Justin Snider has written an interesting article in the Hechinger Report.
What if we find out years from now that whatever we are doing is simply wrong?
Why are we doing so many things now in education that have no evidence to support them?
If this were medicine instead of education, would anyone tolerate the experimentation that is being done to the entire population?
I actually think we know more than the article suggests.
For example, there is no evidence to support merit pay.
There is very little evidence to support the use of student test scores to measure teacher quality, and what little there is in conflict.
There is a growing body of evidence that says that online schools produce poor results for K through 12 students.
But the point is important: Our policymakers are plunging full steam ahead into uncharted waters and putting the lives of millions of children–and our society–at risk.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How many of us remember the terrible events surrounding the drug Thalidomide? It was developed to deal with the problems associated with severe morning sickness experienced by some pregnant women. Unfortunately, something went wrong. Perhaps, there was a rush to make profits from this seemingly effective remedy. I don’t know for sure. But, we do know that better research would certainly have caught the horrific damage done by this drug. Babies were born missing limbs at an alarming rate.
It was one of the most embarrassing moments in medical history.
So, now we are seeing education reforms that have not gone through thorough examination and trials. Yet, we are being told that “we can’t wait” and must implement these reforms regardless of the lack of evidence of positive outcomes and potential damages down the line.
Is this our educational “THALIDOMIDE” moment where the treatment is worse than the illness?
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The problem is that the “reformers” see public education as a big disaster. In their eyes, any change is better than what we have now.
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I may be more cynical in my views, but I believe many “reformers” also see big profits in their future. I’m sure some are doing the wrong things for the right reasons but others know exactly why they are dismantling the public education system.
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Sari, I remember Thalidomide very clearly.
In addition to that rush to market, I remind Dr. Ravitch’s readers of the The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/)
and while I am loathe to add the experiments by Nazis on Jews during WW2, what I see is a pattern.
Those who have the power to experiment for their own purposes have no conscience in experimenting on those whom they see as less than human.
The current focus on experimentation is not across the board but targeted areas where the population is considered by those in charge to be expendable. if the results don’t turn out so well, so what? They were doomed anyway and besides we can make a fist full of money.
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You are right, Anne, that the experimentation started on those least able to defend themselves, but the whole testing obsession is no longer limited to the most vulnerable. Top down mandates of a dubious nature are no longer confined to “failing” schools.
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I am a science teacher. I teach children science process skills and we practice experimental design. I have been very concerned about the current education landscape and edreform pressures that have led pubic education to pile on initiatives, changes in practice, and curriculum revisions with no consideration given to sussing out in the end what works and what does not. There will be no way to distinguish what was effective, what was a contributing factor, and what was totally ineffective and should be disbanded or ended. So, what will we have learned from the multitude of grand experiments?
I am all for change and improvement. I have sought out new ideas, pedagogy, and strategies throughout my forty-year career. However, I always knew from where I began and tracked where the change took me and my colleagues. If it did not work, we passed it by. Not all change is good. Not everything can or needs to change. Status quo and tradition have become dirty words.
One of the units I teach is about how modern medicine develops, implements, and tests new drugs and treatments. My sixth graders could tell you exactly why it is a bad idea to make multiple changes or to not monitor change and follow the results–intended and unintended consequences.
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There have been many times in history when the evidence and discoveries by researchers and scientists (such as Galileo and Darwin) was suppressed by those in power. This is one of those times.
The peer-reviewed unbiased research in biology, neuroscience, education, and social science corroborates a humanistic, child-centered, constructive approach to how we raise and educate our children. It’s amazing how the biological research into the workings of the brain supports the research from education and social science. Many of us know that there is already evidence that tells us to do the opposite of what the laws and policies require.
Someday people will look back and ask, “How could a society have done that to their children when they knew better?”
Diane Ravitch’s blog will be there, in archive, to tell the future how it happened. Thank you Diane.
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