How conservatives capsized school reform

[Panich52]

The Hill
How conservatives capsized school reform
By Juan Williams

OPINION | Dogmatism thwarted legislation that could at least have provided a starting point.

http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/234979-juan-williams-how-conservatives-capsized-school-reform

[Igel]

1. They had a lot of help.

NCLB was the work of conservatives like Bush II and Kennedy. Both had a large role in it.

(D) Congress had little to offer. MOTS--more of the same. Testing and control. Because the education researchers and theoreticians have been so right about how to do things. Ever since the mid-60s when they really started making improvements. Oh. Wait. When I was taking teacher ed courses in the late '80s I was told they finally sorted things out and knew what to do, not that old crap from the '60s and '70s. They were data driven, finally, and firmly rooted in cognitive science.

And then when I took more such courses in the early 2010s, I was told that they finally sorted things out and knew what to do, not that old useless crap from the '80s. Because *they* were finally rooted in cognitive science and were data driven. Apparently the order of the modifiers makes all the difference.

Yeah. Remember: NCLB and Ravitch at the time were firmly data-driven. These were tried and true methods and guaranteed to make 100% of the kids at grade or above within 12 years. After all, that's the cycle for a generation of students--start in 1st, finish 12th. Except that the researchers were idiots. Mostly still are: When the theory goes splat, the first recourse is to blame teachers, funding, etc., etc.--everything but the theory and the students and their backgrounds. Which has been the way of approaching things since the mid '60s. All the blame on teachers and funding distracts people long enough for a new round of theory to be proposed, one that will finally solve the problems. Until it, too, splats, and the teachers, funding, etc., etc., get blamed. Again.


Note that much of the federal funding that flows to schools is for mandated programs. That money's spoken for, it's already supervised and "accountability" measures are in place. And you know what? Most of those mandates are underfunded and have never been fully funded. But to get the money, you do what the acountability measures say. Because you still have to do what the law says. Schools are responsible for their end of the bargain; Congress can't be held responsible for its end.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. If we've learned nothing else over the last 15 years it's that we have to keep....

.... lawyers and politicians as FAR AWAY FROM THE CLASSROOM as possible.

There has to be something akin to Jefferson's Wall of Separation doctrine in place. It's a bit tricky, since public schools are... in a sense... "government schools" and therefore the government has an OBLIGATION to see that they are run effectively.

The paradox is that they cannot be run effectively if government ( politicians) imagines itself to have some actual expertise in education..... which any good teacher can assure them... is a lot more complicated and nuanced than the politicians and lawyers will ever understand.