John Thompson: Education Reform Party is Over -- What a Mess!
Guest post by John Thompson.
Back when "Dandy Don" Meredith was host of Monday Night Football, when the game was all over but the shouting, he would break into song. We need a 21st century way of saying the obvious. Test-driven school "reform" failed. To borrow a phrase regarding "closing time," test-driven "reformers"do not have to go home, but they can't stay here in our children's schools.
In the short run, educators can read the tea leaves and speculate how and when the big boys will pull the plug on Michelle Rhee. D.C.'s local school system, such as it is, does not seem curious about the extent of cheating in its schools. Maybe, it will be the billionaires who say that she is no longer the face they want to put on "reform?" Could it be Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who calls for an investigation of Rhee's disinterest in the "smoking gun" memo describing the possible extent of cheating under her watch? If Rhee is subpoenaed, the chances are that she will again have to reinvent herself. This time, I suspect that Rhee will be reborn as a Fox News analyst.
Now is the time to discredit the technocrats' theories by showcasing the sheer absurdity of another bit of
Back when "Dandy Don" Meredith was host of Monday Night Football, when the game was all over but the shouting, he would break into song. We need a 21st century way of saying the obvious. Test-driven school "reform" failed. To borrow a phrase regarding "closing time," test-driven "reformers"do not have to go home, but they can't stay here in our children's schools.
In the short run, educators can read the tea leaves and speculate how and when the big boys will pull the plug on Michelle Rhee. D.C.'s local school system, such as it is, does not seem curious about the extent of cheating in its schools. Maybe, it will be the billionaires who say that she is no longer the face they want to put on "reform?" Could it be Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who calls for an investigation of Rhee's disinterest in the "smoking gun" memo describing the possible extent of cheating under her watch? If Rhee is subpoenaed, the chances are that she will again have to reinvent herself. This time, I suspect that Rhee will be reborn as a Fox News analyst.
Now is the time to discredit the technocrats' theories by showcasing the sheer absurdity of another bit of