Yesterday I had a review of a book "published" (electronically) by a University-sponsored (electronic) publication called Education Review. Edited by Carl Glickman, the book is entitled Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education (2008 Election Edition). As I hold the copyright to the review, it appears in its entirety below the fold.
I have already written about this book here, especially in Creating Schools We Can Trust which is the titled of the "letter" in the book written by Deborah Meier. I also referred to part of Jim Popham wrote in Lessons Learned About Testing - an important document from the National Research Council. Thus you may in the review encounter material I have already presented here.
Simply put, this may be the most important book to read in the time of reauthorization of NCLB. And it should be mandatory reading for any politician - or citizen - truly interested in maintaining and improving our public schools.
Below the fold is the contents of the review (w/some additional hyperlinks).
In his "Note on the 2008 Election Edition" Carl Glickman explains why a book released only three years ago needs a new edition:
Why a new edition? Because we are beginning a new era of possibilities about what it means to be a well-educated American and because no issue is more important to America’s future than quality of education for its next generation of citizens. Only an informed and engaged citizenry can revitalize American democracy, so this time we have to get it right. (p. xi)
"So this time we have to get it right." The first edition of the book came out more than two years after the signing of No Child Left Behind, and this updated edition was released in the middle of the ongoing debates over reauthorization of that law. Many from across the political and educational spectra have called for significant changes to that law which so drives educational policy in this country.
Addressing such a document in 2004 to "the next president" implied that the current president, who was after all running for reelection, was probably not amenable to the suggestions being offered. Now we face an election without an incumbent, and perhaps the title is more appropriate. Given that four of the Democratic candidates (Kucinich in the House, Dodd, Clinton and Obama in the Senate) sit on the committees responsible for reauthorization, this is a book that has some immediate relevance, and might well be useful not only for them but for all the other candidates of both parties, that is, if they are willing to listen to some real truths from people who are intimately involved with education and understand the impact of the policy decisions a president can make or can influence.
I begin with the appropriate level of disclosure. I am a classroom teacher, in my case high school social studies, and also an education advocate, with strong views on many of the issues addressed in this book. I have lobbied on issues related to No Child Left Behind, especially in conjunction with the director of the Forum on Educational Accountability. That organization’s Joint Organizational Statement is one of the key resources provided to the reader. Further, I have corresponded with several of the contributors, and am an open admirer of several more. In other words, I come to this book predisposed to be favorable to what those authors have to offer. And in general I found myself in agreement with most of what the authors presented. Having recently written a number of online pieces examining the educational proposals of four of the Democratic candidates, I note both overlap from some of those plans and the materials in this book, and some issues addressed more clearly by the writers of the letters than I have yet to see on the part of any major American politician.
Before getting into the specific suggestions offered, let me describe the structure of the book. It begins with a dedication that is worth repeating:
To all children, who deserve an education steeped in wisdom, engagement, and public purpose.
Besides the previously mentioned Note on this edition, the book begins with a foreword by Bill Cosby (who has masters and doctoral degrees in education from the University of Massachusetts), acknowledgements, and the introduction that was part of the original 2004 edition.
The book is then divided into five parts:
1. Schools for All
2. Learning for All
3. Teaching for All
4. Standards for All
5. Education for All
There is a conclusion, written by Linda Darling-Hammond, a list of organizations for parents, educators and activists, the organizational statement from FEA, and notes about the Editor and Contributors. At the end of his original introduction, Glickman provides a list of sources and suggested readings. And within the five parts are 37 letters, the authors of which range from nationally known figures in education such as Deborah Meier, John Goodlad, James Popham, and Ted Sizer, to the director and present and former students of the Little Singer Community School, a solar-powered charter school in Northeastern Arizona set up to allow children of the Navajo nation to get rooted in their own culture before moving on to more traditional public education.
Even in an extended review, it is impossible to explore all of the riches contained in this book. As Glickman notes, some of the letters have been updated for this edition, and there is a letter on Crafting Legislation by Elizabeth Debray-Pilot that is new for this edition. That letter urges our next president to attempt to take the partisan elements out of educational policy, and notes that only Congressional hearing for the authorization of No Child Left Behind, and the only witness was then Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Debray-Pilot reviews the history of how the old coalition of groups that had influenced educational policy in Democratic congresses and administrations was replaced when Republicans took power at the same time that education was becoming more important for governors as well as presidents. Unfortunately, that led to the voices of ideological think tanks being heard often to the exclusion of practitioner groups, and as led to increased hostility on the part of such groups to educational mandates being imposed through the Congress. There is no doubt that there are serious issues facing America about our schools, but if we are going to be successful in addressing them, if we are going to able to openly ask the difficult questions and examine the hard challenges, if we cannot remove partisanship we are unlikely to reach conclusions and agree on actions that will be able to improve our schools. Having this letter as the final one before the conclusion reminds us that regardless of our own views on education, we need to acknowledge the importance of including a wide diversity of voices if the policies we seek to craft for education are going to gain the support necessary if they are going to have significant and salutary effects on our schools.
It is impossible in a review of this length to cover fully the riches of this book. Let me touch on a few examples that I hope will illustrate just how rich it is. In a letter entitled "How Our High School Makes A Difference" George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in rural Stewart, Ohio, notes that the school is built around long class periods, with teachers having fewer than 80 students a day. I note that teacher load is the maximum level recommended by Ted Sizer in his Horace books that led to the Coalition of Essential Schools, of which Federal Hocking is a member. Wood previously founded a school in Los Angeles, served as an elected school member and as a professor of education at Ohio University before embarking on his current role, which also includes his serving as director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. As is typical in CES schools, Federal Hocking has a great focus on the use of portfolios to evaluate students for graduation. They also, as he notes, "have developed an advisory system than ensures every student is closely followed throughout high school by an adult who knows him or her well" (p. 86). He views this as important because "students are more willing to take risks in front of adults whom they know well, and change certainly involves risk. They are also more likely to model productive adult behavior when they have the chance to be near productive adults" (p. 89). While not necessarily arguing for exact replication of his school, Wood draws a number of lessons he thinks should be applied and which he recommends to the next president:
* The president leads by providing a vision of our goals and the methods we will use to achieve them.
* Funds are made available for innovations and multiple approaches are welcome.
* Decision-making authority is localized and decentralized.
* Regulations are limited or waived.
* Outcomes are broad, with multiple measures of success embraced." (p. 91).
Such lists of suggestions occur in a number of other letters. Deborah Meier, who also founded several schools that were part of the Coalition of Essential Schools (and who is along with Wood among the conveners of the Forum for Education and Democracy) includes in her list focusing on smaller schools, encouraging local decision making, getting good information, providing choice for parents, providing resources for improving facilities and supporting professionals, providing time including for parents to be more part of the lives of their children, using a language of respect (about which more anon) and closing the gaps. Former Senator Jim Jeffords, who titles his letter "It’s Past Time to Fund What We Mandate" asks for serving every Title I eligible child, meeting all of the mandates of NCLB, increasing funding for Pell grants and other sources of post-secondary financial aid, providing quality professional development for all school personnel with an emphasis on science and math, and finally providing the full 40% federal share of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Reynold Levy, president of the Lincoln Center for the Arts, presents a list of arguments on behalf of the role of arts in education.
Rachel Tompkins, president of the Rural School and Community Trust provides two lists, one with the ways research shows small schools to be more effective, as well as a list of things the Federal government can appropriately do to improve education, including continued support for the E-rate and making greater investment in appropriate technology and its use. Her "Nine Million Voices" points out that 40 percent of the nation’s public schools are in rural communities or towns with a population under 25,000, and these schools contain 28% of our nation's school children. She also explores the ways much of our educational policy seems to ignore the particular needs of our rural schools, which contrary to public opinion are often as diverse as are our inner city schools, with blacks in Mississippi, Native Americans in South Dakota, and, Hispanics in New Mexico illustrating that diversity.
Beyond lists, there are many insightful comments. I want to quote the beginning of Deborah Meier’s 7th point, which is entitled "Use a Language of Respect":
Since kids cannot learn from teachers or schools that they neither trust nor respect, the way we publicly talk about teachers and schools matters. Disrespect comes in many forms, but it starts with our leadership. Our children learn by example: It’s hard to be taught by people whom powerful people look down upon. Keep this in mind when you think about how little teachers are paid and what that pay differential says to kids. I have seen too many parents act out the disrespect they read in their local newspapers and hear from their local and national politicians and then act surprised when their kids act up. Please, be careful how you speak of schools and teachers when you address the nation in press conferences and public speeches. (pp. 24-25)
I wish those words would be read by every politician, officeholder, or aspirant to office, before they bloviate further on the failings of our public schools and our teachers. They need to realize the impact of the words they speak, and how that impact makes improving our schools that much more difficult. But then, I am a public school teacher who regularly encounters precisely what Meier describes, so perhaps you, dear reader, will therefore discount my words. Be careful, because without dedicated teachers no reform will work. That is why a book like this, which includes the voices of professional educators, is such a valuable resource.
In recent years our educational policy at state as well as national levels has focused on accountability. I have in the past described approaches such as those upon which NCLB is based as "the beatings will continue until the morale improves." I often wonder how many dictating educational policy truly believe that public shaming is an effective way of improving education. Thus, when I read an essay entitled "The No-Win Accountability Game" by one of America’s great experts on testing, W. James Popham, I find moral comfort beginning with his opening paragraph:
Few Americans will deny that our public schools urgently require improvement. However, few Americans realize that a test-based accountability strategy that originally intended to improve our schools is now having precisely the opposite effect. (p. 166)
Popham, now emeritus at UCLA, has served as President of the American Educational Research Association, where, as the biographical information about him on p. 275-76 notes
He was the founding editor of AERA’s quarterly journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. In 2002, the National Council on Measurement in Education presented him with its award for Career Contributions to Educational Measurement.
Policy makers have no more listened to the professional measurement experts like Popham than they have to classroom teachers and administrators. Popham’s "letter" is one of the most important of the contributions to the book. He discusses the limitations of testing in a way that is easily accessible to those without a background either in education or in psychometrics. He reminds us that even tests aligned with state content standards have a shortcoming that "they attempt to measure far too many content standards" because "Most states’ officially approved content standards are little more than well-intentioned curricular wish list because the curriculum specialists who identified those content standards wanted the state’s students to learn all sorts of wonderful things" (p. 171). Popham warns us that at best we can measure a modest number of the most significant skills we want our students to master. He closing paragraph is potentially chilling, if we consider our recent forays into national educational policy making, although it also offers hope to the president who will listen to Popham, and the other authors in this book:
Democracy will not survive in any nation whose future citizens are poorly educated – and a poorly educated citizenry is what we will get if we impose a wrongheaded accountability strategy on our schools. Test-based educational accountability cannot work if it relies on inappropriate tests. A president who understands this situation – truly understands it – can set out to fix it. I truly hope you will. (p. 173)
Linda Darling-Hammond’s "Conclusion" is further entitled "Schools That Work For All Children." Perhaps because some people like Eric Hanushek have challenged the idea that spending more on schools makes any positive difference, Darling-Hammond devotes part of her essay towards the costs of not spending on education. At a time when there are fewer unskilled jobs without education, that lack of education is linked to crime and welfare dependency. And yet over the two decades of the 1980s and 1990’s we increased spending on corrections over 900%, seeing our incarcerated population triple. She continues:
During the 1990s, there were more African American citizens in the criminal justice system that there were in college. During the same period, per pupil spending for schools grew by only about forty percent in real dollar terms, and less in the cities which have fallen further behind their suburban neighbors in acquiring the resources to educate a growing population of students, more of whom speak little English, live in poverty, lack health care, and have special educational needs.
Children who receive inadequate education are increasingly unlikely to be able to become productive citizens, yet many schools – especially those that serve large numbers of students of color – lack the courses, materials, equipment, and qualified teachers that would give students access to the education they will need to participate in today’s and tomorrow’s world. More than half the adult prison population has literacy skills below those required by the labor market, and nearly forty percent of adjudicated juvenile delinquents have treatable learning disabilities that went undiagnosed and untreated in the schools. In short, because we did not invest enough in their education, we have had to pay at least five times as much each year to keep them in jail. (pp. 244-245)
Quality teachers are a necessity if we are going to improve our schools. Perhaps Darling-Hammond’s penultimate paragraph on p. 257 can put into context what it might cost to significantly increase our pool of such teachers:
For the cost of one percent of the Bush administration’s tax cuts in 2003, or the equivalent of one week’s combat costs during the war in Iraq, we could provide top-quality preparation for more than one hundred and fifty thousand new teachers to teach in high-need schools and mentor all of the new teachers who are hired over the next five years. With just a bit of focus and a purposeful plan, we could ensure that all students in the United States are taught by highly-qualified teachers within the next five years. Now that would be real accountability to children and their parents.
I hope that I have been able to give some sense of the power of this book. It is not that expensive, nor will it take all that long to read. It contains as much good and rational thinking about schools as I have encountered in one volume. There is a wealth of ideas, derived from the experience of committed people. Some are educators in schools and universities. Others are students, or parents, or like Jim Jeffords worked on legislation dealing with education. I do not deny that many of the authors have similar views on educational matters. Nor do I deny that I concur with many of their analyses and suggestions. Some who bring a different philosophy to the making of education policy might be tempted to argue that the book is therefore imbalanced. I would suggest that most voices from within education will disagree with those from think tanks and political consulting firms, and agreement with most of what is offered in this book. That one might have a different perception is largely because the voices of people from within education often do not get the audiences that others have had.
It is not that we educators are either unwilling to be held accountable for those things we can control nor do we fail to recognize the many problems in our schools as they currently are. But it is those of us within the classroom and the school building offices on whom any meaningful change will depend. One would think those wishing to alter our schools for the better might therefore consider including more voices from those of us whose efforts you will need for those alterations to work.
Perhaps you will argue that you have a different opinion than do I, or the authors of this book. My response would be that offered in a similar situation by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who informed someone asserting his different opinion that while he was entitled to his own opinion, he was not entitled to his own facts. The facts about America’s schools are fairly represented by the letters in this book. Even if you disagree with all the suggestions, that alone makes the book not only worth reading, it may make it essential reading for anyone who would presume to play a major role in reshaping educational policy in this country. It is equally useful for those who care about educational policy, whose lives and the lives of their children will inevitably feel the impact of any changes in educational policy, as so many have already felt the impact of No Child Left Behind. Read the book. You will find it time and money well spent.