President must "RAISE THE BAR" for educational standards to compete with the world!

[offie wortham]

                              Mr. President, Raise The Bar! 

     Dear President Obama, with your captive audience of millions, you have the opportunity to positively influence parents, teachers, and children to RAISE THE BAR on their expectations and goals. 
    

      Research has shown that students in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America are no more intelligent than American youth – They are just more motivated and disciplined! The primary difference between their cultures and ours begins in a home where an “A” or a “B” is the only acceptable grade, and a home in our society where the parent simply asks, “Did you pass?” Passing is a “D.” We get what we ask for. All American children must be given the hope, the belief, and the dream that they too can be whatever they have the potential to be. 
    

     As long as many in the United States have low expectations for our youth, and ourselves, we will continue, as a nation, to fall further and further behind the billions worldwide who have set higher standards for themselves, and their country.

Offie Wortham
Johnson, Vermont

[Penguin Board of Directors]

Mary,

Thanks. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative appears to have laid an enviable foundation largely for addressing issues of content, curriculum, and standardization. As a former Head of Inspection in banking and having operated for years on front lines that Branch Managers know very well, Manuals of Procedure do not substitute for putting in place quality people with the sound background, training, integrity and character to deliver on the mission. Same goes for the CCSS in this case.

Since CCSS used the building analogy of scaffolding a lot in its materials, it should not be too difficult for the body to appreciate that buildings will remain simply inanimate and lifeless unless there are quality humans to give it the needed vibrancy. This is largely the problem with our education system, as I see it. There has been a serious spillover of the culture of patronage from the wider society into academics with incalculable, damaging impact. There are a lot of folks carrying worthless papers around, deluding themselves into buying this bogey of manicured diplomas as evidence of being educated. Sorry, no. 

Approximately 52% of enrolled students in the United States as at 2010 were said to be on Master's and Doctoral programs; that is just simply laughable. It is much like having a cone standing on its head. What kind of normal distribution curve does that represent?

I particularly commend the initiative to situate our educational renaissance in a global context and move away from the misdirected, narrow-confine construct of "this is the way we do it in the U.S." Certain things we have to proudly keep American; no question about that. Other things can only make us look ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Those we should jettison without qualms. I have always believed in our ability as a nation to bounce back. That is typically American. 

   
Mary Etta Felton, EdS said:

Are you familiar with the Common Core State Standards Initiative? Review it. It seems that over 40 states have agreed to this initiative.

[Mary Etta Felton, EdS]

As I stated earlier, an accountability system needs to be implemented and monitored to ensure a quality education that prepares US students to compete in a global society.