Tough Love for Schools

Tough Love for Schools For my mom and dad, who taught me the value of tough love. Tough Love for Schools Essays on Competition, Accountability, and Excellence Frederick M. Hess The AEI Press Publisher for the American Enterprise Institute W ASHINGTON, D.C. Distributed to the Trade by National Book Network, 15200 NBN Way, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214. To order call toll free 1-800-462-6420 or 1-717-794-3800. For all other inquiries please contact the AEI Press, 1150 Seventeenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036 or call 1-800-862-5801. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hess, Frederick M. Tough love for schools : essays on competition, accountability, and excellence / Frederick M. Hess. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8447-4211-2 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Educational accountability—Political aspects—United States. 2. Public schools—United States. I. Title. LB2806.22.H47 2006 379.1'58—dc22 2005030556 11 10 09 08 07 06 1 2 3 4 5 6 © 2006 by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the American Enterprise Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodied in news articles, critical articles, or reviews. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not neces- sarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. Printed in the United States of America Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION 1 A Bit of Personal History 3 Embracing Systemic Reform 7 Politics and School Reform 8 What’s Ahead in This Volume 11 PART I: PUBLIC LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC SCHOOLING 13 1. SEEKING THE MANTLE OF “OPPORTUNITY”: PRESIDENTIAL 17 POLITICS AND THE EDUCATIONAL METAPHOR with Patrick McGuinn The Federal Role before 1964 20 From the Great Society to the Conservative Moment: 1964–80 22 The Triumph of an Opportunity-Based Conservatism: 1980–92 25 The “New Democrats” Strike Back: 1992–2000 31 Convergence—Opportunity through Accountability: The 2000 Election 34 2. RETOOLING K–12 GIVING 37 The Annenberg Challenge 38 Challenging the Status Quo 39 A “New” Education Philanthropy? 41 The New Givers 42 The Temptations of the Status Quo 45 Schoolhouse Lessons 46 vii viii TOUGH LOVE FOR SCHOOLS 3. MAKING SENSE OF THE “PUBLIC” IN PUBLIC EDUCATION 50 The Public and the Private in Schooling 51 The Shared Notion of the Public Good 53 Three Conceptions of “Public” 54 Which Community Is “the Public”? 57 Making Sense of “Public Education” 58 4. WHAT ISA“PUBLIC SCHOOL”? PRINCIPLES FOR A NEW CENTURY 61 What Isn’t Public? 62 What Is Public Schooling? 62 Today’s “Public” Schools Often Aren’t 69 Conclusion 70 PART II: COMPETITION AND ACCOUNTABILITY 73 5. THE CASE FOR BEING MEAN 77 Nice versus Mean Accountability 77 Rethinking Systems and Practices 79 Ambivalence about Being Tough 80 The Temptations of Compromise 82 The Importance of Being Mean 83 6. THE POLITICAL CHALLENGE OF CHARTER SCHOOL REGULATION 85 Two Visions of Charter School Accountability 86 The Challenge of Regulatory Accountability 88 Improving Regulatory Accountability for Charter Schools 90 The Promise of Charter School Accountability 93 7. THE WORK AHEAD 95 Mixed Metaphors 97 Straitjacketed School Systems 99 Unchaining the Bulldozer 102 8. CHOICE IS NOT ENOUGH 105 The Logic of Competition 106 How Schools “Compete” Today 107 From Choice to Competition 108 CONTENTS ix PART III: POLITICS AND SCHOOL REFORM 111 9. INCLUSIVE AMBIGUITY 115 The Political Fault Lines 117 Nature of the Disciplines 119 The Constitutional Regime 121 Dominant Norms and Values 122 Teetering toward Ambiguity 123 Conclusion 127 10. “TRUST US,” THEY EXPLAINED: RACIAL DISTRUST AND 130 SCHOOL REFORM The Aftermath of 1964 132 Opportunity Conservatism and the Educational Challenge 133 A Natural Reform Alliance 135 Understanding Black Distrust 137 A New Day 140 What Then? 143 11. SCHOOL VOUCHERS AND SUBURBANITES 145 12. THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE 150 Less-than-Convincing Critiques 151 Two Arguments for Democratic Control 152 The “Weak” Case: Skeptical Safeguards 153 The “Strong” Case: Setting Public Priorities 154 A Democratic Model of Reform 155 Real Democratic Control 157 PART IV: FINDING TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS 159 13. TEAR DOWN THIS WALL 163 Competitive Certification 164 The Assumptions of Certification 166 A Dubious Screen 169 The Costs of Certification 170 Creative Destruction 171 x TOUGH LOVE FOR SCHOOLS 14. A LICENSE TO LEAD? 174 Changing Demands 176 Closing the Door to Talent 178 The Costs of the Status Quo 182 Tried but Not True 183 15. READY TO LEAD? with Andrew Kelly 186 Principal Preparation 188 Texts 189 What’s the Bottom Line? 190 What Districts Should Do 191 16. THE PREDICTABLE, BUT UNPREDICTABLY PERSONAL, 195 POLITICS OF TEACHER LICENSURE Formalizing Teacher Preparation 198 Debating Teacher Licensure 200 A Vigorous, but Less Personal, Debate 202 PART V: THE ROAD AHEAD 205 17. LESSONS FROM SAN DIEGO 209 18. SCIENCE AND NONSCIENCE: THE LIMITS OF 212 SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 19. TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES 216 Cultural Bias 217 Technology and Data Management 219 Rethinking Teachers’ Work 221 A Tool, Not a Miracle Cure 223 20. ON LEAVING NO CHILD BEHIND with Chester E. Finn Jr. 225 The DNA of NCLB 226 NCLB-Style Accountability 229 A Mixed Report Card 230 Remedies and Interventions 232 Politics 235 Making NCLB Work 236 Great Society Redux 241 CONTENTS xi PUBLICATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 245 NOTES 247 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 269 INDEX 271 Acknowledgments I am indebted both to those who initially edited and published the various articles here and to the talented colleagues who helped me arrange, compile, and publish this collection. I want to offer thanks and heartfelt appreciation to my invaluable assistant, Morgan Goatley, for her diligent work assembling the volume and her insightful editorial assistance. While these articles had been previously published, it was no small job to modify, update, and compile them for this volume. The talented duo of Juliet Squire and Michael Ruderman cheerfully accomplished this work, tracking down references that had long slipped my mind and providing provocative and sophisticated feedback. Finally, Rosemary Kendrick played an important role in editing and completing the manu- script. A number of the articles now read considerably better than did the original versions, and I think that is due largely to the efforts of Morgan, Juliet, Michael, and Rosemary. A few of the chapters are coauthored works, so I thank my friends Chester Finn, Andrew Kelly, and Patrick McGuinn for giving their permission to include them here. I’d also like to thank the various editors who massaged a number of these articles when they were published in their original form. Three to whom I am particularly indebted as I read this collection are Sally Zakariya, the editor of the American School Board Journal; Tyce Palmaffy, the longtime articles editor of Education Next; and Bruce Smith, the editor of Phi Delta Kappan. As always, I want to express my particular thanks to the wonderful institution that is the American Enterprise Institute. I can think of few other places where a scholar experiences the support, the intellectual freedom, and the caliber of colleagues that I have been privileged to enjoy here. I want to offer my particular thanks to AEI’s president, xiii xiv TOUGH LOVE FOR SCHOOLS Christopher DeMuth, for his unwavering support. I’d also like to offer my thanks to the redoubtable team of managers, marketers, and editors at AEI, the folks who free me and my fellow scholars to spend our time reading, musing, and writing. Finally, I want to thank those directly involved in the production of this volume, particularly Monty Brown, Sam Thernstrom, and Lisa Ferraro Parmelee. Introduction In the world of K–12 schooling, you have to look long and hard to find those jaundiced enough to declare publicly that teachers are no more saintly than anyone else, that accountability systems should shutter poor schools and remove lousy teachers, that schools should be more efficient and cost-effective, that profit-driven competition might be good for public education, that teaching experience is not essential to being a school principal, or that public schools may already have all the money they need. Well, these are the kinds of “radical” ideas you will encounter in this volume. Rather than offer a soft-shoe sales pitch, telling you that testing “demonstrates our faith in teachers” or that school vouchers are good because “every child deserves a choice,” I want to talk bluntly about accountability, competition, excellence, and the public good. Now, for many in education, this is troubling enough. That I am a former teacher and education professor who believes in frank talk and tough-minded remedies strikes them as downright perplexing. When I talk to audiences of educators, public officials, or professors, I am frequently asked some variation of the question: “Why are you so tough on public education?” I’ll tell you. I believe schooling is capable of fueling democracy and promoting human progress—and that our educational system is not answering the challenge. I reject the notion, so prevalent in contemporary education and politics, that loving something means becoming an apologist for it. The nature of tough love is that we demand more, not less, of the people and the things we cherish. Tough love for schooling presumes that we must ask how schools can do more, rather than how they can get more, and that we be blunt and clear-eyed in our assessments and proposals. 1 2 TOUGH LOVE FOR SCHOOLS To prove that America’s schools are vital to our nation’s future, some reformers like to quote trade statistics, national growth projections, and productivity figures.

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