Imagine saying that we should shut down a hospital and fire its staff because not all of its patients became healthy.
Congress is now considering legislation designed to vastly improve students' school performance -- by punishing school districts, teachers and principals if students don't make miraculous progress. You can seen this idea in full bloom in the revision of Chapter I legislation on which Congress is now working.
Chapter 1, which is the largest federal program targeted at elementary and secondary education, gives money to schools where poor children are concentrated in order to provide extra services for these kids. The aim is to give the youngsters an educational boost and narrow the achievement gap that often exists between them and more affluent children. But the programs have been criticized as low-level, remedial efforts that expect far too little of students. The current reform will improve Chapter I in a number of important ways, but it may also create some new and serious problems.
According to the proposed legislation, in order to get Chapter I funds, states have to develop content standards and assessments and define three levels of performance: partially proficient, proficient and advanced. Schools and school districts then have to make "adequate yearly progress" toward getting all their Chapter I students to achieve at the "advanced" level. Once this system is up and running, school districts and schools that don't make the required progress will be subject to a number of severe sanctions, which are mandatory in the third year (for a school) or in the fourth year (for a school district). The sanctions include cutting off federal funding; transferring students out to other schools; and "reconstituting" staff in the school or school district. In the case of school districts, schools can be removed from their jurisdiction. In other words, an individual school or school district can be forced into educational receivership.
When states set these levels, they may make the advanced level low enough so that everybody will be able to meet it -- in which case we will have a minimum competency requirement, and the education system will be much as it is now. But if the states are putting together world-class standards, "advanced" would be roughly equivalent to the very high performance levels that exist in other countries for entrance into universities.
Given the wide range of natural endowments, it would be absurd to expect all children - or even the majority -- anywhere to achieve at an advanced level. In other industrialized democracies, where the education systems are more successful than ours, no more than one-third of students do so. How can we expect Chapter I schools and teachers to take kids, most of whom are achieving in the bottom quarter, and make them all equal to the best students anywhere in the world?
Teachers in many of these Chapter I schools get up every morning worrying about whether violence will erupt in their classroom or in the halls. They worry about the students who are working hard and doing well -- will these youngsters give up because they are tired of being bullied by the kids who have nothing but contempt for those who want to learn? The teachers think about the many other kids who are absent more than they are in school and who never come to class except to disrupt it. And they wonder whether all this is worth it when they could have fewer problems and more money working in a suburban school. If the Chapter I legislation goes ahead in its current form, these teachers will be required by law to bring all their Chapter I students up to an advanced level of performance. And if they fail, they will be told it is their fault and they will have sanctions to look forward to.
What's wrong with this is that it places all the responsibility on teachers and schools and none on students. Imagine saying we should shut down a hospital and fire its staff because not all of its patients became healthy -- but never demanding that the patients also look after themselves by eating properly, exercising and laying off cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. Is tightening the thumbscrews on the doctors and the hospital the best way to help the patients?
Our approach to fixing things in the schools is always to raise the level of the hoop -- or set it on fire. The apparent assumption is that teachers and schools are holding back or are ill-willed, and all they need is a kick in the butt. We never think that students have to be accountable, too. And yet, of course, you can't have school accountability without student accountability.
Students won't learn more unless they work harder -- come to school, pay attention and do homework. But they are unlikely to work harder when they've been told that if they don't, their teachers will be punished. There is no school system that works this way and I doubt that any ever will, at least not successfully.