A new Economic Policy Institute
report that is highly
critical of the so-called “education reform” movement reads like an indictment
of Deborah Gist’s tenure as commissioner of public schools in Rhode Island.
The report compares
large urban school districts with New York, Chicago and Washington DC – three
cities that have implemented strategies almost identical to Gist’s – and
discovers “the reforms deliver few benefits, often harm the students they
purport to help, and divert attention from a set of other, less visible
policies with more promise to weaken the link between poverty and low
educational attainment.”
While Rhode Island
and/or Gist were not cited, the report deals with almost every controversial
decision Gist has made during her tenure: teacher firings, school closures,
high stakes tests, charter schools, poor educator morale, poverty. It even
addresses the rhetoric so-called “reformers” use to dodge questions about
actual results:
Some reformers
position their policies as higher minded than the policies advocated by others.
Rhee and Klein advance a “no excuses” response to those who say poverty is an
impediment to education, and frequently label those with whom they disagree as
“defending the status quo” (StudentsFirst 2011). Others, such as Duncan,
acknowledge the impact of poverty and promote a larger range of policies, while
still emphasizing the same core set of reforms. But the question most critical
for the millions of at-risk students and their families—and the nation as a
whole—is not whether one group or another is “reforming” or “making excuses,”
but what works and what does not.
Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's
Future. Previously, he's worked as a reporter for several different news
organizations both in Rhode Island and across the country.