Gary Rubinstein read Rick Hess’s latest book, “Letters to a Young Education Reformer” and found much to admire, even though Gary is one of the most perceptive critics of what is now called “reform.”
He writes:
“I was eager to receive Rick Hess’s latest book ‘letters to a young education reformer.’ Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank. Hess is one of the few defenders of the reform movement whom I respect. His writings, like his column in Education Week, always have the nuance that most reform writers at places like The 74 and Education Post lack.
“This book explains what is behind some of the failures of the reform movement. With states opting out of the Common Core, parents opting out of state tests, and prominent reformers even opting out of ed reform, the reform movement is currently experiencing a slump.
“Though the book is written in an informal tone with plenty of very interesting anecdotes, it is a very scathing critique of the reform movement, the style of reform that really became big with people like Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and, of course, President Obama.
“Hess knows what missteps reformers committed along the way to lead to this. By writing about these mistakes in a series of letters to an unnamed ‘young education reformer,’ Hess hopes that the next generation of ed reformers will avoid those mistakes.”
Gary offers quotes from the book that he likes, such as:
““Washington-centric, dogmatic big R Reform has too often neglected this reality, with reformers exhausting themselves to win policy fights and then winding up too bloodied and battered to make those wins matter. It’s left me to wonder whether all the fuss and furor of recent years has done more harm than good.”
“In the fourth letter he writes:
“Calling something an implementation problem is how we reformers let ourselves off the hook. It’s a fancy way to avoid saying that we didn’t realize how a new policy would affect real people … and that it turned out worse than promised.”
Gary disagrees with two major arguments that Hess makes:
“One is that I think that Hess has overestimated the potential of the Reformers. I see his central argument as: it’s time for us to start playing fair, to stop misusing data and to stop ignoring, and otherwise showing contempt, for Reform critics. He seems to think that the Reform movement has made some progress, but to get to the next level, to win, they will need to be more open to discussion with critics and be more open about potential problems when things like the Common Core are implemented.
“I think the opposite is true. I think the Reformers have actually overachieved to get the victories they have. Getting more humble and honest and letting critics participate in the discussion will not get them to the next level at all. In a fair matchup, Reformers will get clobbered. I think they are going to lose the education reform war either way, but really the only chance they have is to ramp up the slick messaging and the lying. With the dishonest route, I think they have about a ten percent chance of ultimately winning. With the honest route, I think they have a zero percent chance of winning.”
Gary clearly enjoyed the book because it made him think.
Without having read this book, I want to add my thoughts about Rick Hess. I sponsored Rick’s first appearance in D.C. right after he received his doctorate from Harvard. For several years in the 1990s and early 2000s, I ran an annual education policy conference at the Brookings Institution, to which I invited researchers on different sides of contentious issues. I also invited a lunch speaker and a dinner speaker. In 1998, looking for a fresh face, I invited Rick as the lunch speaker after hearing good things about his first book, “Spinning Wheels: The Politics of Urban School Reform.” Rick subsequently found a home at AEI, and my confidence in him was affirmed.
From the very first day that I turned against the corporate reform movement, Rick has been gracious to me. When “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” was published in 2010, I called Grover (Russ) Whitehurst at the Brookings Institution, where I had been a Senior Fellow for 17 years, to ask if I could hold an event at Brookings to present my book, which was my refutation of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. He said I would have to rent the auditorium, pay for the sound system, and pay for any incidental costs, in addition to paying my own way. Having sat in his seat at Brookings in the mid-90s, I knew this was not customary for someone who was part of Brookings.
So I called Rick to ask if I could do the event at the free-market American Enterprise Institute. Rick immediately said yes and created an excellent event, where I spoke to an overflowing crowd, and a balanced panel responded with thoughtful questions. AEI paid all expenses. It was an excellent setting in which to present to the D.C. establishment my change of mind about the basic “reform” principles of testing and choice. Clearly, I appreciated Rick’s openness to dissent.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The Relativity of Error”
“Misstep” and “mistake”
All over the place
A cynic might make
A different case
“To Plot is human”
To err may be human
But so is “to plot”
And err is assumin’
That plot it was not
It’s so nice of Rick Hess to urge his fellow so–called reformers to stop lying (“misusing data”), cheating (“play fair”) and showing insufferable arrogance (“stop ignoring or showing contempt for reform critics”).
It’s mighty nice of him, but he’s either lying to himself, his readers, or both, because so-called reform is built on a foundation of lies, greed and the will to power, things that “young education reformers” must practice if they’re going to advance in that world.
Don’t listen to what these people say; watch what they do, and you can’t help but be repulsed, no matter their credentials or the superficial friendliness a few of them exhibit.
“Stink Tanks”
When bait is old and stinking
And fish are not about
You reinvent your thinking
And throw a new line out
Ever used catfish stinkbait? Works great!
Never tried it, but I know it did not work on the general public, cuz otherwise the Deformers would see no need for new bait.
Whether “reform” has a big R or a little is of little importance to me. I would like to read a book that describes all the strongarm tactics used against public education in order to forward privatization’s agenda. I would like to see an outline of all the behind the scenes manipulations with all the buying and lobbying of representatives in order to privatize while simultaneously slashing budgets to starve public schools to make them vulnerable to takeover. I would like to see an expose of all the money and dealings made to turn public schools into stream of profit for Silicon Valley and test publishing companies. People need a behind the scenes look at “reform” in order to understand it is not a people’s movement. The main goals of “reform” are to transfer public money into private pockets and suppress democracy while deprofessionalizing teaching in order to crush unions. Then they would clearly see that “reform” is not all about the children!
RIGHT ON, retired teacher!
The book was already written — many times.
What is really needed is a Dictionary of Reform to properly interpret everything that the Reformers have written
Things have come to a nasty pass
Rhee-form-ance is growing flat
For you like VAM and test
While I go for learning zest
Reformer knows that it never will be
And I know where he’s at
Looks like we two will never be one
Something must be done
You say Reform and I say Deform
You say VAM and I say sham
Reform, Deform, VAM, sham
Best call the whole thing off
You like private, I like public
You like Arne, I like irony
Private, public, Arne, irony
Best call the whole thing off
But oh, if we call the whole thing off,
Then we must split
And oh, if we ever split, Deform will take the hit
You say charter and i say cheater
You say turnaround, I say burn to ground
Charter, cheater, turnaround, burntoground
Best call the whole thing off
Fabulous, DAM Poet.
Clever poem!
A parody simply DEMANDING to be written. Kudos, SDP!
Music to our ears, SomeDAM! MUST be made into a video!!!
I assumed everyone would recognize the original( by George Gershwin), but here’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
I enjoyed the analysis, but I become concerned when I see predictions of Ed Reformers “winning” in the 0-10 percent range. These guys have “overachieved” because they have dominated the political process, primarily with money, and due to their relentlessness and the fact that it’s far easier to destroy than create, I think they still have great odds of pulling off their intentions. I appreciate the rare Reformer like Mr. Hess who is willing to admit he isn’t naturally omniscient on all things related to education policy.
After watching the tactics of reformers from the bleachers, I find Hess’s call for playing nice a bit disingenuous. While it sounds like he is a man of principles, it seems to me that it is far too late to suggest that reformers “reform.” How do those of us who have found ourselves on the receiving end of the reform blitzkrieg, trust their mea culpas? Rick Hess appears willing to honestly engage in debate and even compromise with the opposition forces; I can’t say the same for a majority of the major reform players/beneficiaries.
The policies that Hess has supported in the past have caused a great deal of damage.
Countless teachers have lost their jobs and livelihood and thousands of schools and the lives of millions of school children have been thrown into chaos.
I have seen my own nieces and nephews go from liking school to hating it under Common Core.
It looks to me like some Reformers are now simply trying to salvage their careers by admitting what is now obvious to everyone: that their policies have not only failed but have been an unmitigated disaster.
Absolutely agree, SDP, though I prefer that to those (like, say, Jeb Bush or Arne Duncan) who continue spread their (never made a mistake in their life) propaganda. Andrew Cuomo’s past policies and statements are unforgivable, but I am pleased when I read suggestions that he’s moving away from his damaging (and unpopular!) positions.
I’m still waiting to hear of politicians who have lost elections based on education policy.
“I have seen my own nieces and nephews go from liking school to hating it under Common Core.”
And where were the GAGA Good German teachers and adminimals when the CCSS were implemented that served as the basis of that destruction of student desire? Doing their Good German best to implement them, that’s where.
Yes, many have followed orders to keep their jobs, but at least one math teacher in my district quit, citing Common Core as the reason.
I also am aware that Mathvale, another math teacher, who used to comment here, left teaching because of all the crap that people like Hess visited on him in the name of “reform”.
I am sure there are many others who either quit or (like yourself) retired early rather than continue to put up with the nonsense.
The problem is we rarely hear about such people, but we can see the giant hole they are leaving in all the teacher shortages around the country.
And then of course we have the national Union reps lime Whinegarten who have completely sold out teachers. In my opinion, they are actually worse than the Deformers.
The rephormers are selling garbage-scented deodorant and acting surprised when people aren’t interested in buying it. The only way they can sell it is by lying, cheating and paying off politicians.
So what is Rick Hess’s solution? Try to honestly convince people that they really do want garbage-scented deodorant? Good luck with that.
“Calling something an implementation problem is how we reformers let ourselves off the hook. It’s a fancy way to avoid saying that we didn’t realize how a new policy would affect real people … and that it turned out worse than promised.”
Self-appointed reformers refused to engage themselves with social policies that have created and sustain unconscionable levels of poverty and racial segregation, especially in urban centers. Those pre-existing conditions have be exacerbated by policies intended to keep redlining in place and diverting public funds to privately operated schools for those same urban districts.
Self-appointed reformers have also refused to acknowledge how their policies have literally targeted the teaching profession as if “those people” are to blame because students are “not meeting expectations”–absurd expectations defined by criteria from corporate management.
No wonder students at a HBC would turn their backs on DeVos. Poor urban students have seen their neighborhood schools stripped of resources to feed the charter machine. They have witnessed the first hand the inhumane practices of many charters. Everyone that cares about young people and education should be outraged. Make no mistake if they conquer urban schools, they will come after the rural and suburban schools as well. Capitalism is always looking for new markets.
Have to say I love the line: “Calling something an implementation problem is how we reformers let ourselves off the hook.”
“. . .especially in urban centers.” And vast swatches of rural poor areas-the forgotten poor, even though they are mostly white-white trash as far as many are concerned! Like children get a choice on what parents and parental economic situation they get.
“Frederick Hess’ openness to dissent”? That was not the impression readers may have gleaned from the Philanthropy Roundtable article, that he co-wrote with an external affairs manager of a Gates funded organization. Reformers were quoted as saying, “We’ve got to blow up the ed schools.” The article suggests instead-a strategy of financial donations influencing universities.
When AEI is open to dissent they will stop buying support for the agenda of the richest 0.1% and providing the TPM.
In the mean time, AEI blathers because they like the sound of their own voices or the visual image of themselves being reflective while, in truth they are the mouthpiece of oligarch predators.
AEI is a joke.
Everyone knows that — even the people who work for them.
When enough people are fed up by six Walton heirs accumulating wealth equivalent to 40% of Americans combined… when they get disgusted enough with oligarchs like Gates who take from them, the common goods they built….. when they become enraged at their fellow citizens dying without medical care… when they decide it’s intolerable for the financial sector to rob workers of their due… when they can no longer tolerate Wall Street’s 2% drag on GDP and avoidance of taxes by the rich….when they become furious with tech tyrants feeding off of their children’ s educations… and, when they realize that turning a blind eye is no longer possible, they will storm Congress, legacy-admission colleges, Wall Street, the “Institutes” that serve the rich, and the homes of the 400 families that have made the U.S.A., a colony for the the non-productive wealthy.
The skyrocketing security costs for the richest 0.1% is clear and present evidence of where the nation is headed.