Change Wars by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Solution Tree
Published: 2009-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Music of Democracy

One of the most challenging aspects of educational change is the way in which reforms can be implemented in superficial ways that leave the basic “grammar” of traditional education intact (Tyack & Tobin, 1994). Indeed, perhaps the most troubling finding from the last 30 years of research on educational change is that the most promising reform initiatives are often undermined by a wide variety of actors who have, intentionally or not, prevented students from acquiring higher order critical thinking skills (Fruchter, 2007; Fullan, 2001, 2006; Sarason, 1995). From these findings, change theorists have recognized that episodic and isolated approaches to change have little chance to succeed. Only if reforms advance simultaneously and are interwoven in morally purposeful ways can the complexity of overcoming traditional practices actually be achieved.

The necessary implication is that political strategies must be developed to support the three change strands identified here—developing a focus on student learning, signature practices within schools, and the capacity for community organizing and public engagement—if they are to produce results. This implication introduces a host of challenges:

1. Is it asking too much of policymakers and the public to understand the fine points of educational research and measurement? Will they be able to understand why coping strategies such as teaching to the test are undesirable?

2. The NCLB genie is already out of the bottle, so to speak, and the United States has now had decades of experience with standards and accountability. Can it be expected that those reforms will really be dismissed in a putative new era of post-standardization?

3. How do we know that teachers will not exploit their autonomy? Signature practices can encompass bad practices as well. What safeguards do we have that this will not occur?

4. Activists inspired by the social movements of the 1960s have been waiting for the renaissance of the civil rights movement for decades, but poor and working-class people actually are more disengaged from the civil arena than others. Why should we expect that to change at any point in the near future?

In regard to the first concern, it appears that the public already does understand some of the issues associated with educational research and measurement. The public understands that coaching students to achieve on a given state test can produce a limited set of skills that does not transfer to other tests assessing similar bodies of knowledge. In 2007, for the first time, 40% of the public turned against NCLB as measured on a survey conducted by the Gallup Poll and Phi Delta Kappa, with 30% in favor and 30% not sure of their opinion. Perhaps more significantly, the public does not see raising standards or adding more tests as effective strategies for raising student achievement; 39% would place more emphasis upon giving schools more money and 39% on improving pupil attitudes towards teachers, with only 15% believing that standards are too low (Public Agenda, 2006).

It will be crucial for leaders to emphasize that the term post-standardization is a neologism that must be understood accurately.

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