Are Corporate Education Reformers Like Young Earth Creationists?
Last week a commenter calling himself DrSpector posted a response to John Thompson's essay about the Gates Foundation's Imaginary World of School Reform.In part, DrSpector said this:
I think the rhee-formers are the equivalent of the so-called "creationists" and so-called "intelligent design" supporters - they believe what they believe and NO amount of evidence will EVER change their minds, no matter how incorrect and misguided they are.
This echoes a post I wrote last fall, "Is Education Reform a Faith-Based Belief System?"
In the spirit of the recent debate between science educator Bill Nye and creationist Ken Ham, let's take a look at the central points of belief for corporate education reform, and see if there is evidence.
Reformer Belief Number One: Poverty can best be overcome by excellent schools, and this is proven by the exceptional schools that they highlight as examples of what can be done.
Evidence: It would be great if this were true, but these miracle schools almost always are revealed to be fairly ordinary when we look more closely. And the data shows that poverty exerts a strong downward pressure on student achievement. It is time to stop pretending that our schools can somehow repair the income gap.
Reformer Belief Number Two: Preparing larger numbers of children for college will significantly reduce poverty.
The belief carries within it the assumption that middle class jobs await those who graduate with