EDF 5307
Trends in the
Social-Political Foundations of
Dr. Dorn
Prepared by Christina Smith
December 2006
Major emphasis over the course was in reading The American Dream in Public Schools, Tinkering toward Utopia, and Accountability Frankenstein. Accountability is what was emphasized overall in the course of Trends in the Social-Political Foundations of U.S. Schools Throughout the course I discovered and uncovered some of the many things that have become the very foundation of accountability and its effects. The supplemental articles that we read to enhance understanding of accountability were Bush v. Holmes, Families Challenging Religious Influence in Delaware Schools, Religious Speech Cut from Las Vegas Graduation Ceremony, Do employers really need more educated youth?, Educational performance standards and the economy, Florida Chamber Foundation. 2002, Achieve, Inc. web site, Public-Private School Achievement Debate, blogs of Barnett Barry and Andy Rotherham, Angry Board Spurns Dropout Study, Landing on the Wrong Note: The Price We Paid for Brown, and Hatred in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools. The majority details of accountability that were uncovered in my readings were how schools came about, social problems, global economic issues, schooling as a business, diversity, social class, sexual orientation and gender identity, religion, Freedom of Speech, motivating students and teachers, the public, media, school reform, testing and the education system as a whole.
Schools were created to be accountable
for educating our youth in
Along with having “real
school” comes school choice as mentioned by Tyack and Cuban, through
accountability standards and schools that are be labeled as failing; gives the
American people a choice of what schools students want to attend. If your school does not perform you have
other options beyond Public High Schools they include Charter Schools, Private
Schools, Parochial Schools or Magnet Schools. Giving everyone school choice,
although accountability for each school is different for each type of school.
It is the one reason why so many parents choose a school other than the public
school.
In the establishment of our education system it became accountable to cure all the social problems of our society. Tyack and Cuban addresses the myth that “the belief that would better schools make a better society” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 1, page 14). The majority of people thought that the current generation of students were getting a better education in school than their parents did and therefore had the misconception that this would be for the good of our society. Also, the belief that schooling guarantees a better society has political implications. Tyack and Cuban discussed that schools have become a target when they are thought to be able to solve social problems and then they do not. We have progressed, students stay in school longer, score better on tests, and more go to college, along with the increase in crime has not solved social problems either.
With the launching of Sputnik and the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, accountability has become a growing global economic issues. It addresses that our students should be learning more and should be accountable to what happens world-wide. The Achieve Inc. web site and Florida Chamber Foundation web site is about the new global economy and the changing nature of the kinds of jobs that our young people graduating from school will enter. The Achieve Inc. web site goes on to say that about two-thirds of the jobs now require some type of postsecondary education. Both colleges and employers are complaining more than ever that the graduating high school students are lacking in mathematics, science, and communication skills.
The article by Rosenbaum, Do Employers Really Need More Educated Youth? addressed one of the political questions of the 1990’s was how to increase youths’ skills to meet the needs of the workforce. There have been conflicting opinions by the sociologists and the economists. Economists thought that employers wanted maximum productivity and in order to do so they looked for the best and brightest workers and paid them according to their level of skills. The economists believe that employers need workers with skills but the skills are not easy to measure. Whereas the sociologists thought that workers should be paid according to employment structure/scale.
Schooling as a business raises accountability issues, as some would believe. Establishing accountability of schools in relationships to business are unreasonable expectations to our schools, students, teachers, and administrators. Businesses have a system of accountability, much different than of schools. Trying to get experts and denoting the new era with professionalism, businesses became involved when schools grew bigger. Although trying to run schools more in a management type of environment, schools still had federal and state mandates, unlike many global businesses. Nonetheless the development of the Rapid Learning Settings in Texarkana, a defense contractor getting in the business of education was created. The Rapid Learning Settings were among many others who wanted to show that students could improve in academic performance through education as a business. The final results ended up as a scandal as Tyack and Cuban stated “The centers were not just teaching to the test, they were teaching the tests.” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 5, page 120). Schools are not like a business with products and certain outcomes. Students are unique individuals, which are not comparable to a product.
Diversity in our large demographics of
race, culture, language, disabilities and gender identities all revolve around
accountability to the American people. In this category of diversity it is a
direct result of having no choice, you are born the way you are born. In Hochschild and Scovronick , Chapter 8,
recognizes that the American Dream is still the same but we have to look at the
new America. We have a growing population of diversity in race, culture, and
ethics. Hochschild and Scovronick stated that “The most recent federal law on special
education is consistent with our view: it strongly encourages mainstreaming
even among those with substantial physical, emotional, or learning
disabilities.”( Hochschild and Scovronick, Chapter 8, page 136)
We now mainstream students with learning disabilities, along with more
diversity in race, culture, and ethics among students in the classroom.
The drop-out rates have been on the decline for whites and blacks, but it does
not seem similar for our Hispanic population that is growing at a tremendous
rate. America is becoming more sensitive to the needs of each individual and
applies it to the collective goals of the American Dream. Progress has been
limited and our students have yet to surpass their parents and the shift to
national priorities especially after September 11, 2001. In all reality it does
matter where you come from, what classes you take, the schools you attend and
in what district you live in. Neighborhoods demonstrate the quality of
education and that is very difficult to change. There is on the rise a new
demography. With the change in demographics there will be a racial generation
gap. Suggested from the reading is that there will also be more discrepancies
between poor and the wealthy. Education in the New America being our new multicultural
American, more and more accommodations are being made to fulfill each person’s
American Dream. Through education we must provide a common American culture
through our history and based on English. For everyone to compete globally we
must also share a language. It is known that particular views, values, or
cultures are like political dynamite. In order for us to improve
education we must improve the standards, such as increased accountability,
greater incentives for better teachers through recruitment and assignments.
Through this increase it will be hard to find excellent teachers with salaries
not being competitive enough to keep teachers in teaching. I also know there is
desegregation, but through the population growing, one area draws a certain
race or culture, and therefore is going to have bias with the areas of their
race or culture. Each school and district needs to meet the needs of
their community. Possibly why so much of reform and regulation is based
at that level, they know the needs better than anybody. And yet NCLB ties
Federal mandates to local communities. “It’s a bad thing because people are
making decisions about my children who haven’t met my children…. Because of
this greatstakes atmosphere, it’s focused on just a few curriculum areas, in
particular math and reading, which are important, but the rest falls by the
wayside.” (The Tennassean, No Child Left Behind critic a hit with teachers) Our
society is so diverse and where they are located makes America very diverse. It
is very difficult where to draw the line, but we must concentrate on the
American Dream and what was set out for in the beginning and that is the
equality of education no matter where you come from. It only makes sense if you
speak a foreign language you would want to speak English to be competitive
among jobs, just as if you went to another country you would want to speak
their language and if you wanted to compete globally you would want to know
many languages.
Throughout the history of education Tyack and Cuban addresses another myth about the progress being a rule in public education. Progress was thought to give direction and reason for the reforms in our education system. It was the educator’s belief that Americans were gaining not only more schooling but were also better educated, including the fact that students were staying in school longer. The teachers were better paid and teachers were forced to be better qualified as well as an increase in high stakes testing. The population that suffered the most from inequalities, the poor, minorities, middle class, disabled, etc. had little influence over educational policies taking place. In my opinion, I don’t think that what some consider progress in education is necessarily beneficial for all because until all of the population’s educational needs are addressed such as inner city schools constantly failing, inferior buildings, teachers, and equipment, etc The population will not stand a chance of catching up or meeting up with progress if the schools that are not benefiting from the progress.
Throughout the reading it was relevant that social class has always been an important role throughout history. Today, it is whether the wealthy can help pay for educating the poorer children of their community. The battle for this has been proven successful in New Jersey, Vermont and in Kentucky by distributing tax dollars equally to benefit educational opportunities all students, especially to provide education to the poorer students who couldn’t otherwise afford the benefits of education and the American Dream. Students of poor communities motivate equal educational opportunities. and we are accountable to continue to provide such opportunities. Equal education has been around for a very long time. It seems to be more focused on poorer students. It seems students in poorer communities do poorly on school base testing scores. It has been an increase in school reform for more funding and qualified teachers to raise poorer students learning environment that increase scores of more high stakes testing. It is proven that poorer student’s score lower on test even in Kentucky where they have whole school learning. Fair learning seldom provides the poor students with the tools to reach the high standards of teaching.
Sexual orientation and gender identity is
growing among our youths today. They
say that if the comments were racial,
the teachers and administrators would be accountable to stop them, but because
the comments are sexual, they don't.
There is no such accountability laws in most states that protect
students from harassment based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation
or gender identity. I believe we are accountable in protecting students and
provide our students a safe learning environment. Students that are harassed are affected
greatly. “They drop out of school. Some
commit suicide. Others just barely survive as they navigate the open hostility
of peers and the deliberate indifference of school officials. They try to do
well academically, but much of their energy is focused on surviving another
day.” (Human Rights Watch, Hatred in the Hallways, Introduction)
Religion in schools have made schools accountable in not pushing one religious beliefs on others, therefore prayer in schools and any references made to someone’s religion is an infringement of equal opportunities in education. A heated topic as always as our population grows and many people with the choice of their own religion or their religion based on their culture. In the reading, I believe that communities are as responsible as schools, the fact that communities are allowed to be abusive on others religion is hateful and not American. If the community cannot accept the religion of others, how can the school have any accountability when this can effect how that students learn.
Along the lines of religion I must include Freedoms of speech in schools make us accountable, because here to we may not push a belief onto others. That is why speeches are pre-approved by a school members. In the reading school officials pulled the plug when the student started pushing their beliefs on others and was not the pre-approved speech to begin with.
The motivation behind accountability in one sense is
to motivate students to do well
is an answer, but without the resources, sufficient time, appropriate
curriculum, and good teachers, they will not be able to learn. With much
diversity in the schools, abuse and harassment of personal choices, students
will not be able to learn either.
Another sense of motivation to accountability is in motivating teachers through
performance of students in high-stakes testing does not motivate teachers. “So
National goals and curriculum standards, presumably to be followed by some form
of national assessments, are to be compiled with school site management of the
learning process. Teachers are to be
told what to teach, but no how to teach it, and they are responsible for
achieving these goals.” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 3, Page 80) It
has never worked in the past and the fact that politicians believe in
high-stakes testing without looking into the research associated with
motivation can make such demands such as performance pay based on student
performance. There were several key points that clarify that and reinforce my
own thoughts as well as the thoughts of other teachers. They include: teachers
oppose it, materialistic values, it does not motivate the students to do
better, other reforms that impose on professional development, teaching is a
complex job, parents need to step up, children’s self interest v. adult
interest, business v. the business of schooling, teach and test mode of
teaching, labeling of schools or the scarlet letter approach, academic
curriculum, mandated constraints, reaching goals that are unreachable, and who is
improving our educational system. The Eric Hanushek interview led to another discussion making
teachers accountable to student performance.
This is another hot topic and through group discussion no one was
finding it reasonable. I would like to
say that Eric’s wish has come true in Levy County, student performance is now a
part of our evaluation and law in the State of Florida requires it. “Murnane
and Cohen argue that merit pay seldom works if its intent is to get teachers to
excel” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 5, page 130) It all boils down to
blaming the teacher when reforms or innovations do not work, when no one asked
the teacher in the first place.
The public wants accountability in correlation to data. Through testing provides this data whether accurate or not. Everyone is fairly happy with our schools systems, it the ideal “American Dream”. It seems over the years public opinion through political groups has changed the way our schools are thought of. “If standards are high and everyone has a challenging curriculum, then we can justifiably hold students, teachers, and schools accountable for results.” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 8, page 200) Most Americans support higher standards, testing, and punishing students or staff based on test results. The majority wants teachers retrained if students are consistently fail standardized tests. The majority agree that publishing test scores make schools more accountable. Accountability Frankenstein by Dorn addresses that “the push that results from testing and accountability is what is important, not the details of the test and statistics.” (Dorn, page 39) But they raise difficult issues such as do students have the opportunity to learn, are they given a fair chance to meet new standards, equity in finance, focus on teachers to meet new instructional demand, recruitment of teachers and retaining teachers, equity disputes, fair opportunity, and the drill and kill approach. The public seems to support an educational reform including increase spending more than anyone. The public wants everyone to have an education and the opportunity to pursue the American Dream.
School reform happens through historical events, as education grows as rights to an equal education increases. Many reforms were created based on many of the historical events such as the creation of the Webster English Dictionary, the Revolution of 1848, World War I, Smith Hughes Act of 1917, World War II, Sputnik (1957), Civil Acts of 1954, Brown v School Board of Education (1954), Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Vietnam War, and Bush v Holmes. The views of education increased with the historical events causing a new demand with each event for more higher-level courses and high stakes testing. Along with this came many legislature responses with Title 1X-Equity of Education, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1954, Vocational Education Act of 1963, Carl Perkins Act of, Disabilities Act, STW Act of 1994, Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Goals 2000, and George W. Bush’s NCLB in 2001. Much of what is seen is how funding is tied to accountability in order for such laws to be enforced to provide equal education. As Goals 2000 was implemented to set eight objective goals to include higher levels of math and science, making education an America commitment. Along with teachers, those need to be qualified and educated and increase high-stakes testing has been shifting over the past half-century. Tyack and Cuban states that “Vulnerable to pressure from federal and state governments to become more accountable—especially when funding from those levels increase” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 5, page 117) School reform progresses to provide equalities in education. It has progressed slowly and it is better than it was years ago, but will we never meet the 100 percent of equality in education that No Child Left Behind Act requirement. Tinkering with Utopia by Tyack and Cuban stated that "it is doubtful that any child can reasonably expect to be successful in life if denied the opportunity of an education."(Tyack and Cuban, Chapter 1, page 26) Another quote by Susan Ohanian, advocate for stopping the NCBL act, stated that, “The law declares that 100 percent of children must be reading on grade level by 2014. I taught children with learning difficulties for 20 years. That’s not going to happen.” (The Tennessean, No Child Left Behind critic a hit with teachers, November 29, 2006) I would have to agree with Susan Ohanian. The poor and minorities will always have inequalities. They say compared to the past, more students are in schools, students stay in school longer, score better on test and many more go to college. The reason there is more students statistically speaking is because we have more people going to school than we did years ago.
It doesn’t seem that the media is truly accountable in it’s reporting of data about schools and how it portrays education and how it plays in important role in education. Media news sells and they prefer to write about the low grades and poorer schools. It would be nice to see stories about more than test scores. “To gauge the success of a school is to look at the whole organization—academics, arts, athletics, attendance and graduation rates, school climate, teacher-student ratio, and student/parent satisfaction—“No Child Left Behind” leaves out many markers of excellence!”” (Bluefield Daily Telegraph, What “No Child Left Behind” leaves out, November 16, 2006) In my opinion our papers carry traditional bad news, which sells better than good news, but we need to have them write more about what schools have to offer students in their community. Schools, teachers, and administrators must take the lead and show the people that we are accountable in many different ways other than test scores.
Publications that have changed accountability are Publications that have changed accountability are A Nation at Risk written in 1983, Cardinals Principal of Education in 1917, and Committee of Ten in 1893. People that were influential to accountability are Thomas Jefferson, President Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and. Jeb Bush. Groups that have been influential in accountability issues are the Florida Chamber Foundation, Achieve Inc., and NEA ( National Education Association) Other types of reforms that go unnoticed are the innovations created by reform that go unnoticed, things such as blackboards, texts, desk, and more recently computers and the Internet. These innovations effect accountability through better ways to teach, increase curriculum standards. Hochschild and Scovronick made it clear that the United States was founded on an American Dream and based on that, since the beginning we have strived to do that. The many historical events are to benefit the collective goal of education. The historical events that change accountability was Brown v School Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act and Disabilities Act, gave the accountability that everyone had a right to an education. It is still and ongoing debate seeing we still see segregation based on race, geography and race, but only by choice.
Testing has been around longer than testing for accountability, but not by much. Tyack and Cuban states that “In an age when “accountability” is measured more and more by scores on standardized test, “progress” in enrolling previously excluded youth in high schools and colleges seems to lead to “regress” in academic achievement.” (Tyack and Cuban, Chapter1, page 29) Testing started in the 1890, by Mayor Rice. He stated that schools were dull and full of drills. IQ tests were translated into English in 1908, but the tests were denoted as racist. It was originally set out for mental disabilities, but over the years IQ tests and student achievement began to overlap. Achievement test were originally used to decide what programs students would take.
Measurements of test scores are fragile. It is an assumption that a test score is concrete in student’s achievement. The foundations of NCLB are still questionable. It is pretty new, but it has disrupted our system. It seems that with testing comes errors and with one question scoring wrong can change a students standing in school. The example given was in Ohio and 8 other states many students did not graduate based on their score and meeting graduation requirements. Over the years the company acknowledges that there was a scoring error. NCLB changed testing, as we have known it before. It is all about the test results and not about the school itself.
North Carolina, Florida, and California are states that have a complex accountability system. These schools give schools a letter grade. At this point I would like to bring up Hochschild and Scovronick quote that says ”Separate education sets up barriers among students and labels them, by definition it reduces diversity in the classroom and makes learning respect and mutual engagement more difficult.” (Hochschild and Scovronick, Chapter 6, page 136) The quote relates to separation of students to provide them all an equal opportunity to learn, by not labeling students, yet North Carolina, Florida, and California believes it is alright to label the school as a whole in which those kids attend. I do not agree with labeling schools just as mainstreaming students was a basis for not labeling students. To continue this type of accountability system that changes from year to year and it muffles the fact that students and schools are labeled for being successful and/or even that they are a failure. The scores used can also cause some question on what is adequate and tests all what is needed or not.
Efficiency is the answer to testing accountability because no one would have time to test all skills in a single setting. Efficiency works for teachers when testing certain skills. If you know the test to prepare for than you know what questions or standards you need to teach your students to perform as the federal mandates require. They prepare for the test, not the subject. Testing results usually don’t come until the end of the year and the child starts off another year. Also it seems many times students relocate during testing time. Causing yet another dilemma in the reliability of the statistical data of test scores. Again, the chapter reiterates the sense that high-stakes accountability drives behavior that anticipates test scores not ones that they can respond too.
Growth
models and multi-level statistical data relates not just to testing scores, but
demographics, race, community and many other variables that may change due to
the testing of students. What goes on in
the classroom and its environment can play a very important variable in
testing, as well as many students relocating.
Is it fair to measure adequate yearly progress if the student has very
low skills to begin with, in the classroom it does but not the data. Hochschild
and Scovronick speaks of “testing not being a reform, but a measure of reform
and drives other reform.” (Hochschild and Scovronick, Chapter 8, page 199)
In conclusion to the majority details of accountability that were discovered and uncovered in my readings connects how schools came and developed through social problems, global economic issues, schooling as a business, diversity, social class, sexual orientation and gender identity, religion, Freedom of Speech, motivating students and teachers, the public, media, school reform, testing and the education system as a whole. It seems everything makes up our education as a whole and the schools, teachers, students, and administrators are accountable for all of these things through testing mathematics and reading. I have no quick answers, but I will say that there needs to be a change in the NCLB act when they meet in January because it is not about teaching, it is about what it looks like on paper. I will have to agree with Susan Ohanian, an advocate to lobby against ’02 law, she states, “It’s a formula designed to declare public schools bankrupt. It’s setting schools up for failure because there’s a concerted movement to privatize education.” (The Tennessean, No child Left Behind critic a hit with teachers, November 19, 2006.) That does not resolve the problems that education as a whole was set up to do.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bess Keller's article Under Pressure, NBPTS Releases Full Study*, in Education Week (May 24, 2006)
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Rosenbaum, James E., and Amy Binder. 1997. Do employers really need more educated youth?, Sociology of Education 70: 68-85.
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