Dissertation: notes 2.2

Hi Readers,

What do San Diego School County and the New York City School Districts have in common? Both applied the business principles of the No Child Left Behind ( NCLB ) to reform education in their areas.  While both showed initial unprecendented reform, upon further scrutiny the overall modest changes ( maybe hyped-up results ) spur one to question the consequences of such a policy especially its effects to students entering college in 2011 and beyond.

In San Diego, Alan Bersin and Anthony Alvarado called their program "Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System" ( Blueprint ), and in NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg called his program "Children First."  They have slight differences, but both employed Balanced Literacy ( 3 hours of reading ) and professional development ( for Blueprint staff meetings and 2 hour observations from principals, and for NYC a Leadership Academy to train staff in standardized procedures ).

Both used the top-down education reform model, which centralized decision-making and afforded no room for collaboration, thus "the theory behind these tactics [was] culture shock keeping everyone on edge, afraid, insecure" (60).  There were no checks and balances, and people making the BIG decisions were non-educators, who were misinformed ( and mostly ignorant ) about curriculum, instruction, educational philosophies et al. 

These business experts ( not educational experts ) narrowed curriculum and strictly focused it on literacy and mathematics.  To maximize profit and minimize expenses, they curtailed other subjects important to a well-rounded education, such as the Arts, the sciences, the social studies, and others.  Success was only measured by test results.

After 7 years of implementation ( from 2002 - 2009 ), critics evaluated Blueprint and Children First's overall impact.  San Diego students compared with other students from the surrounding districts improved only moderately (59).  NYC's statistics were tweaked to produce impressive results: student drop-out rate was ignored leaving "children behind;" test standards were lowered to increase passing rate; good schools that were steadily progressing and performing well overall and cumulatively were punished for receiving a bad grade that year.

Primary and secondary schools are suffering the consequences of NCLB-like policy first hand.  Nonetheless signs are showing that its effects are lingering into post-secodary education ( colleges and universities ).  Skills garnered from the NCLB model of "schooling" ( instead of educating ) students were mostly useful "for taking state tests [thus] students were not prepared to read college textbooks, job-training manuals or anything else that was not specific to the state tests" (88). In fact, 75% of NYC high school graduates attending 2 year colleges are enrolled in remedial courses in reading, writing, and mathematics (88).
 
Hopefully these results help people, such as voting citizens and policy makers to realize that there are no short cuts for reform, and fear tactics are detrimental in reform.  Carl Cohn says that genuine school reform "is dependent upon empowering those at the bottom, not punishing them from the top" (66).  Cohn agrees with authors of Trust in Schools Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider that cooperation and trust are important in order to make positive changes.

from Daine Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System..."