Thompson: What Should Have Happened According To Hess And Me

Rick Hess responds to my “sharp-penned" blog post and then offers an outstanding account of why George Miller and other reformers were frustrated by the foot dragging of the educational  establishment of the early 1990s.   “They particularly fretted that Title I wasn't doing much for low-income kids,” wrote Hess.  Then, in 2001, “policymakers basically roared in annoyance, turned to would-be reformers who offered actionable suggestions.” The predictable result was that NCLB, at the cost of billions, made a bad situation worse. 

Here's how I would alter Hess' account,  "If educators had stepped up in 1994 with ideas for smarter outcome  input metrics, ... I'm willing to wager that the story of the next two decades would have been hugely different better."  It wouldn’t have been as romantic, but a Title I for America could have done real good.  Had non-educators brought their talents with metrics to the mundane task of rationalizing school administration, they could had created aligned systems for smart investments of federal money.  Instead of focusing on the core issue of what educators actually do, they adopted the risky bank shot of evaluating schools using primitive test scores as a proxy for reality. Ironically, my analysis draws heavily from the work of a sharp-penned conservative, Rick Hess.-JT(@drjohnthompson)Image via.

Comments

[Mary]

Nobody cares now what you said, except you and Rick, because you've got the public schools reduced to something your patrons can feed on. That's all that mattered to any of you, then or now.

Corporate poverty pimps, hypocrites all of you, pretend any of your camp were annoyed by anything but a profit opportunity you couldn't milk.

Yes, you too, hired pundits. As Hess famously wrote, you're all implicated.

“They particularly fretted that Title I wasn't doing much for low-income kids,” wrote Hess.

Please, please ban me from this festival of mealy-mouthed self-congratulations.

[John Thompson]

I care what Rick says. He often makes me mad. But, few experts teach me more.

[Sarah]

The fun part is that I frequent this blog, but have no stake in the field of education whatsoever, barring my college loans I will at some point begrudgingly pay off. I wonder what delightful category I fall into, then, being a freelance web designer with little more than a passing interest in the field of education. I sure hope that qualifies me for “corporate poverty pimp.” Sounds positively glamorous.

[Sarah]

To address the actual topic, I thought your original post summed up the problem pretty well. I’m not 100% sure Hess really refuted your point, even.