species of educational reformer

(Washington, DC). Whom have I forgotten or mischaracterized?

The Testing Liberal: Argues that we have failed to educate our least advantaged children because we haven’t believed they can succeed, haven’t cared about them, and haven’t dedicated valuable resources–such as the best teachers–to them. Wants to monitor every child’s progress with standardized tests and respond rapidly to signs of failure.

The Crunchy Liberal: Believes that the most important and effective aspects of education include play, the arts, service, and open discussion. These cannot be measured and are being lost because of testing pressures. May or may not see small schools and charter schools as helpful.

The Social Context Liberal: Presumes that schools have only a small impact on educational outcomes. More important are external factors, ranging from nutrition and racism to crime and parenting styles. May want to devote much more money to schools serving poor children to compensate for their social contexts. May also want to defend the performance of schools as they are.

The Resource Equalizer: Like the Social Context Liberal, primarily concerned that we don’t spend enough money on the children who need it most. May be primarily concerned with funding formulas and mechanisms.

The Modernizer: Cannot believe that we still educate kids in classrooms with fraying textbooks and black- (or white-) boards. Wants everyone playing digital games and creating digital media, possibly from home instead of school. Some in this group are less interested in technology than in teaching 21st century skills or applying recent research on brain science to improve pedagogy.

The Efficiency-through-Consistency Maven: Cannot believe that 98,706 schools, 14,841 school districts, and 50 states are all separately developing curricula, lesson plans, professional development programs, manuals, and reading lists. Sees the potential for huge economies of scale and improvements in quality if teaching is standardized.

The School Choice Libertarian: Favors either charter schools or vouchers to break monopolies seen as inefficient, corrupt, static, and unresponsive to families–especially poor families. Some in this group are more concerned about the education schools’ monopoly on teacher certification than the schools’ monopoly on kids.

The Traditionalist: Admires and would like to return to the neighborhood school of 50 years ago, with prayer, corporal punishment, and high respect for teachers. Is more concerned about perceived declines in mores than about preparation for the 21st century labor market.

The Teacher Organizer: Believes that teachers have been downtrodden by most of the other reformers and wants to empower them collectively to reform schools or systems from the bottom up. May or may not see the teachers’ unions as helpful agents.

The Community Organizer: Emphasizes the importance of social capital, parental engagement, and cooperation between schools and neighborhood associations–including religious congregations. Wants to get the community involved in educating kids, and may distrust external forces (such as markets, state and federal mandates, and textbook companies). Should be concerned that we have only 14,000 school districts, sharply down from 119,001 districts in 1937, when the country was much smaller–because that is a sign of consolidation.

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About Peter

Associate Dean for Research and the Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tufts University's Tisch College of Civic Life. Concerned about civic education, civic engagement, and democratic reform in the United States and elsewhere.