experienced in management. Same in subject knowledge, in determining if we need to improve and by how much per subject. Or in teacher training, or interviewing people to be the new superintendent, who has a history that demonstrated increasing the national test or any measurable results, such an elected board as a group decision, simply cannot do well. But to give such authority by law to such a group shows not enough skill from a governor on down to change with the times. So, American education became the most expensive per student and dropped like a stone to the industrialized countries' bottom. Not being able to improve teaching but making teachers' jobs more difficult, not being able to hire good superintendents whose future depended on the elected board, who have no idea what bad performance is, have no idea how to fix a problem by throwing money at it. 
You see, having a boss who is unqualified will not be able to attract good experienced management talent who can improve things. The board members are good people who want to do good. Still, most of the elected board is not trained and experienced well enough to direct even a 50 person organization, let alone one with 100-10,000 employees. With political influence without "measurable academic achievement objectives" in every school with a national test and not a state test, it is not the path to success. Having untrained, inexperienced people for the jobs to prepare our children for building a better tomorrow is not the path to success. The qualifications, standards and objectives within education must be centralized with the best highly educated and experienced people who are independent of public education. The education of our children cannot be based on those organizations who could not deliver better results for decades and presented to the public a much better picture than reality was. They lied to the public, "purposefully misleading the public, who pay for it all." It is a fraudulent action that needs to be investigated. And to prove our point, look at the evidence presented below, and after you do, YOU DECIDE what you want for your children, grandchildren, and your country. But you have to focus on A.C.T. score results. The A.C.T. score shows what the child learned from grade one to twelve. 
This green cube represents new information
if the test has 90 questions, and if the child gets 54 of them right, then he/she got 60% of the test right. Not too long ago, 60% good answers was the pass/fail point, meaning one passes the test if above that percentage in tests. 30-40 years ago 70% was the pass/fail point. The standard of graduation from high school dropped, and it keeps dropping. 75-85% of the children we are graduating from high school are not even ACT READY. That means that they are below 60% of the high school subject knowledge. FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS, THE GOAL OF TENNESSEE AND A NUMBER OF OTHER STATES WAS AVERAGE ACT 21, BUT THEY COULD NOT REACH IT IN TWENTY YEARS! WHAT PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IS AVERAGE ACT 21? IT IS ONLY 58% high school subject knowledge. That used to be a failure. 85% of Tennessee graduates and a few other states' high school graduates are NOT EVEN ACT READY. These are mostly minority children. We graduate them without the ability to read or write or do basic math well, they can read and write only with block letters. Ready or not, we graduate them. They will not be able to get a job. What we are doing is creating a massive social problem because they will not be employable. The technological changes of 2023 will not wait because we are doing a terrible job with public education. How could our elected leaders do such a terrible job!
defensive, WHEN THE SCHOOL COULD BE THE NORMAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE CHILDREN'S LIVES, THAT COULD OFFER A BETTER, FRIENDLIER ENVIRONMENT. IF WE WANT TO REDUCE POVERTY, NOT BECAUSE WE ARE NICE, BUT BECAUSE GOOD EDUCATION WOULD TAKE THE POOR CHILD AND FAMILY OUT OF POVERTY, WE WOULD NEED TO TAKE REMEDIAL ACTION WITH SUPPLEMENTAL COUNSELING IN PRE-SCHOOL AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL BEFORE THE HORMONES KICK IN. OTHERWISE, THE POOR EDUCATION BECOMES THE CREATOR OF THESE PROBLEMS. Friendly treatment in school is much better than what they have been getting in the street. You could say at this point, "this guy who created this website doesn't know anything about education." Look at our results. THEY ARE SO BAD THAT 75-85% OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES ARE UNEMPLOYABLE IN ALMOST ALL STATES. THE TRUTH IS THAT A BAD JOB IS NOT DONE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE WELL TRAINED AND KNOW HOW TO DO A GOOD JOB. We are dropping below industrialized countries. Their results are better than ours. WE ARE 37TH IN THE WORLD IN MATHEMATICS, THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT. IS THAT A GOOD JOB?
1. We have three major technologies entering the world market in 2023. They will have a major impact on our lives, employment, education, and economic success. THERE WILL BE MORE JOBS THAN EVER CREATED BY THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, BUT THE JOBS WILL REQUIRE MUCH MORE EDUCATION. The safest jobs for non-replacement are graduate degrees in sciences, engineering, and mathematics. IF WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH WELL-EDUCATED PEOPLE, THE JOBS WILL GO TO THE COUNTRIES THAT DO.
It is a required reading in the national war colleges of many nations and also in Special Ops training today. China realized that their high school output became very poor about 50 years ago, learned from the best countries, and became the highest scoring nation in the world with high school graduates. They also reduced their poverty rate to one of the lowest.
WE HAVE A BAD HABIT. A FEW DECADES AFTER WWII, WE STARTED A SLOGAN-BASED ENCOURAGEMENT OF CHILDREN, LIKE "JOHNNY!, YOU ARE VERY SMART! YOU ARE THE BEST! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" WHAT WE DID WITH SUCH SLOGANS IS THE CREATION OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND INFERIORITY COMPLEX. IT WOULD HAVE MADE MORE SENSE TO SIT DOWN WITH LITTLE JOHNNY, BE HIS FRIEND, INTRODUCE A PROBLEM, EXPLAIN HOW TO SOLVE IT, WHILE ALLOWING JOHNNY TO SOLVE SUCH PROBLEMS WITH LESS AND LESS HELP.
in the above graph, a few things stand out. The older people will remember that they knew a lot more when they graduated from high school than the children who graduate today. The average A.C.T. scores in Tennessee, and national average did not go up in twenty years and did not change much in twenty years. Second, please look at the very high percentage of those children we graduate, around 
80% of those graduating, who are not even A.C.T. Ready. A.C.T. Readiness requires four subjects to be at least an average score of 21 if their scores are averaged. How good is A.C.T. 21? It represents 59-60% subject knowledge at best, and that was a failure a few years ago. For about twenty years, Tennessee public education set A.C.T. 21 as its goal every year and was never able to reach it. A.C.T. 21 IS NO LONGER HIGH ENOUGH TO BE USED AS AN OBJECTIVE. Robotics will do those jobs. I HAVE TO TELL YOU A SECRET. LOW OBJECTIVES DO NOT MOTIVATE PEOPLE. THEY GET IGNORED. BORING CLASSES ARE GOOD ONLY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE STUDENTS WILL HATE THE SUBJECT. NOTHING CHANGES. BUT PEOPLE DO RISE TO HIGH EXPECTATIONS. THAT IS A REAL STRETCH FOR THEM! PEOPLE RISE TO HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND DELIVER. BUT THEY NEED TO KNOW WHAT THOSE HIGH EXPECTATIONS ARE. THE OLD IDEA OF "I DON'T CARE IF HE DOES NOT LIKE IT, HE JUST HAS TO PASS IT" DOES NOT EVER PRODUCE DEEP LEARNING THAT WILL LAST UNTIL THE FINAL TEST. PEOPLE WHO MANAGE EDUCATION NEED TO HAVE CONTINUING EDUCATION IN SUBJECTS THAT DO RELATE TO BRAIN FUNCTIONS INVOLVED IN LEARNING. ALL JOBS HAVE UPS AND DOWNS. CAN ALL PEOPLE DO AN EXCELLENT JOB IF THEY DO NOT LIKE THE JOB? THE HIGHER-PAYING JOBS ARE MORE DIFFICULT AND HAVE VERY HIGH UPS AND EXTREMELY DIFFICULT DOWNS THAT ONLY THOSE PEOPLE CAN DO WELL WHO LOVE THEIR JOBS. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT LIKE THEIR JOB, WE NOW KNOW THAT THINGS LIKE LOVING YOUR JOB AND LOVING THE SUBJECTS RELATED TO IT, LIKE HOW THE BRAIN WORKS TO CREATE DEEP LEARNING, ARE VERY IMPORTANT. IF ONE DOES NOT LIKE THE JOB HE/SHE DOES, EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE. THAT IS WHY WE NEED POTENTIAL TEACHERS TO BE TESTED TO ENSURE THAT THEY WILL BE A GOOD FIT FOR THE JOB AND WILL BE EXCELLENT TEACHERS. ALTHOUGH THE MATCH OR MISMATCH WILL DIFFER IN DEGREES, IF YOU WANT EXCELLENT TEACHERS, IT IS ONLY SUCH A TEST THAT CAN GUARANTEE GOOD TO OUTSTANDING RESULTS AFTER TRAINING.
COULD A SITUATION, THAT UNDER-EDUCATES ALMOST ALL OF OUR CHILDREN, DESTROY US AS A COUNTRY? ABSOLUTELY! WHY? Because our high school graduates feed the workforce of all industries. Also, the competitiveness of our industries internationally depends on the education of the workforce. A poorly performing public education can paralyze our country economically. When 75-85% of our high school graduates are not even A.C.T. Ready, and THAT IS THE CASE TODAY, we may not recover. Such qualification is no longer employable. However, "STEM ACT Readiness," which includes testing for Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus at a minimum A.C.T. score of 26, is of great value from now on in 2021. Future jobs for our children will be in the Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, Economics, and such subjects on a graduate level. Most states FAILED TO KEEP AN EYE ON HOW OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION PERFORMED. Our children are not being prepared WELL ENOUGH as of 2021. Who is responsible for resolving problems in this area? All governors of 50 states and their parties, and the F.B.I.? The fact that education management is not centralized carries a very high duplication expense, a high law enforcement expense, and complicates any investigation 50-fold. This duplication in 50 states and with management responsibility diluted by the elected school boards of 14,000 school districts does not raise the quality of education management and its results nationally, but it lowers average national performance. The lack of management know-how, poor teacher training, unprofessional teacher treatment on the job is creating the biggest danger to both our children and our country.
so that you know what kind of education your children received. Your child's education is worse. Only five percent of schools are doing a good job. A good job done by the schools had to satisfy the future jobs five to ten years away. A good target for that would be what an engineering or science degree requires for the second year at a university. Most politicians, when running for governor, promised to improve public education, and none of them do it. The result should be an increase in S.A.T. or A.C.T. scores. And that has not increased in decades. A number of other countries are doing more than that. It is impossible to use the same methods we use today. We have to change as many other nations did. We are graduating 75-85% of our children, not even A.C.T. Ready. That means high school subject knowledge BELOW 60%. Not good enough is an understatement. Mathematics is the most important subject for the future. We used to be on top 50 years ago. Today, 36 countries passed us in mathematics. We are the worst in the industrialized countries. Most children will be unemployable after 2023 with the entry of Artificial Intelligence-driven Cognitive Robotics, Nanotechnology, and Space Science in 2023-2024. Our rule today is to be "optimistic." You can be optimistic about the future of your high schools are delivering 80-90% A.C.T. Ready children. But not when they are graduating 75-85% of children who are not even A.C.T. Ready. Covid 19 is accelerating robotics development. It may not be, but it should not be ignored as a potential enemy-driven tool. The result will be devastating to millions who become jobless in the workforce itself unless we change the high school subject knowledge from 40-60% to 80% and above, which means graduating with an average 29 A.C.T. score. I did my research during an eight-year period at my own expense. I want to help governors, education management, and I also present the solutions to the problems to that end. Some don't seem to be happy about it. Our education is paid with our hard-earned taxes, and we are one of the highest payers per student, getting one of the worst jobs in our schools. Read about the solutions for it below. First, we will explain operational and management problems, and then we will explain what needs to be changed to fix them.
The local school boards did not help to create well-educated children. The school boards created a huge variation in performance among the 14,000 school districts. Any good strategy would both raise the grades and reduce the spread on tests that cannot be altered in the scoring area. The education departments need to focus on delivering much better educated high school graduates per the standards defined by a group like a national board of employers. Or we can send our students to the National School of Dentistry in a third-world country, the picture you see here. When you mix different standards in the groups that are doing work to deliver to those standards, you will not get the best quality. That makes the creation of standards within the state education department a conflict of interest. We must separate those two. Employers have been complaining to governors about high school graduates since about 2010. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET UNIFORM HIGH-QUALITY RESULTS WITHOUT UNIFORM HIGH STANDARDS NATIONWIDE, WHEN EVERY SCHOOL BOARD MAY HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS, HOWEVER SMALL THOSE DIFFERENCES IN STANDARDS ARE. I can tell you this. Hostile intelligence services, like the Chinese or Russians, have enough financial resources and very smart people like we do in ours. They would help any of our problems to become bigger. Look at the OECD PISA international test results we display here. WHO IS ON TOP? CHINA! Think about it. There is strength in a nation that establishes standards for anything on the highest level. BUT WHEN 14,000 DIFFERENT SCHOOL BOARDS cannot do anything to improve our public education, decade after decade CANNOT EVEN MAKE TINY CHANGES FOR THE BETTER. WE CANNOT IMPROVE. WHY DON'T WE GET RID OF ALL INEFFECTIVE OLD PRACTICES? IT WILL SAVE A LOT OF MONEY FOR IMPROVING THE AREA THAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, OUR SCHOOLS! OUR EDUCATION STANDARDS ARE NOT THE SAME IN EVERY STATE. MOST ARE VERY POOR. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT ENFORCE NATIONAL STANDARDS, AND EACH OF 50 STATES IS DOING ITS OWN THING. WE MUST SET ALL EDUCATION STANDARDS CENTRALLY IN THE US. EDUCATION IN EVERY STATE MUST DELIVER IT WITH THE WORK THEY DO IN EVERY STATE. "THE BEST IDEAS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION COMES FROM THE LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS," WHICH DELIVERED POOR RESULTS, IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TODAY. IT IS A VERY STUPID IDEA FOR US THAT CHINA LIKES VERY MUCH. Think about it. A high school graduate will be employed by employers. Right? Whose needs must education satisfy? Schools have to satisfy employers' needs. Employers hire high school graduates. Who should set the standards for public education? The San Diego Zoo? No. Public education? No. It is a conflict of interest for them. They will do what they want. Not what employers need. A group of senior executives representing employers TO GUIDE EDUCATION? Absolutely YES. But for us, public education keeps defining low standards. But they cannot even deliver that. So, they create higher grades from low scores with the Cut Score Magician. Absolutely brilliant! 
problem, that could be resolved, but we decided not to do it. That is a deadly combination for us as a country. It is unresolved because we did not make a real effort to solve it. Our public education is responsible for resolving it, not the poor single parent whose boyfriend ran away when she got pregnant. Good education is the key to solving both problems: poverty and the more than 150-year-old black/white problem that we should have resolved a long time ago. We are significantly interdependent. That means that if one is wealthy, do not count on surviving such a tragedy for long. We all have a moral and legal obligation to educate ALL citizens of any color to be employable. WE DO NOT DO THAT! You will see it below. But the actions within almost all of our schools are not good enough. The moral and legal obligation for public education to make our children employable for a useful life has been forgotten. They work for you, governors! Governors generally promise to fix the education problem we have when running for office. But then they forget about it. And the public is easy to influence with the personality of a high-level leader. Public opinion can dominate individuals who disagree. The elected can forget about the promises or decide that the promise kept is too difficult. The problem-filled life for the people in poverty will help such promises to be forgotten by those poor people. It is important to recognize why we have not corrected public education in more than a hundred years and supplement education laws to resolve it.
There is something else that makes it far more dangerous. It is the black/white problem that we did not resolve for about 150 years, coupled with overlapping the fastest-growing poverty in the world. They have a poorly educated family infrastructure to support the children. Other countries compensate for that within K-12 education. We don't. The solution is not throwing money at this problem, as we generally do, because it will be spent the same way as before without solving the problems. The money has to go into making education far better than it is, reducing the huge money wasting and insufficient education for teachers in the subject they teach and lack of management training all the way to the top. And then, we need an effective program to give more training time for the children who lack the complete parental infrastructure. We must aim at educating the children well enough so that they can get their families out of poverty. That needs to be the objective! We already have one of the highest AND fastest-growing poverty rates in the world, with a very high national debt. Why are we adding to this huge problem by not shutting off uneducated illegal immigrants that we justify with humanitarian reasons, just to "look good to get their votes." IT MAKES NO SENSE. But helping highly educated people to come to the US would be helpful. Unfortunately, too many see better opportunities at home. Both the population and the federal government need to understand our financial, political, and education problems. Recovery of our economy is first for our citizens before we take any further action. At this point, the increasing national debt would be damaging to our national income. We cannot just print more money, as some people believe. We already owe $7 Trillion on the national debt in interest. That is real national income we have to pay urgently for getting the loan because the interest goes up every year. There is nothing else we can do with the huge interest. What we need urgently is university-educated legal immigrants because our failing elementary and public high schools graduate only about five percent of graduates who are prepared. WE NEED MORE THAN 80% PREPARED! Make the legal entry easy for corporations who identified and would like to hire talent that they need. But we cannot afford large groups of uneducated immigrants like we are doing now for humanitarian reasons. Because of our poor public education, we no longer have the financial capacity to do so. We must reach 80% STEM ACT Readiness with an average STEM ACT SCORE of 29 to protect our economy, with the huge technological changes coming in 2023. 
people may not understand that. We are one of the five highest spenders in public education per student in the world. But the results are so poor that 75-85% of high school graduates are not even ACT Ready when we need STEM ACT Readiness for employment in about 2024-2025. Now THAT IS A PROBLEM THAT CAN BE SOLVED. We are not spending the education money so that it can save us. I sat in on many classes in ten states. Children can ask very sharp questions. Teachers could not answer them. The bottom line is that the classes are boring. I am sure that some are not, but all 29 classes that I observed in high school math and science were boring. No one, adult or child, will learn in a boring, monotone class where the teacher is not prepared well enough. That would require NOT LESS than an A.C.T. 29 average of high school graduates, representing 80% readiness.
the grades given close to, and around the pass/fail point are so poor that a graduate with such low knowledge will not be employable.
The A.C.T. chart covering twenty years seems to show that almost all of our children do not know enough of the high school subjects. The K-12 curriculum must cover the subjects that the graduates will need to get a job and perform well in it. Even in 1970, more than 50 years ago, the graduation standard in our public high schools was much lower than in the top 15 countries in education. We are even further behind today in 2021. Knowledge level needs to be at 90% of the curriculum because our curriculum is behind the best countries' education. Like the A.C.T., SAT, PISA (international), the various tests can be converted to a "percentage of knowledge" interpretation, like a percentage scale. Suppose we convert the A.C.T., SAT, or PISA scores to a percentage of each test's maximum score. In that case, we can see approximately what percentage of subject knowledge the test score represents in the chart below, similar to any other test. For example, an average A.C.T. 21 score is the same as an SAT 1070 score, both representing a low knowledge of high school subjects that vary state-to-state as well as within some states, but the variation is always favoring lower and not higher performance. But most international high school graduates of the leading countries in education also have to pass a so-called matriculation test ON ALL HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS AT THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL. That ensures a significantly higher knowledge. By not having such a test at graduation time, our children graduate high school with less knowledge because a lot of the first three years' material is forgotten by the end of high school.
They are far below the 59-61% average knowledge on four K-12 subjects only, BUT WE GRADUATED THEM. Is the A.C.T. Readiness standard too high? Or is that standard a reasonable indicator of knowledge of what employers need? It is significantly lower than what employers need. There have been quite a few meetings between employers and governors about that during the last 15 years. What is the A.C.T. College and Career Readiness? We will cover the answers below.
will also tell you what actions they are planning to correct the problem. The elected school board is ruled by majority decisions. As a group, some of their decisions will be beyond their experience. Public education is weak in several important areas, like teacher screening and training, management training, spending BIG money on things that do not work, but by law, such expense remains in the future budgets, and the education of children suffers as a result. They like to use any event that they can blame for their own poor performance. I am certain (in January 2021) that education performance will drop this year, and Covid-19 will be blamed for their poor performance. However, we all know that homeschooling has been growing nicely for about eight years. It is well organized so that parents can select that as an option. We also know that several of our best universities, like MIT, offer an outstanding high school education program. We also know and will present you on a list below that the lectures of the best university professors are available for complete high school courses and more, and all that can be an enjoyable, fun experience for students. With Covid-19, all the needed courses were available for years, taught by much better professors than public school teachers. It seems to me that a brilliant school conversion could have taken place quickly actually to improve high school performance at a lower expense. The opportunity is there. The best materials are available. And we will find out shortly if any public school districts grabbed that opportunity not to complain but to improve. 
one of the highest rates per student with our hard-earned tax dollars. Salaries depend on "supply and demand" and the quality of the job done. Our employers have been meeting with governors about the poor quality of our K-12 high school graduates for the past 15 years, without any action to raise A.C.T. scores that measure what our children learned from grade one to twelve. NOTHING CHANGED! Public education is delivering poor results for what they are paid per student, and they do not treat the teachers well as they should. AND THEIR EXPENSES AND SALARIES ARE GUARANTEED BY LAW, REGARDLESS OF THE RESULTS! WHY IS IT THAT OUR POLITICAL LEADERS OF BOTH PARTIES HAVE DONE NOTHING TO IMPROVE THE A.C.T. SCORES?! What is scaring them? We recommend that you wear DEPENDS if scared and do an excellent job. 
Charge it to the school board.
The idea around 1875 that the best advice for education comes from people closest to the student could be true only when agriculture was the dominant industry and the school was teaching the children who returned home to help the family. But today it is very far from the truth. We have about a thousand industries with much higher technology in the employer environment where our children, today's students are to work, plus the work could be in any country in any of a thousand science or engineering job that required much higher schooling. Only people who are extremely ignorant and stupid could make such a statement in public on the Internet.
slip back into the old habit. You cannot get the best performance with an annual objective for this reason. Since there is no reliable monthly test, we can use a Grade Point Average (GPA) measured year-to-date to focus people more frequently on what we have to achieve. This is very important when we are trying to get good performance out of a poorly performing group because they are working in a specific way producing results that are not working well. The outcome or result is always related to how we do things and what we do at work. To change that, the managers and supervisors need to change the way the group works, but we change the old habit during a shorter period than a year. People accomplish more if focused on what has to be done. That is what we are doing. And you will find that the work becomes easier when done this way.
legal job and cannot get one. There will be a lot of anger in the streets. I went to the inner cities and talked with them. They have a terrible job. The teacher's unions influence lawmakers against passing any laws to change anything within the education system to improve the results, as measured by the A.C.T. or SAT scores. We are graduating as many as 80% of graduates who are not even A.C.T. Ready. 
without them being employable. Over several years of doing this damage, the cost of social support of our unemployable children is already impossible. We do not have enough national income to support it. And all along, those who manage education tend to forget that a boring classroom turns off everyone, and that depends on the teacher's personality, training, his/her ability to be entertaining and his/her love of teaching and the subject he/she is teaching. This kind of thing is not the teacher's fault. Teaching success depends on a very special person, and we do not check the required characteristics for teaching as part of acceptance into teaching programs. Let me give you another example. The elected school board hires a superintendent who never managed a single school. They had 64 schools in the school district, with 6,000 employees. He never supervised an organization with more than 50 employees. The elected board did not check anything in his background, accepted the headhunter's background check of the candidate, and the headhunter received from the elected board a $110,000 commission check. Nothing improved under this superintendent. But he did befriend a school principal whose school was the worst performer for seven years. So the new superintendent promoted this principal to be in charge of all 64 schools! Another eight years went by, and there is no improvement. During all this, about 80% of the children are graduated with results below 60% subject knowledge level that is unacceptable for minimum wage candidate at best.
That is the time when all the needed knowledge to guide education using the local people made sense, and the schools did a good job. That is how local school boards developed and did a good job for many years. But the world changed faster and faster, and a lot of new industries were created, and we started selling our products locally, AND in other countries. The schools had to teach more subjects. Going from the horse and buggy to the moon created new sciences, and more knowledge became necessary. The population was increasing, and so did wars that demanded more advanced weapons. Animals kill other animals to eat. But we, the people, evolved struggling with each other and killing each other at the drop of a hat. We are still that way.
Today, we can kill not just next door, but anywhere on this planet. The increase in sciences and technologies required improvement in teacher and student training, but both became worse instead, AT A TIME WHEN WE WILL EXPERIENCE ACCELERATING TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES LIKE NEVER BEFORE. Schools became more complex as well, and some nations' schools have changed for the better and adapted, but others, like us, did not. The population could not make many decisions about the education of the local villages, but we decided to keep the locally elected school boards for decision making, when such decision making in today's much more complex world required better-educated people on a national level. Bad results are not accidental. They are the result of politicians appointing unqualified people with bad ideas to very important positions.
Education (the high school curriculum and graduation requirements) needs to track the technological improvements AND the average of the top three nations in education. Why? Because our industries will adopt the technological improvement quickly because technological improvements are released for them to reduce expenses. We went from the horse and buggy to the moon! That carried many technological improvements that mandated the incorporation of pre-calculus mathematics and a year of Calculus, plus Chemistry and Physics. To this day, we have not added them to the curriculum. In a number of states like Tennessee, we are graduating children who cannot read or do basic mathematics well. Our goal of 80% A.C.T. READINESS IS TOO WEAK WILL SUFFICE ONLY UNTIL 2024 AT MOST. THE TECHNOLOGICAL ACCELERATION THAT WE WILL SEE FROM 2020 WILL BE MUCH HIGHER THAN ANYTHING WE HAVE EXPERIENCED BEFORE. A GROUP OF NATIONS ARE ALREADY READY FOR IT, BUT WE ARE NOT BECAUSE OUR EDUCATION AND STANDARDS WERE ALLOWED TO STAY LOW AND DETERIORATE. Any improvement by us will require us to achieve a much higher standard because the only jobs that may survive robotics UNTIL 2025 AT BEST will be those that will require an MS in Mathematics, Science, Engineering, or Economics. To achieve that will not be more difficult for students, but teacher development will require frequent upgrading in education methodology and subject knowledge to a much higher level by 2024. IF WE CANNOT ACHIEVE THAT, THE COMING TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE SUPERIOR EDUCATION ROBOTS BY 2025-2028 TO REPLACE OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, because our schools demonstrated that they do not want to improve.
A
VERY IMPORTANT POINT: We, and probably every country, can have emergencies that take more money to survive, at a time when we are disabled to make more money. It could be an infectious disease for which no defense exists when it breaks out. It could be a natural disaster that comes as a surprise, like a major earthquake or a
volcanic eruption, that is not predictable. Or it could be believable, but we dismiss its possibility. It was like a bloody revolt when tens of millions of people could no longer get a job because their educators did not teach the information they needed. We must realize that to have a
safety net, we are dependent on the quality of our public education, creating a boring school that does not create good results. We set the wrong standards, with 14,000 school districts' elected boards just doing their own thing. For that to happen, we would need to enforce having a much better trained and managed public school system that operates with the right objectives and follows an annual operating plan with monthly GPA objectives that are 10% higher than the prior years' actual performance. We must understand that people who worked in a poorly performing organization view their performance as normal, do not want objectives, or be measured, and view anything above 2-3% improvement in performance as an impossibility. Look at the chart covering nineteen years. We never managed to increase the performance more. Schools never operated under a performance objective with monthly operating plans focusing them on what they must accomplish. School employees just came to work, doing things the same way as they did a hundred years ago. When you do not change the way you work, you will keep getting the same results. That is why the K-12 public school performance did not, and will not improve until we introduce major changes. As a result, we just stayed in a poor performance area for much longer than 20 years.
the money, you can borrow that money. But the amount you must pay back will be higher. The difference is called "interest." You will end up with less money in the future because you will have to keep paying interest on the money you borrowed ages ago. That's not a good thing.
How big or small is the total interest due? Is it insignificant? When I
found out, I was shocked. Our national debt is
23.6 TRILLION dollars on March 24, 2020. The total interest IS ONE
THIRD OF THE NATIONAL DEBT AT 8 TRILLION DOLLARS! The COVID-19 virus problem will increase it more rapidly because we had insufficient money in reserve. AND THAT IS A BIG PROBLEM. THAT BIG PROBLEM IS OUR POOR
HIGH SCHOOL PERFORMANCE THAT HAS BEEN WEAKENING THE WORKFORCE IN ALL
INDUSTRIES AND THAT REDUCED NATIONAL INCOME, RESULTING IN THIS SITUATION.
WHAT WILL WE DO IF A HURRICANE HITS THE EAST COAST OR A VOLCANIC
ERUPTION OR A BIG EARTHQUAKE HITS US? ALL OF THEM ARE HIGH PROBABILITY
EVENTS FOR THE USA. HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION MUST BE
INCREASED ASAP TO A NATIONAL AVERAGE 27 A.C.T., BECAUSE THE CURRENT LOW PERFORMANCE
IN BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, WITH 3 OUT OF 4 GRADUATES NOT
EVEN MEETING THE LOW "A.C.T. READINESS" STANDARD HAS BEEN WEAKENING OUR
NATIONAL WORKFORCE FOR SEVERAL DECADES. 
local school boards and superintendents to the state superintendents of
education and governors have no idea what to do or are afraid to
change anything when performance is bad. The US Department of
Education website even has a comment about no business practices are
applicable to education. The fact is that the best modern business
methods relating to achieving objectives, hiring and managing people and
financial operations are used not only in business but in ANY
SUCCESSFUL GROUP ACTIVITY where the money is spent to achieve anything, Not
using and preventing such methods in public education where the
academic results are below the results of the top ten nations in
education is extremely negligent and must be changed. 
consultant
to find out both what the problem is and how to do the job. That means
that the great majority of management people not only don't know the
job, for which they are trying to hire a person, but they don't know what they have to achieve in measurable terms in
their own job and they interview the potential employee without being
able to ask the right questions to find out if the potential employee
can do the job or not. Such employees do not even make an effort to learn what they don't know, and they are not doing the job well.
Public education organizations are full of people like that. The results are bad, and they have no idea how to fix it. The same goes for hiring consultants. If you don't know precisely what a potential employee needs to do, what he/she needs to achieve, and to what standard, you will not hire the right person.
department
of education in each state is not doing anything about the
deterioration of our public education. I wrote to the governor seven times in eight years about what we observed. Not one response to my questions from anyone. Then I wrote to the next governor four times,
and again not one response from anyone. The things that should be done very well were not done well. And the bad things that should not be done were done - very well. It appears to this day that most are done purposefully to ensure poor results.
Examples: 
