Preparing young people for the future was never easy, but it's harder today than ever before. We really don't know what future to prepare them for -- what job opportunities they'll have, what skills they'll need. All the same, supporting public education has never been more important.
I think we all know how difficult this is. I think we all feel a little anxious. That very anxiety seems to attract a particular species of snake-oil sales representatives to the education establishment. They exploit our anxieties about the future by screaming, "Our schools are failing! Our schools are failing!" at every opportunity. They spin a fairy tale about lazy, villainous teachers, and shiny new "school reform" heroes. The fairy tale hero sweeps down and takes over the school boards, instigates high-stakes tests, and diverts public school funding into for-profit charter and voucher schools.
In the Lower 48, this fairy tale is being played out as a nightmare where so-called "underperforming" public schools are shuttered so taxpayer dollars can be diverted to for-profit voucher and charter schools. These for-profit schools have mixed results. In the rare cases where they show small improvement, it usually has more to do with the students they refuse to teach rather than any real improvement in quality. Yet the purpose of public schools is to educate everybody, not just the students who are easy or profitable to teach.
Here in Alaska the situation is not quite as dire -- but the state is rolling out a new teacher evaluation system that will have some unintended consequences. Under the new regime, students will take standardized tests every year, and teachers will be scored based in part on how much their students' test scores improve. Our School Board will need to develop policies to make this as fair as possible both to our students and our teachers. Teacher evaluations might fluctuate from year to year based on factors completely out of their control. What students get assigned to which teachers could be a contentious issue. Principals might be accused of "stacking" classes with difficult students for nefarious reasons.
We'll also have to figure out how to keep the lessons in our classrooms fresh and inspired -- even as new state requirements tend to push teachers to narrow their focus on the tests, rather than on preparing students to think clearly and creatively in a changing world.
In her newest book, the renowned educational historian, Diane Ravitch eviscerates the privatization fairy tale. The book is called "Reign of Error: the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Private Schools." It dismantles the school reform fantasy piece-by-piece. In just one of many telling examples, Ms. Ravitch shows how school reform advocates have manipulated national test score data to drum up support for the privatization scheme.
Let me ask, what do you think the word "proficient" means? In everyday language, "proficient" would mean "good enough." However, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test (which is the yardstick for comparative assessments in the United States) deems "proficient" as A-level work for a particular grade. Diane Ravitch points out that the test-designers created four levels: "Advanced; "Proficient," "Basic" and "Below Basic." Notice that "proficient" is the second highest of the four. If a student takes the NAEP test and scores in the "Proficient" range, he or she is comparable to an A student at the particular grade level.
Policy wonks know NAEP uses the word "proficient" to denote a high mark, but politicians and profiteers either don't know that, or they choose to ignore it. Diane Ravitch quotes school reform leader Michelle Rhee with an egregiously misleading interpretation of the NAEP scores. Rhee is quoted as writing, "Of all the 4th graders in the U.S., only 1/3 of them are able to read this page proficiently." Ravitch points out that, in fact what that sentence means is that only one-third of the nation's fourth graders would earn an 'A' according to the NAEP test. Rhee and other school reform advocates seem to have manipulated the language to suit their fairy tale.
The expensive new tests, the expensive new standards, and the expensive new curriculum -- most of which, as Ms. Ravitch points out, haven't been field-tested -- are all the result of a tragic misinterpretation of our national test scores.
How we replace this fairy tale with a narrative that is true, open-minded, and successful is up to us. Diane Ravitch has some great ideas for how to improve our schools rather than destroy them. Her book, "Reign of Error" needs to be read by parents, teachers, school board members, and anyone who has anything to do with teaching children in a democratic society.
David Cheezem is a member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District School Board, Seat G. He is up for election Oct. 1.
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