Everyone loves good, fun competition. For many, opportunities to prove one’s greatness, fully display admired talents, and beat out a friend or rival are just irresistible. I can take that shot better than her… His writing is mundane. Let me show him how it’s done… That blueberry pie was tasty, but mine is delectable.
For several decades now, education reformers have tried to design policies that tap into this competitive nature that humans and their institutions are prone to exhibit under the right conditions. Whether it’s through the creation of charter schools,federal grant competitions, or “Teacher of the Year” contests, policymakers have rightly recognized that teachers and principals need systems and incentives that bring out their “I want to win, I can do that better” spirits. (I can hear the booing and moaning of education school professors and Deweyites in the background.)
But during this same period of time, after countless conversations about competition and incentives, teachers and principals haven’t made the drastic gains and improvements that we’re all hoping for. You’ve heard it: Student achievement scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are essentially flat(except for small gains from a few subgroups). The U.S. continues to be outrankedby its Asian counterparts in science and mathematics achievement, even though there has been some recent growth. And crime rates remain too high in schools that serve mostly poor, minority students.
Why is this? Well, at the elementary and middle school levels, I partly blame pretty bulletin boards like this one: