School 'Reform': A Failing Grade

The article School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade, by Diane Ravitch, describes the debate surrounding public school education, and how two competing interests – those of prominent politicians and businessmen versus those of most teachers and parents – have drawn their battle lines. The author acknowledges that public schools in America are performing poorly, but argues that the problem is caused by a combination of misguided federal laws and inadequate state funding for schools, which hamstrings the ability of teachers to properly educate their students. Diane Ravitch does not take political sides, instead blaming both George W. Bush (for signing the NCLB act) and Barack Obama (for granting waivers to NCLB under onerous conditions) for overemphasizing standardized testing as a form of teacher evaluation. Time and time again, Ravich declares that poverty – not malicious teachers or teachers’ unions - is the root of our education problem, and asserts that the current reliance on standardizes tests puts already disadvantaged children at risk of being left behind. Her solution to America’s education problem is fourfold: pregnant women should be given “proper nutrition and medical care”, children in poor communities should be provided “high-quality education from an early age”, teachers should be trained to support children’s “social, emotional and intellectual development”, and national policies should be adopted that expand economic opportunity for the lower class [8]. This essay cites statistics, but uses them as peripheral support the main argument, rather than using them to back a more analytical paper. The key idea in this paper is the existence of two version of school reform; one that believes in “rigidly defined numerical goals and return on investment”, and another that focuses on compassion; rather than blaming teachers, unions or students, it focuses on a society that “refuses to take responsibility for the conditions in which its children live and learn [8].”

Diane Ravitch may not claim affiliation to an existing political party in America, but in this article she defines her ‘platform’ as one that is based on communities, rather than top-down administration. This can be seen in her introductory paragraphs, which frame the current education “crisis” as being a creation of politicians who believe that greater accountability, i.e. more government oversight, is the solution. Ravitch deconstructs this idea by targeting a contemporary author, Steven Brill, and highlighting his fixation on wealthy, upper-class socialites who believe that education outcomes can be measured and quantified like a stock chart. “School reform is their favorite cause, and they like to think of themselves as leaders in the civil rights movement of their day, something unusual for men of their wealth and social status.” Ravitch contrasts this type of reform with an approach that favors “changes based on improving curriculum, facilities, and materials, improving teacher recruitment and preparation, and attending to the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children.” Her portrayal of these two schools of thought is rather binary; her side is right, and the other is wrong, and only her side truly ‘cares’ about the fate of America’s children. However, her style of delivery does not attack the other side of the debate categorically; she does not believe that Steven Brill’s crowd is wrong because they are rich, rather, it is because their focus is too dependent on quantifiable aspects of education. Ravich knows that her solutions cannot succeed without the support of this group, however, so her closing paragraphs are framed (implicitly) as a request to the powers that be: ‘Stop trying to punish teachers and administrators who want to help kids; give them the funds and programs they need to do their jobs, and you will be able to see the outcomes without needing to test for them.’

Cultural questions that this essay (potentially) tries to answer:

1.       Is our public school system inherently broken, or are environmental factors to blame?

2.       What are the factors that cause inner-city schools to fail?

3.       What prevents people from seeing eye-to-eye in this debate, and is there any solution that can cross party lines?