While education was not much in the headlines or the speech-lines of Congressional candidates, it likely will be one of the first
BIG policy issues the Democratic controlled Congress will have to confront. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA) must be renewed in 2007, and its centerpiece is the No Child Left Behind Act, with 800 pages of punishments and sanctions for schools if there is even one child in America who reads below grade level in 2013. Looking back to 2001 when it was passed and considering that
Tom Daschle was majority leader and
Ted Kennedy and
George Miller were strong supporters along with many others, Democrats are suddenly in the very odd and unfortunate position of being the party of NCLB.
This is their first real "test" in confronting the Bush era authoritarian government, and how they respond will not only set the agenda for other issues, it will have a tremendous and lasting impact on the future of American education. They damn well better get it right.
Let's admit here at the beginning that high-stakes standardized testing--like under NCLB--is hardly an educational strategy at all. It is, in fact, a political strategy designed to win voter's approval (by both political parties) by attempting to hold "accountable" school districts across the country.
The idea is that by testing the actual product as it rolls off the assembly line, teachers, administrators and even students will be motivated to work harder for better results. Hanging the threat of failure over everyone's head is the central thrust of this policy's innovation. Fear built upon fear. There has been no fundamental change to curriculum (except to institute endless remedial test-prep courses), no change in teacher preparation or salaries, and no change to the structure of schools or the school day (except perhaps to cut back on electives, lunch time and recess). Somehow, despite this lack of reform or restructuring, under NCLB we expect to arrive in six short years in an educational utopia in which not one American school child tests below grade-level in reading and math.
Most Kossacks understand that there is no "there" there in this policy, just more bashing of public schools and teachers for the huge wealth disparities and inequalities that have taken hold in America since the Reagan revolution. Still, the rhetoric that will await Democrats from President Bush and Republicans will sound like this: "We are not giving in, we are not going back. We will hold public schools accountable, measureably accountable, and we will make sure they have high standards for every student."
On a political level, and no doubt Karl Rove has field-tested this meme, that is a winning frame. You see, the real intent of this policy is to insure that other people's children measure up. It is never our own kids that we fear are untenable as students or citizens or workers; it is always the "other" child, the one who is different by virtue of race or class or creed. It is these "other" kids that we are afraid of--lurking on corners, unable to make change or hold down a job, and who will eventually become a burden on society or worse.
Curiously, the word "public" now connotes something other than "our" children or "our" neighborhood school--in that surveys consistently indicate that Americans trust their own schools but not "public" education in general. Thus, high-stakes exams and accountability are aimed squarely at ensuring that those masses of immigrant kids as well as poor blacks, Latinos and Asians from the inner-city come out of school ready, willing and able to contribute to society. And, you know what? That's a fair expectation to make of every child in America because when you really boil it down, virtually everyone wants the same thing: to live a happy, fulfilling life, with meaningful and fairly compensated work, as part of a family and/or a safe and stable community.
The question is: How do we give all these children a fair shot at realizing the American dream?
The short answer is this:
By providing a world-class education based on innovative curriculum led by dynamic instructors who truly put the individual interests of students first. And where we have substantial challenges, like in the inner-city, we spend whatever we need to make education work because, in the long run, it's a better, more cost-effective use of public money than having kids fail and be sent to prison. Not to mention the benefit of having young people fully engaged in the great democratic experiment that is America.
That's the short answer, and we have known this since at least the late 1980s when America last went introspective on education following the 1983 report A Nation At Risk. The long answer is that each of the elements above--curriculum, teachers and teaching, as well as meeting the individual interests of students--all require major attention and rethinking. Each one alone is a major challenge and has never been fully addressed at any level of our educational system.
My hope is to provide a solid understanding for the Netroots about educational reform issues as NCLB is discussed and ESEA moves forward at the committee level. But to start with, I want to provide these three key insights:
1. Dems need to hold their own hearings on NCLB. The Republicans and the Aspen Institute, with an assist from Roy Barnes, a former Democratic Governor, have been holding Politburo-style hearings around the country, inviting their big-wig friends from think-tanks (Fordham Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Hoover Center, etc.) and other supporters to extoll the virtues of NCLB and how great it is. Now is the time to hold real hearings, with real testimony from real parents, students and educators about the merits of NCLB. Invite the press, let the chips fall where they may, but really give people a chance to share. Let's not engage in one-party group think, but really open our doors, our hearts and our minds to the truth.
2. Mssrs. Paige and Bennett, unscrupulous former Education heads are now advocating in editorials and appearances around the country that we move testing of K-12 students toward total Federal control. The same tests in every school in America. Boy, is that a rotten idea. If there is one thing that "standardization" proves over and over again, it is that it dumbs down curriculum and requires terrible pedagogy that is the exact opposite of moving toward a world-class educational experience. Dems: Don't entertain a national curriculum and national exams even for one second. It's just a full-sized helping of what is already not working, and I can hear the Republican meme already: "The Democrats think that Washington is a solution for every problem and every issue. Well, we know better."
3. If you want one down and dirty meme that should guide Democrats position on education, it should be moving from "standardization" to "customization". This makes total sense on so many levels. With the Internet and new technology, and given the specialization that is required these days in every facet of the market and the unique skills different jobs require, we need, more than ever, students whose education has been specially tailored toward their unique abilities and attributes.
The days of rolling the exact same product off an assembly line and throwing it in a package and telling consumers "take it or leave it" are over. And parents, more than ever, are acutely aware that their children have particular intersts and abilities that need development. The "standardized" jobs, whether in manufacturing or in customer service, are rapidly moving overseas, and the new economy will require these skills: collaboration, creativity, aesthetic sensibility, critical thinking, self-knowledge and expressiveness.
None of those skills are enhanced under NCLB and we are wasting the lives of an entire generation trying to force them all through the same trivial hoops. The Dems need to stand up for "customizing" education to fit the student, not standardizing education as if every kid were a product to be equipped with the exact same skill base.
In future articles, I will be covering the real harms done by standardized testing, how teaching is the core of a good education, and how we need education that is brain compatible and develops the human potential of every student.
Until then, please recommend and/or throw in a comment of your own to further the debate.