Sigmund Freud’s classic definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over yet always expecting different results — seems not to have registered with American education reformers who endlessly propose look-alike standards and assessments they claim will really, really work this time.
Ever since the landmark federal report, “A Nation at Risk” (1983), famously described K-12 education as wallowing in a “rising tide of mediocrity” America led by our last four presidents has been on a 30-year treadmill of perpetually denouncing low performance, warning of dire economic consequences, demanding higher standards of achievement, and proposing “tough” new assessments to document progress.
Their programs all had fine-sounding names: “America 2000” (Bush I), “Goals 2000” (Clinton), “No Child Left Behind” (Bush II) and “Race to the Top” (Obama). Each promised to raise all American children to “proficiency” in reading, writing, and math.
All succeeded in greatly increasing education spending, but none succeeded in significantly improving American educational performance.
The latest incarnation of this quixotic mission — the “Common Core State Standards Initiative” — was like all the earlier programs launched with much applause from the White House, congressional leaders, the National Governors Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and both national teacher unions. Incentivized by large amounts of federal money and waivers from the much reviled “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) requirements, no less than 45 states committed to “Common Core” between 2010 and 2012.
These rapid adoptions validated the long ago caution of former Harvard Education Dean Francis Keppel: “Adopting standards is relatively easy. They provide the illusion of progress, yet in and of themselves they have no consequences. The agony begins when you try to introduce assessments to measure progress in meeting the standards.”
The wisdom of Keppel’s warning became evident with the approach of the 2014-2015 deadline that required Common Core states to commence standardized testing to measure progress toward meeting the new standards.
Colorado joined a consortium of other Common Core states called PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) which sponsors a testing program of the same name. In Colorado education circles, PARCC is already stirring significant controversy as did its predecessors CSAP and TCAP.
Just a year ago, the Gallup poll reported that most Americans had never even heard of Common Core. This year, however, Gallup is reporting that Americans have heard a lot about it and fully 60 percent of them oppose it. As Harvard education analyst Elaine Mc Cardle wrote, “Today, Common Core is the focus of a growing nationwide resistance from an unusual coalition of right wingers, liberals, teachers, and parents.”
Across the country, parents and teachers have organized “opt-out” groups to fight the testing culture with public rallies and political activism. In New York, an estimated 35,000 students refused to take Common Core assessments.
Even the previously supportive national teacher unions have called for a delay in implementation while many local and state unions are now demanding that Common Core be abolished entirely.
This fierce teacher opposition partly reflects the fact that the 40 states that received NCLB waivers are currently launching new teacher evaluation systems that must incorporate measures of student achievement, including, where available, results from standardized tests.
Not surprisingly, this grass-roots rebellion has been noted by governors and other politicians. Indiana and Oklahoma have already withdrawn from Common Core and others are preparing to leave or at least delay implementation.
So, what does this confusing and contentious scenario tell us about the longer trajectory of American education reform?
It demonstrates once again that American reforms rest upon the dangerous fallacy that we can have high standards and high achievement while being the only industrial nation in the world that doesn’t strongly connect those goals to a rigorous system of high stakes testing that alone will compel the engagement and commitment of students, teachers, and parents to the work and sustained effort that is the essential ingredient of all successful educational enterprises.
Until we confront this flight from reality our country is doomed to those unending cycles of feel-good standards tenuously linked to politicized assessments that have so severely compromised the life prospects of countless millions of American children.
William Moloney is was Colorado Education commissioner from 1997 to 2007.
