The New York Times has a piece today that pits No Child Left Behind advocates against its defamers. To the disappointment of some, new Education Secretary Arne Duncan has announced his support for the general framework of the federal legislation, while vowing to create national standards, erase loopholes that states use to dumb down curricula so their kids get better test scores (here’s one: Colorado now uses the euphemism for failing – “partially proficient” – as a passing grade), and equate a successful high school experience with the ability to continue on to college without taking remedial courses. He’s big on testing, data systems, charter schools, and measuring teacher quality through student performance. And his biggest detractor seems to be the usually thoughtful and sane Diane Ravitch, who blogs with Deborah Meier in a somewhat Victorian exchange of epistles on the Education Week site.
Here’s Dr. Ravitch:
However, based on what I have seen to date, I conclude that Obama has given President George W. Bush a third term in education policy and that Arne Duncan is the male version of Margaret Spellings. Maybe he really is Margaret Spellings without the glasses and wearing very high heels. We all know that Secretary Spellings greeted Duncan's appointment with glee. She wrote him an open letter in which she praised him as "a fellow reformer" who supports NCLB and anticipated that he would continue the work of the Bush administration. (Recall, Deborah, that the media today defines an education reformer as someone who endorses Republican principles of choice and accountability.)
Yikes! Ravitch is pit-bull mad, not just at Duncan but also at Obama, whom she derides for sending his kids to private school and having too great a faith in data, assessment, and test scores. Since when are endorsements of choice and accountability a Republican trait? Maybe, just maybe, this debate has transcended partisan politics and Americans are actually ready for the paradigm shift required for true education reform. Maybe we’re all ready to get serious.