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 proportions and prevented those dedicated people from doing their work, removing for a time being their efforts that helped inoculate against a whole series of stupid decisions, allowing those stupid decisions to result in their logical conclusions?
What if over 30+ years research suggested the needle wasn’t moving, or wasn’t moving fast enough, or when the crisis hit went in the wrong direction?
The answer is simple: you’d need to admit that the problem is in the system, in the way that it was put together, and the way it demanded to be executed. You would have to admit embarrassment at sticking with a theory of action for thirty+ years that failed to meet your goals and pretending all the while that it is/was an acceptable thing to do. You’d have to admit that you don’t give a rat’s ass about those being served, or those doing the serving, which would likely mean that as a person making the rules what you were doing wasn’t creating an issue for you.
Or you could write an editorial lamenting the sad state of the profession and those in it, wring your hands at the lack of solutions, complain, clutch some pearls and pretend to care, and then put the whole process on repeat and hope for a better outcome next time around.
Welcome to the world of public education. Time for a better way.
Come learn how.
www.brave-ed.com
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 proportions and prevented those dedicated people from doing their work, removing for a time being their efforts that helped inoculate against a whole series of stupid decisions, allowing those stupid decisions to result in their logical conclusions?
What if over 30+ years research suggested the needle wasn’t moving, or wasn’t moving fast enough, or when the crisis hit went in the wrong direction?
The answer is simple: you’d need to admit that the problem is in the system, in the way that it was put together, and the way it demanded to be executed. You would have to admit embarrassment at sticking with a theory of action for thirty+ years that failed to meet your goals and pretending all the while that it is/was an acceptable thing to do. You’d have to admit that you don’t give a rat’s ass about those being served, or those doing the serving, which would likely mean that as a person making the rules what you were doing wasn’t creating an issue for you.
Or you could write an editorial lamenting the sad state of the profession and those in it, wring your hands at the lack of solutions, complain, clutch some pearls and pretend to care, and then put the whole process on repeat and hope for a better outcome next time around.
Welcome to the world of public education. Time for a better way.
Come learn how.
www.brave-ed.com
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