by Douglas H. Sullivan, Op-Ed Participant
When
tragedy struck in December, where teachers faced the same dilemmas as above,
the primary concern was gun regulations. What people failed to take note of is
the presence of another encumbrance on the teacher. The encumbrance is not
whether or not to put their lives on the line. Instead it is a failure to take
notice of our schools being brought to the headlines of newspapers and
mentioned on the top of every hour. Now
we see gun control grow to a red giant, while education becomes a black hole.
The
majority of state governments saw an opportunity to get easy money. Those states
decided to create a standardized test. The rationale is simple: let’s see how
much the students know, because if teachers aren’t doing too hot, these kids
won’t do too hot on these tests. The failures begin by ignoring the elephant in
the room: the countless other variables measured by such exams. Humorously
enough, most of the states’ goals that were scheduled to be met by now have
been granted an extension.
The
principal’s voice echoed through the school as he uttered the signal for an
armed intruder. I was a student teacher and one of my students was in the
bathroom down the hall. I left my classroom with adrenaline pumping. I knew
with the main entrance around the corner, at any moment an armed person can
come running around the corner. As I stood in the hall waiting for the student,
I wanted a plan in case I encountered the intruder: Do I crack a joke to ease
the tension? Do I try to take this person down? What if he has a gun? Do I try
to fight back? If he has a knife, I might have a chance, but what about a gun?
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| © S. Olson/Getty Images |
Education
is among the least lobbied federal committees. The high interest committees
with the most lobbyists see the highest returns come campaign season. Less
money during campaign season makes it more difficult to get re-elected.
Instead, politicians rely on his or her overall popularity among constituents. Thus,
most of the education committee members are disinterested in the integrity of
public education and are more concerned with the public’s perception of them.
In
2001, the federal government enacted into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The rationale was to try to hold teachers accountable for their instruction.
NCLB required that states create goals to accomplish. States also needed to
create a method to measure progress towards these goals. Successfully making
progress towards those goals meant more federal money for schools in the state.
Failure to do so meant federal funding cuts.
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| © whitehouse.gov/Lawrence Jackson |
In
2009, the Race to the Top initiative was enacted. It was framed as almost a
capitalist approach to state education infrastructure. States came up with the
best ways to improve education in their state. Each proposal was reviewed and
ranked by the Department of Education. The top ten states received stimulus
money with the hopes of those plans being adopted by states who did not receive
the funding.
Race to
the Top has the same flaws as NCLB: they rely on bottom rung politicians to
decide between re-election and the integrity of education. Generally re-election
wins every time. Following, most states succumbed to the temptation of using
standardized testing as a method of measuring progress. As it follows, states
winning comprised goals of scoring competitively against top nations in math and
science, as well as scoring competitively on the same tests as the top ten
states in the country.
In the
opening anecdote a student pulled a knife and was detained before he could harm
anyone. As an educator in a lock down with your children, questions race
through his mind: How much longer will this last? Is this real? When will it be
over? Do the kids really understand what is going on? Those are the same
questions I ask about public education and the government’s decisions
regulating it.
