Barriers to Gains
“Unsolved problems – and signs of hope-as 2012 dawns’ By Chester E. Finn Jr. excerpts:
“The central problem besetting K-12 education in the US today is still—as for almost thirty years now–that far too few kids are learning nearly enough for their own or the nations good.” Chester E. Finn Jr. writes about “the barriers that keep us from making major-league gains in academic achievement.”
“The barriers-to-gains that I’m talking about here are not cultural issues, parental issues, demographic issues, or other macro-economic-influences on educational achievement. Those are all plenty real, but largely beyond the reach of public policy. No, here I refer to obstacles that competent leaders and bold policymakers could reduce or eradicate if they were serious.”
“First and foremost is the archaic governance of K-12 education. …local control in the form of school districts ….run by school boards … vulnerable to “capture” by adult interests, as well as … (Adm: Three examples were noted)
Second, our dysfunctional system of school finance puts the brakes on just about every reform while perpetuating inequity. We don’t fund learning, we fund programs. We don’t fund kids, we fund job slots. We don’t fund schools, we fund district-wide categoricals. …
Third, our academic standards are too low just about everywhere. It’s not just that too little is being achieved; it’s that too little is expected. Even where a state’s standards look great on paper—a few do—its “cut scores” for passing the tests aligned with those standards are rarely ambitious, and NCLB hasn’t helped on bit on that front. …. The Common Core itself turned out well, superior to the academic standards of most states and on a par with the best of them. State Standards for math and reading, … .The big questions now are ….whether it will be properly implemented, …
Fourth, is weak-kneed accountability, … …there are precious few tangible consequences for the adults in the system; it isn’t that demanding for the kids; and schools that find themselves subject to “intervention” or “reconstitutions” usually end up with the minimum-hassel version …Whether the state consortia now developing the Common-Core-aligned assessments will be able to agree on demanding “cut scores” is an open question, to be followed by …. Yes there’s movement toward tying teacher evaluations and pay more tightly to student learning, but we’re still in the earliest stages of that ambitious project and there is much resistance to it.
Fifth,… too many choice programs are mediocre…..the kids with the greatest need of better options are least apt to be able to access them, and our “schools of choice” for the most part labor under too much input-and-process regulation coupled with insufficient resources. The best of the CMOs and a handful of one-off schools show that quality is possible, but ….
Sixth, although instructional technology holds enormous promise to transform education—in both … it is stoutly opposed by.., is pushed by..is ill-suited to …, and is shackled by absurd … The Digital Learning Council and others (including the Foundation for Excellence in Education and Fordham itself) are showing signs of …
Seventh, our human resource practices and policies are sorely antiquated and anti-quality, particularly as regard to teachers, whether one is looking at seniority provisions, uniform pay schedules, over-rich pension-and-benefit plans, licensure-and-certification rules, or hundreds of other parts of public education’s HR system. There have been some bold moves … But, once again, we have a very long way to go.…
Eight,.. , our preoccupation with “at risk” populations and with achievement gaps … has led to the benign neglect of millions of kids, including but not limited to gifted students and high achieving learners. … America will never solve its international competition problem just by raising the bottom of the achievement distribution. …
With these eight problems unsolved—and more that could be added to the list—as well as gridlocked policymaking ……… is there is reason to be optimistic about the future of K-12 education?
I say yes, albeit cautiously. What gives me the greatest hope today is the emergence—and steadfastness—of a new cadre of change-minded people in positions of influence (…) and the birth of a number of new-and/or-improved advocacy organizations, …… They’re still no match for the protectors of the status quo—i.e. bulwarks of the barrier as enumerated above—but they’re slowly gaining. Let us wish them much clout in the New Year and beyond.”
Note: The bolded highlights are made by this Adm. for emphasis.
Subscribe to The Ohio Education Gadfly to view the entire article. This article appeared in the Bi-weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Volume 5, Number 22, December 14, 2011 and can be viewed on line.
See “Central Problem” under “Future Education” section of this weblog.
