The Educational Reformation

There are periods throughout history where we as a people know that what we are doing and what we have done is no longer in alignment with our core values and beliefs.  This was true during the mid to late 1500's when priests and theologians broke away from the Roman Catholic Church.  The Roman Catholic Church during this time was not only an entity where people chose to worship and celebrate their faith, but it was a larger political body that enforced what some believed were unjust laws in order to keep people continually indebted to the church.  Bishops, Cardinals and the Pope himself all possessed great amounts of political clout and would force the commoner to release their earnings so that he might gain favor in the eyes of God.  Certain members of the church saw threw the corruption and political pandering and chose to break away.  Perhaps the most popular member of the reformation is monk Martin Luther who nailed his tenants of faith to the door of the monastery after denouncing the Roman Catholic Church.  As a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), I am more inclined to follow the teachings, or pillars of Calvinism.  We, as Presbyterians, hold at the very core of our belief structure, as Calvin did, that we are the church always reforming and never stagnant.  It is our mission to constantly grow and challenge what we believe and how our faith will continue to grow.


Jumping ahead nearly 500 years later we find ourselves at the beginnings of another politically charged reformation: "The Educational Reformation".  For nearly a decade education has be inundated with the reform to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that is now known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).  ESEA was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson because he fully believed that every American citizen should have the right to an education.  ESEA gave state governments autonomy over the school's in their states.  During the late 1970's and early 1980's a decline in student achievement and graduation had been occurring.  The Department of Education began a task force that published A Nation at Risk that clearly stated what measures where needed to raise the achievement of students.  Many educational leaders today continue to reference this report as the template for true educational reform.  

Enter: No Child Left Behind, or Every Test Dumbed Down.  Thus began the standards movement in America.  Students would take a standardized "High Stakes" test in order to show achievement and schools would be rated by these tests.  The kicker is that these tests are cheap to produce and students have to learn a narrow curriculum and merely be able to bubble in the correct answer.  This has passed for critical thinking.  


The system has subsisted off of this mockery for over a decade and we not seeing gains in achievement, but schools that have been labeled as failing.  When a school is labeled failing for more than three years it is put on a turnaround plan.  Essentially the administration is fired along with about 50% of the staff.  The staff can reapply for their jobs, but most do not and seek out other schools or even systems to work.  The irony is that this is considered reform; but in truth it is... well corporate reform.  This model is similar to the model used by the once giant in electronics Circuit City and we all know how successful that plan worked.


The old statement, "It is too big to fail" blindsided Circuit City and it currently laughing in the face of the educational system.  Once again the answer does lie how much money is the nation willing to spend?  Is the nation ready to do the real work and focus on a system that is constantly in need of reformation? Is education system in American truly in a state of disrepair?  


Contrary to what certain news outlets have been clamoring, I do not think the system is beyond repair.   As stated in the picture of John Calvin, "Unconditional Change".  I do believe it is going to force us all to change our educational paradigms that we have developed over nearly a hundred years and it will take a great deal of collaboration on all sides to reform an ever reforming system. There are reformers who are beginning to unlock the key to what education has been and what it will be.  They are not afraid to trample on the sacred cow of standardized tests.  One of my personal favorites is Sir Ken Robinson and his belief structure on education greatly matches my own core values during this educational reformation.




(http://www.youtube.com, 2012)