High-stakes testing and charters
won't fix what's wrong with America's educational system.
As
the latest round of data culled from tests taken by schoolchildren around the
world showed yet again, kids in Finland, South Korea, and other countries are
outscoring our kids. Overall, we’re ranked No. 17.
Our
schoolchildren perform worse overall than they should because of one simple
reason: economic inequality. Our rich country has too many poor kids whose
educations suffer from their poor health and poor diet. Those disadvantaged
students who lack access to strong early childhood education programs like Head
Start are already behind when they get to kindergarten.
This isn’t rocket science but it’s tough to cure. Families in this fix need reliable health care, adequate nutrition, access to free or inexpensive preschools, decent housing, and small-sized classes for their kids. All those things cost big money and tight belts are in style these days.
Not
to worry. Americans are nothing if not shrewd, especially our business leaders.
They’re big boosters of the latest educational fad. Instead of doing something
to end poverty or mitigate its impact on our kids, we’re supposed to just blame
teachers for the academic shortcomings of poor children.
To
make it easier to blame teachers for circumstances beyond their control, our
public schools now subject kids to an endlessly expanding battery of tests.
When a bunch of students who fare poorly all have the same teacher, her job is
on the line.
Remember
George W. Bush? While the Republican Party has struggled mightily to erase him
from the American voter’s consciousness, his mark on education is hard to miss,
thanks to the deep-reaching tentacles of his No Child Left Behind law.
That
cynical system is still making teachers fume, dividing parents, and diverting
funding from key educational priorities.
Of
course, it’s good for some folks. The standardized testing business is booming.
And there’s a whole new corporate education niche that includes
the privately run charter schools that now educate two million American kids.
Billed
as a way to expand parental choice and administrative autonomy, charters also
siphon money out of the public school system. Their explosive growth is a bit
baffling, though.
Typically,
charters get established on the basis of promises that they’re absolutely
necessary because test scores are abysmally low. Then, once they’re up and
running, their big-money boosters implore everyone to ignore any test scores
that don’t improve, along with any increases in segregation, dropout rates, and
teacher burnout.
The
debate over charters and the plight of our public schools has moved from PTA
meetings to corporate board rooms. It’s all the rage for Bill and Melinda
Gates, Sam Walton’s heirs, and other like-minded billionaires.
But
how could teachers be the cause of our kids’ overall mediocre academic achievement
when rich American students are already among the world’s highest achievers? No
real education emergency is hindering their academic vitality, including in
states where teachers are free to organize real unions with teeth.
Kids
at schools with affluent student bodies outscore schools serving impoverished
children on those international tests, Valerie Strauss recently pointed out in her Answer Sheet blog
on The Washington Post‘s website. “That is true on all standardized
tests. And that continues to be the real story in U.S. education.”
Yes,
millions of children with fewer advantages do need a better education than
they’re getting. There are only three clear but hard solutions to that problem:
more economic equality, ending the racial and class segregation of our
increasingly diverse public school students, and creating more parity in the funding
enjoyed by all school systems, regardless of the affluence of their student
bodies.
Charters
and high-stakes testing can’t possibly solve the real problems haunting our
nation’s educational system.
Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords,
a non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy
Studies. OtherWords columnist
William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of
Norwalk, Connecticut. OtherWords.org