Whither the Washington Consensus?

Michael J. Petrilli , Frederick M. Hess / June 1, 2006

Editor's note: This commentary is drawn from No Child Left Behind: A Primer (Peter Lang, 2006), available here.

Thousands of schools are "in need of improvement," the "highly qualified teachers" deadline has come and gone without a single state in compliance, and millions of parents and educators are still struggling to make sense of terms like "adequate yearly progress." Newspaper stories flag problems with state testing systems and supplemental educational services. This tumult has led some to suggest that the ambitious No Child Left Behind Act is staggering, especially as it comes up for reauthorization in 2007. 

The truth is that NCLB's future hangs less on what is happening in the nation's classrooms than on the Washington Consensus. While we like to think that the real force in schooling is parents and local educators, the Beltway crowd will determine whether NCLB keeps its bite or is muzzled.

The term "Washington Consensus" originated in foreign policy circles. It refers to ideas that enjoy widespread support among political elites across the ideological spectrum. No matter which party is in power, so long as the Washington Consensus stays in place policies change only in minor ways.

There is now a Washington Consensus in education. It has been entrenched since the middle of the Clinton Administration, was integral to the crafting of NCLB in 2001, and for the most part remains intact today. It embraces three big ideas. First, that the nation's foremost education objective should be closing racial

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Whither the Washington Consensus?

Bad schools : SAT scores :: reality television : American culture

June 1, 2006

Colleges are reporting that this year's SAT results were significantly lower than those of years past. A problem with the test? Is poor Susie fatigued by the new writing portion? David Kahn, head of a private tutoring company in New York City, doesn't think so. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Kahn posits that the SAT's revamped design better exposes students' mediocre schooling. The new test places more emphasis on reading comprehension and higher-level math-and everyone knows that mastering both takes years. A 6-week cram course doesn't help much anymore; students actually have to read widely and learn some real content to perform well. That's the good news. The bad news is that, thanks to the nation's wayward schools, most students have experienced a content-free education, and are now going to pay the price. Welcome to adulthood, kiddos!

"How Low Can We Go?" by David S. Kahn, Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2006

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Bad schools : SAT scores :: reality television : American culture

No diploma, no GED, no problem!

June 1, 2006

Nationwide, fully 2 percent (400,000) of college students never finished high school. A few schools even cater to the dropout crowd. Ninety-four percent of students at Interboro Institute in Manhattan, for example, carry that dubious title. It's a hot-button issue in New York, because these students are still eligible for state financial aid. Governor George Pataki thinks that's a problem. Why should the state pay for students who most likely will flunk out of college, asked the governor's spokesman, when "they were admitted to programs for which they were academically underprepared"? Still, not all dropouts are lost causes, as a recent Gates Foundation survey found; the genius of the American system is its openness to second and third chances. Pataki's compromise is for students to earn 24 hours of credit before receiving aid, in order to prove they can handle the work. Others want dropouts to pass a stringent college entrance exam (before disbursing aid, the federal Education Department requires those without high school credentials to pass a test showing they have the "ability to benefit" from higher education). Both ideas are better than opening the gravy train to college. A university degree opens doors, but not if you can't read the signs above them.

"Can't Complete High School? Go Right Along to College," by Karen W. Arenson, New York Times, May 30, 2006

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No diploma, no GED, no problem!

Reading first

June 1, 2006

The No Child Left Behind Act makes no bones about the primacy of reading. According to Bloomberg News, a forthcoming NCES report shows that schools are responding to the law's signals by boosting the instructional time in reading while reducing it in everything else, at least in grades 1-4. The question is whether this "narrowing" is good or bad, and if other subjects suffer because of it. The Washington Post squeezed in a Sunday editorial on the topic, jumping off last week's science NAEP results. "Far from discouraging science education," the Post wrote, "the new emphasis on reading and math standards in elementary school appears to have helped boost science achievement among younger students.... As the Education Trust hypothesizes, higher reading and math standards may have made science textbooks more accessible to more students." That's certainly one plausible interpretation of the NAEP results (here's another), and if there's ever a time to focus narrowly on reading, the early elementary grades are it. But as E.D. Hirsch, Jr. argues in his new book, reading instruction should switch as soon as possible from decoding letters, phonemes and words to the acquisition of content-in other words, students study science, history, and literature within reading curricula. Yes, reading should come first. But if the nation is serious about preparing high school graduates for increasingly competitive jobs (especially those requiring advanced science and math), the other subjects shouldn't come last.

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Reading first

Buzzworthy?

June 1, 2006

The winner of the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee will be crowned tonight, and all the pomp will be broadcast live on ABC. But it's worth wondering whether the Scripps bee still merits such publicity while the estimable National Geographic Bee (held last week, and hosted by Alex Trebek) goes relatively unnoticed. The National Geographic Society recently released a survey showing that 60 percent of college-age Americans can't find Iraq on a map, and half can't find New York state. But rather than educate our students by emphasizing words with geographic and real historical value-Peloponnesus, say, or Djibouti-the spelling bee chooses shamelessly to tout its own passé-ness. Thus, words such as pelisse (use in a sentence: "Your great grandmother called; she wants her pelisse back.") and retinue (welcome to the 21^st century, Scripps-try "entourage") are the norm. So while Chinese and Indian engineers and cartographers come to dominate the global markets, Americans of Chinese and Indian descent will be left behind, spelling their way into irrelevance. A peccadillo? More like sesquipedalian treason.

"War of the Worlds," by Charles Passy, New York Times, May 26, 2006

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Buzzworthy?

Florida Charter Schools: Hot and Humid with Passing Storms

June 1, 2006

Bryan C. Hassel, Michelle Godard Terrell, and Julie Kowal
Education Sector
May 2006

With the heat and humidity descending on Washington and points south, it seemed a fine time to review Education Sector's latest report, an examination of Florida charter schools. It's part of an ongoing series of case studies (begun at the Progressive Policy Institute) that analyze "state and urban experiences with charter schooling." Why hot and humid? Perhaps because Florida charters are flourishing in the Sunshine State's greenhouse-like environment, nurtured by rapid population growth and increasingly bipartisan support. While charters in Florida have faced resistance from the usual quarters, in 2006 "the Florida School Boards Association, the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, and the Florida Education Association decided to neither support nor oppose charter school legislation in their legislative platforms. Instead they planned to battle Florida's school voucher programs." Unfortunately, those battles against vouchers have been somewhat successful (see here), but on the bright side they may have provided political cover for charter schools to expand with relative ease. Thus, in one decade Florida has gone from five charter schools to 334. But even in this steamy climate of spawning, the Sunshine State's charter schools face problems. "Most notably," the authors write, "the second half of the charter school autonomy-accountability bargain has been largely unfulfilled." That is, low-performing charter schools in Florida are not being shut down. Other findings are routine: Florida's charter schools are

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Florida Charter Schools: Hot and Humid with Passing Storms

The Information Edge: Using Data to Accelerate Achievement

Martin A. Davis, Jr. / June 1, 2006

Education Week
May 2006

Education Week's special edition on technology in education is a treasure trove, at least for those who embrace technology and the potential for student learning that it can unleash. Besides its predictable statistics (the number of computers available per student in schools and classrooms, etc.), tech-junkies will enjoy reading about efforts to establish state-wide data systems and the challenges that these present. For example, nearly all states have created unique student and teacher identification codes that track individuals over time as they move within the state. But far fewer have linked these IDs to attendance and transcript information for students or to highly qualified status and salary rate for teachers. Among states that use data to drive policy, Florida leads the pack. The report's update on SIF (Schools Interoperability Framework)-a project to create a common set of rules, definitions, and specifications that will one day allow educational groups to share data-is also helpful. And for those with the patience to trek through the state-by-state write-ups, more goodies await. Other interesting findings include how many children per classroom have access to high-speed internet connections, and which states have established virtual schools. Whether one loves, loathes, or avoids technology, however, it's clear from this report that states are committed to collecting data and finding new and better ways of using it. No state received an F grade for its use

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The Information Edge: Using Data to Accelerate Achievement

Reality Check 2006: How Black and Hispanic Families Rate Their Schools

June 1, 2006

Public Agenda
2006

From 1998 through 2002, Public Agenda conducted Reality Check surveys of parents, teachers, students, employers and college professors, asking them questions about educational accountability and testing. The 2006 surveys, of which this is the second in a series, cover a broader topical landscape. This report’s focus is clear from its title, and its results are derived from a pair of focus groups and sizable national telephone survey. Some findings are interesting, others less so, and some are rather unfortunate. An example of the latter: 65 percent of black and Hispanic students, and 69 percent of white students, believe they are learning “a lot when it comes to reading, writing, spelling, and vocabulary.” This is a fine sentiment, but patently not true. Test after test after test, not to mention sundry testimonials from exasperated business leaders and college professors, makes clear that students are, in fact, not learning a lot in those subjects. Further evidence that students (and parents) are clueless and/or misled about how they’re doing educationally. Also of note, “twice as many black parents as white parents give the local superintendent fair or poor marks for ensuring that the district has high standards and students get the support they need to reach them,” and 40 percent of black parents (compared to 26 percent of white parents) “say that a diploma from a local high school doesn’t guarantee a student has learned the basics.” More positively, “the vast

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Reality Check 2006: How Black and Hispanic Families Rate Their Schools