Louisiana Educator: How Are Our Education Reforms Working?

Louisiana Educator: How Are Our Education Reforms Working?:

How Are Our Education Reforms Working?

Reform itself has become the new status quo in American education.

Radical education reform continues to be pushed by some of the richest and most powerful political forces in the country despite the lack of evidence that these reforms actually work. The proponents of radical corporate reform, are continuing to push for more privatization of schools, more standardized testing, and further degrading of the teaching profession. The shaming and blaming of teachers for all the problems in education is continuing to intensify with attacks now focusing on experienced teachers. My post of Aug 5 describes a nationwide attack on teacher tenure.

With major reforms such as the grading of schools and teachers based on student test scores and extensive school privatization in effect in many systems now for several years, it makes sense to evaluate the results of these changes. Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post reports here on the results of the reforms of the Washington DC system by Michelle Rhee and her successor.

It turns out that the schools in DC have shown absolutely no academic progress by students after some of the most radical reforms have been in effect for years. Here is the conclusion of the Strauss article:

"The latest results of the DC-CAS, the District of Columbia’s high-stakes standardized test, show that the percentage of public school students judged “proficient” or better in reading hasdeclined over the past five years in every significant subcategory except “white.”

"This is important, and not just for Washington, D.C. It is an indictment of the whole corporatized education movement. During these five years, first Michelle Rhee and then her assistant/successor Kaya Henderson controlled DCPS and they dideverything that the so-called “reformers” recommend: relying on standardized tests to rate schools, principals and teachers; Louisiana Educator: How Are Our Education Reforms Working?: