Exactly, the"failure" of our schools, if one chooses to classify it as that, mirrors the failures of culture - break down of families and communities.
As a side note, NJ consistently scores among the highest in the nation on the NAEP, the only assessment that is given to all states (schools selected randomly), that is the same test, same scoring etc. Even the PARCC and Smarter Balance test will not be benchmarked the same in all states. Now, in light of PISA and TIMMS (the international tests), one might say with justification that that makes is the tallest midget. But keep in mind a few things. We have the highest percentage of children in poverty among most of the countries we are compared with.
Something else just to consider... several years ago (not THAT long ago) historian Stephen Ambrose hosted a group of Japanese businessmen who are on a trip to the US. When they informed Mr. Ambrose that they wanted to visit US public schools, Ambrose was a little taken back and asked them why in light of the fact that their schools consistently outscored US schools by a wide margin. Their reply (paraphrasing) was, "Anything the US can make, give us a few months and we can make cheaper and better, but we haven't figured out how to create it in the first place." I'm not saying this means we do not need dramatic improvements in our schools, we clearly do, but I am concerned that the increased focus on STEM to the exclusion of the arts and humanities, may also cause us to lose our ingenuity and creativity.
Finally, I am convinced the last thing we need is more "reforms" in our schools, we've been reforming forever, with not much success, we need to almost completely restructure what and how we are doing things.
