Frederick M. Hess's Blog
"What the Hell, Dude?" Team Players and Edu-Reform
by Frederick M. Hess • Jun 8, 2010 at 9:57 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
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I've now had the experience several times in the past few months of having one or another friend of longstanding ask me something along the lines of, "What the hell?"
The "what" in question is me being critical of or asking questions about proposals and programs that "reformers" are supposed to support. If you've been reading this blog, you're aware that I've expressed concerns about Race to the Top, i3, Florida Senate Bill 6, overly enthusiastic claims for the power of value-added teacher evaluation, and so on. Now, don't get me wrong. As I've said in this space multiple times, I think these ideas are good ones and I support them in principle--even when I've grave concerns about program design and implementation.
But, for many of my friends, it seems that such measured support is insufficient. To paraphrase W., "You're either with us, or you're against us." If you're on the team then you pipe down, express any doubts quietly and through back channels, and sing from the group hymnal. And you certainly don't harp on messy details like
