Our Legislature is at it again. They are pushing a school reform agenda that
not only harms schools and harms the kids we serve, it serves no educational
purpose I can detect. I speak of
vouchers, parent trigger law, charter schools, school choice, high stakes
testing, teacher accountability, etc., etc.
If the Legislature jumped into any other profession with such meddlesome
ideas the political ramifications would be swift and sure. That is not true for education for some
reason. In fact, other than shifting
public dollars to private sector entrepreneurs I can find no evidence of
success for any of these reforms. Why in
the world would we continue such efforts when we know they do not work? Perhaps I am dumb. I am truly dumbfounded.
I believe that at the heart of these reforms are two false
assumptions. The first and most
insidious is that public schools would perform better if they injected private
sector market models in the operation of schools. The second assumption, just as powerful but
more harmful, is that the success of a school can be measured by a high-stakes,
one day, super-secret, standardized test and that student performance on the
test rests entirely in the hands of the educators in that building. Both assumptions are not only false, they are
so blatantly false and so ignorant of what we really know about student performance
and school performance that believing in these assumptions is akin to believing
the sun orbits the earth and to continue to fund a space exploration program
based on that assumption. In other
words, if the supporters of school reform are correct why aren’t we seeing
positive results? They have had years to
demonstrate that these models are superior to standard public education and
they have consistently failed to do so. What
in the world is going on here?
Successful private sector folks must believe in their heart
of hearts that the market and competition are the only models that can improve
schools. I find several things most
interesting about this. First, the
private sector folks who push this model are financially very successful thanks
to the private sector model. We do not
see former CEO’s of Studebaker, Eastern Airlines, Norton Motorcycles, Lionel or
Pan Am backing these reforms. Just as
the market rewards winners it punishes then cannibalizes losers. The winners always believe the market is
right. Losers not so much. Do we really want that mentality driving our
model of educating kids? Do we really
want to reward high performing schools and punish low performing schools? Worse, do we really want to cannibalize any
public school that serves children? If
you cannot imagine an organized effort to identify then punish institutions
that serve children you need look no further than the current Texas (and national)
school reform agenda.
The second interesting thing about the first assumption is that
it is in no way related to the performance of public schools, much less public
school professionals. To support such
notions is a frank admission that the person has no knowledge of what happens
in a public school on a day-by-day basis.
None. The private sector
functions to identify winners and losers.
Public schools function to ensure that all kids are winners. These are diametrically opposed
missions. Public school folks do not go
to work worrying about cost overruns, deadlines or what the schools down the
street or across the state are doing.
They drive to work thinking about how to structure a lesson to ensure
the most learning for their covey of kids or strategies to help the kids that
did not get it the first time. (Though it may be worry about the line at the copy machine.) The best
way to accomplish the public school mission is to collaborate, get and share
ideas with other professionals in other places.
No Radio Shack is not going to call Best Buy for help, but hopefully the
schools where the employees’ children of those two organizations attend do that
very thing. In fact, it would be immoral
for one school or one teacher to develop a strategy that really helped kids and
keep it a secret for a competitive advantage.
Private sector models have no place in public schools.
The second assumption is equally absurd. Yes, the teacher makes a difference. One could argue that the teacher makes a huge
difference in the learning of the kid.
But teachers are not the only variable that influences student
performance. In fact we know the
variable of greatest impact on student success in school is the family’s
income, and the family’s education level.
Kids that come to school from poor homes lead by adults with less than a
college or even high school diploma simply do not do as well as rich kids from
educated parents. The fact that we
collect data and then judge that performance on one day each year is absolutely
bizarre and inaccurate. On any given day
kids will have good days, bad days, be hungry, be mad, had a fight with their
parents, got rejected by a significant other, etc., etc. No way can a teacher be held accountable for
the #2 pencil bubbles of any given kid that day. Legislatures, state departments of education
and Pearson (the test manufacturing company) very much want to keep the content
of the tests a secret. A teacher can
lose his or her job and certification if they learn what is on the test and
share it. Think about that. How would you prepare kids to take a test
when as a teacher you do not know what is on the test? When teachers teach, and know what they
teach, and know what they want kids to know, and develop their own teacher made
tests to measure what kids know, the test outcomes are much more
meaningful. We do not do that
anymore. Obviously because teachers are
no longer qualified to develop their own tests and someone in the private
sector must make millions to do it for them.
Teachers can and do make a huge difference. But a teacher cannot overcome the kids’
background and home life. Nor can he or
she overcome the kid’s poverty or value structure. Nor in the brief time teachers are with the
kids can they ensure healthy eating and appropriate dental and medical
care. Teachers cannot fix those things,
but kids bring all those things to the table on test day and those tests
measure teacher competency. That is
absolute lunacy.
So just for the sake of argument, lets toss any and all
school reform efforts that are based on judging schools by test scores and that are
modeled after private sector measurements and motivations. If we could throw those two assumptions out,
what reform efforts would be left?
Not charter schools.
Charter schools do not teach kids better. In fact they can kick kids out and force them
to return to public schools. Charter
schools simply are a duplicate publicly funded K-12 education system designed
to make the private sector folks who run them very rich. We do not need competition. We need collaboration.
Not vouchers. Why
would we allow public school money to go to wealthy parents who already have
enrolled their kids in private school?
Such a strategy may increase the number of private schools eventually, but not
immediately. Is that what we want? More private schools? Do we believe they do better than public
schools? They do not when family income
is factored out of the results.
Not high-stakes standardized tests. Results of such tests may be interesting, but
they are surely not the end all and be all of school evaluation. If they mattered teachers and kids should get
the results during a time when there was a chance of remediation. We do not get the results that fast. If they mattered, state departments of ed
would not have to publish the degree of error in the test data while they draw
a hard line at some number to determine who passed and who did not. If they mattered, a group of teachers in
that subject would design the test and teachers would know what was on the test
in advance. Schools will always have
tests and other strategies to measure student knowledge and performance. To make such a strategy be a one-size fits
all, high stakes event is ludicrous.
Worse, teachers and others now spend an inordinate amount of time
administering sample tests to see if the kids are “ready.” What a waste of time.
Not teacher evaluation systems based on test scores. That strategy clearly helps no one, not the
kids, not the teachers. Who will teach
the most challenging kids if the quality of the instruction is measured by test
outcomes? If the test scores have no
meaning and no value as I argue, then they surely should not be used to make
professional personnel decisions.
No parent trigger law.
Such a law allows parents to look at test results and conclude they need
a new direction for the campus, new staff, etc.
The flaw here is twofold. One,
the decision is based on test scores and two with a dramatic shortage of
experienced, competent, qualified educators why would you want to start
over? That will make things worse. In the entire US of A where private sector
thinking has pushed parent trigger laws virtually no group of parents have ever
enacted those provisions. It is a failed
reform effort on the books to further intimidate teachers. We do not need to intimidate teachers, we
need to support them.
Texas has been on the school reform mission since 1985. Each year our state leadership laments our
failing public schools. I would argue
schools will continue to fail following the above reform agenda. Our legislature is crazy if they think we can
follow the same strategies we have followed for 30 years and get different results, or somehow
head down the wrong road faster and arrive at our destination. I would argue policy wonks and legislatures
who think like that should be the ones held accountable for school
outcomes. They are the ones making the
rules.
I oppose the reform agenda.
I oppose anything that demeans or diminishes the teaching
profession. I oppose anything that
compromises teacher salaries other than to raise them.
I support making school a place where kids can and do learn
under the influence and guidance of a teacher.
I support small class sizes so that teachers are more able to customize
their instruction. I support paying
teachers a livable wage. I support responding
to them as though they were college-degreed and professionally trained and
licensed. Oh yeah, they are!
In other words, the “reform” agenda must be reformed. It has failed. It has made some private sector folks very
rich with tax dollars collected for public schools at the expense of those serving kids in public schools. That must stop. I would argue that the Legislature should
take the same attitudinal approach to public education they want teachers to
take toward students: focused, caring,
supportive.
And please, Texas voters, stop sending right-wing radio talk show hosts
and lawyers and ranchers and oil men to Austin to make decisions about public
education. Attaining wealth does not
necessarily mean one attains wisdom.
Receiving a majority of the votes does not imbue one with perfect perceptions. It is those folks who are nailing kids by
hammering on the schools.
