On the Failures of "Education Reform"

Exploring failed education policy through a series of Twitter threads

Education historian Jack Schneider explored the popular education reforms of the past two decades in an attempt to explain why what passes for education reform has essentially failed to achieve the desired results.

Essentially, these reforms can be placed into three categories, per Schneider.

1. Test-based accountability

2. Teacher merit pay

3. Competition/choice - by way of charters/vouchers

Schneider suggests that these reforms are not working because they are based on a flawed premise.

That premise? Educators will respond when policymakers “turn up the heat.”

At the heart of this premise is the idea that educators are somehow “holding back” and only need the proper motivation to really “stand and deliver.”

Of course, now we have decades of data showing this simply isn’t getting results.

Schneider’s thread helps explain, too, why surveys of teachers repeatedly show that increasing pay alone is not enough - that is, sure, teachers deserve better compensation - but what they really want is to be trusted to do their jobs and to receive the necessary resources to do that job well.

More testing, merit pay, and competition for students are three education reform solutions that do nothing to solve the challenges teachers face in their day-to-day work. As a result, they do nothing to actually get the results that reformers claim to want.

In fact, all three of these policy “solutions” actually serve to exacerbate the very real challenges educators face.

Here’s the full thread:

Jack Schneider @Edu_Historian

The three dominant approaches to education reform of the past quarter-century were all rooted in a flawed theory. Here's what that tells us about supporting school improvement in the years to come... 🧵

While these flaws have been and are being exposed, some state policymakers are doubling down on really bad ideas.

Justin Parmenter has been closely examining North Carolina’s potential move to teacher merit pay.

Here’s a thread from him on the latest as that state, once a proud leader in positive education policy, now seems ready to go all in on reforms that are destined to fail (and, in fact, have failed elsewhere):

Justin Parmenter @JustinParmenter

In about 3 weeks the PEPSC Commission is expected to vote on the NC Pathways to Excellence merit pay scheme. If they approve the proposal it will then go to the State Board of Education for consideration. #nced #ncpol #ncga

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Finally, in Tennessee, the state’s new charter school commission seems likely to ultimately expand charter schools across the state. While a recent fight over Hillsdale College’s attempt to open three schools in the state may have delayed the expansion of charter schools in the Volunteer State, the unelected commission and pro-privatization Gov. Bill Lee have tremendous power to bring about more failed reform in coming years.

Early Withdrawal: In Tennessee, Hillsdale Pulls Out Ahead of Climactic Meeting

Here’s more on a new effort to explain the true cost of charter school adoption on local school districts. The group Public School Partners has launched a website - CharterFiscalImpact.org - that features a calculator that shows the fixed costs associated with opening a charter school.

Charter Fiscal Impact @CharterImpact

This week’s @tnjournal mentions our new Charter Fiscal Impact Calculator, which estimates the cost of taxpayer-funded charter schools — “both in terms of actual dollars and the equivalent number of classroom teachers who could be funded with the money.” charterfiscalimpact.org/#calculator-se…