by David Safier
If you're like me, you can't stand to hear the word Maverick after the steady barrage during the campaign.
"You have to admit John McCain is a Maverick. He's been a Maverick in the Senate for 30 years, the original Maverick."
"What do you expect? We're a couple of Mavericks. You don't expect a couple of Mavericks to agree on everything, do you?"
The same thing is happening these days with the word Reformer when conservatives talk about education.
Reformer-reformer-reformer-reformer. Like machine gun fire.
In case you haven't followed the discussion in the press or read
my earlier post on the educational reformer/establishment spin, the "reformers" are the people who want to bust teacher unions, fire teachers, establish merit pay systems, increase the number of charter schools and maybe institute voucher programs. If the "reformers" sound a lot like Bushies, well, now you get the idea. That's who they are, along with Democrats who have bought into the neocon ed model. And the stick-in-the-mud "establishment" in this spin cycle is made up of teachers, unions and progressive education profs.
I was listening to an NPR discussion this afternoon that included David Brooks, the conservative columnist. He almost broke the Maverick record, using Reformer about eight times in 30 seconds. Here's what it sounded like, from memory:
"Now there are some real Reformers out there, like the Reformer superintendent in D.C. and the Reformer head of the New York schools. Those folks are real educational Reformers. Now I think Obama's pick for Secretary of Education is a Reformer too, but he's quieter about being a Reformer. But I think Obama picked him because he wants some real Reform."
Brooks' main reform idea? Fire 10% of the teachers. The weakest 10% of course. And replace them with better teachers. This assumes that excellent teacher candidates are being turned down right and left, and all we have to do is cherry pick from the huge surplus of applicants and Presto Change-o! Great schools!
Great idea, Brooks.
For Republicans education "reform" typically includes support for vouchers and other forms of privatization. But groups with names like Democrats for Education Reform–along with many mainstream publications–are disconcertingly allied with conservatives in just about every other respect. To be a school "reformer" is to support:
• a heavy reliance on fill-in-the-bubble standardized tests to evaluate students and schools, generally in place of more authentic forms of assessment;
• the imposition of prescriptive, top-down teaching standards and curriculum mandates;
• a disproportionate emphasis on rote learning–memorizing facts and practicing skills–particularly for poor kids;
• a behaviorist model of motivation in which rewards (notably money) and punishments are used on teachers and students to compel compliance or raise test scores;
• a corporate sensibility and an economic rationale for schooling, the point being to prepare children to "compete" as future employees; and
• charter schools, many run by for-profit companies.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
