Re: David Berliner on ‘A Nation at Risk’: Three Decades of Lies #2 – ADDENDUM

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post “Re: David Berliner on ‘A Nation at Risk’: Three Decades of Lies #2 – ADDENDUM” [Hake (2013)]. The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: In a previous post, “Re: David Berliner on 'A Nation at Risk': Three Decades of Lies #2” [Hake (2013)] at http://yhoo.it/10dPm4V, I quoted Ken Bernstein's comment on Diane Ravitch’s blog at http://bit.ly/13uNGbs (slightly edited): “Berliner was right in Manufactured Crisis (Berliner & Biddle, 1995/1996 at http://amzn.to/PGOfcT) about the ‘Nation at Risk’ report http://bit.ly/ZJ8Tyi of 30 years ago and is right today."

Berliner & Biddle wrote: “[The Nation at Risk report] made many claims about the ‘failures’ of American education, how those ‘failures’ were confirmed by ‘evidence’ and how this would damage the nation. (Unfortunately, none of the supposedly supportive ‘evidence’ actually appeared in ‘A Nation at Risk’ nor did this work provide citations to tell Americans where that ‘evidence’ might be found.) . . . . . . . . . When one actually examines the evidence, one discovers that it simply will not support the fiction that America has a generally failing system of education. This claim is nonsense.

SO IS AMERICAN EDUCATION OK?? In “Should the Culture of University Science Education Be Changed?” [Hake (2011)] at http://bit.ly/iegznz, I argued that it is *NOT*. For example, in Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5 at http://bit.ly/dtQhbS it's stated that (see that report for the references): (1) Sixty-nine percent of United States public school students in fifth through eighth grade are taught mathematics by a teacher without a degree or certificate in mathematics [NCES (2003)]; (2) Ninety-three percent of United States public school students in fifth through eighth grade are taught the physical sciences by a teacher without a degree or certificate in the physical sciences [NCES (2003)]; (3) The United States ranks 27th among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving undergraduate degrees in science or engineering [OECD (2009a)]; (4) The United States ranks 20th in high school completion rate among industrialized nations and 16th in college completion rate [OECD (2009b)]; (5) The average American K-12 student spends four hours a day in front of a TV [McDonough (2009)]; (6) Sixty-eight percent of U.S. state prison inmates are high school drop-outs or otherwise did not qualify for a diploma [Harlow (2003)].

For one attempt to improve U.S. K-12 science education see "8+1 Science: A new concept in science education" [Michigan State (2012)] at http://bit.ly/Hz898n.
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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
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REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 25 April 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. “Re: David Berliner on ‘A Nation at Risk’: Three Decades of Lies #2 – ADDENDUM,” online on the OPEN Net-Gold archives at http://yhoo.it/10g1iTV. Post of 25 Apr 2013 13:09:11-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists.