Thoughts From a Former KIPP Teacher: Testing, Common Core, and Charters Are Myths
In the bid for a better education for all students in America, recent reform efforts have focused on increasing the expectations – standards and exams – for students. What is not explicitly discussed are the negative ways that these standards and exams target students of low socio-economic status and minorities – we are enamored as a nation with the mantra that higher expectations equals greater success. Many argue that the major reason students of color and of low-income have not excelled is because of a basic lack of belief in educators and persistent racism and prejudice in the schooling system. But this is just one factor of many. Raising expectations without identifying and ameliorating the larger causes of lower performance among students of color and low socioeconomic status fails to engage with the deeper inequality that exists in this nation. However, focusing on standards as one of many means to bolster achievement in high poverty/high minority schools is a way to strive for equity. Unfortunately, as Diane Ravitch has accurately pointed out, the implementation of the standardization movement over the last 20 years has fallen short. The reasons for this are twofold. Increased standardization – like scripted curriculum – and testing are bound to decrease engagement, among the engaged, and especially the disengaged. Secondly, when tied to testing, even great standards fall short due to the pressure placed on teachers and students to perform. Systemic change and standardization, so far, have failed to alter the nature of academic success in this country, particularly for the students who typically “underperform.”
The Myth of High Expectations?
Walk into any major charter school today, and even a large number of public schools, and you are bound to see a sign that proclaims “high expectations” for all students. It may be a “no excuses” sign, a “never give up” sign, a chart of goals, school test scores, and so on. There is nothing wrong, inherently, with raising the expectations for all students. Cohen (1996) accurately describes the belief that “systemic reform would reduce inequality in educational achievement if disadvantaged students were held to the same high standards as everybody else and if schools could be made to improve education across the board” (pp. 101). The problem lies in both what those expectations are and how much weight is placed on raising the bar.
With NCLB and the current state of education, the expectations trickle down from high stakes exams. This is not enough. Not only do these exams maintain the competitive edge white middle and upper-class students have, but they reduce the quality of education students could conceivably receive with high expectations of success and rigor, great standards and great teachers. I have seen the effects of this first hand working in KIPP schools, where students have learned quite well how to perform on exams, but have developed few of the critical thinking and problem solving skills and habits so desperately needed today. Ravitch (2011) justifiably decries,
What was once an effort to improve the quality of education turned into an accounting strategy: Measure, then punish or reward. No education experience was needed to administer such a program. Anyone who loved data could do it. The strategy produced fear and obedience among educators; it