The Successful Failure of ED in ’08 by Alexander Russo
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FUTURE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION PROJECT The Successful Failure of ED in ’08 By Alexander Russo June 2012 The Future of American Education Paper Series is edited and overseen by Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Papers in this series focusing on higher education topics are edited by Andrew P. Kelly, research fellow for education policy studies. The series, which is part of the Future of American Education Project, is a publishing platform for original scholarship in all areas of education reform. It includes contributions from university-based academics as well as on-the-ground school reformers and entrepreneurs. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the American Enterprise Institute. Scholars interested in submitting to the series should contact Daniel Lautzenheiser for additional information at [email protected] or 202.862.5843. Publications in the Future of American Education Paper Series: • Facilities Financing: Monetizing Education’s Untapped Resource by Himanshu Kothari • Linking Costs and Postsecondary Degrees: Key Issues for Policymakers by Nate Johnson • Opportunities for Efficiency and Innovation: A Primer on How to Cut College Costs by Vance H. Fried • Something Has Got to Change: Rethinking Special Education by Nate Levenson • Shifting Risk to Create Opportunity: A Role for Performance Guarantees in Education by Bryan Hassel and Daniela Doyle • The Attrition Tradition in American Higher Education: Connecting Past and Present by John R. Thelin • “But the Pension Fund Was Just Sitting There…”: The Politics of Teacher Retirement Plans by Frederick M. Hess and Juliet P. Squire • “Diverse Providers” in Action: Lessons Learned from School Restructuring in Hawaii by Frederick M. Hess and Juliet P. Squire • Private Capital and Public Education: Toward Quality at Scale by Tom Vander Ark, Revolution Learning • Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own by Mark Bauerlein, Emory University • Success at Scale in Charter Schooling by Steven F. Wilson, Ascend Learning, Inc. • Education Policy, Academic Research, and Public Opinion by William G. Howell, University of Chicago Foreword oday, the school reform firmament includes a • Acceptable Activity: ED in ’08 showed funders and Twealth of groups working to rethink and reimag - nonprofit grantees that a nonprofit could be ine schooling. These include policy actors ranging involved in serious policy and advocacy work and from the federal Department of Education to state that such work is worth doing. education agencies to local superintendents, as well as parent groups, teachers unions, researchers, and • Creating State and Local Networks: Partly in philanthropists. The latter group, in particular, often response to the challenges faced by ED in ’08, has an outsized influence by virtue of their ability to many new advocacy groups are being set up as use dollars to drive particular school reforms, win networks of semi-autonomous state-level organi - votes for legislation, or sponsor new research. As zations with somewhat fluid agendas that can such, large foundations such as the Bill & Melinda adapt their efforts to suit local dynamics. Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foun - dation, and the Ford Foundation have been in the • Too Combative, Too Collaborative: If ED in ’08 national spotlight surrounding school reform con - was at times exceedingly cautious in its tactics versations. Given that, it’s important to understand and messaging, some of the initiatives launched the history and nature of philanthropic investment in in its aftermath have been overly aggressive, made K–12 education and lessons that can guide advocacy inaccurate or misleading claims, and chosen par - groups going forward. ticularly controversial priorities regarding teach - In “The Successful Failure of ED in ’08,” veteran ers and teachers unions. Ultimately, there is a education journalist Alexander Russo attempts to do balance between the two. just that. What I find fascinating about Russo’s piece is its hard and thoughtful look at one of the most One of my guiding principles in studying educa - prominent philanthropic initiatives of the past tion is that much can be learned from policy analy - decade—the Education in 2008 effort by the Gates sis, history, and field inquiry, as well as by looking and Broad Foundations to make education a focal at numbers and performance metrics. I think this is point of the 2008 election. That initiative’s successes a terrific example of making sure we are learning and stumbles have informed the strategy of future from big, important initiatives and capturing both groups like Democrats for Education Reform, lessons and insights. For further information on the 50CAN, and Stand. Russo argues effectively that on paper, contact Russo at [email protected]. the whole, the effort did not have much of an imme - For additional information on the activities of AEI’s diate impact, yet it has had a much more significant Education Policy program, please visit www.aei.org/ legacy than is often acknowledged when it comes to policy/ education/ or contact Daniel Lautzenheiser at current issues like the Common Core State Standards [email protected]. and teacher evaluation. In particular, Russo pinpoints a few lessons —Frederick M. Hess learned from ED in ’08 worth paying attention to in Director, Education Policy Studies the 2012 election year. Among them: American Enterprise Institute iii About the Author Alexander Russo is a writer, blogger, and author charter schools to rescue a broken Los Angeles high who has been published or quoted in Slate, T he Wash - school. Russo was a 2009 Spencer Education Journal - ington Monthly , Washington Post, Huffington Post, New ism Fellow at Columbia University. Before he began York Times , and USA Today . His school reform web - writing, he served as an education adviser to US sena - site, “This Week in Education,” is one of the nation’s tors and the chancellor of the New York City public earliest and most popular education blogs. His 2011 schools, and as a high school English teacher. A version book, Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors (Jossey-Bass ), of this paper will appear as part of Russo’s next book, chronicled the attempt by a network of unionized School of Politics . iv The Successful Failure of ED in ’08 n January 15, 2012, veteran education pushed by ED in ’08 in several key regards. And, as Oresearcher Craig Jerald was feeling a little frus - Jerald noted, the 2012 campaign has been thus far trated by the lack of discussion about education in devoid of much substantive discussion about educa - the Republican primary debates. So he logged into tion reform. his Twitter account to vent to his four hundred– Was ED in ’08 a complete and utter failure, then, plus followers: “Presidential debate moderators or the underappreciated prototype for what has have mostly ignored education. Anyone miss ED become a widespread approach to promoting school in ’08 now???” reform and the hidden influence over the Obama ED in ’08 (Education in 2008) was an effort to education agenda? “At the time, it seemed irrelevant,” make education a big part of the 2008 presidential said Diane Ravitch, the New York University educa - campaign—to make the candidates take education tion historian and a prominent critic of current reform seriously and talk about it during debates and on the ideas. “Though in retrospect it may have set the campaign stump. Jerald had poured his heart into groundwork. Little did we know.” 2 the effort. Four years later, most others remembered it as a costly failure, if they remembered it at all. Indeed, it didn’t take long for longtime think- A Fast, Hot Start tanker Andy (“Eduwonk”) Rotherham to respond to Jerald’s tweet: “OK, but what’s a good price per ques - It was hot even by South Carolina standards outside tion? Those were expensive,” he asked, referring to the the Edventure Children’s Museum in Columbia just mere twenty education-related questions that mod- after lunchtime on April 25, 2007. A hundred kids erators had asked the candidates in 2007 and 2008. stood in the large parking lot, unshaded from the sun. ED in ’08 was the largest single-issue advocacy A big yellow school bus served as a backdrop. U2’s campaign in the history of education reform. 1 But song “Beautiful Day” blared from speakers. A handful the initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates of veteran campaign reporters, including Hotline’s and Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations, was shut - Marc Ambinder and Newsweek ’s Howard Fineman, tered after just sixteen months and written off by out - were in attendance. At the podium stood current and side observers and the funders themselves. former elected officials—mayors, governors, and state Heading into the 2012 campaign season, no one superintendents among them—and representatives gave any serious thought to repeating the experi - from the Seattle-based Gates Foundation. ment. “We have no plans for another such effort,” Off to the side of the crowd, thirty-seven-year-old Broad Foundation policy director Gregory McGinity Jerald tried to keep an eye both on the speakers and said in a September 7, 2011, e-mail interview. the audience. The newly hired ED in ’08 policy direc - And yet, education advocacy organizations very tor was worrying both that the assembled VIPs might much like ED in ’08 have proliferated in the years not have enough water and that he might be sweat - following the 2008 elections, as has philanthropic ing through his suit. He was also listening carefully support for political advocacy. The Obama adminis - to the speeches, formulating the feedback he would tration’s education priorities have resembled those give afterward. 1 FUTURE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION PROJECT The event was the kickoff for the $60 million ini - Democrats was former First Lady and New York tiative to ensure the public was engaged on educa - Senator Hillary Clinton, though a lot of voters tion issues and that the next occupant of the White seemed to like the charismatic, young former senator House was committed to making public education John Edwards.