tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/race-to-the-top-15922/articlesRace to the Top – La Conversation2020-02-18T13:55:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1317392020-02-18T13:55:01Z2020-02-18T13:55:01ZDemocratic candidates seek a big and unprecedented K-12 funding boost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315356/original/file-20200213-11000-t70bwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C640%2C4062%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">She's got proposals for constituents too young to vote.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/democratic-presidential-candidate-sen-amy-klobuchar-greets-news-photo/1199727589">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Democratic presidential candidates are proposing <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2019/09/presidential-candidates-education-2020-teachers-student-debt-school-safety-funding.html">new approaches</a> to the <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html">federal government’s role</a> in public education. </p>
<p>Former Vice President <a href="https://joebiden.com/education/">Joe Biden</a> and Sen. <a href="https://berniesanders.com/en/issues/reinvest-in-public-education/">Bernie Sanders</a> want to triple the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00103">US$15 billion</a> spent annually on <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html">Title I</a>, a program that sends extra federal dollars to school districts that educate a high percentage of poor children.</p>
<p>Sen. <a href="https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/public-education">Elizabeth Warren</a> wants to go further and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/10/22/what-elizabeth-warrens-k-12-plan-reveals-about-education-politics-today/">quadruple funding for that same program</a>. </p>
<p>Other candidates have similar proposals to substantially increase funding for public education, including Sen. <a href="https://medium.com/@AmyforAmerica/amys-first-100-days-b7adf9f91262">Amy Klobuchar</a> and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/12/07/mayor-pete-buttigieg-k-12-education-plan-charter-schools/">Pete Buttigieg</a>. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t yet issued his education platform, or <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/05/bloomberg-education-plan-to-promote-charter-school-expansion/">indicated where he stands on federal K-12 funding</a>.</p>
<p>Funding increases of this scale would transform the <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-role-in-education-has-a-long-history-74807">federal role in education policy</a>, making it easier for school districts to <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-gap-2018/">pay teachers higher wages</a> while <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-of-a-difference-does-the-number-of-kids-in-a-classroom-make-125703">reducing class sizes</a>. This focus on funding would mark a departure from previous administrations, which instead emphasized policies intended to increase <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">accountability</a> and strengthen <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">teacher evaluation</a>.</p>
<p>As a scholar of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F8pdFSgAAAAJ&hl=en">school finance</a>, I study the role of resources in schools. The <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w25368">research</a> is clear that <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20150249">spending more</a> <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/EDFP_a_00236">on students</a> over the long haul would bring about <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/131/1/157/2461148">long-term benefits</a>.</p>
<h2>Only 8%</h2>
<p>The federal government spends a total of about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_235.10.asp?current=yes">$55 billion per year on K-12</a> education, in addition to outlays for <a href="http://nieer.org/state-preschool-yearbooks">early childhood</a> and post-secondary programs like loans and grants for <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2017/03/07/federal-support-for-higher-education-comes-from-spending-programs-and-the-tax-code">college tuition</a>. This amounts to around $1,000 per K-12 student and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_235.10.asp?current=yes">just 8%</a> of the total $700 billion it costs to run the nation’s public schools, which are mostly funded by state and local tax dollars.</p>
<p>Federal funding has <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_235.10.asp?current=yes">never surpassed 10%</a> of total public school funding, except from 2010 to 2012 when the federal government sought to reduce the <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/implementation.html">school spending cuts</a> <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/688011/summary">brought about during the Great Recession</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="W04p2" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/W04p2/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The federal government has historically exerted influence in non-monetary ways. For example, under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-role-in-education-has-a-long-history-74807">No Child Left Behind Act</a> of 2001, President George W. Bush’s administration relied on standardized tests to hold schools accountable for student achievement. Schools that failed to make yearly progress on test scores faced <a href="https://education.findlaw.com/curriculum-standards-school-funding/what-happens-when-a-school-fails-to-make-adequate-yearly-progress.html">serious repercussions</a>, such as replacing the school staff or reopening the school as a charter school.</p>
<p>Former President Barack Obama’s Education Department used <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Race to the Top</a> – under which states competed for federal grants through a point system – and <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/nclb-waivers-timeline-and-glossary-of-terms.html">other initiatives</a> to get states to adopt a specific set of policies regarding teacher hiring, promotion and dismissal that the Education Department said would help schools employ better teachers overall.</p>
<p>Obama also signed the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> into law <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-every-student-succeeds-act-still-leaves-most-vulnerable-kids-behind-46247">in 2015</a>. It scaled back many of these policies and returned authority over accountability back to <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/this-weeks-essa-news-maryland-releases-second-year-of-school-ratings-school-climate-surveys-emerging-as-accountability-measure-looking-ahead-to-reauthorization-more/">individual states</a>.</p>
<p>These initiatives have two things in common. All of them have been longer on mandates than money, and it’s unclear that any have worked. Some <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10009-1.html">major studies</a> <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20174001/">failed to find</a> substantial impacts and educators have <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2019/10/most_states_have_walked_back_tough_teacher_evaluation_policies_report.html">largely opposed</a> using student test scores to drive high-stakes staffing decisions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307279/original/file-20191216-124004-z29661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Testing, testing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Washington-Legislature/f206331a6ae14c048d718d5dc8dc8b2e/4/0">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Graphic concerns</h2>
<p>One source of opposition to increasing spending on public schools is a <a href="http://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/we-cant-graph-our-way-out-research-education-spending">now</a>-<a href="https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/smart-guy-gates-makes-my-list-of-dumbest-stuff-ive-ever-read/">infamous</a> <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/04/13/why-the-school-spending-graph-betsy-devos-is-sharing-doesnt-mean-what-she-says-it-does/">graph</a> that traces the rise of this spending on a per-student basis over the past 40 years, while test scores have remained stagnant. The juxtaposition of these two trend lines, opponents of higher spending say, suggests that more funding is not the answer.</p>
<p>Versions of this chart often appear in <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/public-school-spending-theres-chart">libertarian</a>, <a href="https://www.alec.org/article/increasing-education-spending-equal-higher-test-scores/">conservative</a> and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-gates-school-performance_b_829771">mainstream</a> outlets.</p>
<p>Education Secretary <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/04/13/why-the-school-spending-graph-betsy-devos-is-sharing-doesnt-mean-what-she-says-it-does/">Betsy DeVos tweeted</a> a version of the graph and later <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/statement-secretary-devos-2019-naep-results">declared</a> that the “gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students is widening, despite $1 trillion in federal spending over 40 years.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"984534888941604864"}"></div></p>
<p>I find DeVos’ statement and the graph she was talking about misleading.</p>
<p>A simple comparison of two trends does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. I also think this line of argument becomes potentially dangerous when policymakers use it to <a href="https://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2016/07/what-the-republican-platform-says-about-education-215401">justify under-investing in public education</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year would <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2020/02/trump-slash-education-funding-merge-block-grant-charter-schools-title-I.html">reduce federal K-12 spending</a>.</p>
<h2>More spending on white kids</h2>
<p>The significant increase in Title I funding Sanders, Warren, Biden and other candidates propose could partly address a problem that all the leading <a href="http://schottfoundation.org/2020-presidential-forum-public-education">Democratic presidential candidates agree</a> requires urgent action: substantial <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0013189X16670899">funding</a> <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/688011/summary">inequities</a> in public schools.</p>
<p>Despite a widespread stated <a href="https://ccsso.org/resource-library/leading-equity-opportunities-state-education-chiefs">commitment to equity</a>, many states <a href="http://www.shankerinstitute.org/resource/adequacy-and-fairness-state-school-finance-systems">actually spend less</a> in high-poverty school districts than in more affluent communities.</p>
<p>In addition, students of color attend schools that receive, on average, <a href="https://edbuild.org/content/23-billion">$2,200 less per student</a> from state coffers compared with the schools predominantly enrolling white students. </p>
<p>Of course, finding a way to pay for these spending increases through new tax dollars or cuts to other priorities would be a challenge. But there is probably no way to address the challenges facing the nation’s public schools that doesn’t involve significant increases in funding, targeted to places where most students are <a href="https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/how-does-level-education-relate-poverty">growing up in poverty</a>.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/democratic-presidential-hopefuls-are-promising-to-ramp-up-funding-for-public-schools-123136">December 18, 2019</a>.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131739/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David S. Knight receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the American School Counselor Association.</span></em></p>Biden, Sanders, Warren and other candidates are calling for far more federal spending for schools in low-income areas.David S. Knight, Assistant Professor of Education Finance and Policy, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/487902015-10-08T11:15:50Z2015-10-08T11:15:50ZArne Duncan’s legacy: growing influence of a network of private actors on public education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97632/original/image-20151007-7337-18abwsk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Arne Duncan opened the gates to a powerful network.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edlabordems/3548577209/in/photolist-6pzonF-7H8kr6-fD9bky-6zavMm-6zavLU-66Nctj-8wqcn3-8LTYkp-7jtyH4-7jtytV-7jxrWL-a76BeF-7n972h-7n5dje-9TustP-9sPPF7-7bcqFX-sLViRf-suE8U4-fppmY9-nw9Xih-8MUsRz-br76jV-7bgeuu-7bgekC-hg9iLJ-7iAqwR-9nc6Bq-7bgdbY-9nc6zJ-br75FH-fpaaRv-hgb23h-7bcpzr-fpaeQ4-br75bZ-br76r8-br76dc-br75jX-br74HD-br75eV-br76y8-br74Vc-br76bM-br74Tr-br75Yg-br768r-br74JV-br75Ui-br765g">House Committee on Education and the Workforce Dem</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arne Duncan is <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/10/02/445266796/arne-duncan-stepping-down-as-education-secretary">leaving</a> the US Department of Education in December. Reactions to his legacy have been mixed. Some see him as <a href="http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/09/arne-duncan-education-profile-000231">a heroic reformer</a>, and others <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/education/256012-5-legacies-from-duncans-tenure-as-secretary-of-education">a well-intentioned but overreaching bureaucrat</a>. He has been called the <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/04/08/28obama_ep.h28.html">third secretary of education for George W Bush</a> or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2015/10/02/education-secretary-arne-duncan-reportedly-will-step-down-at-end-of-year/">the center of stormy education politics</a>. </p>
<p>As researchers of education policy, we see him differently: the hub of a network of policy advocates. As the head of the federal Department of Education, he actively facilitated private actors’ influence on public education policy.</p>
<h2>Private actors and connections</h2>
<p>From early 2009, Arne Duncan opened the federal agency’s gates to a powerful network. He used the network, and was sometimes used by advocates for their own purposes.</p>
<p>Duncan was not just the cabinet secretary who played pickup basketball with the president. He was the head of <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1478474">the department with the highest number (five)</a> of early political appointees who had personal connections to President Obama.</p>
<p>He was joined in 2009 by some of the most powerful members of a Democratic-leaning group of education reformers: among them were Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton, a former leader of education policy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Joanne Weiss, the Chief Operating Officer at NewSchools Venture Fund who became Duncan’s chief of staff. <a href="http://www.newschools.org/">NewSchools Venture Fund</a> is a venture philanthropy firm that sponsors the growth of charter school chains. </p>
<p>In 2009, both organizations were part of a growing network of advocates which Michigan State University political scientist <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/follow-the-money-9780199937738?cc=us&lang=en&">Sarah Reckhow has called</a> the Boardroom Progressives. </p>
<p>These reformers have largely consisted of private actors, including leaders of education nonprofits, charter school founders and other nontraditional school leaders whose essential resources for reform come from the private wealth of major foundations, an approach that Berkeley education professor Janelle Scott has termed <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0895904808328531">“venture philanthropy</a>.”</p>
<h2>Did those connections matter?</h2>
<p>The network that swirled around Duncan gave him ideas that he promoted through the Obama stimulus, and also the skilled personnel to run those programs.</p>
<p>Members of Duncan’s reform network were partly the genesis and <a href="http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/28/0895904811425911.abstract">potentially the beneficiary</a> of a grant program, <a href="http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/28/0895904811425911.abstract">Race to the Top</a>, that required applicants to expand opportunities for charter school creation, eliminate firewalls between student test scores and teacher evaluation, and commit to so-called “college and career-ready standards.” (The most common commitment of applicant states to such standards was to the <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">Common Core State Standards</a>.) </p>
<p>Once Duncan’s department announced the Race to the Top program, the network connections were critical to promoting it. Under Duncan, Weiss ran the Race to the Top program.</p>
<p>But building support for his policies was also political: since 2001, federal education policy has often provided rhetorical and political license to state politicians who wanted support for policies they wanted anyway – Paul Manna, Government Professor at William & Mary College, called this license “borrowed authority” in his book <a href="http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/schools">School’s In</a> about the politics of the No Child Left Behind Act. </p>
<p><a href="http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/28/0895904811425911.abstract">Race to the Top</a> continued this pattern, and many members of the network of education advocacy organizations <a href="http://educationnext.org/fight-club/">supported</a> the Common Core and the expansion of charter schools in many states.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97633/original/image-20151007-7337-9bluzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How did networks influence policy?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofed/13130900394/in/photolist-m1kido-br76Bt-br75MF-br7618-br74PK-br764i-br75Pn-br75u2-br74Ci-br75JK-br75yX-br74tB-br74qp-br75nV-br74rV-br74ye-br75qB-br757D-br76wH-br75Lc-br75px-br74WD-br74B2-fpaf9z-fpptPA-fpahHB-7bgdHQ-fj8Zoj-7H8kax-fiTH5T-nCG7Y4-nWYaCg-m1knzQ-hgc3Ci-hw3Ehx-fiTD9D-hgaUFw-6pDwdS-66HUSk-p8zKmd-wH187A-hg9kn7-ovYTPP-r7nVWH-rLzVW5-s4bwoz-s4846a-rHbVF3-fNn8Jy-fMXAnH">US Department of Education</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, the network was <a href="http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/14/0895904812465117.abstract">critical</a> to directly or indirectly building state capacity in the Race to the Top years. In some cases, network members became critical state leaders, as they had under Duncan in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>In other cases, members of the network served as free consultants or as paid contractors for states that did not have the expertise to apply for or carry out Race to the Top projects. The Gates Foundation provided <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11658.pdf">US$250,000 worth of application consulting services</a> to states that agreed with the foundation’s <a href="http://www.edweek.org/media/criteria_and_support_for_states_for_rttp_applications.pdf">eight-point</a> set of criteria.</p>
<h2>Why care about these networks – isn’t this how politics works?</h2>
<p>At one level, the influence of the education reform network around Duncan is not a surprise: political scientists have written for decades about the relationships between private actors and public policy. That intrigue is the source of terms such as <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2937958">regulatory capture</a> and <a href="http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Politics-of-Defense-Contracting-978-0-87871-012-6.html">iron triangles</a>.</p>
<p>If public-private relationships are not new in policymaking, we should also not assume that the network around Duncan has been monolithic or inherently cohesive. As political scientist <a href="http://educationnext.org/files/ednext_20123_mcguinn_full.pdf">Patrick McGuinn explained</a>, the alliances have been evolving rather than centralized and tightly planned.</p>
<p>And yet, we should worry when <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6209-383-6_4">policies are shaped</a> substantially outside ordinary public politics by an increasingly private set of actors, whose <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01619560902973647">relationships</a> with the public sphere can simultaneously be rivalrous, symbiotic and parasitic. </p>
<p>One does not need to be paranoid to worry about the concentration of decision-making in the hands of people who are friends and who are not accountable to the general public.</p>
<h2>The legacy of Duncan</h2>
<p>Maybe you approve of Arne Duncan’s policies and are happy with his network because it moved policy. But after the Republicans swept the 2010 midterm elections in dozens of states, a conservative network <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0895904814528794">was able to exert its own, older</a> agenda in state house after state house.</p>
<p>That ascendant Republican network, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), used the reform rhetoric and regulatory momentum of Arne Duncan for its own ends. Some of those goals mirrored Duncan’s – teacher evaluation tied to student test scores and expanded charter schools. </p>
<p>Others did not. Since 2010, many Republican-controlled states have attempted to restrict teacher collective bargaining and created or expanded private school voucher programs. </p>
<p>Arne Duncan did not invent political networks. And yet, to use <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01619560902973647">a term of education professors Janelle Scott and Catherine DiMartino</a>, he has acted as a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0895904812465117">“gatekeeper”</a> by bringing a private network to the fore in education, and further opening public education to privatized influences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sherman Dorn has received funding for past projects from the U.S. Department of Education as a PI and the Spencer Foundation as a center associate director. He is a National Education Policy Center fellow and has consulted in the past with the Center on Education Policy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda U. Potterton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By bringing private advocates to the fore in education, Arne Duncan further opened public education to privatized influences.Sherman Dorn, Professor of Education, Arizona State UniversityAmanda U. Potterton, Doctoral Student Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428002015-07-28T10:21:12Z2015-07-28T10:21:12ZWant more innovation? Try connecting the dots between engineering and humanities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89512/original/image-20150723-22849-1rla6iw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A team of scholars are working to connect disciplines.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gosheshe/3288921135/in/photolist-61CzEP-8ZwnR1-7r5FUR-98g5LU-4ngDbv-cFnmdQ-3At1qN-3AouJB-fGUiVk-nbZnT9-aJSfjK-36mK5e-bsAb2x-7x9bSS-7r9BF3-3AoonD-eaeZjM-5ug6uo-HJzcd-andneR-5ubKtR-ypFzW-FUxN6-yMkw9-9aTAwj-FUxNc-FUxMz-FUxMZ-99NqYK-jBjfM1-9boLH5-eujKmq-fWeykn-oRKpwc-gkUTrJ-7vEVHQ-jFj8M-bsa3TJ-dj7YTm-d5o8dq-bhU55P-ff62Fx-dpRT9P-dJR7U5-5xw8zK-di2p12-edijwu-dPEgdR-9ZP5Es-dKMueJ">gosheshe</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>_This article is a part of The Conversation’s series on unique courses. For other articles in this series, read <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-teacher-uses-star-trek-for-difficult-conversations-on-race-and-gender-43098">here</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/through-the-brewing-class-what-beer-making-can-teach-students-about-business-42396">here</a>. _</p>
<p>Today’s college students may benefit from an exciting array of subjects to study. But they seem to miss the most important education of all: how to relate their specialization to others in an increasingly interconnected world. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12187/changing-the-conversation-messages-for-improving-public-understanding-of-engineering">National Academy of Engineering</a> has categorically stated that today’s engineers need to be more than individuals who simply “like math and science.” They must be “creative problem-solvers” who help “shape our future” by improving our “health, happiness, and safety.” </p>
<p>And in 2001, the <a href="http://www.abet.org/">engineering accreditation body ABET</a> added <a href="http://www.abet.org/accreditation/accreditation-criteria/criteria-for-accrediting-engineering-programs-2015-2016/">a new criterion</a> so as to ensure that students get “the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context.” </p>
<p>The point is that the connections between humanities and science have been lost in today’s separation of disciplines. Indeed, a <a href="https://www.amacad.org/content/research/dataForumEssay.aspx?i=1571">recent report</a> by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences discovered that humanities and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) training majors largely dwell in different silos.</p>
<p>So, where and how did we lose our way? And how can educators and institutions change things? </p>
<h2>Separation of disciplines</h2>
<p>The founders of the <a href="http://www.neh.gov/">National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)</a> were well aware of the critical nature of this interdependence.</p>
<p>When the NEH and the <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation (NSF)</a> were established in the 1950s and ‘60s, the <a href="https://www.acls.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/NEH/1964_Commission_on_the_Humanities.pdf">NEH founders wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the interdependence of science and the humanities were more generally understood, men would be more likely to become masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These founders, hailing from leading universities as well as the US Atomic Energy Commission, IBM Corp and New York Life Insurance, knew that connecting the humanities and sciences helps us make informed judgments about our control of nature, ourselves and our destiny. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89530/original/image-20150723-22806-4ppt2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Connecting the humanities and science helps us make informed decisions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicomachus/5411002223/in/photolist-9f9NrM-8jcn6B-9jQGBu-oPjXFv-ou8hni-a6WUT-gWPMXg-2RjiuV-nPFYFa-pxKHuU-8hqeXq-hYCTSY-amZQ3L-nTkPED-8on6Gx-fWHMYZ-8FuYpa-uty4B-eVSJs8-o8G96Y-oaDHfy-oaAvs3-oaAvrb-nTf6Kd-nTeKiU-nTfNy6-dnLxg-o8G8hy-3ENeJ-nTfPnv-8WHqrf-8FuT42-8Fy64E-oKQLPU-oaDHhh-nTeKiJ-9CTbfh-5Cr99G-nTkQjp-n5hZzE-dcK3Zp-6G32k6-2btAZq-nRAu1A-nTf1BZ-g79H9A-g79iaK-g79hFi-nTf1z4-nTf6JG">Phillip Barron</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But, since the 1980s, political rhetoric has emphasized the need for less humanities and more STEM education. STEM is painted as a more profitable investment, in terms of job creation and research dollars generated. </p>
<p>A notable example is the Obama administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/race-to-the-top">“Race to the Top” initiative</a>, which both isolates and prioritizes the STEM disciplines from the humanities, arts and social sciences. </p>
<p>This rhetoric is also evident in the creation of separate political education organizations such as the bipartisan <a href="http://stemedcaucus2.org/">STEM Education Caucus</a> founded several years ago by congressional representatives to strengthen STEM education from kindergarten to the workforce. </p>
<p>This separation of disciplines actually hurts education, and it also hurts our ability to innovate and solve big problems.</p>
<p>Connecting STEM with humanities doesn’t just provide the well-rounded education <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Employers-Want-Broadly/138453/">today’s employers want</a>. As the <a href="http://www.humanitiescommission.org/_pdf/hss_report.pdf">American Academy of Arts and Science’s 2013 “The Heart of the Matter” report</a> observes, connecting these fields is necessary to solve the world’s biggest problems such as “the provision of clean air and water, food, health, energy, universal education, human rights, and the assurance of physical safety.” </p>
<p>So, separating and prioritizing STEM from humanities ignores the fact that we live in a complex social and cultural world. And many different disciplines must combine to address this world’s needs and challenges.</p>
<h2>Bringing the disciplines together</h2>
<p>To address this gap, four years ago the faculty from materials engineering and liberal arts at the <a href="http://www.humanities.ufl.edu/">University of Florida</a> began working with the <a href="http://www.mrs.org/home/">Materials Research Society</a>. We wanted to put together a new course on “materials.” </p>
<p>Why did we choose materials? Because everything is made of them, every discipline studies them and they are tangible (quite literally) to the average freshman.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89665/original/image-20150724-8442-nb7ett.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An interdisciplinary course on materials prepares students for the challenges of the future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14591315557/">Internet Archive Book Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After all, grade school students still learn about the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/technology/hand-tool#toc39194">Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages</a>. The <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution">Industrial</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28600802">Information revolutions</a> revolved around new uses for steel, aluminum and silicon. The human past has been shaped by harnessing and consuming materials and energy.</p>
<p>Materials will be important for our collective future as well. So, we thought, this is the future for which we should be preparing students.</p>
<p>And thus our course, <a href="http://www.mrs.org/impact-of-materials-on-society-subcommittee-goals/">The Impact of Materials on Society (IMOS)</a>, was born. Taught by a team of nine faculty from engineering, humanities and social sciences, the course explores the close connection between the “stuff” in our lives and our experiences as social beings. </p>
<p>Students discuss how materials benefit global trade and communication but also risk resource exploitation and political conflict. For example, we depend upon rare earths for our cellphones, iPads and wind farms, but accessing these rare earths from limited sources is not sustainable.</p>
<p>So, some of the questions that the course raises are: what materials do we depend upon in our daily lives? Does this dependence have social consequences? What social relationships form around the production and use of these materials? And how do our current uses of materials affect our ability to discover new uses for them? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89559/original/image-20150723-22849-1sf7rez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students also discuss the ethical and social aspects of using certain materials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collegelibrary/8611243532/">college.library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students are also asked to consider how our values shape our willingness to adopt new technologies. For example, Earl Tupper may have invented Tupperware, but it was <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/tupperware-wise/">Brownie Wise and her home parties with other women</a> who first made his polymer famous! </p>
<p>Each week covers a different material (eg, clay, glass, gold, plastic), its scientific properties, demonstrations, and its past and present impacts. </p>
<p>Working together in multidisciplinary groups, students then contemplate the development of future materials. These include flexible electronic materials that can be used to create <a href="http://www.insidescience.org/content/hi-tech-tattoo-your-workouts/1557">wearable sensors</a> that can transmit important information, such as body hydration levels during athletic training. New <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128637">polymer (plastic) materials </a> made from renewable sources instead of petroleum may have fewer health risks and are more sustainable than today’s plastic cups and bottles. </p>
<p>At the same time, they discuss the ethical and social considerations that might affect the successful production and adoption of these new materials in different contexts.</p>
<h2>Gap in education</h2>
<p>The course is different from other freshman-oriented courses. It is not a “history course for engineers.” And it is not an “engineering course for humanists.”</p>
<p>It is an interdisciplinary course that uses multiple perspectives to understand materials innovation. A wide range of departments including engineering, anthropology, classics, history, English, sociology and philosophy participate in its teaching. </p>
<p>Students refer to IMOS as a “bridge course” that provides the “connecting dots” between different classes.</p>
<p>And the responses come from students across the different majors. For instance, one engineering major noted, “This class just further proves that you have to understand different aspects of how our world works and not just engineering to be a great engineer.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile a history major observed, “This class gives me a leg up in my other history courses because it reminds me to think about the properties of materials and how they shape our lives.” </p>
<p>These experiences point to a gaping hole in modern education: discipline-specific and general education courses provide important knowledge, but “bridging courses” are needed for students to capitalize upon that knowledge.</p>
<p>To engineer useful technologies, we need to connect scientific study with the cultural competencies of the humanities and social sciences.</p>
<h2>Challenges of 21st-century learning</h2>
<p>The “Renaissance” ideal was to produce elite men whose broad training prepared them for any endeavor. Thankfully, 21st-century education is more inclusive.</p>
<p>But it still requires intellectual and cognitive flexibility to harness large amounts of data. </p>
<p>This doesn’t mean simply knowing everything, even though we live in the “Age of Google.” Today, students need the ability to make connections across disciplines.</p>
<p>Celebrated innovators such as Einstein, Ada Lovelace and Steve Jobs credit the <a href="http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/walter-isaacson-lecture">intersection of disciplines</a> for their inventive thinking. </p>
<p>More boundary-crossing opportunities in higher education can break open the disciplinary silos. And that alone will unleash critical thinking and innovation. </p>
<p><em>Additional contributors to this article are University of Florida faculty Sean Adams, Marsha Bryant, Florin Curta, Mary Ann Eaverly, Bonnie Effros and Ken Sassaman, and Materials Research Society Outreach Coordinator Pamela Hupp.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia Krzys Acord has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense for the development and dissemination of this course.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Jones has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense for the development and dissemination of this course.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan D. Gillespie receives funding from the Dept of Defense to help develop an educational video to support this and similar courses on materials science.</span></em></p>Separation of disciplines in academia hurts our ability to innovate and solve big problems.Sophia Krzys Acord, Associate Director, Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere; Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of FloridaKevin S Jones, Chair Professor, University of FloridaSusan D Gillespie, Professor, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/403642015-05-14T10:24:15Z2015-05-14T10:24:15ZStudents are opting out of testing. How did we get here?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81256/original/image-20150511-19560-givley.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students are refusing tests as part of a nationwide Opt Out movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1473083p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">bibiphoto</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>">bibiphoto / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Opt Out,” a civil disobedience movement against state-mandated testing in elementary and secondary education, is growing rapidly across the United States. Last year, Opt Out protests occurred in about <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/17/living/parents-movement-opt-out-of-testing-feat/">half the states</a>. This year, the movement has found support across all 50 states.</p>
<p>In New York state alone, the number of students opting out has more than tripled this year. Nearly <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/03/why-the-movement-to-opt-out-of-common-core-tests-is-a-big-deal/">200,000 students</a> – more than 15% of the state’s students – opted out this spring.</p>
<p>While Opt Out protests are aimed at several test-related issues, they have been ignited mainly by the <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">Common Core Standards</a>, a set of reforms to establish a nationwide set of academic standards and tests. </p>
<p>For the past 25 years, my research has focused on testing policies. Over the last four years, along with my research team, I have intensely researched the Common Core standards, interviewed several leaders, scrutinized the reform’s funding and assembled a database of responses to the reform across 10 diverse states.</p>
<h2>What happens on the day of the test</h2>
<p>Opt Out protests can take many forms. At times, teachers take the initiative and refuse to give the test, and at others, it is the parents who decide to exempt their children. Sometimes students themselves decide to boycott.</p>
<p>For instance, at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, protesting parents and students acting on their own opted out. So, the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/24/us-usa-education-washington-idUSKBN0NF22920150424">entire 11th grade class</a> didn’t show up on the testing day. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in Washington, Florida and Oklahoma, although very disparate states, teachers acting alone or with union support refused to administer the tests. </p>
<p>In some cases, school policy has required parents to send their children to school, but instead of taking the tests they are made to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/14/why-schools-are-forcing-some-kids-to-sit-and-stare-for-hours/">“sit and stare”</a>: that is, do nothing while their classmates toil away on the tests.</p>
<p>Some critics <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/education/teachers-unions-reasserting-themselves-with-push-against-standardized-testing.html">claim</a> that Opt Out has been largely driven by teachers’ unions angered by policymakers’ efforts to undermine teacher tenure and collective bargaining. </p>
<p>Union activity has played a role in Opt Out. However, our database indicates such protests have occurred in states <a href="http://edexcellence.net/publications/how-strong-are-us-teacher-unions.html">with or without</a> strong teacher unions. For example, despite a weak teachers’ union in Florida, <a href="http://unitedoptout.com/uoo-opt-out-map-2015/">Opt Out actions</a> there are among the strongest in the nation.</p>
<p>In fact, opposition to the Common Core and its testing is broad-based. National poll data show <a href="http://pdkintl.org/noindex/PDK_Poll_46.pdf">60% of the public</a> does not support the reform. </p>
<p>Opponents span the political spectrum. For example, conservative pundit Glenn Beck held an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/glenn-becks-theatrical-attack-on-common-core/2014/07/23/c59453e4-1270-11e4-98ee-daea85133bc9_story.html">anti-Common Core simulcast</a> in 700 theaters nationwide in July 2014. Diane Ravitch, the now-left-leaning academic, has regularly <a href="http://www.dianeravitch.net">posted critiques</a> of the reform on her blog since 2013. </p>
<h2>Reaction to the Common Core</h2>
<p>How can the Common Core – a reform backed by billions in federal funds and hundreds of millions from the Gates Foundation – be upended by children who won’t take tests? </p>
<p>I’ll focus on three explanations.</p>
<p>First, while Opt Out was ignited by the Common Core, it was incubated by a long stream of similar “standards-based reforms.” The Common Core and prior standards-based reforms (SBRs) entail aligning standards, curriculum, instruction and tests. To motivate alignment and effort, test scores are pegged to consequences, such as school closure and job loss. </p>
<p>However, the public <a href="http://www.ncrbc.net/static/doc/40th_PDK-Gallup_Poll_Highlights.pdf">hasn’t found</a> this playbook compelling since at least 2008. The majority of teachers and parents in our 10-state database say the incessant focus on testing undermines students’ education. </p>
<p>Some critics say it can even harm children, partly because the test questions can be <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/05/03/why-the-movement-to-opt-out-of-common-core-tests-is-a-big-deal/">developmentally inappropriate</a> – they go way over the heads of small children. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81259/original/image-20150511-19521-6c1b1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests spread to all 50 states this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/girlray/13564444734/in/photolist-mEDjQN-mEESaj-mEBAHz-mEDHmQ-mED5p4-mEDbVP-mEDTLN-mEC7qa-mEDQWj-63FcQb-awratr-9Jtr7i-47piP6-9Jwfob-9JtriX-rE83Cj-2FTvVz-dmNpiu-8LT3Wr-hN1djZ-iFiov3-6Q5McX-cfxAMW-72zbi2-r2wu3E-72Dwiw-72zj9K-72A1jx-72zFwg-72DeWQ-72EGUL-72wSaP-72ApWm-gw4PH-9xc8wH-391rGm-72EkEd-72AWVq-72B2yc-72Ehjj-72A8Lg-72EQA7-4y9Njv-cQCcWG-azkems-qTkFWC-nw9S8z-awt3vp-qFR6He-5Et5jR">Girl Ray</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, the Common Core has lacked transparency. The reform was unveiled in June 2009 and described as “state-led.” However, the federal government’s <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Race to the Top Initiative (RTTT)</a>, announced three months earlier, dangled US$4 billion before cash-strapped states to <a href="http://www.ascd.org/common-core-state-standards/cc-policy-timeline.aspx">induce them to embrace </a> the Common Core. </p>
<p>Claims that the reform was “state-led” were also contradicted by $360 million in RTTT federal funding for the development of Common Core tests. A reform leader I interviewed in 2011 said, “Every effort must be made not to tie federal dollars or federal accountability measurements directly to the Common Core.” </p>
<p>He correctly recognized that perceptions of federal involvement jeopardized the reform. Among Opt Out participants are those seeking to get the federal government out of state education systems, because education is a power the US Constitution accords primarily to the states.</p>
<p>Third, the Common Core became entangled with market-based reforms. These are the 1955 brainchild of <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Friedman.html">economist Milton Friedman</a>, who claimed school choice will improve education. Competition for seats in better schools will shutter bad ones for lack of students. RTTT encouraged the use of Common Core tests to identify weak schools, and it also promoted school choice. </p>
<h2>Problematic reforms</h2>
<p>Market-based reform has sprouted into a worldview that a free market can fix schools. Private enterprise is now seen as a source of solutions for schools posting low test scores. </p>
<p>One <a href="http://unitedoptout.com/">United Opt Out</a> founder, <a href="http://www.pegwithpen.com/2013/08/my-opt-outrefusal-letter-for-2013-2014.html">Colorado teacher Peggy Robertson</a>, has refused to administer the Common Core tests, because “ultimately, they are being used to dismantle the public school system.”</p>
<p>Standards-based reforms were launched following the 1983 federal report, <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html">A Nation at Risk</a>. The <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html">report</a> proclaimed, “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future….” </p>
<p>In response, every state sought to boost academic standards. By the late 1990s, almost all states had their own version of standards-based reforms (SBRs). In 2002, SBRs prevailed in federal policy when the <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act</a> was signed into law.</p>
<p>Yet standard-based reforms inevitably unleash damaging distortions. Here’s why.</p>
<p>Rational people seek to avoid punitive consequences associated with inadequate test scores, but under SBR there are many ways to raise scores that do not improve learning. </p>
<p>Such “gaming” includes narrowing curriculum to tested subjects and limiting instruction to test prep. Gaming can extend to outright cheating – the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/us/atlanta-school-workers-sentenced-in-test-score-cheating-case.html">recent convictions</a> of 10 Atlanta educators is one example.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81263/original/image-20150511-19560-13n6jvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Common Core standards ignited the Opt Out movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&searchterm=Common%20Core&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=225571744">Boy image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Moreover, SBR isn’t effective. No Child Left Behind <a href="http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/tracking-achievement-gaps-and-assessing-the-impact-of-nclb-on-the-gaps/lee-tracking-achievement-gaps-2006.pdf">hasn’t changed </a> achievement trajectories. NCLB didn’t close achievement gaps among high school students even in states with high standards. This <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/newsletters/0216_brown_education_loveless.pdf">bodes poorly</a> for the Common Core’s aim of graduating all students ready for college and career.</p>
<p>Market-based reforms (MBR) have also spurred Opt Out. One <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bill-gates-pulled-off-the-swift-common-core-revolution/2014/06/07/a830e32e-ec34-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html">MBR entanglement</a> comes from the Gates Foundation’s strong support of the Common Core. Gates and other foundations are acting as venture philanthropists to promote the reform.</p>
<h2>Corporatization of education</h2>
<p>In contrast to traditional philanthropy, venture philanthropy seeks to <a href="http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Snyder.pdf">maximize</a> philanthropic “investment” in social and political changes the philanthropists value. It does so partly by attracting other investors.</p>
<p>For venture philanthropists in education, the other biggest investor is the government and its public tax dollars. Some question whether venture philanthropists’ <a href="https://www.aei.org/publication/thoughtful-critique-contemporary-edu-giving/">outsized sway</a> over public education undermines democratic control.</p>
<p>Venture philanthropy is salient in the Common Core. My research team found that less than 12% of philanthropic funding for the reform directly targeted public school districts. Far more went to other nonprofit entities.</p>
<p>These were charged with appraising the new standards, educating parents about the value of the reform, or developing aligned curriculum. In other words, philanthropists invested much more in strategic partners who advanced the reform the philanthropists desired rather than in schools that served students. </p>
<p>Prominent elements of the Opt Out movement are taking aim at corporate education reform. An <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/173728/occupy-doe-push-democratic-not-corporate-education-reform">early example</a> is the 2012 Occupy the Department of Education — a protest in Washington, DC orchestrated by United Opt Out National.</p>
<p>Given that Opt Out entails all 50 states and millions of citizens across the political spectrum, its scope likely exceeds Occupy Wall Street.</p>
<p>In response to Opt Out, <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/duncan.html">Secretary of Education Arne Duncan </a> has threatened to <a href="http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2015/04/21/as-opt-out-numbers-grow-arne-duncan-says-feds-may-have-to-step-in/#.VTqE5ZNahKo">withhold funding</a> from schools that don’t test 95% of their students as mandated by federal law.</p>
<p>However, by “voting with their feet,” Opt Out protesters are rejecting political leaders’ support for federal control and for standards- and market-based reforms.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Conversation is funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.</em></p>
<p><em>To read more on testing, see:</em> </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-the-us-learn-from-south-koreas-testing-pressures-40365">What can the US learn from South Korea’s testing pressures </a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/in-test-based-systems-even-young-kids-resist-learning-37569">In test-based systems even young kids resist learning</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/tests-dont-improve-learning-and-parcc-will-be-no-different-40289">Tests don’t improve learning and PARCC will be no different </a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/another-standardized-test-this-one-called-parcc-but-heres-whats-different-40056">Another standardized test, this one’s called PARCC. But here’s what’s different</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/no-child-left-behind-fails-to-work-miracles-spurs-cheating-38620">No Child Left Behind fails to Work ‘miracles’, spurs cheating</a></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mindy L Kornhaber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the Opt Out movement has gained ground, it is not without reason. Testing has not only pushed learning out, but taught people how to “game” the system.Mindy L Kornhaber, Associate Professor of Education (Educational Theory & Policy), Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/392262015-04-07T10:16:53Z2015-04-07T10:16:53ZCrisis in American education as teacher morale hits an all-time low<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77104/original/image-20150406-26473-1dk7gad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large number of teachers leave the profession each year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=ocL7sMCKE_gKuJmbndCFNg&searchterm=teachers%20leaving&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=2326408">Man image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A slew of policies and <a href="http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/school_tech.pdf">technologies</a> promising to dramatically revolutionize teaching and education over the past decade has not only failed to produce desired results, it has also led to a decline in teacher morale, with large numbers leaving the profession. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://all4ed.org/reports-factsheets/path-to-equity/">recent report</a> for the <a href="http://all4ed.org/">Alliance for Excellent Education</a>, a policy and advocacy organization, found that about “13% of the nation’s 3.4 million teachers move schools or leave the profession every year.”</p>
<p>The question is how did this happen? While the answers to the current problems are long and complex, some of them can be traced back to the <a href="http://www.k12academics.com/education-reform/reforms-1980s#.VSKuiJTF8mU">road to reform starting in the 1980s</a> when measurable academic standards were set up for students. </p>
<p>As a researcher and author of a <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415890113/">2012 book</a> on education reforms in the US on top of being the father of children who are attending public schools, I have seen how these reforms have led to a situation in which teacher job satisfaction is at an all-time low and university graduates are less inclined to join the profession.</p>
<h2>Teachers lost control of curricula</h2>
<p>Over the past few decades, teacher professionalism and morale <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ333634">declined</a> as education was turned into a market with a push for <a href="http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing/">high-stakes testing</a> and a centralized control of education. </p>
<p>Since the beginning of the latest rounds of education reform in the early 2000s, <a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?aid=/20130113/opinion/130119923/1122">billions of dollars have been spent</a> at the local, state and national levels on programs such as <a href="http://febp.newamerica.net/background-analysis/no-child-left-behind-overview">“No Child Left Behind,”</a> “<a href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Race to the Top</a>” and <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">“Common Core.” </a></p>
<p>Supported by a wide variety of “reformist” groups, which include foundations, consulting firms, <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/summary-13.bracey.pdf">charter school and voucher advocates</a>, <a href="http://cpfa.org/tag/neoliberal-think-tanks-and-foundations/">neoliberal think-tanks</a> and <a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_04/edit244.shtml">teacher-bashing</a> politicians of both political parties, education reforms ended up making way for privatization, charter schools or <a href="http://www.greatschools.org/school-choice/7200-school-vouchers.gs">voucher systems</a>. </p>
<p>As a result teachers no longer control the curriculum as they should. This vacuum has been filled by a host of <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2014/12/40_fast-growing_private_education_companies_make_2014_inc_5000_list.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS3">commercial companies</a> that have developed products to be used both inside and outside the classroom.</p>
<p>They range from <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may04/vol61/num08/What-Is-a-Professional-Learning-Community%C2%A2.aspx">Professional Learning Communities</a>, <a href="http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/competency-based-learning-or-personalized-learning">Competency-Based Education</a>, <a href="http://www.smartboards.com/">Smart Boards</a>, <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a>, <a href="http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/">Flipped Classrooms</a> and <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/10/22/09pl-overview.h34.html">Personalized Learning </a>to name but a few on a very long list. Teachers in school have seen a variety of such ‘edu-fashions’ in the form of reforms, flicker and fade. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77106/original/image-20150406-26507-e6wnfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is little evidence to show that testing and evaluation methods have worked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=0OH0H6T29p112uMPObm6Hw&searchterm=testing%20teachers&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=4654732">Test image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Despite this there is little evidence to show that any of this has worked, even by the reformers’ criteria for success in testing and evaluation methods such as, <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may10/vol67/num08/Using_Value-Added_Measures_to_Evaluate_Teachers.aspx">“valued added measures” (VAMs)</a> and standardized tests scores. In fact, years of these <a href="http://www.christenseninstitute.org/">“disruptive innovations”</a> have resulted in a situation today of poor job satisfaction for teachers. </p>
<h2>Highly stressed school teachers</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/foundation/MetLife-Teacher-Survey-2012.pdf">2012 MetLife Survey of Teachers </a> found that teacher job satisfaction declined from 62% of teachers feeling “very satisfied” in 2008 to 39% by 2012. This was the lowest in the 25-year history of the survey. </p>
<p>The survey also showed how stressed teachers in America were. It found that over “half (51%) of teachers report feeling under great stress several days a week,” an increase of 70% from teachers reporting stress in 1985. </p>
<p>It is not surprising then that the turnover rate in the teaching profession is on the rise. The report for the <a href="http://all4ed.org/reports-factsheets/path-to-equity/">Alliance for Excellent Education</a> estimated that “over one million teachers move in and out of schools annually, and between 40 and 50% quit within five years.” </p>
<h2>Enrollment declining in teaching programs</h2>
<p>In addition to these rather grim statistics, fewer university students are, unsurprisingly, going into the field of education. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/10/22/09enroll.h34.html">data from the US Department of Education</a> “enrollments in university teacher-preparation programs have fallen by about ten percent from 2004 to 2012.” In California alone, <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/03/03/389282733/where-have-all-the-teachers-gone">enrollment in teaching education programs </a>declined by 53% over the past five years. </p>
<p>Indeed, we are now in the early days of the <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2014/07/09/data-is-fools-gold-of-the-common-core-says-wagthedog/">“Great Common Core Gold Rush” </a> as companies dash about trying to provide the curricular and testing materials for Common Core, much as they did for the earlier state-based testing demanded by No Child Left Behind. </p>
<p>However, the time is now long overdue to begin an entirely new path of education reform – to rediscover the road to reform that was not taken. This path seeks to support teachers, re-establish their autonomy and rebuild the more general trust in institutions. </p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?no-ist">system like Finland’s</a> illustrates, the key to effective schools does not reside in the interventionist strategies and think-tank polished ideas, but in the way teachers and schools are supported, both financially and publicly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39226/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven C. Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With teachers leaving the profession in large numbers and a drop in candidates applying to teaching programs, it is time to take a fresh look at education reforms.Steven C. Ward, Professor of Sociology , Western Connecticut State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.