Nobody Daily – 6/17/08

Nobody Asked Me But:

Yesterday was gay wedding day in Los Angeles, and a paraphrase of the traditional ceremony seems to me to be most appropriate:

Whom love has joined together let no initiative measure put asunder.

David Brooks had a very interesting column in The NY Times on June 13 in which he defined the two schools of thought on what is best to do about the problems of public education. Here they are with my comments following.

The status quo camp:

1. Poverty and broad social factors drive high dropout rates and other bad outcomes.
2. Schools alone can’t combat that, so more money should go to health care programs, anti-poverty initiatives and after-school and pre-K programs.
3. When it comes to improving schools, we need to spend more on what we’re already (feebly) trying to do: smaller class sizes, better instruction, better teacher training.

The reformist camp:

1. The greatest need is for rigorous accountability and changing the fundamental structure of school systems.
2. Today’s school systems aren’t broken, the reformers argue. They were designed to meet the needs of teachers and adults first, and that’s exactly what they are doing. It’s time, though, to put the interests of students first.
3. Change the structure of the system, not just spend more on the same old things.
4. Tough decisions have to be made about who belongs in the classroom and who doesn’t.
5. Parents have to be given more control over education through public charter schools.
6. Teacher contracts and state policies that keep ineffective teachers in the classroom need to be revised.
7. Accountability has to be rigorous and relentless.

I think that the truth is somewhere in between:

1. Spend more money. Quality does not come at bargain prices.
2. Break the power of teacher unions, district administrators and the politicians who have opinions about education, but no expertise.
3. Get rid of bad teachers and administrators, keep the good ones and reward the excellent ones.
4. Emphasize accountability but not solely or even mainly evaluated by standardized tests for this is the way to destroy creativity.