Hey Dummy, the Target is Over Here!

One of the greatest problems with both former President Bush’s No Child Left Behind and President Obama’s Race to the Top is the manner in which they both attempt to determine and measure the success of schools, teachers, and students.  In an attempt to gain a clear understanding of what is taking place in our nation’s public schools and to quantify the productivity of the overall system, these policies focus solely on one factor alone as opposed to the multifaceted and dynamic system that is public education.  Granted, test scores are important, and teachers should be held accountable for their performance in the classroom, and it is vital to have a device in place by which to measure these factors; however, test scores are not the only indicator of success in terms of schools, teachers, and students and therefore should not be the only measure used in determining teacher productivity in the classroom, student success in terms of learning, and ultimately individual school success.

For many years educators assumed that all students learn the same, but new research by Harvard’s Howard Gardner suggest that not only do students learn differently, but they demonstrate their learning in different ways as well.  Gardner’s research challenges many long held beliefs by educators, on the one hand, the use of one dimensional classroom testing being the best means by which to measure student learning, and on the other, the one size fits all teaching method.  When we match what Gardner’s research has found in terms of individual learning and the demonstration of that learning by students to the current means of both teaching and testing, there is an obvious contrast.  Ultimately what we see is that the current system of both teaching and testing is at best aiming at the wrong target, and if that is the case, both President Bush’s No Child Left Behind and President Obama’s Race to the Top are missing the mark in their attempt to right the education ship.  Not only does this off target attempt put our teachers, schools, and students at a disadvantage as it relates to funding for school districts, more importantly, it doesn’t address the greater problem: there is a good chance that we have overlooked some of the brightest students.    

Obama's War on Schools

In his article "Obama's War on Schools," Chip Somodevilla argues that as a whole "those who know schools best are frightened for the future of public education...[and] they see no one in a position of leadership who understands the damage being done to their schools by federal policies.  Somodevilla believes that those "who know schools best" feel betrayed by President Obama's unwillingness to separate himself from former President Bush's No Child Left Behind, a policy that Somodevilla argues is the primary reason for our present education woes.  He argues in fact that President Obama's Race to the Top education initiative is merely cosmetic in it's approach to dealing with the present education crisis in America. Furthermore, Somodevilla goes as far as stating that in all actuality, President Obama's Race to the Top education initiative has actually added to the problem by increasing the blockades created by No Child Left Behind.  These blockades, Somodevilla argues, are exactly the reason that the United States has fallen as a global leader in terms of education.

Somodevilla believes that the punitive nature of No Child Left Behind as well as its primary focus on testing as a means of measurement of teacher effectiveness is responsible for this, and that it has placed teachers in a corner, limiting their ability to be creative in the classroom.  Not only has this test based system of quantification limited the teachers ability to teach, Somodevilla also argues that the most harm is done to the students as teachers focus only on the test as opposed to working to expand students' overall understanding of the world around them.  Somodevilla believes that this approach lays the entire blame for student achievement solely on the teacher, leaving the student and the parent out of the equation.  This, Somodevilla argues, is grossly unfair and not to mention it places the teachers and the schools in a place where failure in inevitable.

I agree with Somodevilla's argument, there is more at play with what's wrong with education than simply increasing test scores, or at least attempting to do so.  Using test scores alone to determine the effectiveness of a teacher or school seems to be narrow sighted at best.  The dynamics at play in the life of the student are at the very least as important when deciding who passes and who fails in the world of public education.  

How Dumb Are We?

Phil Toledano, in his article "How Dumb Are We?" argues that civic ignorance, as it pertains to the average American, is out of control.  Citing statistics from several polls, Toledano argues that there is a great chasm between American citizens and our European counterparts when it comes to our understanding our government and how it works.  Toledano is quick to point out that not having an understanding of the civic sphere here in the U.S. is nothing new, and he cites a yearly shift between those who "know" and those who "don't" as evidence.  Toledano states that this culture of ignorance has remained roughly the same since WWII and has only changed slightly (1% since WWII).  

After his opening remarks, Toledano takes a turn as he begins to lay out his opinion as to the why this ignorance is so rampant.  He follows this up by giving us his solution to the problem.  He begins with the complexities of the U.S. government first, and then he strolls through income inequality, he takes a jab at the public market and education, and finally he ends up on the budget.  Through out the article, Toledano makes several legitimate points, and in fact, I was drinking the Kool-Aid for the first few paragraphs.  However, by the end of the article, I felt the Toledano's argument had fallen apart.  

In one section he gives the complex U.S. government as one of the reasons for the average citizen's ignorance, but by the end he as also complained about those who call for a simplified government.  At another point, Toledano agrees with those calling for government run schools (inferred of course), this is ironic considering that at this point, if the federal government were a business, it would rest atop the heap when it comes to management. 

I find myself on the fence on some of these issues for sure, but that's only because of the complexity that Toledano speaks of.  This coupled with a limited amount of information of what is truly going on behind closed doors makes coming up with absolutes nearly impossible.  I think what I have the most trouble with in terms of Toledano's article is the fact that the very same ignorance that he is charging the American public with, he is basing his conclusion on.  Granted, knowing how the country we live in works is beneficial, but the reality is that it is virtually impossible to understand something that is not absolute absolutely.