John Thompson: Can the Gates Foundation Learn?
Guest post by John Thompson.
PBS's John Merrow explains how grassroots, bipartisan outrage is toppling Common Core State Standards and the national testing that it accompanies. He says, "at least two other issues are at play: bubble test fatigue and concern over top-down 'technocratic' control of what most Americans think of as a local enterprise, public education."
Reformers once won a series of political victories, even as their educational theories were repeatedly defeated by realities in schools that are far more complex than anything they imagined. Improving schools, as opposed to defeating political enemies, has been an exhausting process of pushing a boulder uphill.
Now, the rock of reality has overwhelmed their theories and it is rolling back down. Merrow writes,
We can push a boulder down the hill but are powerless to control what happens next. That's what seems to be going on here, and at some point we are going to find out what and who will be crushed. As often happens when adults do battle in education, some children's futures will be 'collateral damage.'
Merrow then tackled the question that I repeatedly hear - after data-driven reform collapses, what next? "If we end up starting the higher standards process all over again," he recommends, "let's agree that teachers must be well-represented at the table." After all, education is about relationships. "No matter what the technocrats believe or wish, Merrow notes, education is not a commodity, and "children are not objects to be weighed and measured." "Teachers have to beJohn Thompson: Can the Gates Foundation Learn? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: