Are California’s Public Schools Adopting Joseph Goebbels’ Educational Model?
With 325,000 members the California Teachers Association is our nation’s largest teachers union, and as such the CTA should be expected to be in the forefront of the fight to insure that California’s students receive quality education. The CTA does list as one of its primary goals the planning and executing of “programs and strategies to enhance the quality of education for students.” Does this mean that the CTA is leading the charge to improve the educational performance of students in California’s public schools?
Apparently, it does not.
The results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were disheartening nationwide, but no more so than in California, a state known for its leadership in engineering, the sciences, and the innovative role it plays in the development of information technologies. In reading only 32% of the nationwide sample of 4th grade students tested performed at a proficient or higher level. In California only 25% performed at a proficient or higher level. For 8th grade students the nationwide percentage performing at a proficient or higher level was also 32, while the percentage for California students was 24.
In mathematics, 34% of the 4th graders and 39% of the 8th graders in the nationwide sample performed at a proficient or higher level. In California only 25% of the 4th graders and 34% of the 8th graders performed at a proficient or higher level.
Results for 8th grade California students who took the assessment in science were also poorer than the national average. Only 22% of the California 8th graders scored