“Student Achievement, Marketable Job Skills, and Global Competitiveness” : America's Unhealthy Education Priorities
Keywords:
education goals; student achievement; marketable job skills; global competitiveness; educational policy, educational reform, education goals, student achievement, neoliberal policies, conceptual framingAbstract
Over the last 20 years, American K-12 education has been
profoundly transformed to reflect the values and principles of marketbased thinking. This market-oriented transformation has profoundly
narrowed the mission of American public education to be about
boosting test scores (“student achievement”) in hopes of developing
marketable job skills to grow the economy and enhance America‟s
economic competitiveness. This article analyzes why making student
achievement, marketable job skills, and global competitiveness top
priorities for public education is unhealthy for students, for local and
national communities, and for protecting the health of the planet.
Suggested alternative priorities for public education in the United States
are discussed.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.6.4
References
Abeles, V. (2015). Beyond measure: Rescuing an overscheduled, overtested, underestimated generation. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Ackoff, R. L. & Greenberg, D. (2008). Turning learning right side up: Putting education back on track. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.
Bracey, G. W. (2009). Education hell: Rhetoric & reality-Transforming the fire consuming America’s schools. Education Research Service: Alexandria, VA.
Berk, L. E. (2013). Child development (9th ed.). United States: Pearson.
Bonawitz, E., Shafto, P., Gweon, H., Goodman, N. D., Spelke, E., & Shultz, L. (2011). The double-edged sword of pedagogy: Instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery. Cognition, 120, 322-330. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.10.001
Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. New York: Basic Books.
Bremner, J. D. (2006). Stress and brain atrophy. CNS Neurological Disorders Drug Targets, Oct. 5(5), 503-512. doi.org/10.2174/187152706778559309
Callahan, R. E. (1962). Education and the cult of efficiency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chamberlin, D., Chamberlin, E. S., Draught, N. E. & Scott, W. E. (1942). Did they succeed in college? The follow-up study of the thirty schools. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Coles, G. (2003). Reading: The naked truth—Literacy, legislation, and lies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Dietz, R., & O’Neill, D. (2013). Enough is enough: Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Ehrenreich, J. (2016). Third wave capitalism: How money, power, and the pursuit of self-interest have imperiled the American dream. Ithaca, NY & London: Cornell University Press. doi.org/10.7591/9781501703591
Emery, K., & S. Ohanian. 2004. Why is corporate America bashing our public schools? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Garner, A. S., & Saul, R. A. (2018). Thinking developmentally: Nurturing wellness in childhood to promote lifelong health. United States: American Academy of Pediatrics.
Hacker, J. S., & Pierson, P. (2010). Winner-take-all politics. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Hirsch-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2003). Einstein never used flashcards: How our children really learn, and why they need to play more and memorize less. United States: Rodale.
Hunt, M. (1993). The story of psychology. New York: Doubleday.
Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything: Capitalism vs. the climate. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Kohn, A. (1992). No contest: The case against competition—Why we lose in our race to win (Rev. ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Kohn, A. (1999). The schools our children deserve: Moving beyond traditional classrooms and “tougher standards.†Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Kolbert, E. (2014). The sixth extinction: An unnatural history. New York: Henry Holt.
Krashen, S. D. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Lakoff, G. (2004). Don’t think of an elephant: Know your values and frame the debate. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.
Lifton, R. J. (2017). The climate swerve: Reflections on mind, hope, and survival. New York: The New Press.
Littky, D. (2004). The big picture: Education is everyone’s business. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Madaus, G., Russell, M., & Higgins, J. (2009). The paradoxes of high stakes testing. United States: Information Age Publishing.
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.
Meier, D. (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Meier, D., & Gasoi, E. (2017). These schools belong to you and me: Why we can’t afford to abandon our public schools. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Nelson, S. (2016). First do no harm: Progressive education in a time of existential risk. New York: Garn Press.
Nichols, S. L., & Berliner, D. C. (2007). Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Olson, K. (2009). Wounded by school: Recapturing the joy in learning and standing up to old school culture. New York: Teachers College Press.
Orr, D. W. (2004). Earth in mind: On education, environment, and the human prospect. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Pope, D., Brown, M., & Miles, S. (2015). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system. New York: Perseus.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Basic psychological needs theory: Satisfaction and frustration of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in relation to psychological well-being and full functioning. In Self-determination theory, E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 239-271. New York: The Guilford Press.
Schneider, M. K. (2015). Common core dilemma: Who owns our schools? New York: Teachers College Press.
Stiglitz, J. (2012). The price of inequality. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Stoddard, L. (2010). Educating for human greatness (2nd ed.). Sarasota, FL: Peppertree Press.
Trelease, J. (2006). The read-aloud handbook. United States: Penguin
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need—and what we can do about it. New York: Basic Books.
Walberg, H. J. (1986). Synthesis of research on teaching. In M.C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3d ed.), (214-229). New York: Macmillan.
Wheatley, K. F. (2012a). How unschoolers can help to end traditional reading instruction. Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning, 7(13), 1-27.
Wheatley, K. F. (2012b). How “healthy motivation†can help transform education. Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 25(1), Retrieved 4/30/13 from http://www.great-ideas.org/enc.htm.
Wheatley, K. F. (2015a). Factors that perpetuate test-driven, factory-style schooling: Implications for policy and practice. International Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Educational Research, 10(2), 1-17. Retrieved 3/1/15 from http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter/article/view/261/pdf
Wheatley, K. F. (2015b). Questioning the instruction assumption: Implications for education policy and practice. Journal of Education and Human Development, 4(1), 27-39. http://jehdnet.com/journals/jehd/Vol_4_No_1_March_2015/4.pdf
a. doi.org/10.15640/jehd.v4n1a4
Wheatley, K. F. (2017). “Failing public schoolsâ€: The consequences of the misleading framing of American education policy. International Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Educational Research, 16(4), pp. 1-15. Retrieved 6/17/18 from http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter/article/view/916/pdf
Wilson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Karl F. Wheatley
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles published by IJLTER are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives 4.0 International License (CCBY-NC-ND4.0).
