Policy Ping-Pong

Wrongly, many people believe that excessive testing, narrowed curriculum, and wayward accountability schemes are the fault of federal policy. Most agree that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is the main culprit. I most certainly am not defending NCLB, oh no, far from it. But the truth is that state-after-state was sold “Outcome-Based Education Reform” which morphed into test-based accountability. What No Child Left Behind did was to federalize the education trend that most states had already begun implementing on their own. So, why is this important to know?

If you play “The Change Game,” the first thing you need to know are the key players and the best places to play. When you know who and where to target with persuasion and propaganda, change comes at a relatively cheap price. And even though we should have a better view at the local and state level, the game hasn’t drawn much of a crowd.

So the wayward reforms began in the states, went to the federal level with NCLB, and now the ball is back on the states side of the table with NCLB waivers. Next stop? NCLB re-authorization? (Update as of 12/10/15: Yes, the law was changed to being called the Every Student Succeeds Act ESSA but the Outcome-Based foundation DID NOT CHANGE.)

Both state and federal lawmakers are for sale. With NCLB reauthorization done, the ball is in the state capitals.

Both state and federal policy writers are for sale. With NCLB reauthorization done, the ball is in state capitals.

And will the law once again follow the state’s trends – charter schools, fewer teachers, more technology, larger class sizes, and less real support for the public system (which means more privatization)? (Update as of 12/10/15: Answer, yes.)

The public is being played like a ping-pong ball. Now is not the time to sit on the sidelines and watch the ball (or the hammer) drop.

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6 thoughts on “Policy Ping-Pong

  1. Obama is going to pay the price of getting caught in the middle on this one because he and Duncan have been requiring the testing and the best that the econometricians could do (the ‘Value Added Method (VAM) which is a strictly empirical (wo any theoretical basis) model. The Education Academicians, Unions, Associations and the rest of the liberal-based NGO’s will have to rescue him by submitting grant proposals to the DOE re documentation and fine-tuning some existing observation-based Teacher evaluation systems to augment or replace the VAM.

  2. Thanks for commenting, Stephen. I see what you mean and it could make a huge difference in the outcome of “the game.”

    This could play out differently if the people would step in and change the rules.

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