From the Diaspora... THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA

From the Diaspora… THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA

May 20, 2012 News

By Ralph Seeram

This article is prompted by a recent occurrence in the field of education in the state of Florida this week. Some 70 odd percent of students between grades three and eight failed the state’s Florida Comprehensive Assessment test (FCAP) in English.
This is a statewide test given to students in certain grades in primary and secondary schools. Yes, nearly 80 per cent of the Florida students failed the standard English test, and the word is when the Mathematics test results come out in a few weeks the results could be even more disastrous.
The test itself has been a controversial issue, with some arguing that it was not the best gauge of a child’s progress. If students in certain grades do not pass the exam they will be given an opportunity to repeat the tests and failure means that they will have to repeat their grade or to use the Guyanese term they “will be left back”
That was the problem facing the Florida Department of Education. We are talking about students in the hundreds of thousands. The students were required to achieve a level four score to pass.
So, how did the State’s Educators resolve the problem? Among the States, Florida has consistently ranked nearly to the bottom of the rankings. Schools budgets are often subject to cuts and dependent largely on property taxes. Nearly half of my property taxes are school taxes.
With the ongoing mortgage crisis and foreclosure of homes, property values in Florida plunged nearly 50 per cent in value, resulting in drastic reduction in revenues. But returning to the FCAP results; how did the State resolve the problem? Simple they just REDUCED THE PASSING SCORE FROM LEVEL 4 TO LEVEL THREE, brilliant, now the situation has been reversed, nearly 80 per cent has now passed the test.
While this was happening two American Senators introduced legislation aimed at giving working visas to foreign students who graduated with advanced degrees in American Universities. Senators Lamar, a Republican and Chris Coons, a Democrat, introduced the SMART Act an acronym for Sustaining our most Advanced Researchers and Technology.
The legislation wants to create an F4 visa for students working in the STEM fields…students working on advanced degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Generally, students who complete their studies have to return to their countries, a kind of a reverse brain drain; they are being educated in American Universities and returning to countries that are the USA main competitors — China and India –where most of these students come from.
The law, if passed, would allow the student in the STEM fields to stay for a year searching for a job, and then on obtaining a job in a related field, he will be given a Green Card to stay in the United States. The idea is to retain the brightest brains from around the world to meet the demands of American Hi Tech industries. The legislators pointed out that about half the students in the masters and Doctorial programmes in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics field are foreign students.
The reality is America is not producing enough of its own graduates in the field of science and technology. I observed this trend quite a few years ago when my son was in University pursuing an Electrical Engineering degree. Coming to the finals years he pointed out to me that the engineering classes were drastically reduced to a few students, most of whom were foreign born.
On checking the list on his graduation most of the engineering graduates were foreign names. Since then whenever I attend a University graduation I make it a point to look up the names of students graduating in science and engineering, and it’s always the same story, foreign names dominate the graduating list.
Given this is a presidential election year; this legislation may have some difficulty passing in congress. It also demonstrates the crisis in the American education system. Imagine the State of Florida had to lower its passing grades standards to make it appear that nearly 80 per cent passed. No wonder half the Masters and Doctorial students in the science and technology fields are foreigners.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: [email protected]

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