Progressives and public mistrust

One of my educational favs, Alfie Kohn, offers a "progressive" alternative to the names most often mentioned for Obama's Secretary of Education in his forthcoming Nation article, Beware School "Reformers". (Thanks to Scott McLeod and Gary Stager for pointing this article out and for many far more politically astute bloggers for their analyses.)

Kohn suggests that those currently being regarded as "reformers" support:

• a heavy reliance on fill-in-the-bubble standardized tests to evaluate students and schools, generally in place of more authentic forms of assessment;
• the imposition of prescriptive, top-down teaching standards and curriculum mandates;
• a disproportionate emphasis on rote learning—memorizing facts and practicing skills—particularly for poor kids;
• a behaviorist model of motivation in which rewards (notably money) and punishments are used on teachers and students to compel compliance or raise test scores;
• a corporate sensibility and an economic rationale for schooling, the point being to prepare children to “compete” as future employees; and
• charter schools, many of which are run by for-profit companies.

and observes

Notice that these features are already pervasive, which means “reform” actually signals more of the same—or, perhaps, intensification of the status quo with variations like one-size-fits-all national curriculum standards or longer school days (or years). Almost never questioned, meanwhile, are the core elements of traditional schooling, such as lectures, worksheets, quizzes, grades, homework, punitive discipline, and competition. That would require real reform, which of course is off the table.

On Minnesota Public Radion the other day, an interesting comment was made by a caller. He wondered why, if a plane in flight got in trouble, the passengers would not say, "Professional pilots got us in this mess; we need someone who is not a pilot to get us out." But society seems to often say, "Professional educators have messed up our schools; let's get someone from outside the profession to straighten them out." How is it that everyone seems to love individual teachers, but hate the profession?

How has the educational profession lost the public trust? Why do we as a nation love our own neighborhood schools, but remain convinced that public education as a whole stinks? Why are political pundits (many who simply want to bust union and increase public financing of private schools rather than improve education) honored and professional educators ignored?

Distrust of professional educators is the only reasons I can think of why we continue to use bubbled, normed tests in this country instead of formative, criterion-based assessment. More importantly, how does the profession gain public confidence in public schools? Or is it possible?

Regardless of whom Obama choses to lead the Department of Education, most of us will soldier on doing what's right by kids -  just adjusting our level of subversiveness to fit the educational climate.

Comments

[Tom Hoffman]

I don't think that teachers have truly lost the public trust. I think they've lost the battle for elite opinion. We've got unprecedented amounts of private money attacking teachers, and that can hold onto the opinion pages and think tanks for a while. Education has become the last remaining beachhead for Bush-era ideology. It won't hold up in the longer run. The only question is whether the pendulum is already at its peak, or whether we still have to wait a few more years for that.

[Gary S. Stager]

I agree with Tom Hoffman.

People have always hated school, but liked their child's teacher. That makes it difficult to privatize the public system - a problem for conservative ideologues. Ironically, two of the Bush brothers have addressed this dilemma successfully in ways their brethren only dreamed of. Their penchant for union-busting and depressing wages is evident in the D.C. public schools and in the opposition to the automobile industry loan.

1) The singular achievement of the Bush Administration is eroding public confidence in their public schools. NCLB is a work of Machiavellian genius.

Step 1: Centralize more authority over school policies and practices than ever before in history - a very unconservative idea.
Step 2: Fill the Department of Education with ideologues hell-bent on privatizing public education.
Step 3: Appoint Supreme Court justices who will reverse 50 years worth of desegregation.
Step 4: Enrich your friends while destroying early literacy through faith-based phonemic boondoggles like Reading First.
Step 5: Turn schools into Dickensian test-prep sweatshops in which every student must be above the norm on norm-reference standardized tests and in which all of the magic of the arts, science and social studies become well - history.
Step 6: At every single opportunity announce to the public that the school their children attends is "failing" and that their teacher is unqualified while urging large districts to employ only those explicitly unqualified to be superintendents and chancellors.

Repeat Step 6 over and over again until parents in community after community withdraw their support and tax dollars from the neighborhood school.

2) Jeb Bush is no longer Governor of Florida, but his impact will long outlast him. He went test-crazy with the vile FCAT and "left-back" tens of thousands of 8 year-olds while centralizing authority and attempting a divisive merit pay scheme. That was all just a warmup for offering high school kids money to leave school early and his greatest achievement, the Florida Virtual School.

By mandating that all schools, now including elementary schools, offer an online alternative to the joyless test-happy zero-tolerance FCAT bunkers he created, Jeb Bush has gone farther in privatizing public education than any governor in history.

Heckuva Job Bushies!

PS: Anyone who knows me or my work KNOWS that I am not defending bad educational practices, low-standards or incompetence - far from it.

[Melissa Techman]

Also, parents deplore "the system" but generally say their neighborhood school is different.
I agree with the thought from the caller about pilots, but I feel differently about the economic crisis. Since congress (who cares what political party) enabled some big companies with legions of bold financial thinkers to damage our country, I do NOT want more of those "pilots".
OT, Annette Breaux at VA ASCD: more advice...."Don't tell your students, 'I was never good at long division.' No one wants to hear a pilot say, 'I was never good at landing'"!

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Tom,

Given Obama’s choice of Sec of Ed, it sounds like we may yet be waiting for the pendulum to swing. I just hope it changes direction before my grandsons are too far along in their education.

Thanks for the comment,

Doug

Thank you, Gary. I appreciate both your insight and your passion on national education issues. And sharing them not just among educators but the general public.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Melissa,

I guess I’d like knowledgeable and ETHICAL businessmen running our companies and knowledgeable and ETHICAL educators running our schools.

Love’d the Breaux quote. I bet plenty of kids hear their parents say similar things too!

All the best,

Doug

[Douglas Gauld]

Never before in human history has the ability to memorize and recall large numbers of discreet facts been less useful, nor has the ability to critically analyze and apply this information ever been more important. Yet much of the curriculum designed to improve test scores seeks to turn students into encyclopedias rather than genuine critical thinkers. Barring a magnetic pulse that will send us back to the stone age, our students will live in a future where data is not only readily available, but cloyingly abundant. If we fail to teach them how to sort through and use this data because we are focused on turning them into human textbooks, we are truly guilty of malpractice.

Of course, some memorization is extremely valuable. We should have our students memorize how to recognize certain minerals and other facts they will need in order to re-invent matches and smelting after the magnetic pulse.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Douglas,

The metaphor I like is that we've moved from an information desert to an information jungle and one needs different survival skill sets for deserts and jungles.

Thanks for the comment,

Doug