Thoughts on “A Quiet Revolution”

Posted in on Jul 27, 2010 - 12:56 PM

Secretary Arne Duncan gave a speech titled, “The Quiet Revolution" at the National Press Club today. It was billed as a landmark address that would lay out the educational priorities of the Obama Administration for the rest of this term. It is interesting to compare this with the Opportunity to Learn Campaign's statement on ESEA reauthorization. The speech contained some important nuggets. I've excerpted and commented on a few below:

“So whatever else we do at the federal level -- our first responsibility is to tell the truth -- and that also gets to the second big lever of change -- which is transparency. I credit NCLB for exposing America's dirty laundry -- but we need to go further and show what is and is not working.”

Not sure about crediting NCLB, but signaling that we have a responsibility to tell the truth and not shirk responsibility is worth standing up for.

“The big game-changer is to start measuring individual student growth rather than proficiency -- which is in our blueprint for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Act. We have to use that information to drive student instruction and accountability at every level -- classroom, school, district and state.”

This seems the most important and potentially powerful thing to be said here. Many educators for many years have called (some may have even screamed) for this shift. Moving away from ranking kids arbitrarily against one another and instead focusing on their individual growth over time offers potential for a huge sea-change in assessment and educational practice. Of particular note is the potential this offers for student self-assessments and portfolios to become primary tools rather than footnotes.

“And let's not get sidetracked in a false choice between competitive and formula funding -- because we need both.“

This is a knock at the Civil Rights group argument. We may need both, but this seems like an overly simplistic way to beat back their call for equitable funding without actually engaging with their thoughtful critic.

“Our blueprint also envisions a more humble and realistic federal role in driving reform. We are a very long way from the classroom in Washington and if we have learned one thing from NCLB it's that one-size-fits-all remedies generally don't work.”

Even if you're tired, upset, or jaded, this seems like a breath of fresh air.

“Teachers also worry that under new systems, their job security and salaries will be tied to the results of a bubble test that is largely disconnected from the material they are teaching. So let me be clear: no one thinks test scores should be the only factor in teacher evaluations, and no one wants to evaluate teachers based on a single test on a single day. But looking at student progress over the course of year, in combination with other factors like peer review and principal observation can lead to a culture shift in our schools where we finally take good teaching as seriously as the profession deserves.”

The beginning of a series of statements about the values of multiple measures and the need for thoughtful, relevant assessment not just for teachers, but students and the community too.

“We also agree that the current generation of assessments don't really measure critical thinking skills and that testing only for reading and math ignores many other important subjects. Over-emphasis on tested subjects narrows the curriculum if teachers and principals believe that the only way to show student progress is to teach to the test. But if we have better assessments that measure student growth and critical thinking skills across many subjects, we can stop assessing whether students are mastering the basics, and get a much fuller picture of student learning. The bottom line is that -- if we want different results we have to do things differently.”

Amen. It is time to do things differently. I can't say I love all the places this administration wants to head. I don't. But having the Secretary of Education signal that we need to stop teaching to tests, create new models of assessment that don't boil things down to bubble sheets, calls out our failure to live up to the promise of Brown V. Board of Education, and says the bottom line is that we need to innovate and change is a step in the right direction.

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