With the inauguration of President-Elect Obama less than 30 days away, and with his selection of Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, as the Secretary of Education, there has been discussion in the press, on blogs, and in professional education societies about the future of education, and how the new administration will deal with teacher tenure, relationships with teacher unions, teacher education, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the “R” word, “Reform.”

Is the present system of education willing to paint a different picture for students and teachers?

According to many educators, the NCLB act was a movement to reform education, to hold schools accountable to the education of students by implementing stiff standards, and creating tests that would measure student performance and then could be used to induce students to “higher” levels of achievement.  To many, these ideas seemed reasonable.  Who would be against accountability?  Who wouldn’t want more rigorous schools?

In my own view, the ideas that are foundation of current educational reform as enacted in the NCLB act and in the Standards movement are based on a traditional model of education, and to make progress in reforming education, administrators from Washington DC to school systems around the country will need to think and act in different ways.  Conventional wisdom supports current efforts to reform education.  Conventional wisdom supports an educational system that:

• Generates high-stakes tests to measure student achievement, tests that are typically decontextualized, and of the multiple choice format.  They rarely involve the students in any sort of authentic knowing or learning.
• Encourages teachers to promote a form teaching that emphasizes rote learning—e.g. memorization, and practicing for the test.
• Is behaviorist in nature in the sense that rewards and punishments are used to “motivate” teachers and students, and indeed in a growing number of situations, money is used to reward students, and teachers. A corporate model is seen as the cog in educational reform.  How could anyone distrust the corporate model?  Huh!
• Charter schools are the answer to how schools should be organized, especially if the charter school is run by a corporation.

These are only a few of the ideas that seem to dominate the discussion of educational reform.  Yet, for most of these “innovations,” there is little educational research to support any of them.  For instance, the use of tests to keep student back a grade has been shown to counterproductive, and indeed the use of high-stakes tests have actually resulted in an increased dropout rate, and a decreased graduation rate.

In most discussions of educational reform, even in the thinking of new Secretary of Education, reform is based on the traditional model of teaching and learning which is mechanized, individualistic, dependent on teacher-directed activities, hierarchical—that is students rarely choose content or methodology, and finally I would add the basic emphasis is on literacy—the attainment and achievement of content knowledge—as defined in the standards.

This model of education has been around forever.  Tweaking the NCLB act would only reinforce this model, and in my own view it wouldn’t matter which political party was in Washington.  What is needed is a reformer in Washington who truly would pay attention to educational research, and base decisions and directions on educational research rather than on political will.  Is there research that might help us see education from a different perspective?

Tomorrow I want to explore some ideas that would address the issue of (science) education reform.

In the meantime, here are some ideas to consider:

Is Duncan a good choice for Education Secretary? This is a brief article by a professor at the University of Chicago, who makes the claim that Duncan is not a good choice.

What is Duncan’s view of teacher unions?  An article that shows that Duncan get along with unions, but also is an educational reformer—of sorts.

The Case Against Tougher Standards and the NCLB act by Alfie Kohn. A powerful article that supports the contention that the Standards movement and the NCLB act is moving education in the wrong direction.

The Status of Reform by Alfie Kohn. Kohn makes comments about the nature of reform, and unlikelihood that the kind of reform he has in mind is the kind of reform that swirls around DC education circles.