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Erosion of Education Quality & Productivity

PAGE 2 - EDUCATION DOCUMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
[or, return to page 1, MAIN PAGE of EDUCATION REPORT ]

Acknowledgment: Dr. Walter Williams, Chairman, Department of Economics, George Mason University, said about this presentation: "It's very good and informative. I shall keep it as a handy reference. Best wishes, keep up the good work whilst keeping the faith."

INDEX OF ITEMS ON THIS PAGE:

1. "I can assure you these are facts", Bill Mechlenburg - problem summary, plus productivity data table on spending and test scores*
2. A negative correlation between educational achievement and expenditures, Dr. Walter Williams. Department of Economics, George Mason University
3. Teachers Choose Private Schools - 35 years decline by Milton Friedman, The Philadelphia Daily News 2/14/96
4. Competition can help reform our schools, reporting on Chrysler Corporation President Robert Lutz, by Cal Thomas
5. What Does Private Schooling Cost? Less than public schools, Cato Institute Study
6. Education Around the World, U.S. & News Reports
7. Don't Blame Johnny - Apologists insist scores down because fraction of students taking the test is up. That's WRONG!- by E Rubenstein, National Review
8. Inflated Grading Standards & Social Promotions Short-change parents and students - teachers & professors report this is the norm. by M. Hodges *
9. Poll: Voters consider public schools Mediocre or a Failure (March 1997, Florida) - 67% cite low academic standards - 58% lax discipline - 47% incompetent teachers - 33% bad principals - 75% favor eliminating teacher tenure.
10. Home-schoolers consistently out-score others regardless of race or economic background (stay-at-home parenting).
11. Potential solutions and Actions by Bill Mechlenburg *
12. Recommendations to school boards - - by author-researcher Michael Hodges.

LINKS TO OTHER KEY PAGES and SITES:

Grandfather International Education Report - foreign nations more intense developing math & science - high % of college math & science graduates U.S. universities are foreign students. OECD claims 'U.S. primary & secondary schools mediocre at best.' *
Grandfather International Evaluation Report - new evaluation summary 11/96 - DOE Secretary concerned - awaiting raw data *
College Standards Report - 81% reduce admission & achievement standards, fewer classroom days, compared to prior generations - - freshmen needing remedial courses escallate.*
Comments by Teachers, Students, Parents - about U.S. public education problems and quality - - getting worse, not better *
Parental Choice & Vouchers - not a 'rich-kid' gimmick - minorities want it - with good reason *
Centralized Power & Control - half all revenues outside control of parents & local school boards*
Error-laden textbooks - - called unacceptable by experts, and honors science books of less value than simple readers during the 1940s*
Unions - the problem of union power in our school system*

Grandfather Education Report - main page *

GO To HOME Page of the GRANDFATHER ECONOMIC REPORTS* - a collection of reports of economic conditions facing young families and their children, compared to prior generations*

An Interview with Milton Friedman - a Nobel laureate - Spring 1996 - on education quality and solutions
Low Achievement, High Satisfaction - grading practices give parents wrong impression
Happy Talkers Are Wrong; Achievement Has Declined - a restructuring of the test
The True National Education Association - a research report of NEA stance on issue, by Michael Patterson
Summary Statistics from DOE source - CER statistics on spending, salaries, enrollment, etc.

(* denotes a part of the Grandfather Economic Report series)

IMPORTANT ARTICLES ON EDUCATION

What does private education cost? Less than you might think, Cato study finds
Source: The Cato Institute March 26, 1996

A school voucher for $3,000 per student per year would give more families the option of sending their children to non government schools, according to a new Cato Institute study.

In "What Would a School Voucher Buy? The Real Cost of Private Schools", analysts David Boaz, executive vice president of Cato, and R. Morris Barrett, a writer in New York, report that 67 percent of all private elementary and secondary schools charge $2,500 or less for tuition, while average public school per pupil expenditures are $6,857. "A program of vouchers or tax credits, with a figure of $3,000 or so per student, will give families the clout to bring about a revolution in education," the authors conclude. "Schools will compete, expand, innovate, and proliferate. We know that affordable, high-quality private schools are out there. Why do we not give all children access to them?"

The Cato study examined costs of private schools in four cities of different sizes and income levels in different regions and concludes that in the 1994-95 school year, each city contained many private schools that charged $3,000 or less.

Education around the world
US News & World Report, April 1, 1996

High school students in Japan, France, Germany spend more than twice as many hours studying math, history and science as US students. In these countries about half of all students take advanced examinations: a third pass. Only 6.6% of US students take advanced placement exams and 4.4% pass.

Average days in school: Japan 240 ,Korea 222,Taiwan 222, Israel 215, US 178. In addition, their school days tend to be longer, they assign more homework and apply more discipline in the classroom. [editor note: These items alone place U.S. youth at a significant competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace].

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Were you surprised when, on 20 February 1997, ABC-TV Evening News reported U.S. 8th graders scored behind 27 other nations in math? The quality gap is real, compared to foreign nations today, and to prior generations at home. (for a picture status of the international situation, see the Grandfather International Education Report )

Dr. Walter Williams, Chairman - Dept. of Economics - George Mason University

In 1983, the President's Commission on Excellence in Education published it's "Nation At risk" report.,

There is a strong case for a negative correlation between educational achievement and expenditures. In 1991, Iowa, Arizona, and Utah's were respectively, $4,344, $3276 and $2,629. Average SAT scores were respectively, 1093, 1005 and 1031. New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC respectively spend $7550, $7795 and $7550. Their respective SAT scores were 881, 885 and 840

Dr. Milton Friedman by The Philadelphia Daily News 2/14/96, by W. Russell G. Byers:
http://www.phillynews.com/packages/philschools/BYER14.htm

• Friedman doesn't merely argue for giving parents a choice. He makes it clear that breaking up the government public school monopoly should be a compelling issue for anyone who believes in the free market system.
• ``The quality of schooling is far worse today than it was in 1955,'' when he first proposed vouchers, the Nobel laureate wrote in the Washington Post last year. ``There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children.''
• He admits that moving to vouchers will be challenging. ``The problem is how to get from here to there. Vouchers are not an end in themselves. They are a means to make a transition from a government to a market system.''
• With Friedman's approach, everyone gets the option to escape from what he describes as ``so-called public schools, which are really not public at all but simply private fiefs primarily of the administrators and union officials.'' Hall's approach would continue to trap the poorest of the poor in those fiefdoms. It's easy to understand why Hornbeck and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers oppose such thinking. After all, it would place their monopoly at risk.
  
• Even teachers escape in droves.
  ``In Philadelphia, 50 percent of higher-income white public school teachers and 46.6 percent of blacks'' choose private schools, (other examples---in Boston, 44.6% of public school teachers enroll their children in private schools. In San Francisco, it's 36.7%, Cleveland's at 39.7% and in Chicago, 36.3%), according to a study of the 1990 census by analyst and author Denis P. Doyle.
  
• ``The dismal conclusion one must draw,'' writes Doyle, ``is that urban public schools -- as systems -- are about as popular as workhouses in the 19th century or county hospitals in the 20th. By and large people use them because they must, not because they prefer them to the alternative.''

Competition can help reform our schools
Chrysler Corporation President Robert Lutz
[Article by Cal Thomas, a syndicated columnist]

• Once during the Middle Ages disgruntled students at the Sorbonne advanced to the lectern, stabbed their professor to death with their quill pens and wrote out their grievances with his blood. Now that's real education reform!
• Chrysler Corporation President Robert Lutz also wants reform, though less radical than the Sorbonne affair. In a speech to the governor's 'education summit" in Michigan, Lutz said it is time to stop fooling ourselves about government schools. They are not doing the job the taxpayers are paying for and are unlikely to improve unless education follows the example of business and engages in competition.
• Standardized tests in Michigan show 40 percent of fourth-graders failed to get acceptable scores. Unsatisfactory achievement in math was recorded among many of the state's seventh graders. To his credit, Lutz is participating in forming the Alliance for Children's Education, which will send volunteers into Michigan schools in an effort to tutor underachievers.
• A reality check
• But in his speech, he said that tutoring is not enough. Just as the goal of auto-making is to produce good cars at competitive prices, so, too, is the goal of education to produce people with the knowledge and skills to succeed in an increasingly competitive world. Does it make sense, he wondered, that virtually everything else, including the once-monopolistic phone company, is competitive and our public schools are not?
• Lutz charged that education requirements have been "dumbed down" so as not to injure students' self-esteem. How's this for a reality check concerning outcome-based education, watered-down curricula and grading techniques which is the rage in some circles:
• "There's no such thing as 'outcome-based competition to make sure nobody's feelings get hurt. The real world is not a padded romper room at McDonald's. It has edges to it." . No, Lutz said, teachers are not responsible for social problems that can undermine students' abilities to perform in school.
• Usually, he said, critics of government education are told they judge U.S. teachers unfairly, especially when being compared to other nations' educational systems. Lutz replied that fairness has nothing to do with it. Speaking of Detroit's recent past, Lutz noted, "The cars coming out of foreign factories were better than ours. The customers are only interested in the end product not the problems that we have producing it or the advantages our competitors enjoy that we don't."
• The union monopoly
• To those who claim school choice would irreparably harm public schools, Lutz said the opposite would occur: "Competition won't kill public schools. But in many cases it will force them to act differently, to adopt different priorities, to make needed changes, to cut costs where they are wasteful and to devote more resources where they will do more good, and to become more customer-focused."
• Unruly students? "We've made a big mistake thinking that our public schools should be warehouses for incorrigible adolescents." No one should be allowed to stay in school just because he has nowhere else to go but the street, he argued. Children get self-esteem from success, he said. "I was appalled to hear that syntax and spelling get in the way of self-expression, and that protecting a child's self-esteem is more important than developing his mind." Maybe there's a place for people who sit around feeling good about themselves but can't write a coherent sentence saying why, but Lutz thinks school is not that place.
• "With competition," he said, "the bad (schools) would change and the good ones would get even better." He's so right it's beyond argument. If the union monopoly were broken, everything would improve from the students to the teachers. Isn't it worth trying?

Cal Thomas is a syndicated columnist.

Don't Blame Johnny
by E Rubenstein, Sept. 26, 1994, National Review

• THIS YEAR'S crop of high-school seniors had the same average SAT scores as last year's 902 out of a possible 1,600. That's the good news. The bad news is that the modest rebound under way since 1980 has stalled. Apologists insist that scores are down because the fraction of students taking the test is up. Perhaps: 42 per cent of seniors took the SAT in 1994, and 43 per cent (a record) last year. But average scores managed to rise between 1952 and 1963 even as the share of test-taking seniors exploded from 7 per cent to 30 per cent. Scores fell during the 1970s although fewer students took the test. Admittedly, minorities now account for 31 per cent of all test takers, up from 15 per cent as recently as 1976. This should bias scores downward. On the other hand, the practice of "teaching to the test" is far more widespread today, as are supplementary preparation courses. And the test itself was recently overhauled, allegedly to emphasize academic preparation rather than innate ability. (In March the College Board tellingly changed the name of the test from Scholastic Aptitude Test to Scholastic Assessment Test.)
• The quality question dominates discussions of American education. Less widely talked about is the productivity of the education industry. Spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, more than tripled between 1960 and 1994. This implies a productivity decline of more than two-thirds, even if you assume, charitably, that the quality of educational output remained consistent. In fact, the official spending figures are themselves suspect, omitting key items such as pension contributions, business and foundation donations, teacher training costs, out of-pocket parental expenses, and the cost of federal programs not administered by the Department of Education, such as Head Start.
• A comprehensive analysis would undoubtedly find a still sharper productivity plunge. (and that spending per pupil has probably increased about 400% since 1960) International comparisons are equally grim. The U.S. spends more per student than any other G-7 nation, yet in 1991 our 13-year-olds came in last on science and math achievement tests given to virtually all students in those countries. Interestingly, American 9-year-olds outscored their foreign counterparts on science a test given before they are taught this subject in school.
• Smaller classes have long been touted as a solution, especially by teachers unions hungry for jobs. Well, class size, as indicated by the pupil teacher ratio, has dropped by 33 per cent since 1960. Unfortunately, public-school districts also grew much larger during this period, the result of consolidation aimed at lowering costs. Industrial workers gain efficiency in larger plants. Teachers don't. One reason: large school districts hire a disproportionate number of administrators who never set foot in a classroom but make extra work for teachers who do. Not surprisingly, 77 per cent of public-school teachers say they spend too much time on administrative tasks, compared to only 34 per cent of teachers in (generally smaller) (Catholic schools, according to studies by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and the National Catholic Education Association.
• This helps explain why parochial schools, with about the same ethnic mix and costing one-third less per pupil, outscored public schools by 37 points on this years SAT.

Lack of Grading & Measurement Standards Short-change Parents
- M. Hodges

• Item: Does the lack of clearly-communicated educational standards for grading Johnny in math cause his parents to be un-informed about how he is really doing, and therefore there is higher satisfaction of many parents with schools despite low achievement of Johnny - - which means Johnny gets pushed less by his parents to achieve - - and, Johnny's future is at risk?
• Data: Research indicates that both the number of courses taken and the level of performance in math impact students' future job prospects and earnings. This is the case for those who enter college and those who enter the job market. Yet, 86 percent of eighth-graders (to copy one example) cannot consistently solve math problems typically taught at the upper elementary school level. Despite this low achievement, a majority of parents of eighth grade students surveyed for NELS:88 believed that their own child's school was doing a good job of preparing students for further education. 75 percent of parents of the lowest achieving students on the math test believed that their children's schools were doing a good job of preparing students for high school. Parents have to rely primarily on grades to determine how much their children are learning--and according to the grades, their children are doing well. Source: Low Achievement, High Satisfaction - DOE report #ED352206 - - access from links page.
• We can see a clear view of what 'society' believes by looking at poll after poll - - a ground-swell (as more become aware of hard data) for significantly higher quality and accountability, than is now the case. Three of the recent polls can be viewed at edchoice.htm#polls and an example state . Such shows an explosion in the percentage of the public convinced our pubic schools are not doing the job.
• Questions: How do parents know if report cards filled with A's & B's mean their children are learning what they should in the eighth grade (for example)? How do parents judge whether their children's eighth grade classes are challenging or mediocre without some clearer achievement standard than now provided? Do others agree with this situation? Are teachers of math given a clear standard that must be met without exception to validate an A grade vs. an F grade, such that parents can tell what is happening? What if anything is being done about it? What should be done? [we all want Johnny to have a lucky future, but he and his parents are being short-changed without clear, measurable and openly communicated results against true standards of performance that equate anywhere].
• We are seeing that 'social promotion' and 'grade inflation' are common practices in public schools, despite teacher opposition (see teacher comments at education-comments.htm ).
• HUGE PERCENTAGE OF GRADUATES NEED REMEDIAL WORK: Additional evidence of poor output quality is the fact that "of the 12 California state university colleges, 60% of students need remediation; a Florida study shows at least 70% of recent high school graduates need remedial courses when they enter community college - - in other words, they need to learn material they should have mastered in public high school - but did not - - costing an extra $59 million per year." Source: USA Today, pg. 14A, November 24, 1997. That averages out to two-thirds of high school diplomas are bogus - despite record per student spending! Suppose parents had that data for their own school district while their kids were still in school? But, do they know how to ask the proper question. Bottom-line: they need the report. (See remedial course report).
• LACK OF QUALITY MEASUREMENT & REPORTING OF EACH SCHOOL: We have seen the long-term data showing the dramatic rise in non-teaching employees per 100 students (chart #4 at https://grandfather-economic-report.com/education-a.htm ), which has exploded inflation-adjusted per student spending. One would expect with all those non-teaching employees there would be plenty of labor to provide to the school board (and parents & taxpayers in the district) annual reports which track the school's various audited quality measurements of the past decades up to today - - and their targets for each of the next 5 years. But, despite that overhead addition, I challenge others to be satisfied with the answers if they ask their local school board how they systematically measure their schools quality performance compared to history. I have yet to hear of a school board that tracks and publishes to the public long-term data for SATs, % of graduating students requiring remedial courses, etc. - - vs. inflation-adjusted per student spending. If a school board member does not have that annual report at his finger tips (with copies available to the public), or proof that he is looking for a new superintendent and downsizing non-teaching employees, is that member protecting the public interest in world class quality and cost effectiveness?
  If any reader has information to report on how his or her district is systematically measuring & reporting audited long-term quality vs. cost trends, and budgeting productivity improvement in this regard, I would like to hear from them.
• We have seen the 'dumbing down' of SAT standards on the first page of this education report in the section called : "Are there real actions to improve, or simply cover-up?" SATs have undergone major changes to make them less demanding for vocabulary, math and science, instead of finding ways to meet the much higher scores achieved by past generations with more demanding criteria.
• And, I am most concerned that colleges have reduced standard requirements for required courses, admission standards and number of classroom days - - to meet the influx of less qualified students - - as shown in the College Report.
• Michael Hodges michael-hodges@comcast.net . The Grandfather Economic Report - home page: An economic challenge for our youth compared to prior generations: https://grandfather-economic-report.com/

A RESPONSE TO ABOVE:

Mike-This is appalling but not unexpected in a system that has no incentive to excel. We have union assembly line teachers producing 12 years of schooling to students instead of an education. They have every incentive to avoid the hassle of being demanding of students and tough on grading. It's far easier to give everyone a good grade and pass them on up the line.

This weeks issue of US News & World Report had an article on how computers were being used to help teach algebra. They were talking about 14 and 15 year old students. As an example of how the teacher assisted students they mentioned a girl that could not solve the following problem. A person making ice cones made 50 cents on each cone. She sold 200 cones and had to pay $50 rent. what was her profit? The teacher had to show her how to solve this problem! This isn't an algebra problem. It's just old fashioned early grade school arithmetic!

Industry could not survive without product and performance standards. Why do we not run our schools with equal effectiveness? I submit that it is because schools are essentially a monopoly with little or no competition. What you get is the Communist automobile that was overly expensive and didn't run very well.

What is needed is the ASTM of education that establishes industry wide standards for each grade level and then annual testing once a year of all students at their grade level. Testing should be administered by an outside unbiased source to prevent diddling the results. And the results for each student should be sent to each parent and overall results for each school should be widely published so parents have objective comparative data on schools. Don't ask me how to prevent the teacher unions from blocking these reforms. I wish I knew. Bill (for another input on unions, see Union Report.)

Comments from teachers, professors and students confirm that dumbing down of quality standards, grade inflation and social promotion are not only the norm, but escalating - and teachers are much less effective than years ago and they are embarrassed, scared, and frustrated. (see the Comments by Others Report

Poll shows Florida voters consider public schools mediocre or a failure

67% said low academic standards - 58% lax discipline - 47% say incompetent teachers

75% favor elimination of teacher tenure - 55% for much smaller school districts with local control
Mason-Dixon Florida Poll - AP, also published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 31, 1997 (excerpts from)

Miami - More than half of Florida voters in a new poll (March 21-24, 1997) consider their county school systems mediocre or a failure, while only one-fifth give schools good marks. The Mason-Dixon poll found dis-satisfaction running high among the well-educated, white suburban voters. This is an ominous sign for public education, since well-educated suburbanites have long provided support for financing, said Bob Joffee, pollster - and that same group provides much of the crucial swing vote in statewide elections.

Among the key findings: 67% cited low academic standards, 67% overcrowded classrooms, 58% said lax discipline, 47% cite incompetent teachers, 33% cite incompetent principals, more than 20% cite incompetent administrators, cronyism and wasteful spending. 75% favor elimination of teacher tenure, 55% in favor of splitting large school districts into much smaller ones. Many districts are so large, making local control of schools a myth.

"In 1998, 70% of Florida's 10^th graders scored below the basic reading level. Only half of our students graduate from high school." (quotes from June 1999 newsletter by State Representative Mark Ogles to his constituents).

Author note: The results of this poll further confirm the significant degradation in our education quality, despite years and years of massive inflation-adjusted increases in per student spending, as shown in The Education Report - and a 35-year 71% decline in the Education Productivity Index. Meanwhile, the established education bureaucracy and union try to explain away all responsibility, claiming the tests need to be revised, plus placing all blame on parents. This a 'criminal' dis-service to our young - as if such approaches will make the issue disappear. This recent poll sends one of many loud and clear messages: taxpayers want meaningful corrective action - - and of a type they accept - which requires a major re-structuring of our primary and secondary public education delivery system - from one end to the other - - not tinkering at the edges and more money or rationalizations. They have called the present system "mediocre and a failure", by a large margin. This 1997 poll of Florida citizens uses the same word, mediocre, in describing U.S. public schools - - the very same word used by the respected international Organization of Cooperation and Development (OECD) which described U.S. schools as mediocre, at best". (see also the Centralized Power Report).

Additionally, its interesting that 47% blame incompetent teachers in the above poll and 75% call for elimination of public school teacher tenures, while so many public school teachers send their own kids to private school for reasons of quality and discipline, yet few private schools offer tenure to their teachers. (according to the Philadelphia Daily News approximately half of its public school teachers send their own kids to private schools; according to Imprimis April 1997 (Hillsdale College) 53% of Cleveland's public school teachers do the same thing; in Boston its 49%; in Los Angeles its 39%). Parents cannot be pleased with the output of quality, as shown by the above poll - - in Florida 42% of the state's students who enter college require remedial education, according to Jeb Bush, chairman, Foundation for Florida' Future.

Bottom-line: The trend in the level of dissatisfaction with schools is accelerating, to the point of overwhelming majorities. And, the above poll shows more than half of Florida's voters are dissatisfied with their public school - - about the same percentage of public school teachers in the above areas that reject use of public schools for their own kids.

Home-schoolers:
Signicantly outscore public school students
in SATs,  ACTs,  spelling & geography bees.
Three times more students are home-schooled than in charter schools,
and growing 11% per year - stay-at-home parenting.

• The growing number of children in the United States that get their education at home is about 1.2 million - - about the same as the total number of students in the New Jersey public school system. Most choose home-schooling out of academic frustration with poor public school quality and discipline problems, religious convictions, or safety concerns. (source - The Economist, 11 December 1999, pg. 30)
• March 2001. We know home schooled students score higher than the average of any state's schools. They scored 22.8 in ACT Composite, which is higher than the highest state, Oregon, at 22.7, and 5 points higher than Washington, DC, at 17.8. And the best thing of all-- they cost we the taxpayers absolutely nothing, nada, zero. John Knight, 3/20/01 - johnknight@pmail.net
• August 2001. According to a federal report, at least 850,000 students were learning at home in 1999; some experts believe the figure is actually twice that. As recently as 1994, the government estimated the number at just 345,000. True, even the largest estimates still put the home schooled at only 4% of the total K-12 population - - but that would mean more kids learn at home than attend all the public schools in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. Totals are increasing about 11% per year. The average SAT score for home schoolers was 1100, or 80 points higher than public schools in 2000. And a large study by University of Maryland education researcher Lawrence Rudner showed that the average home schooler scored in the 75th percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills; the 50th percentile marked the national average. While politicians from Washington on down to your school board have been warring over charter schools and vouchers in recent years, home schooling has quietly outpaced both of those more attention-getting reforms (only half a million kids are in charter schools, and just 65,000 receive vouchers). Many public schools - and their baleful unions and wretched bureaucrats, their rigid rules and we-know-best manner - have done a lot to hurt themselves, as some of the most committed parents leave. According to the Federal Government, up to three-quarters of the families that home school today say they do so primarily because, like so many of us, they are worried about the quality of their children's education. A recent report by the state of Florida found that just a quarter of families in that state practice home schooling for religious reasons. "The problem is that public schools have abandoned their mission," says Luigi Manca, a communications professor at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill., who home schools his daughter Nora, 17. "They've forgotten about educating." Time, August 2001, by J. Cloud & J. Morse - http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010827/cover.html
• October 23, 2001. Home-schooled children in Canada and the United States are more "academically advanced" than their public and private school-educated peers, according to a noted policy research group. The Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Policy Analysis citing a Canadian research group's findings last week, said North American home-schoolers' average test scores were higher "at every grade level." In the U.S., "home-schooled students' average scores were between the 82nd and the 92nd percentile in reading and reached the 85th percentile in math - with home-schoolers' overall test scores placing them between the 75th and 85th percentiles," the NCPA report said. By contrast, "public school students scored at the 50th percentile, while private school students' scores ranged from the 65th to the 75th percentile," said the center. In Canada, the results were similar, said the report, quoting Canada's Frasier Institute, which conducted the study. "The largest study to date in Canada found that home-schooling students, on average, score at the 80th percentile in reading, at the 76th percentile in language and at the 79th percentile in mathematics," said the center. "The Canadian average for all public and privately educated students is the 50th percentile." Home-schooled students also surpass the national averages on both of the major college-entrance tests - the ACT and the SAT," said the Canadian study, as quoted by the center. WorldNet Daily at  http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25031
• June 2002, Washington, D.C. - - National Geographic Society's Geography Bee winner was Calvin McCarter of Jenison, Michigan - - a home schooled 10-year old; third place went to another home-schooler. Although homeschoolers represent just 2% of all students in America, 24% of the 55 geography finalists were home-schooled - - and, 40% of the final 10, and 57% of the final 7. An estimated 5 million students participated in the primary stages of the contest, with the top 100 from each state participating at the next level. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27810
• June 2005 - Tied for second place in the recent national spelling contest was 11-year-old Samir Patel, who is home-schooled in Colleyville, Texas.
• In June 2000, the final three finishers in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee were home-schooled - winner George Thampy of Maryland Heights, Mo., runner-up Sean Conley of Shakopee, Minn., and third-place finisher Alison Miller of Niskayuna, N.Y. While the winner's parents said they were proud of his academic achievements, his father said, "His character is what we are most pleased with."  Scripps Howard News Service per http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SPELLERS-03-28-02&cat=LS
• William Mechlenburg writes: "A study by the National Home Education Research Institute indicates that home schooled students scored 85 points versus 50 points for public schools on standardized national achievement tests. This differential existed regardless of race or economic status. The scores also were insignificantly different between home-schoolers from states with high or low regulation of home schooling. I think the important point here is that essentially a bunch of amateurs in the home out performed the so called "professionals" in public education." (source - Reason Magazine Aug./Sept 1997).
• On 25 September 1999 the Associated Press reported 'the Daughters of the American Revolution's outside study last spring showed home-schooled students score well above the national median on standardized tests and often study above their normal grade level.' (source - AP via The Bradenton Herald, 9/25/99, page 6).
• July 2006 - a parent speaks out with her answer to poor public school standards and text books > > home school
  Dear Mr. Hodges,
  I enjoyed reading your informative website, but I did find it rather disturbing at the same time. I was most impressed with your stance on how poorly textbooks are written and proofed (error laden) and how teachers don't seek to teach correct information, but rather blindly follow the book even if it is wrong. The good news is that there is yet another option...Homeschool. After dealing with public schools my husband and I chose the home school option for our sons after the 4th grade. We choose the textbooks, and we decide what we want to teach. And like you noted, I had a Biology text fresh off the press and my sons and I could go through and pick out the errors easily. I am an MD and if I ran across anything that didn't appear correct, I had no difficulty expressing that to my sons. They have learned that I don't know everything, but I am willing to find out the answer. They have also learned that the books aren't always correct. They have learned to ask questions and not be afraid to challenge the status quo. They are bright with SAT and ACT scores well above their peers in public schools. In fact, that was part of the problem with the public school. The system couldn't challenge them, and my sons were vocal about that fact. One child actually read every book in the elementary library by the 4th grade. They didn't know what to do with him, but they refused to move him up to the 6th grade. We finally took them all out and they were so happy and have studied more interesting subjects than I ever had available when I was in school. They know more about Greek and Roman history than most high school teachers. The two older boys were taught pre-calculus by their father who is an electrical engineer, and he ripped the textbook apart each time he found an error. In closing, I agree 100% with you, but rather than fight a system that nearly destroyed my sons, I chose to bring them home and educate them myself.  It is a decision that my husband and I will never regret. Sincerely, Caroline McGee, MD - cmcgees@comcast.net - July 2006

(also see the section on Textbooks)

Potential Solutions to Education System Problems, and Actions
By Bill Mechlenburg

First: we must make certain assumptions based on objective data.
Our present public school system, despite escalating spending per student, has seen declining and intolerable educational attainment.

All enterprises work to satisfy their client/customers. The basic incentives, in public education, to improved performance are wrong. The public school client/customer is the educational bureaucracy.

In private schools the client/customer is the parent and this is why private schools out perform public schools. Because public school students are assigned by the school system to their schools their is no competition to satisfy the client/customer, the parent.

Potential solution:
We know from experience in the private economy that free market competition drives costs down and quality up. We need to create a market driven educational system with the emphasis on improving the quality of education. To accomplish this, parents must have free choice on where to send their children to school including vouchers so that they will have the financial where with all to actually exercise this free choice.

Secondly parents must have available to them, objective data on the quality and performance of all schools so they can make an informed choice.

To accomplish this we need to do the following:
Close down the Federal Dept. of Education and discontinue all federal regulatory involvement in education. Send the money back to the local communities via a tax reduction equivalent to the cost of this department - about $35 billion dollars.

Encourage states to establish free competition in their educational system via the following or some similar system that provides parental choice and competition:

1. Change all public schools to a paid tuition system instead of free.
2. Provide tuition vouchers to all students equal to present average cost per student in the local area. Permit all parents to send their children to the school of their choice, private or public, using these vouchers.
3. The Governors Association should establish an Educational Assessment Board to establish standard Educational Attainment tests for each grade level - one through 12. These tests, administered annually will permit parents to objectively evaluate each schools performance against all others.

Because 85% of private schools have some religious affiliation and are also the most effective educators it is necessary to permit the use of vouchers at the schools under the provision they not be used for religious education or functions.

Can vouchers be used to pay for education at schools operated by religious organizations? Of course they can. The first amendment to the Constitution states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, etc."

Vouchers do not do anything "respecting the establishment of religion" . Pell grants, student loans and other government grants go to religious Colleges and Universities with no constitutional problems. This will effectively set up free market competition between the schools and make them compete for students. The competition would be weighted in favor of quality of education versus cost, which is as it should be.

Like all things in this world, nothing is perfect. Special classes and vouchers will have to be provided at higher voucher cost for the learning impaired but this is needed under the present system. Students of normal or high learning ability should not be held back by others who cannot keep up. It is ridiculous and an unconscionable waste of talent to lower our whole educational system to the lowest common denominator.

There will be some schools which have low cost and good performance that will get a flood of students and their large profits will permit them to build new facilities and expand to meet the demand. Other high cost schools or schools of low quality will not make a profit and will need to either shape up (the most likely scenario), cut back , merge with a better school system or close down. Just like in the private economy, over time, high performing schools will thrive and grow and poor performing schools will wither and disappear. This competition will work to constantly upgrade the quality of our educational system.

There may be other ways to solve this problem but it is critical that they contain the following minimum requirements:

1. Competition between schools is critical to success. Full parental choice is critical to obtaining this competition. Real and effective school choice requires that parents have vouchers that permit them to send their children to the best schools available - public or private.
2. Each school must have maximum freedom to make decisions on how their school will be operated. Government regulation must be kept to an absolute minimum. All federal regulation should be eliminated. State regulation should be minimized in favor of local regulation and this held to an absolute minimum.
3. There must be standard objective (quality measures) data available on the performance of all schools and this data must be available to the public so parents can make informed choices. And, the standard tests to produce said data should also include examination type items from the best foreign schools - - to help assure proper attention to global competition.

As long as these minimum requirements are met the details of the system are secondary.

RECOMMENDATIONS
from research-author Michael Hodges

STOP ALL SOCIAL PROMOTION AND GRADE INFLATION
- ESTABLISH TEST STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS
- AIM TOWARD WORLD-CLASS QUALITY COMPARED TO OTHER NATIONS
- LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS SHOULD HAVE 100% CONTROL
- FEDERAL & STATE GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE PICTURE,
except reporting collective results by district

From my years of extensive research, compiled in the Education Report series - - the following recommendations are offered to produce a world-class education quality system in America - - one that can top all other nations, instead of sadly lagging most others as today's status.

• Expose the public system to free-market competition and accountability with all public AND private schools.
• Social Promotion & grade inflation practices must stop, and strict local-established teaching testing and class testing standards must be established by all school boards. Elimination of social promotion means no one should be passed to the next grade until clear standards have been met - - if summer school does not result in failed students making up the deficiency, the grade MUST BE REPEATED.
• Each school district must annually report in writing to all parents that the district's current and past 20 year SAT scores for reading and math, its performance on all other standardized tests at each grade, plus results of international test series for math & science comparing same with all major industrialized foreign nations and the U.S. average.
• Except for special needs students and those in grades lower than the 2nd grade - - teacher quality is far more important than smaller class size.
• Since most textbooks for math, science and history are unacceptably error-laden, and the contents and teaching methods are also unacceptable and dangerous, as proven again by most recent studies, texts must be written by recognized authors and the contents and methods must deviate little (except by massive proof otherwise) from successful texts and methods employed prior to the 1960s.
• Parents MUST be notified annually in writing where their children stand vs. clearly established math & reading standards for each grade K-12 for all standardized tests, SATs and international test score comparison, and the scores of the teachers of their children vs. clear testing standards.
• Further, school boards must track percentage their graduates who require remedial courses in college and corrective action taken at the local level to eliminate such need in the future - - and, colleges and universities should charge all costs of remedial education to the high school district graduating the student.
• Decommission public tax funding of schools in non-compliance. Additionally, evaluate eliminating any funding control by federal and state education departments, allowing such funds collected at these levels to flow directly to local school districts without a single restriction on their use by local school boards.
• It is preferable that local school boards are both 100% elected at the local level, and that they never contract with a national union. It must remain local in full.
• It is the firm belief of this author-researcher that the more involved federal government and state government are in the funding and regulatory control of local school boards, and the larger the size of each school district, the more the total system is of a socialized-centralized and monopoly nature. Monopolies by nature always produce the worse outcome regarding world-class quality for anything - - including a higher cost to achieve same. Any centralized and monopolistic education system, considering America's culture today, produces the same result, which makes it imperative in America that we operate a decentralized education system in all aspects - - and the sooner the better for our children. Federal & state government should only be involved in assisting the no-strings funding for poor school districts - - and in publishing nationwide standardized U.S. and international test results for each school district. Where and when will the political will shall come to allow such?
  (Email - you may contact Mr. Hodges

FOR ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS SEE THE COLLEGE REPORT, as they impact secondary schools.

• [For additional recommendations involving the hammer lock the educational establishment and teacher unions have on our educational system, see the two (2) reports: Unions and Bureaucracy -and Centralized Power - primary impediments to school quality and parental responsibility. AND, clear comments by an esteemed Nobel Laureate, read An Interview with Milton Friedman - Spring 1996 - on education quality and solutions.]

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