The latest issue of Educational Leadership magazine is dedicated to accountability and devotes much of the issue to No Child Left Behind and it impact on schools. The articles are all very thought-provoking as they debate the best ways to deal with the expectations set by the law. Most of the authors argue that NCLB is unrealistic, based on bad philosophy, and more a burden than a help. The goals of the law are admirable, but the methods of implementing it are pretty out to lunch. It’s pretty heady stuff and worth tracking down if you don’t already get a copy.
Anyway, there was one “a-ha” passage for me in an article by Richard Elmore titled “A Plea for Strong Practice.” Elmore enumerates the problems with the law and writes about more effective ways for schools to improve what they do. One key point that he makes is that “Knowledge is not necessarily where you think it is.” Basically, he says that there are a heckuva lot of “low performing” schools that know more about creating instructional improvement than other nominally high-performing schools. And in that section, he writes this:
Most high-performing schools in our highly segregated society have gotten there not by knowing a great deal about instructional practice or improvement but by getting and holding on to students in high socioeconomic groups. The practice in most nominally high-performing schools is emphatically not about improvement but about maintenance of a certain level of confidence with the surrounding community.
It made me think about my school, which for all intents and purposes is a great high school from most standpoints. But there’s no doubt that much of our success can be attributed to the fact that our kids come to us pretty successful to begin with. It’s almost like we just have to be careful not to screw them up. Now that’s not to say that we don’t have good teachers and good intentions to improve our practice. But we’re really not doing much that I would consider “bold” in terms of getting the most out of our kids. And I think all the posting of late about e-portfolios and alternative assessments has made that even more acute for me. It would be so cool if we were to push the envelope, challenge the assumptions more. But we’re so concerned, it seems, with doing well in the standardized areas that it leaves little room for real innovation. It’s too bad, not only for our kids but for the millions of kids across the country who are taught to pass the test without really knowing for sure they can put that knoweledge to productive practice.
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