The section of the Stout article that connects to the issues of school grades is the concept of, “Who should decide issues of school direction and policy?” In the case of this issue, it’s clear that the state and Dr. Bennett feel that they should have control over assessing the overall quality of school performance. I’m inferring that teacher unions wouldn’t feel that their values aren’t equally reflected in the state’s policy.
Values and Ideology:
At this point I’m making multiple connections with the intention of later honing in on one:
- Individualism: I question whether state mandated grades can coexist with teacher autonomy?
- Freedom: How will this policy affect the range of choices open to parents and students? Dr. Bennett has made it clear that one of the major reasons for the school grading system is to create transparency and clarify for parents, who will then use this information to make choices about school attendance. However, this also calls into question how the policy will affect the autonomy of a faculty- my inference being that the stronger the state mandate the less autonomy teachers will feel they have in their classrooms.
- Fraternity: Will competition not result? And if/when it does, won’t it cause a lack of fraternity among schools and even teachers? In contrast, the union opposition obviously represents strong fraternal bonds.
- Efficiency: Does this policy include close monitoring of “output” such as student achievement? Yes!
- I view the school report card as one element of a larger initiative by the state to create “more market mechanisms into public education in order to increase efficiency.” (121 Values and Ideology). In addition, there is a clear connection between the discussion of business conservatives (page 125) and Bennett’s proposals and what the author calls the “Agenda of the Right” (page 129).
Crhis, this topic is closely related to mine and school choice. The assigning of grades will probably enhance the effect of open enrollment. How many parents would legitimately settle for a school receiving a D or an F, when they now have the option of sending students to better schools? It will be interesting to see how teacher autonomy will be affected. Will these grades enhance creativity, and spur the teaching practices necessary to get good grades for the schools? Or... Will this stifle creativity and make teachers less apt to take a risk?
ReplyDeleteCould it be that the unions are operating from equity perspective (protecting teachers' interests no matter what their "status"?). Thoughtful post and comment from Mike. This is indeed a hot topic and one which will induce policy and programmatic responses that will introduce a whole other set of political issues. The question of whether it will stifle or inspire creativity may well depend on local level leadership - and they risks they are willing to take and support.
ReplyDelete-scribner