The market-based reforms of the past dozen years have failed. Now they are the status quo, imposed on the nation by NCLB and Race to the Top, will hurt our nation’s children and undermine public education for all children.
The Bush-Obama policies are bad for children, ad for teachers, bad for principals, bad for schools, bad for the quality of education, and threaten the future of public education in the United States.
WARNING TO OTHER NATIONS: DO NOT COPY US.
The question is: Will the zealous reformers listen? Or will they continue their path of destruction.
The Broader Bolder Approach to Education reviewed the academic progress in the cities that aggressively adopted market reforms–New York City, D.C., and Chicago–and found that these districts UNDERPERFORMED in comparison to other urban districts.
The “reforms” imposed by Michelle Rhee, Michael Bloomberg, Joel Klein, and Arne Duncan actually harmed children who needed help the most. They are not “reform.” They are misguided, inappropriate interventions, like using an axe to butter your bread or shave.
Here are excerpts from the BBA report:
“Pressure from federal education policies such as Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind, bolstered by organized advocacy efforts, is making a popular set of market-oriented education “reforms” look more like the new status quo than real reform.
“Reformers assert that test-based teacher evaluation, increased school “choice” through expanded access to charter schools, and the closure of “failing” and underenrolled schools will boost falling student achievement and narrow longstanding race- and income-based achievement gaps. This report examines these assertions by assessing the impacts of these reforms in three large urban school districts: Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago. These districts were studied because all enjoy the benefit of mayoral control, produce reliable district-level test score data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and were led by vocal reformers who im- plemented versions of this agenda.
“KEY FINDINGS
“The reforms deliver few benefits and in some cases harm the students they purport to help, while drawing attention and resources away from policies with real promise to address poverty-related barriers to school success:
*Test scores increased less, and achievement gaps grew more, in “reform” cities than in other urban districts.
*Reported successes for targeted students evaporated upon closer examination.
*Test-based accountability prompted churn that thinned the ranks of experienced teachers, but not necessarily bad teachers.
*School closures did not send students to better schools or save school districts money.
*Charter schools further disrupted the districts while providing mixed benefits, particularly for the highest-needs students.
*Emphasis on the widely touted market-oriented reforms drew attention and resources from initiatives with greater promise.
*The reforms missed a critical factor driving achievement gaps: the influence of poverty on academic performance. Real, sustained change requires strategies that are more realistic, patient, and multipronged.
For the full report, please visit
boldapproach.org/rhetoric-trumps-reality
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The key findings illustrate how difficult it is to do social science research. Take the finding that *Test scores increased less, and achievement gaps grew more, in “reform” cities than in other urban districts.” Perhaps the other urban districts had better school systems to begin with, and that is why they choose not to institute reforms and why they saw larger increases in test scores.
LikeLike
So Secretary Duncan asked educators to “stop lying” to children and parents, but he’s been lying to the United Nations?
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/vision-education-reform-united-states-secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-united-nations-ed
At what point does failure to protect the human rights of schoolchildren become an impeachable offense?
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/hr/treaties/index.htm
And at the state level, was the last time Ohio got good advice 1999–the “New Compact for Ohio’s Schools” report?
Where might Ohio’s General Assembly look for a cost out of its obligations to its schoolchildren? Ohio taxpayers won’t likely be happy with the claim we need to provide an (undisclosed) increase in school funding to make the United Nations happy with the condition of schooling. Nor will they be happy to know the $400M RttT funding was doomed to failure. Add to that the opportunity costs of allowing the feds to hijack state education policy.
LikeLike
Yes but test scores were increasing at a faster rate in urban areas before “reform” was instituted and stopped increasing when the reforms were instituted. This is one of the reasons why the report found that the “reforms” actually did more harm than good. They put an end to increases that were already occurring, and which continued to occur in districts where the reforms were not instituted. That is why the “reforms’ are really the kiss of death to urban education and the beginning of making schools even more like jails/workhouses than they already were.
LikeLike
Even if test results in the “reform” districts were increasing faster before the reform than after (you say urban districts and I am not sure if you just mean the “reform” districts or all urban districts), it is still possible that test results in the reform districts would have been lower without reforms because of other factors. The Great Recession, for example, might have had different impacts on different cities.
LikeLike
“reforms” … put an end to increases that were already occurring,
What was responsible for “increases that were already occurring?”
An alternative to failed “reform” would be most welcome!
teachingeconomist: awaiting moderation is a comment about “opportunity costs of allowing the feds to hijack state education policy.” Your thoughts?
LikeLike
I am not sure what you mean by the opportunity cost of allowing the federal government to set education policy.
I think most folks like some education policies and dislike others independent of the level of government. Most who post here would probably agree with federal courts interfering with state and local education policies that, in the courts view, violate individual rights. Many might even think the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is laudable even though it is federal legislation.
In my own situation, my least favorite level for educational policy to be set would be my state. I think the federal government or my local school district would have much better science standards.
LikeLike
TE,
“my least favorite level for educational policy to be set would be my state”.
Unlike Dorothy you still are in Kansas, eh!
LikeLike
Think offshore accounts and no taxes. The “Broadfather” helped to cause the financial crisis. In Oct. 1998 the “Broadfather” sold Sun America to AIG for $18 billion and a seat on the board of AIG. In the same month J.P. Morgan sent their derivatives guy to London to talk the AIG derivatives guy into the CBO’s which crashed the finances of the planet. The board sets the direction of the corporation. The “Broadfather” was on the board and helped to direct it into financial collapse with his financial benefit. Is the “Broadfather” not doing the same in education?
LikeLike
I noticed on the news this morning that President George W. Bush has a big NCLB display at his newly opened Presidential Library. What a tribute to our famous ‘C-Student’ president who now rakes in fame for taking up painting his presidential toes in his bathtub and a painting of his upper back while showering. Not making this up!
He will go down in history for reforming education in the US. After all, he did not want us to ignore the education of poor kids, SWD, ELL kids, along with assuring them all Highly Qualified teachers. His VISION made it easy for Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, Rupert Murdock, Cuomo, Waltons, Rahm Emanual, Jeb Bush and thousands of BigCorp$$$ to “improve” education by closing hundreds of schools, reward anyone with a calling to open charter schools, tap into zillions $$$ earmarked for kids in poverty, exclude SWD & ELL, forcing kids to walk dangerous miles to another abandoned school, mandate endless tests created by advertising magnet Pearson, fail predicted 30% of our kids, fire teachers and replace them with 5weeks trained TFAs……………..more as we speak. What a country! But, our intentions are noble: we want our education to be like Finland, without doing anything Finland provides for its children. How’s it working for us?
CONGRATULATIONS George W. NCLB is right up there with Weapons of Mass Distructions. He should have started painting his toes in the White House bathtub years earlier and left us alone.
LikeLike
He seems to have a flushed and dazed look during the interview, and his wife seemed the one to make the talking points.
LikeLike
Read the report, all should read it. Diane is correct on what is in it. You should see the charts. This is about time that their failure is exposed. Now the spin begins.
LikeLike
Both the states and federal govt. are now a mess and have nothing to do with helping children obtain a great education. All are about waivers. The California State Board of Ed. spends a lot of time approving waivers which are nothing than a way to steal money from important catagorical programs through the inter-fund transfer program. Special Ed through RTI is one of them. So why trust any of them. Trust is only given when proven worth it. None of them down to the local district and school level in most situations is worth giving them the trust. Make them prove they are worth it first. Remember Reagan’s statement “Trust, yet Verify.”
LikeLike
Look no further than Detroit to see the epic failure of market reform. It’s pathetic. Well, now that we’ve had an entire class of American children go through this and nothing significant changed I keep wondering what is next. The reforms failed to break the achievement gap. It has allowed people to view school children as dollar bills. What will be the next lame idea? Now that we’ve proved that teachers and their unions aren’t to blame, who will get the blame next?
LikeLike
proven
LikeLike
So what is the solution? More money for teachers? More administration? More bureaucracy? We’ve been doing all of those for decades now without tangible progress. It’s time to try something new – time for all those who had the chance and didn’t succeed to try something different.
I also dislike the term “market-based” – these ideas have nothing to do with a market of any type that I am aware of – many, if not most, have been put forth by professional educators who are daring to be different and who have drummed up support and money from non-educators. Leave the term “market-based” to those things which have to do with a market – whether that be the stock market, the grocery market, the retail market, etc.
FYI – I live in Florida and have been dismayed by the long-term decline of education in Florida as in the rest of the USA. Jeb Bush was good for education in Florida (and for most everything else too). Education rates have started to climb as have results from standardized tests in the basics, like math, reading and comprehension…..all good things since they are highly valued by the admissions’ officers at colleges and universities. I have two kids – one graduated from high school in 1998 and one in 2002. They are both college graduates (one is a lawyer) – no thanks to the public school system. While paying very high property taxes / school taxes I also doled out big dollars so that my kids could get a decent education at a private school. It didn’t start out that way – I was going to send my kids to public schools and tried that. My first child was in a public school through fifth grade and did well – an all-A student. I wasn’t happy with the middle school situation – overcrowding, cutting out “non-essentials”, sharing books, etc. – not a good thing in my book, so I enrolled her in a private school and was very happy with the result. My second child was in public school through first grade. He was not a straight-A student and never would be. He had ADHD but was not diagnosed until he was in college even though all the signs were there (he had a brain scan and a battery of tests and interviews). He would not have made it in a public school, at least not any public high school that I have seen in the last 20-30 years.
Performance criteria are a necessary evil – they tell us how we’re doing. When the activity is dependent on more than one input (i.e. student AND teacher AND parents) it tells us how we are ALL doing. We can’t get rid of them – it’s not prudent to do so – until something better comes along (not likely to happen). Everyone is being judged – not just the teacher. What doesn’t get measured doesn’t improve. Since we are unlikely to get 100% excellent results then we all ought to accept that performance criteria are here to stay and just tweak the criteria as necessary.
Sometimes we need to tweak the curricula – we certainly are not living in the same world that we lived in 50 years ago so changes are necessary. Sometimes we have to try new things…..let’s just quit the __________________ and get on with it already!
LikeLike
What’s the solution? Glad you asked. I could provide more details if you would like, but since I’m about to go to bed, here’s the nutshell version. You want to fix public education? Every charter school now becomes public-funded military academies, and we bring back vocational schools.
LikeLike
Diane,
Have you written anything specific about the DC Charter Schools
and the Opportunity Scholarships? It was my understanding
from reading left and right news sources that the effect was more focused
on socioeconomic issues and not education. They might have been
created by selling “education” but the testimony of the parents
I heard was they just wanted their kid out of the public school
environment and neighborhood and anything would help. If that
observation is correct, then unwittingly, maybe, the Opportunity
Scholarships were really addressing:
“Most schools with low scores are NOT failing schools, but schools
that serve a high proportion of kids with unaddressed needs.”
Don’t the Opportunity Scholarships address some of those
unaddressed needs?
LikeLike