I cant get used to it! Skeptic that I am, the lies astound even me.

Thank you Christopher Tienken for providing us with the Gerald Bracey info we always counted on! Everyone–get hold of his article in Kappa Delta Pi Record, current April-June issue, “For the Record: Conclusions from PISA and TIMSS Testing.”

Aside from his amazing conclusions (if it’s test scores that make a nation great we’ve already won). Plus he has some interesting little facts about Shanghai and HongKing, as well as how nations have a voice in which test items to include and exclude, and picking the sample.

Why, Tienken wonders, does the USA do such a poor job on excluding items that are not taught at that level in US schools?
Answer: Because we’ve been led for many years by folks who want us to look bad.

They can’t declare victory–even on their test score terms–because it would kill off their real purpose. They are enemies of public institutions of all sorts and have chosen education as one of their major targets. Yes, “they”. International test scores–alas–have been their vehicle for calling it a crisis for all of America. Since I’m not a fan of test scores as good or bad news, I haven’t paid attention once Bracey left us–how I miss him! Or why wasn’t I noticing others who were saying this??

The stories we’ve been told are phony; yes yes yes. Just plain phony data. They have managed to take child poverty off the public table as a mere “excuse”. Their aim: to bash unionized teachers and public schools while at one and the same time lining their pockets, centralizing power in forms they can control, dumbing down our perception of our fellow citizens as an excuse for lowering wages, and lessening the power of one of the few remaining strong unions in the land as a source of opposition and an alternate view of possibilities. How do we get the word out–that, in fact, we do well on PISA and TIMSS. Are you, out there, as surprised by this information as I am??? Shame on me. (If Mass. was a nation they’d be number one–even before MCAS and all that! There was no crisis.)