The Pathologies of Education Reform, or Throwing Caution To The Winds

I've been vacillating on whether or not to write this post for years now, for reasons that aren't very difficult to guess. But whether I am becoming more rash in old age, or simply disgusted with the trajectory of public debate on this issue, I am going to set aside my caution and engage the topic directly. It may not matter either way, given the likely small number of readers of this blog. But whatever the consequences, I can't in good conscience remain silent.

For the last decade or more we have been undergoing a powerful wave of education reform, one that has enjoyed massive (and bipartisan) support among policymakers, thinktanks, foundations, and the press. It is characterized by high-stakes testing, accountability, and various forms of school choice. I've taken to calling this movement neo-liberal education, because it is a part of the broader move towards market-based reforms in the public sector and the deregulation of the market in the private sector.

Although I strongly agree that the educational sector needs reform, and that there are some elements of the proposed changes that are worthwhile, as a whole I think that neoliberal reform in education, as with like-minded reforms, is at best (to steal the expression of a friend of mine) a GWOT - a Giant Waste Of Time. Whether it is merit pay for teachers, the weakening of collective bargaining in the name of administrator flexibility, charter schools, "turn-around" school reform, or high-stakes testing, I think that as they are being implemented these reforms will NOT achieve their stated objectives. They will not close achievement gaps. They will not make the U.S. an international leader in math and science. They will not improve the overall quality of education for American children. The best case scenario is that in ten years we will realize that neoliberal reform was just another fad that failed to live up to its overzealous champions' ambitions, and we will move on to some other set of reforms.

That's the best case scenario. What about the worst?

Although neoliberal education reform will fail to achieve its overt goals, I think there is a good chance that it will accomplish the implicit goal of many of its principal proponents, which is to undermine the system of public education. Yes, we might still have something called a "public school system," but like so many other public services that have been contracted out, education will effectively be controlled by the private sector, for the benefit of administrators and shareholders, and to the advantage of our country's most privileged citizens.

In the coming weeks, I am going to lay out why I am taking such a strong stance on these issues. I will (as time permits) examine each of the components of neoliberal education reform and explain why I it is I think they are going to fail. Unlike so many pundits, I will try not rely on sloppy logic, gross generalizations, and misleading anecdotes. Instead, I will rely on the evidence, on the research in the field, which provides precious little support for the idea that neoliberal education reforms will accomplish anything that we might wish.