(1) Some history and...
(2) A short course for teachers...out of education change agents' own mouths...regarding what happened to their profession 1971-2015)
REAUTHORIZATION OF ESEA=
LAST CHAPTER IN CARNEGIE'S COMMUNIST COMMON CORE REDEFINITION OF EDUCATION FROM WHAT ONE KNOWS IN ONE'S HEAD TO WHAT ONE CAN "DO" (PERFORM LIKE A PIGEON) IN ORDER TO CREATE CARNEGIE CORPORATION'S PLANNED ECONOMY CALLED FOR IN ITS BOOK CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES, 1934, FREE DOWNLOAD AT AMERICAN DECEPTION.COM (TYPE "CONCLUSIONS" INTO SEARCH ENGINE)
(1) Some history, and... I, Charlotte Iserbyt, was taken aback by an espisode covered by the Learning Channel in the nineteen nineties which included footage of the President of the Carnegie Corporation, who I recall as being David Hamburg (individual who signed the U.S.-Soviet Academy of Science Agreement in 1985) visiting an inner city school which was experimenting with the Skinnerian direct instruction/mastery learning/OBE pigeon training method. Skinner said: "I could make a pigeon a high achiever by reinforcing it on a proper schedule."
If I recall correctly, Dr. Hamburg was videotaped conversing with an inner city Mom who asked him how she could use the Skinner method at home to teach her child to read. I thought at the time "how interesting that such an important person would be taking the time to visit an inner city school!!!"
A similar incident, involving a very important person, took place on October 5, 1982. A U.S. Dept. of Education memorandum to Secretary T. H. Bell, which came over my desk, stated: "President Reagan is scheduled to visit P.S. 48, an elementary school in the Bronx, New York City. During his visit the President will meet Dr. Ethna Reid, Director of the Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction, a program in the National Diffusion Network. Dr. Reid will be at P.S. 48 to train staff members in the use of ECRI." ECRI is the Skinnerian mastery learning/direct instruction/OBE teacher training program that the late Dr. Jeanette Veatch, internationally known in the field of reading, called "a more modern version of breaking children to the heel of thought control." She added, "It is so flagrantly dangerous, damaging and destructive I am appalled at its existence."
The above instances illustrate the role of two very important persons, the President of the Carnegie Corporation, and the President of the United States (both of whom were involved in signing the 1985 U.S.-USSR and Carnegie Soviet Academy of Science education agreements) in the promotion of the Skinnerian/Pavlovian teaching method necessary for lifelong Soviet workforce training (polytech) system being promoted/implemented by Carnegie Corporation's Marc Tucker. ABCs of DumbDown: "Governance" - Eradication of Representative Government Tax-funded charter schools with unelected boards will be used for specific job training, for specific job quotas.
All of the above facets of restructuring, including health and brainwashing mental health services, lifelong, are included in the Reauthorization of the ESEA legislation being considered for passage by the House and Senate within the next few days, weeks. (The aforementioned components may not be clearly specified [mentioned only as innocent "community services"]; however, you can be sure such services will be included since those services and programs (curriculum and teacher training) are NOT new and have been surreptitiously included in public schools ever since passage of the original ESEA in 1965, under innocent-sounding titles, such as the National Diffusion Network's "Positive Attitude toward Learning", "The New Model Me", and hundreds of other behavior modification programs used in all schools of the nation between 1969 and today! Go to americandeception.com and type "Pacesetters"
Pacesetters_In_Education-1969-567pgs-EDU.sml.pdf
PACESETTERS IN INNOVATION, Cumulative Issue, presents information on Projects to Advance Creativity in Education (PACE) which were approved during fiscal years 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969, and were still in operation as of February 1969 . The PACE program is authorized and funded under title III, Supplementary Centers and Services, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This volume represents a compilation of planning and operational grants. The projects were abstracted according to the format followed by the Program Development and Dissemination Branch, Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education, and were indexed according to principles developed in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a comprehensive information system operating within the Office of Education as a branch of the Division of Information Technology and Dissemination, National Center for Educational Research and Development.
the deliberate dumbing down of america, Appendix VII, pages 32-34,
Excerpts from Performance-based Teacher Education, 1971.
(2) A short course for teachers:
(2) A short course for teachers:
Excerpt from "Excerpts":
Performance-based Teacher Education: What Is the State of the Art?, Stanley Elam, Ed. (Phi Delta Kappan Publications: Washington, D.C., 1971). Paper prepared for the Committee
on Performance-based Teacher Education of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education pursuant to a contract with the U.S. Office of Education through the Texas Education Agency, Austin, Texas.
on Performance-based Teacher Education of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education pursuant to a contract with the U.S. Office of Education through the Texas Education Agency, Austin, Texas.
The Association is pleased to offer to the teacher education community the Committee’s first state-of-the-art paper. In performance-based programs performance goals are specified, and agreed to, in rigorous detail in advance of instruction. The student must either be able to demonstrate his ability to promote desirable learning or exhibit behavior known to promote it. He is held accountable, not for passing grades, but for attaining a general level of competency in performing the essential tasks of teaching…. Emphasis is on demonstrated product or output. Acceptance of this basic principle has program implications that are truly revolutionary.
There are political aspects to the question of how far the professor’s academic freedom
and the student’s right to choose what he wishes to learn extend in PBTE. 5) …The mere adoption of a PBTE program will eliminate some prospective students because they do not find it appealing. The question remains: Will these be the students who should be eliminated?… 6) The PBTE movement could deteriorate into a power struggle over who controls what. 7) PBTE removes students regularly from the campus into field settings and emphasizes individual study and progress rather than class-course organization, thus tends to isolate the people involved. We live in a period when such isolation is not a popular social concept, and since many aspects of the PBTE approach could be conceived as Skinnerian, dehumanizing etc., it is important that programs be managed in such a way as to minimize isolation?… 9) Finally, there is a need to overcome the apathy, threat, anxiety, administrative resistance, and other barriers that stand in the way of moving toward PBTE and toward performance-based teaching in the schools.
the deliberate dumbing down of america, Appendix VII, pages 32-34,
Excerpts from Performance-based Teacher Education, 1971.
3D, Appendix Excerpts from Performance-based Teacher Education: What Is the State of the Art?, Stanley Elam, Ed. (Phi Delta Kappan Publications: Washington, D.C., 1971). Paper prepared for the Committee on Performance-based Teacher Education of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education pursuant to a contract with the U.S. Office of Education through the Texas Education Agency, Austin, Texas.
Some authorities have expressed the fact that PBTE has an inadequate philosophic base,
pointing out that any performance-based system rests on particular values, and the
most important of which are expressed in the competencies chosen and in the design of the learning activities.
The Association is pleased to offer to the teacher education community the Committee’s first state-of-the-art paper. In performance-based programs performance goals are specified,
and agreed to, in rigorous detail in advance of instruction. The student must either be able to demonstrate his ability to promote desirable learning or exhibit behavior known to promote it. He is held accountable, not for passing grades, but for attaining a general level of competency in performing the essential tasks of teaching…. Emphasis is on demonstrated product or output. Acceptance of this basic principle has program implications that are truly revolutionary.
Probably the roots of PBTE [Performance-based Teacher Education, ed.] lie in general societal conditions and the institutional responses to them characteristic of the Sixties.
For example, the realization that little or no progress was being made in narrowing wide inequality gaps led to increasing governmental attention to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic
minority needs, particularly educational ones.
The claim that traditional teacher education programs were not producing people equipped to teach minority group children and youth effectively has pointed directly to the need for reform in teacher education.
Moreover, the claim of minority group youth that there should be alternative routes to professional status has raised serious questions about the suitability of generally recognized teacher education programs.
For example, the realization that little or no progress was being made in narrowing wide inequality gaps led to increasing governmental attention to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic
minority needs, particularly educational ones.
The claim that traditional teacher education programs were not producing people equipped to teach minority group children and youth effectively has pointed directly to the need for reform in teacher education.
Moreover, the claim of minority group youth that there should be alternative routes to professional status has raised serious questions about the suitability of generally recognized teacher education programs.
Confronted with the ultimate question of the meaning of life in American society, youths have pressed for greater relevance in their education and a voice in determining what its goals should be. Thus PBTE usually includes a means of shared decision-making power...
[T]he student’s rate of progress through the program is determined by demonstrated competency rather than by time or course completion.... Instruction is individualized and
personalized.... Because time is a variable, not a constant, and because students may enter
with widely differing backgrounds and purposes, instruction is likely to be highly person and
situation-specific.... The learning experience of the individuals is guided by feedback....
[T]eaching competencies to be demonstrated are role-derived, specified in behavioral terms,
and made public; assessment criteria are competency-based, specify mastery levels, and
made public; assessment requires performance as prime evidence, takes student knowledge
into account; student’s progress rate depends on demonstrated competency; instructional
program facilitates development and evaluation of specific competencies.... The application
of such a systematic strategy to any human process is called the systems approach.... We
cannot be sure that measurement techniques essential both to objectivity and to valid
assessment of affective and complex cognitive objectives will be developed rapidly enough
for the new exit requirements to be any better than the conventional letter grades of the
past. Unless heroic efforts are made on both the knowledge and measurement fronts, then
PBTE may well have a stunted growth.... To recapitulate, the promise of performance-based
teacher education lies primarily in: 1) the fact that its focus on objectives and its emphasis
upon the sharing process by which those objectives are formulated in advance are made
explicit and used as the basis for evaluating performance; 2) the fact that a large share of
the responsibility for learning is shifted from teacher to student; 3) the fact that it increases
efficiency through systematic use of feedback, motivating and guiding learning efforts
of prospective teachers; 4) the fact that greater attention is given to variation among
individual abilities, needs, and interests; 5) the fact that learning is tied more directly to the
objectives to be achieved than to the learning resources utilized to attain them; 6) the fact
that prospective teachers are taught in the way they are expected to teach; 7) the fact that
PBTE is consistent with democratic principles; 8) the fact that it is consistent with what
we know about the psychology of learning; 9) the fact that it permits effective integration
of theory and practice; 10) the fact that it provides better bases for designing research
about teaching performance. These advantages would seem sufficient to warrant and ensure a strong and viable movement
[T]he student’s rate of progress through the program is determined by demonstrated competency rather than by time or course completion.... Instruction is individualized and
personalized.... Because time is a variable, not a constant, and because students may enter
with widely differing backgrounds and purposes, instruction is likely to be highly person and
situation-specific.... The learning experience of the individuals is guided by feedback....
[T]eaching competencies to be demonstrated are role-derived, specified in behavioral terms,
and made public; assessment criteria are competency-based, specify mastery levels, and
made public; assessment requires performance as prime evidence, takes student knowledge
into account; student’s progress rate depends on demonstrated competency; instructional
program facilitates development and evaluation of specific competencies.... The application
of such a systematic strategy to any human process is called the systems approach.... We
cannot be sure that measurement techniques essential both to objectivity and to valid
assessment of affective and complex cognitive objectives will be developed rapidly enough
for the new exit requirements to be any better than the conventional letter grades of the
past. Unless heroic efforts are made on both the knowledge and measurement fronts, then
PBTE may well have a stunted growth.... To recapitulate, the promise of performance-based
teacher education lies primarily in: 1) the fact that its focus on objectives and its emphasis
upon the sharing process by which those objectives are formulated in advance are made
explicit and used as the basis for evaluating performance; 2) the fact that a large share of
the responsibility for learning is shifted from teacher to student; 3) the fact that it increases
efficiency through systematic use of feedback, motivating and guiding learning efforts
of prospective teachers; 4) the fact that greater attention is given to variation among
individual abilities, needs, and interests; 5) the fact that learning is tied more directly to the
objectives to be achieved than to the learning resources utilized to attain them; 6) the fact
that prospective teachers are taught in the way they are expected to teach; 7) the fact that
PBTE is consistent with democratic principles; 8) the fact that it is consistent with what
we know about the psychology of learning; 9) the fact that it permits effective integration
of theory and practice; 10) the fact that it provides better bases for designing research
about teaching performance. These advantages would seem sufficient to warrant and ensure a strong and viable movement
From “The Scope of PBTE”:
Among the most difficult questions asked about the viability of performance-based
instruction as the basis for substantial change in teacher preparatory programs are these:
Will it tend to produce technicians, paraprofessionals, teacher aides, etc., rather than
professionals?… These questions derive from the fact that while performance-based
instruction eliminates waste in the learning process through clarity in definition of
goods, it can be applied only to learning in which the objectives sought are susceptible
of definition in advance in behavioral terms. Thus it is difficult to apply when the
outcomes sought are complex and subtle, and particularly when they are affective or attitudinal in character.
Among the most difficult questions asked about the viability of performance-based
instruction as the basis for substantial change in teacher preparatory programs are these:
Will it tend to produce technicians, paraprofessionals, teacher aides, etc., rather than
professionals?… These questions derive from the fact that while performance-based
instruction eliminates waste in the learning process through clarity in definition of
goods, it can be applied only to learning in which the objectives sought are susceptible
of definition in advance in behavioral terms. Thus it is difficult to apply when the
outcomes sought are complex and subtle, and particularly when they are affective or attitudinal in character.
From “Philosophic Underpinning”:
Some authorities have expressed the fact that PBTE has an inadequate philosophic base,
pointing out that any performance-based system rests on particular values, and the
most important of which are expressed in the competencies chosen and in the design of the learning activities.
From “Political and Management Difficulties”:
...4) There are political aspects to the question of how far the professor’s academic freedom
and the student’s right to choose what he wishes to learn extend in PBTE. 5) …The mere
adoption of a PBTE program will eliminate some prospective students because they do
not find it appealing. The question remains: Will these be the students who should be
eliminated?… 6) The PBTE movement could deteriorate into a power struggle over who
controls what. 7) PBTE removes students regularly from the campus into field settings
and emphasizes individual study and progress rather than class-course organization, thus
tends to isolate the people involved. We live in a period when such isolation is not a
popular social concept, and since many aspects of the PBTE approach could be conceived
as Skinnerian, dehumanizing etc., it is important that programs be managed in such a
way as to minimize isolation?… 9) Finally, there is a need to overcome the apathy, threat,
anxiety, administrative resistance, and other barriers that stand in the way of moving toward
PBTE and toward performance-based teaching in the schools.
and the student’s right to choose what he wishes to learn extend in PBTE. 5) …The mere
adoption of a PBTE program will eliminate some prospective students because they do
not find it appealing. The question remains: Will these be the students who should be
eliminated?… 6) The PBTE movement could deteriorate into a power struggle over who
controls what. 7) PBTE removes students regularly from the campus into field settings
and emphasizes individual study and progress rather than class-course organization, thus
tends to isolate the people involved. We live in a period when such isolation is not a
popular social concept, and since many aspects of the PBTE approach could be conceived
as Skinnerian, dehumanizing etc., it is important that programs be managed in such a
way as to minimize isolation?… 9) Finally, there is a need to overcome the apathy, threat,
anxiety, administrative resistance, and other barriers that stand in the way of moving toward
PBTE and toward performance-based teaching in the schools.
[Ed. Note: Over the years one has seen the departure of many talented teachers who have left
the profession due to Skinnerian Performance-based Teacher Education]
