The reformers' usual response to critics like me--- "you just don't care as much about kids as we do," "you're protecting the interests of adults, i.e. teachers," "you believe there should be no standards and no testing"---I say, wrong on all counts. And STOP with the divisive rhetoric. It only hurts what we need to accomplish for our kids. We all want them to succeed, to be happy, to be able to contribute to society, live a full life and provide for their own families in the future.
My criticism comes from being a mother, a parent volunteer in our public schools, a school board member and a children's advocate. I believe there should be BASIC standards and BASELINE testing. I acknowledge that recent reforms have led to better data systems and given teachers, administrators and policymakers better ways to identify achievement gaps between demographic groups and specific learning delays or deficits in individual children. Those are important accomplishments. You would find very few parents, teachers or administrators who would disagree.
However, because this agenda based on standards and testing is so neat and tidy, and now so embedded in public policy and political talking points, data has inevitably become the be-all and end-all. But anyone who is a parent knows that children are not data points. And, as I have written on a number of occasions, many of the most outspoken advocates for this "data-driven" approach send their own children to elite private schools, or public schools in upper-middle-class neighborhoods. The private schools typically advertise themselves as NOT being data-driven. Show off their cutting-edge performing arts centers, well-equipped science labs, exciting trips outside the classroom to study ecosystems, attend operas and participate in archaelogical digs. Promote how their students are introduced early to physics, other languages, the classics. Lots of time for debating, writing, speaking, team-building, individual exploration. And the public schools that serve the well-heeled, since their children come in strong and have ample support from home, they still are able to hang on to this kind of education, (although it's getting harder and harder as this data-based reform agenda gets more and more entrenched and state funding continues to decline and is skewed more toward feeding the testing beast and less toward full, comprehensive, rich learning.)
And so I ask again, if these reformers don't choose a data-driven education for their own children, why are they insisting on it for everyone else? When we see the undeniable ways our economy is evolving and our society is changing, is their agenda really preparing all of our kids for the future? Enriching how they learn every day? Inspiring them? Empowering them? Unearthing each child's innate intelligence, creativity, energy, ambition, intuition? Employing their unique skills, talents, interests? I fear it is not. Sure there will be teachers who will do a heck of a lot more than preparing kids to take tests because they know instinctively that children need it. But I think that many of our younger teachers who only know this standards-and-testing regime will lose the mentoring of veteran teachers as they retire or leave out of frustration and not be as equipped, inspired or supported to go beyond the basics. This is especially true in our inner-city schools where children tend to be taught by the least experienced teachers and deal with near-constant turbulence from frequent school leadership changes, top-down, outside oversight and neighborhood poverty. (It's important we keep a close eye on recent trends of growing poverty in suburbs, exurbs and rural counties.)
I've sat back in the past few weeks. Watched, listened, thought deeply. We live in such a cacophony. And a fast pace that prevents us from wondering, are we on the right track? Looking at the right problems? Asking the right questions? Lots of typical business buzz has creeped into our dialogue about how we educate our kids. Boiled down: The worth and success of any "industry" (i.e. the public education system) that provides a "service" (i.e. education) should be measured by how how well it "performs." Have to look at the "numbers, "the data." In this case, to make it simple to report and easy to digest, it's simply standardized test scores. They give lip service to a "full education," but do little in terms of funding or policy to incentivize or reward it.
How long will it take before parents, employers...policymakers...see the damage to our children, to our future, that will come from turning such a human-driven enterprise like education into a data-driven enterprise? Something has to give and it won't be the data. The data won't care. And if humans outside the classroom are benefiting politically or financially from the data, they won't care either. Until of course the "ouput" (i.e. students) becomes less and less capable of thinking critically and solving problems from an over-focus on standardized testing. But how long will that take?
I think we're close to that point now. I've happened to read and listen a lot lately about the lives and work of various scientists, artists, designers, writers, scientists. The ones who work long hours, often by themselves, sometimes in close, dedicated teams. Scientists patiently doing years-long experiments and studies to develop a vaccine, a treatment for a deadly disease, or an innovative way to protect soldiers in battle, or efficient methods for repairing our decaying infrastructure, or new crops that need less pesticides and fertilizers. A composer working long hours on a new play, or a band collaborating on a new set of songs with instrumentation that seems new and fresh. A team of architects and engineers working long hours to design and build an efficient, affordable solar home. Another team of industrial designers and engineers looking for ways to make televisions, cars, refrigerators more efficient but beautiful. A writer who spends long hours in libraries, doing interviews, going through boxes of archives to tell a story from history that we never knew. The list goes on and on.
I am confident that the skills, the abilities, the capacity for learning, the work ethic, the ability to collaborate, the hunger to search...within so many dedicated, creative people has little to do with how any of them did on standardized tests. I would bet big money that their various test scores are all over the map. And if asked they would tell you it was their parents, a sister or brother, a grandparent, an uncle or aunt, a teacher, very, very often a teacher, a friend, a mentor, a famous, far-away inspiration... an experience, a class, a book, a song, an idea, a struggle, a loss, a triumph, an opportunity... a passion, a desire, a dream, a goal...that pushed them to become driven, passionate, successful. We cannot lose this capacity for ideas, work, passion in this country. It's what has made us strong. And defined us.
But the public policies redefining and "reforming" our public education system are moving us, our children, away from this capacity. And the momentum, the money, the politics pushing this agenda are now in cahoots with one another, and very much in control. We'd better wake up before it's too late. It's just plain wrong that a tiny fraction of (mainly privileged) children are being educated in a holistic, dynamic, rich way (10% at most) while the public school teachers who educate the vast majority (in most traditional and charter schools) are being pressured more and more to stay within standards and prepare their students to take standardized tests. I sum up with this warning--
Seth's blog-
As we get ready for the 93rd year of universal public education, here’s the question every parent and taxpayer needs to wrestle with: Are we going to applaud, push or even permit our schools (including most of the private ones) to continue the safe but ultimately doomed strategy of churning out predictable, testable and mediocre factory-workers?
As long as we embrace (or even accept) standardized testing, fear of science, little attempt at teaching leadership and most of all, the bureaucratic imperative to turn education into a factory itself, we’re in big trouble.
The post-industrial revolution is here. Do you care enough to teach your kids to take advantage of it?
And this from Joe Bower's blog, What has finland *not* done?
I hear a lot of people ask "What has Finland done to improve their education system", but it might be equally as important to ask, "What has Finland not done to their education system". While most Anglo-American cultures have spent their limited time, effort and resources on content-bloated, standardized, prefabricated, top-down mandated curriculums with test-based accountability and market-based competition, Finland has focused on broad & creative learning, personalization, professional responsibility, collaboration and trust.
Thanks.
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