Advancing
the Goal of Ending Education as We Know It
Our Book on K-12 Reform: Sick
Schools
Our book, Sick Schools:
Diagnosis, Cure, and Prevention of School
Maladies, was
recently published in early 2020. You can read its first
twenty-odd pages in our excerpted file SickSchools-Entrance.pdf,
which is downloadable from here.
Reports
Related to Recent Promising
Developments:
The current administration of President
Trump should be marking a turning point in education reform
based on his proposals put forth during the 2016 campaign.
Previous administrations policies have also affected K-12
reform efforts. Most reform efforts have been at the state
level and have shown mixed results. Some of our articles
discuss aspects of these developments.
Any of the following articles can be obtained from the
download page by clicking here.
SickSchools-Entrance.pdf
contains a 23-page excerpt of
our new book Sick
Schools. It gives
information on the Diagnosis, Cure, and Prevention of
School Maladies.
HealingSchools.pdf
contains our article
Healing Sick
Schools describing the rise, the problems and the
rehabilitation of K-12 education.
FalseWitness.pdf contains our article False Witness Schools
describing how schools
misrepresent their performance levels and other
characteristics.
Competition-K-12-02.pdf contains our tentative article,
Signs of Competition in
Private & Public K-12 Schools, describing evidence of successful
competition among K-12 schools since 1990.
Competition-TchApnd-01.pdf
contains further details of
the analysis used to produce Signs of Competition
just mentioned.
Spurring-Competition-03.pdf
contains our tentative
article, Spurring
Competition in K-12 Education, which discusses tactics to employ in
getting stakeholders' attention.
BottomUp.pdf
contains our Theme article
for Winter 2017, Bottom-Up School Reform: The Stars
Are Aligned For It, which discusses new opportunities
arising from recent events and trends.
TrumpReform.pdf contains our Theme article for November
2016, Education Reform
Ala Trump, which
was written shortly after his election as President of the
United States on November 8, 2016.
DlyCallerOpEd.pdf
contains the Op-Ed we
published in the Daily Caller. Entitled,
Moving
School Choice Outside The Government
Box, it urges a
move away from communistic systems to those that are free
market.
HelpParentsWiseUp.pdf
contains our discussion about
the essential role played by parents in their choices of
schools and other educational services for their children.
It suggests ways in which these blissfully uninformed
customers of education can be given the consumer
information needed to make thoughtful decisions. Without
such preparation, vouchers and even the parent's own money
will be poorly spent.
Reports
Related to The Failures of Common
Core:
In the last half of 2014 and again in mid
2016, we at Asora wrote two reports about the problems with
the recently ballyhooed but inferior academic
standards: Common
Core State Standards.
Replacing
Common Core.pdf is a
booklet we authored (published by the Heartland Institute).
Entitled, Replacing Common
Core With Proven Standards of
Excellence, it
shows how we can do much better than Common Core with
existing testing systems such as ACT.
Overcoming-Common-Core.pdf
is a booklet length article
we authored (published by Asora Education).
Entitled, Overcoming Common
Core With Honest Academic Standards, it paints a very bleak picture of this
progressivist paradise that we'll likely
"escape."
AbandonCommonCore-01.pdf
contains our discussion
explaining why the Common Core State Standards should be
abandoned.
FellowTravelersEssay-01.pdf
contains our discussion about
the confusion and misdirection of many educators and
stakeholders regarding trends towards totalitarian
education- as evident in the Common Core scandal.
Any of these preceding articles can be obtained from the
download page by clicking here.
Asora®
Reports on Public Policy and Reform
As part of
Asora's effort to justify its raison d'etre we have
generated a number of reports over the past seven years
that address relevant issues. In one group we have reports
that are specifically focused on the development of Asora's
Stellar Schools, while in the other group are reports more
analytical in nature that explore public policy issues of
relevance and associated reform strategies. On this page we
describe the reports in this latter category. For reports
that are focused on the development of Stellar Schools,
including the business plan, please go to
Reports on
Development.
In approximate reverse chronological
order, we here list the reports that can be downloaded.
By clicking
here, you will
be taken to the download page.
NAEP
to ACT Mappings-01.pdf contains the formulas we derived to
calculate ACT's percent on track (POT) from the NAEP's
proficiency percentage. June 2016
FixLocalMkt.doc
contains the
Theme
Essay for the January
2014 Asora Update, Fixing Local
Education Marketplaces, which discusses the rationale for this
approach together with a progress report on the effort in
three counties (in MA, TN & CA).
FixPrivFirstEssay.doc
contains the
Theme
Essay for the October
2013 Asora Update, Fixing Private
Schools First,
which discusses the benefits of reforming private schools
before tackling public school reform. Hint: Because it is
easier to do.
NAEPTrends.doc
contains the report,
In Critical Condition: American Private & Public
Schools, which
discusses recent trends of nationwide NAEP proficiencies
for private and public school students paying particular
attention to proficiencies of economically disadvantaged
students- for whom private schools are now no better than
public schools. It proposes reform through measures to
overcome the existing market failure within the education
industrial sector.
FriedmanCorrespondence.pdf
contains the 2003
correpondence (including the report) with Milton Friedman
regarding the report, K-P Education:
Superior For-Profit Schools through
Franchising. This
early report contains the essential proposals and plans for
what we now call Stellar Schools. Of key importance here
was his concurrence about the problems of non-profit
schools as they compare to for-profit
versions.
AssessmentExaggerations.docx is a report that discusses to what extent
exaggerated achievement test proficiencies are deliberately
deceptive and when that kind of practice is more
appropriately labeled corrupt. It's based on data from 25
states.
NECAP-ACT-Reform.doc
is a report that presents a
proposal to replace the New England Common Assessment
Program achievement testing with ACT tests- to give the
testing a strong technical and ethical
basis.
ELQ-Mappings.docx is a
report that presents the derivation of two reliable mapping
formulas that provide NAEP estimates for local schools and
in the process effectively removes the "inflation" from
state reported proficiency percentages on achievement
tests.
ELQ-Derivation.xlsx
is the spreadsheet extension
of ELQ-Mappings.docx. It provides the derivations and many
applications to state reported data.
AssessmentKeyToReform.docx
contains our short essay,
"Honest Testing And Diplomas Will Drive Reform." Among its
proposals, it challenges private organizations to perform
the task of certifying high school graduates.
RIDE-OpEd.docx
contains in draft form an op
ed piece we wrote for Rhode Island newspapers. It discusses
the responsibility for and the consequences of the Rhode
Island Department of Education's inflation policy. It
addresses what stakeholders might do to remedy the
situation.
Review-Moe.docx
is the review, "Did They Read
My Mind," that we wrote on the Amazon.Com website for the
Terry Moe & John Chubb book, "Liberating Learning."
Review-Christensen.docx
is the review, "Good wheat.
Too much chaff," that we wrote on the Amazon.Com website
for Clayton Christensen et al book, "Disrupting Class."
DoubleDeceptionDozen.doc
contains an article that
discusses all twelve states in which the double deception
is practiced. The twelve states, ordered worst to least in
false gain, are: NY, WY, NM, RI, AR, NH, VA, IL, ND, LA, ME
& AL.
NECAP-sequel.doc
contains an article that
discusses the deception seen in the three NECAP states of
New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. It puts forward a
hypothesis explaining how the artificial false gains were
generated.
NECAP-op-ed.doc
contains the op-ed that
appeared in the Providence Journal on February 18, 2009. It
discusses problems with the 8th grade reading tests and
points towards solutions.
NECAPProfNumsFullReport_01.doc
is a report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school in the three New England states: New
Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The results are
obtained by removing the inflation from the numbers
reported by the states NECAP assessments.
NCAP-NAEP-Estimates.xls
contains the detailed results
discussed in NECAPProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
NECAPProfNumsShortReport_01.doc
is a condensed version of the
longer (see above) NECAPProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
NMProfNumsFullReport_01.doc
is a report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school in New Mexico. The results are
obtained by removing the inflation from the numbers
reported by the state.
NM-NAEP-Estimates.xls
contains the detailed results
discussed in NMProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
NMProfNumsShortReport_01.doc
is a condensed version of the
longer (see above) NMProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
OKProfNumsFullReport_01.doc
is a report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school in Oklahoma. The results are
obtained by removing the inflation from the numbers
reported by the state.
OK-NAEP-Estimates.xls
contains the detailed results
discussed in OKProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
OKProfNumsShortDraft_02.doc
is a condensed version of the
longer (see above) OKProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
PAProfNumsFullReport_01.doc
is a report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school in Pennsylvania. The results were
obtained by removing the inflation from the numbers
reported by the state.
PA-NAEP-Estimates.xls
contains the detailed results
discussed in PAProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
PAProfNumsShortDraft_01.doc
is a condensed version of the
longer (see above) PAProfNumsFullReport_01.doc.
NJProfNumsLongDraft_04.doc
is a report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school in Hudson County in New Jersey. The
results are qualitatively similar to those just mentioned
in Oklahoma.
VenturaProfNums.doc
is a report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school in Ventura County in California. The
results are qualitatively similar to those just mentioned
in Hudson County, New Jersey.
RIProfs2005TechReport.doc
is a recent
(but somewhat out of date) detailed report that presents
realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for students
in every public school and district in Rhode Island. As in
the preceding report, social promotion is endemic- even in
the least bad schools. We are currently drafting an updated
report based on 2007 testing.
RIProfs2005BasicReport.doc is an abreviated version
of the preceding entry RIProfNumsTechReport.doc.
RI_Regents_01.doc
is a one-page
presentation to the Rhode Island Board of Regents about
reforming its K-12 schools.
GrtrPvdProfNums.doc is
an older report that presents realistic NAEP scale
proficiency percentages for students in public schools in
Rhode Island and a nearby Massachusetts county. Except for
high schools, the results are reported for districts only.
PvdProfNums.doc
is an older report that
presents realistic NAEP scale proficiency percentages for
students in every public school in the city of Providence,
Rhode Island. It is similar to the preceding report but is
more detailed. It shows how student proficiencies can go as
low as 2% of students being at or above grade level.
EdReform-External-2007.doc
is a report that describes
activities that stakeholders can consider that would
indirectly and externally put pressure on schools to
improve.
EdReform-Internal-2007.doc
is a report that describes
policy changes that could revolutionize publicly supported
education.
OnStateProfNums.doc
is a report that discusses
how the states of California, Massachusetts, and Rhode
Island inflate proficiency percentages on achievement
tests, how to remove that "inflation," and then shows how
poorly American students are doing.
RealDropOuts_01.doc
is a short report on real
dropout rates in public education. Think 80%.
KTChildAbuse.doc
is an essay discussing
whether public and private K-12 education systems are
sometimes, perhaps unwittingly, abusive of American
children.
ProfitableEducation.doc,
is an early report that outlined in some detail the
reasoning behind Stellar Schools.
AppendiciesProfblEd.doc
contains the appendices of
the just mentioned Profitable Education.doc wherein more
detailed analyses are presented.
Please contact us for further information about Asora
Education Enterprises many ongoing efforts, including
its plans to develop Stellar Schools.