(Did American taxpayers/parents have any say in this transition from academics to workforce training?)
By Mary Thompson, 3D Research Group
From the San Jose Mercury News, 12/07/2014, Page A14, "Silicon Valley education: Common Core measures of success are key," in an article by Merrill Vargo and Alexa Cortes Culwell, we learn that
The American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley recently convened a meeting at Microsoft that drew more than 80 local business, community and education leaders to talk about a topic typically left to Sacramento types: measuring school quality.
The catalyst for this discussion is our state’s transition to the Common Core State Standards and the new set of measures under development to track school progress toward them....
Defining robust measures of academic quality is key to changing this. Now our leaders have a rare opportunity to help create the right measures for school performance.Another take on the famous observation about a crisis too good to waste. See the paragraph: "our opportunity to help create this robust measurement tool is --as the Common Core Standards roll out--and too good to waste." Per the recently convened meeting with Microsoft which drew more than 80 businesses to plot "robust measurement" requirements in schools.
Again who elected all these self appointed Silicon Valley Leaders and American Leadership Forum to be the "determinators" of school quality? This has "Bill Gates" written all over it without mentioning his name in the op ed. Workforce training in action. The article continued:
In contrast to the old Academic Performance Index (API) that communities have previously relied on, these new measures are intended to be much broader, reflecting the focus of the new Common Core State Standards on preparing all students for college and career success. This is essential if the U.S. education system is to match the highest performing education systems in the world.
One way to get there is to not only rethink the measures but also to capture them in dashboards that depict a variety of meaningful data ....
A data dashboard approach would provide policymakers, parents and the community at large far better information about schools like this one....
Silicon Valley leaders, with the help of groups like the American Leadership Forum, must be engaged in developing and testing this data dashboard approach. Our opportunity to help create this robust measurement tool is now -- as the Common Core standards roll out -- and too good to waste.
