Essential Questions for Standards-Based #Edreform

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." Albert Einstein


I have a few essential questions before going further any further in the name of standards-based reform.


1) Are standards expectations?
2) Are standards limitations?
3) Should the practice of standardizing performance and quality in the business world be translated into assessing children in the world of education?
4) Is standards-based reform what is best for kids?

Constructivist Theory is the heartbeat of learning and was the foundation of my teaching.  As teachers, we guide, support and lead all of the frameworks of understanding together to unleash each child's genius. The conceptual frameworks of many people active in the field of educational policy are simply not understandings based in learning theory. Take for example Margaret Spelling and Arne Duncan, two Secretaries of Education who have never taught in a public school.


Rewind...

When we were told  that if our school did not meet AYP for three years, we would become a charter school, I was concerned.  During the summer of *2005, I read, highlighted and tried to understand NCLB. I didn’t make it all the way through but I made it far enough to have questions about it. So I made appointments.  I met with people from the Education Commission of the States. I spoke with charter school advocates to try to understand why it was better.  There was no evidence for this direction written into the legislation, but it was tough to argue with. I met with our district's superintendent, and one of our state legislators. I wasn't shy about requesting appointments.


As my husband says, "Those who have never been in the trenches sure know how to dig the ditches."

What? You don’t think your school will meet AYP. Then you must have the soft bigotry of low expectations. This used to really bother me. Well, it kind of still does, but I realize this whole standards-based reform effort and assessment obsession that followed are the result of putting untrained educators in charge of educational policy. They were building off of very different constructs than those of a teacher and they did not bring teachers in to the conversation.  The constructs that started these efforts were policymakers who (I assume) tend to have MBA-style thinking. 


There is a major amount of confusion as well.  (I'll sum it up this confusion by saying a bubble test is a norm-referenced test, not a standards-based assessment and I'll leave it at that.) Entering the business world, I’ve been pulling from what I know and understand from my days as a teacher.  I make appointments with SCORE and use MBA-types as mentors. So why wouldn't those interested in education reform ask the experts in the field? Well, who's an expert? I say an expert MUST have classroom teaching experience.  My professor of education policy  was a teacher quality expert. He had never taught. Two of the three people I met from the Education Commission of the States had never taught.  I actually had a moment of connection to Michelle Rhee thinking she has taught, and then realized she was not a trained educator but went into a classroom anyway. Read From Actuary to Teacher to understand why teacher preparation is important. Whenever I read of an education reformer who is in the public's eye, this is always my first question, so I go to read their bio.   

Now, you should know, I only studied at the doctoral level for a year. While I was there, two things were of particular interest to me.


1) What happened to my grade book? I saw this as the essential question in standards-based reform which I was a huge proponent of and thought we just needed a nice product for managing assessment. (There was the flaw in my thinking. Authentic assessment is not a product. It is a process.) 
and
2) The Reauthorization of NCLB


"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein


Standards-based reform efforts have been going on for quite a while. They began officially under President H.W.Bush and were  "led by the Tucker and Codding (1998) note that in the United States, a defining moment for such policies was the first national summit on education, held in 1989, when President George Bush invited state governors to a meeting at which they agreed on a set of ambitious national education goals to be achieved by the year 2000."


Today, Common Core Standards are the result of  "a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)."


For No Child Left Behind, legislation was "sold" to legislators in the name of minimal student expecations what we should all have and no shareholder at MacGraw Hill or Pearson has been left behind.


For Race to the Top, legislation is being passed penalizing teachers who are not viewed as meeting these expectations using a flawed assessment method. This will determine 50% of a teacher's salary in Florida.


Common Core Standards - Currently, the two publishing giants, MacGraw hill and Pearson endorse Common Core Plus, $330 million dollars has been invested in developing an assessment for Common Core. I see a monopoly coming if something does not happen. ( I say NO HIGH-STAKES TESTING period!)


"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein


As my mentor Mrs. Ellerbroch said my first year teaching, "Everyone has been to school so everyone thinks they're an expert in the field." I may be paraphrasing her, but what she told me has never been more true.  But because I am a Constructivist, I do believe we have something to learn from one another. There are three people who are  helping  connect important conversations about education policy together.   They are Steve Denning, Diane Ravitch and Jamie Vollmert. None have ever taught, but I appreciate the fact that they are listening to teachers and educators to build understanding for all of us. I'd say Steve Denning and Jamie Vollmert have good constructs for MBA-style thinkers and Diane Ravitch has lots of great information on education's history and is now a voice for teachers.

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein

And so I conclude...


1) Standards are for #blueberries which can be counted and sorted and thrown out. Standards are not for children. 


2) Standards are limitations to true educational progress.


"Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world."
Maria Montessori

It's time to do things differently. So, how do we start?

Pick up something by Jonathan Kozol for some inspiration. He was my inspiration to become a teacher. In case you're wondering, I am not an enemy of assessment. If I had to pick one great thing standards-based education brought our profession, I'd say it's the rubric as a tool for teachers to use in thier classroom.  No assessment should be used in any high-stakes matter. *I had the incorrect year here originally.