Michigan’s Schools: More of the Same

While just about everyone agrees that the American education system is in need of an overhaul, there is much disagreement about how to do it.  The $100-plus billion the Obama administration included for education in the stimulus package is a good start, but Arne Duncan needs to think long and hard about how to begin to implement change in a system that has remained stagnant for a century.

My hope is that the national response will be swift and comprehensive.   While NCLB focuses on testing to measure progress, the language emerging from the Obama administration indicates the need for more holistic assessments that serve to measure not only in a variety of ways beyond standardized multiple choice tests, but over time, an element of reporting that has been noticeably absent. 

Beyond assessment, however, our infrastructure needs support.  Children do not receive equal educational opportunity in dilapidated buildings with substandard materials.  Children do not receive equal educational opportunity when they do not receive instruction from highly qualified professionals.  There is much work to be done.

A headline in today’s Detroit Free Press reads: “State ponders school-review system.”  Sadly, the newly proposed system continues to “rely heavily on test scores” to determine school success.  The state, once again, is trading apples for apples in a feeble attempt at change.  Currently, Michigan education officials plan to replace its current school grading system – an A to F scale – with one that focuses on three-tiers – accredited, interim accredited, or unaccredited – where evaluations are tied to student performance on state-mandated examinations.  When will people realize that assessment is only one small piece of the puzzle?  And who what was the thinking behind the idea that in order to be accredited schools must have 60% or more of its students proficient in all but one subject?  What about the other 40%? How does such a philosophy bode for the future?  

What this means is more testing for students in K-8, and more at stake for the high school students who are evaluated one time, in the junior year, with the monstrous MME, whose key component is the ACT+Writing – a college preparedness indicator, not a curriculum evaluation instrument.  Perhaps this means that the commodification of education will continue in Michigan, with testing-mania branching out to include 9^th through 12^th grade students.

Let’s move forward, not backward.  Let’s fix our schools, not penalize the ones that need our help the most.  Accreditation is not the key.  We already know which schools struggle.  What we need is a real plan that goes well beyond changing surface criteria.  But it’s much easier to focus on the superfluous than address systemic change.  And much less costly.  When will the state realize that investing in its future is the only way to stem its disintegration?