Test score "plunges" are in the news, dampening schools' traditional first day optimism just as they reopen after the summer break. Charles Dickens' opening lines in A Tale of Two Cities seem an especially apt, if ahistorical, descriptor of the current state of education in the United States.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
To teachers, administrators and parents these may seem like the dark days on the eve of destruction of public education. Indeed, from draconian budget cuts to school closings, from competition for students from private fund-enhanced charter schools to maniacal focus on test scores, from flawed measures of teacher performance to attacks on teacher professionalism, public schooling as a collective good is under siege. These threats are especially ironic and unconscionable because we now know more about teaching, learning and effective change than ever before. So, it is the age of wisdom, light and hope because our knowledge grows and deepens. But it is also the age of foolishness, darkness and despair because ignorance and selfishness have prevailed over knowledge and evidence.
In each critical area for improvement, foolishness threatens wisdom.
- Integration: We live in an increasingly diverse society in which collaborative interaction across myriad differences will be an essential requirement for a healthy productive citizenship, employment and innovation. In addition, substantial evidence suggests that traditionally underperforming students are more successful in integrated rather than segregated schools, while not undermining the academic performance of their peers. However, as a nation we have abandoned integration as a goal in either housing or education. Schools systems that have courageously attempted to maintain integrated systems have gotten little material or moral support from political leaders. More troubling, political and financial support for charter schools has exacerbated rather than mediated racial and socioeconomic isolation.
In the current climate, acting on wisdom and hope rather than foolishness and despair takes courage. My hope is that as the school year begins teachers can summon the courage continue learning and to act on what they know about teaching and learning and that principals, superintendents, school boards and parents can work together to give teachers and their students the protected space to do so.
Arthur H. Camins is the Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. His writing can be accessed at www.arthurcamins.com.