Do not think about, write about or deal with human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.
Diane Ravitch was once a supporter of high stakes tests, accountability and other weak bromides favored by those supporting the “get tough” approach to public education. In a stunning turnaround, she has served up her own set of weak bromides.
“To begin with, let’s agree that a good education encompasses far more than just basic skills. A good education involves learning history, geography, civics, the arts, science, literature and foreign language. Schools should be expected to teach these subjects even if students are not tested on them.”
This passage contains two major assumptions so wrong their opposites are true. The first is that education is “so much more”. If we don’t know what it is, how do we know it’s been done? The second is that things should be taught even if they’re not tested. Presentation and exposure are not teaching. Presentation with learning is teaching.
“Every state should expect teachers to pass a rigorous examination in the subjects they will teach, as well as a general examination to demonstrate their literacy and numeracy.”
Credentials don’t equal production. This might operate as a filtering device, but it’s on the job performance which counts and continuing accountability is the solution.
“We need assessments that gauge students’ understanding and require them to demonstrate what they know, not tests that allow students to rely solely on guessing and picking one among four canned answers.”
This is the argument of the so-called “authentic testing” movement which is neither authentic nor testing. The argument about testing is between valid-reliable and invalid-unreliable and not among methods that you like because they look good and those you don’t like because they don’t look good.
“Instead of closing such schools and firing their staffs, every state should have inspection teams that spend time in every low-performing school and diagnose its problems. Some may be mitigated with extra teachers, extra bilingual staff, an after-school program or other resources. The inspection team may find that the school was turned into a dumping ground by district officials to make other schools look better. It may find a heroic staff that is doing well under adverse circumstances and needs help. Whatever the cause of low performance, the inspection team should create a plan to improve the school.”
If you don’t have any leverage, and leverage is constantly thwarted by unions and the lack of economic sanctions, you won’t move any rock. More government employees on these inspection teams would be an extra bonus because many people don’t pay enough taxes.
“Only in rare circumstances should a school be closed. In many poor communities, schools are the most stable institution. Closing them destroys the fabric of the community.”
Our work is so important that a “community” can’t get along without a government institution. It appears that people who believe this aren’t kidding.
“We should stop using the term "failing schools" to describe schools where test scores are low. Usually, a school has low test scores because it enrolls a disproportionately large number of low-performing students. Among its students may be many who do not speak or read English, who live in poverty, who miss school frequently because they must baby-sit while their parents look for work, or who have disabilities that interfere with their learning. These are not excuses for their low scores but facts about their lives.”
External factors are really important with poor teaching, poor curricula and lack of sense of an academic community. Counterexamples of high-performing schools in low SES neighborhoods abound.
Grab them by the wallet and their hearts and minds will follow. If there is no individual accountability, not the kind paraded in government “enterprises”, there will be no change. Ravitch’s solutions are just another in the INTEND column–All show, no go–If only life were as easy as having sincere intentions and a good PR department this would all work.
Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies
