Once more, with feeling, What About Those NAEP Scores?
Let’s pose the question(s) this way. What if you spent thirty+ years of your life directed to do the same thing day in and day out by those who don’t really understand what it takes to do what you do? What if the basic theory of action for how to evaluate your actions was flawed at the outset and yet changed not one whit over that period? What if every policy conversation stared with the presumption that the policies were solid, placing blame for their ineffectiveness squarely on the people tasked with executing them? What if the manner of accounting for the effort was flawed to the point that it couldn’t identify effectiveness or failure, but because the results matched commonly held biases about wealthy and impoverished communities and peoples, they weren’t questioned? What if the reason the profession in the above scenario didn’t crater or fall apart was due to lots of dedicated folks willing to work for a mission despite the challenge? What if a crisis came along of astronomical pr...