We Need Changes Beyond School, Too
Deborah Meier continues her conversation with Robert Pondiscio. The two will finish co-blogging next week.
Dear Robert,
Let's use these last letters—our blog partnership ends next week!—to pursue your question: Do We Need Changes In Our Schools? Yes. Yes. Yes. (But maybe "reform" was never quite the right word.)
Given the nature of the beast, we are probably doing better than we ever have. That's important to remember. And we always needed better-educated citizens! But we won't get them until we identify both (1) what it is we are looking for and (2) what we know it would take to get there. That's where there's a serious divide among "reformers."
At present, we apparently have settled for closing the test-score gaps between the poor and rich on at least math and reading tests. Some, more realistic, just insist they all be proficient—although what that really means may be just as utopian. (Some may even not care as long as the reforms end teacher unionism and public education.)
But that's not the goal that has driven me (or you) for the last 50-plus years.
"Closing test score gaps" is probably an absurd goal even if we had great assessment tools. E.g. I could design an objective, standardized test that would close the score gaps between my three children or three different tests that put each in turn in the top spot—if I had the power to choose