Why Arne Duncan's PISA Comments Miss the Mark
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CommentsDear Secretary Duncan:
The U.S. Supreme Court justice and polymath Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. reportedly said: "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." It's an important statement in the context of school reform today.
The results of the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, were released last month. Mr. Duncan, you stood with Angel Gurria, the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which oversees PISA, and declared that the results for the United States "are straightforward and stark: It is a picture of educational stagnation." When the results of the 2009 PISA were released, you said: "Americans need to wake up to this educational reality—instead of napping at the wheel while emerging competitors prepare their students for economic leadership." For these comments, Justice Holmes would not even give you a fig.
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Read Eric A. Hanushek's counter-argument on PISA,“Why the U.S. Results on PISA Matter.”
As a father and son who have devoted a collective 45 years as rather passionate teachers and leaders in our public schools, we feel great dissonance when we hear the incessant critique of our failing schools, failing teachers