[Xmca-l] Re: Asia tops global school rankings

[Peter Farruggio]

Yes, yes, yes, David. Prof Yong Zhao addresses these issues, and more, at his blog space

http://zhaolearning.com/category/blog/

My take on the persistence of high stakes standardized testing is that it is an essential tool of neoliberalism (pre-soviet capitalism) to a) maintain the unequal class system with class-biased tests, and b) ramp up anti-intellectualism and uncritical thinking in K-12 schools via all day long scripted behaviorist teaching. Visit any school in a  US working class neighborhood and you'll see incessant, mind numbing test prep teaching designed to raise the test scores. School ethnographer Pauline Lipman has coined the term "militarization of the classroom" to capture such test prep teaching.

The mainstream media, even its more "liberal" members, fails to see the official propaganda (lies) operating right in front of its eyes, and how the education testing regime, the NSA spying on everybody, the increasing police terrorism vs working class people, etc  all serve to maintain the rulers' control over the population because these media folks have themselves been brainwashed.

A case in point: excellent investigative reporter Sy Hersh just published the truth about how the official account of the killing of bin Laden in 2011 was a near complete fabrication

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/12/seymour_hersh_details_explosive_story_on

I'm told that Anderson Cooper did a 2 minute interview (2 whole minutes!!!) with Hersh on his CNN show, and asked something like "But why would we do this?" What does he mean by "we"???


Pete Farruggio, PhD
Associate Professor
Bilingual Education
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley



-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces+pfarruggio=utpa.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+pfarruggio=utpa.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of David Kellogg
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 5:58 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Asia tops global school rankings

I am rooting--quite unironically--for the cheaters; since the psychology profession, with a few noble exceptions (such as Bernard Spolsky and Stephen J. Gould), has been largely derelict in its duty to expose the psychometric frauds, I think the only hope of putting them out of business permanently lies in the highly ingenious work of Korean and Chinese test-takers, and I wish them all the best.

The so-called SAT, whose predecessor was designed to keep Jews out of academia, now serves much the same purpose with respect to Asians (with, I am pleased to say, about the same degree of success). According to Bernard Spolsky, the extremely unstable statistical relationship of the "SAT' to either "aptitude" (that is, its ability to predict real academic success) or "achievement" (that is, its correlation with high school grades) is so tenuous that the company no longer claims that "A" actually stands for anything ("sat" just means you had to sit down and take a test).

The true "cheating" scandal is the ability of ETS and other agents of the testing industry to sell wares which purport to predict academic success and in fact merely manufacture it for sale.

David Kellogg



On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 8:10 PM, rjsp2 <r.j.s.parsons@open.ac.uk> wrote:

> It's all right, Peter. Cheating is a necessary life skill; this result 
> is measuring the fact that the Asians are better at it than we are, 
> hence are bound to succeed in life.
>
> Now where was that irony emoticon...
>
> Rob
>
> On 13/05/2015 11:40, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
>
>> And yet, here it says that cheating is rampant.
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/12/new-al
>> legations-of-an-sat-security-breach-this-time-on-a-u-s-test/
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:
>> xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Dr. Paul C.
>> Mocombe
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 6:36 AM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Asia tops global school rankings
>>
>> Asia tops global school rankings
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32608772
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
>> President
>> The Mocombeian Foundation, inc.
>> www.mocombeian.com
>> www.readingroomcurriculum.com
>> www.paulcmocombe.info
>>
>>
>>
> -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), 
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>