University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2018 HIGH STAKES EDUCATION: THE BUSINESS OF REFORM, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING, AND THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ALTERNATIVE William Vaughan Taylor University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Taylor, William Vaughan, "HIGH STAKES EDUCATION: THE BUSINESS OF REFORM, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING, AND THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ALTERNATIVE. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2018. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5086 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by William Vaughan Taylor entitled "HIGH STAKES EDUCATION: THE BUSINESS OF REFORM, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING, AND THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ALTERNATIVE." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Sociology. Jon. D. Shefner, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Sherry Cable, Paul K. Gellert, Judson C. Laughter Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) HIGH STAKES EDUCATION: THE BUSINESS OF REFORM, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING, AND THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ALTERNATIVE A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville William Vaughan Taylor August 2018 Copyright © 2018 by William V. Taylor. All rights reserved. ii ABSTRACT This dissertation describes a period rapid reform in a local school district, the emergence of an oppositional grassroots political coalition, and the community school model as an alternative reform trajectory. To give children the skills they need to compete in a high stakes economy, the district placed its faith in the power of performance metrics and the private sector to improve public schools. Metrics showed improvement. But rising scores belied a system in crisis. A business approach to teaching and learning proved deeply unpopular. A grassroots coalition emerged, challenged authority, and advanced a more democratic vision of education. The community school is an alternative reform trajectory rooted in democratic, social, and cooperative values. The model introduces contradictions within the system to create new contested spaces. This case suggests that education reforms promoting fixation on performance metrics and privatization are both dominant and pernicious, but also the current order is neither hegemonic nor inevitable. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: NEOLIBERALISM AND EDUCATION ……………1 Defining Neoliberalism…………………………………………………………. 5 Critiques of Neoliberal Theory and Practice………………………... 10 2008: Neoliberalism is Dead . Long Live Neoliberalism! ..............15 Methodological Considerations……………………………………………….17 Organization of the Dissertation……………………………………………... 26 CHAPTER II FEDERAL POLICY AND THE BUSINESS OF SCHOOLING……. 30 A Nation at Risk: Competing to Win………………………………………….31 No Child Left Behind: Accountability, Choice, and Privatization…………..34 Race to the Top: Cashing in on Crisis………………………………………..36 Governance: Self-organization and Diffuse Authority………………42 Blurred Lines: State-Market-Corporation…………………………………….46 CHAPTER III PHILANTHROPIC GOVERNANCE: PRIVATE MONEY, PUBLIC SCHOOLS………………………………………………………………………….......48 Great Schools Partnership: An Avenue of Influence……………………… 49 Expanding Role of Private Sector …………………………..………. 50 Philanthropy as Governance……………………………………….... 57 A Contested Field . “Who’s Gonna Win?”………………………...67 Broad Center: Leadership Pipelines ……………………………….………..69 Gates Foundation: Setting the Agenda …...…………………………………79 Philanthropy, Technocracy, and Neoliberalism……………………..83 Entrepreneurial Innovation or Neoliberal Orthodoxy……………………….85 CHAPTER IV RAPID REFORM: ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE POLITICS OF MEASUREMENT ……………………………………………………………………...91 Five Reforms: “The Overriding Component is Accountability”…………….92 Measurable Standards……………………………………….………..96 Performance Evaluations………………………………….…………. 98 Performance Pay …………………………………………………….103 Weakened Tenure …………………………………………………...106 Elimination of Collective Bargaining …………………………….….107 Outcomes: Counting what Counts…………………………………………..110 A Winning Narrative: Moving the Needle………………………......111 Mixed Results and Leveling Off………………………….………….116 Unscientific Management: The Problem with Metric Fixation ……119 Curbed Labor Power and the Culture of Accountability ……………..……134 CHAPTER V TEACHER EXPERIENCE: UNDERMINING PROFESSIONALISM ………………………...........................................................................................141 Competing Professionalisms…………………………………………….….143 Losing Control: Instruction, Curriculum, and Time ……………………….148 Teaching to the Rubric ……………………………………….……...148 When Standards Mean Standardization……………………..…….153 Lost Time: The High Cost of Data Production……………………..155 Devaluing Expertise, Undermining Professional Identity…………………164 Devaluing Advanced Degrees……………………………….……...164 iv Devaluing Experience ………………………………………….……165 Devaluing Local Knowledge…………………………………...…….172 Putting Students First? Perverted Incentives……………………..……….174 CHAPTER VI GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE: THE EMERGENCE OF SPEAK ...…….…………………………………………………………………………….…...177 Roots of Resistance: Alienation, Sorrow, and Robots ……………….…...178 The Meaning of Work ………………………………………………..179 The Joy of Work ………………………………………………………182 Work as Self-Creation ……………………………………………….184 The Emergence of SPEAK ………………………………………………….190 Recognition of Shared Grievances ………………………………...191 Building a Movement ………………………………………………...196 Political Consciousness: “Follow the Money” ……………...………202 Political Action and Movement Outcomes …………………………………210 “This is Our School System!” Democratic Power and Vision …………….219 CHAPTER VII THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ALTERNATIVE: WORKING THROUGH THE CONTRADICTIONS……………………………….……………..224 The Model and its Roots ……………………………………………………..226 The University Assisted Community School ……………………...……….230 Neighborhood Problems: Poverty and Housing Insecurity …...….233 Afterschool Programming: Rich, Diverse, Offerings ……………..238 The Workplace: Collaboration, Trust, and Autonomy ……………………241 Governance: Democratic Obstacles and Opportunities …………………248 Service Provision: Charity, Welfare, or Self-Help? ………………………..256 Services: Welfare or Anti-Welfare? ………………………………...259 In the Contradiction Lies the Hope…………………………………..………264 CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSIONS: THE EDUCATION SYSTEM WE NEED .......268 Changing Tides? Challenges to Neoliberal Consensus …………………268 A Timely Case Study: Reform, Resistance, and Opportunity ……………273 Wider Implications: The High Cost of Metric Fixation ………………….....276 High Stakes: The Kind of Education System We Need …………………..278 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………….287 VITA …………………………………………………………………………………...316 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APEX Advance Perform Excel BEP Basic Education Program EOC End of Course EPNA Education Professional Negotiations Act GSP Great Schools Partnership KCEA Knox County Education Association KCS Knox County Schools NCLB No Child Left Behind PECCA Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act RTT Race to the Top SPEAK Students Parents Educators Across Knox County TAP Teacher Advancement Program TEA Tennessee Education Association TEAM Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model TNDOE Tennessee Department of Education TVAAS Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System UACS University-Assisted Community School vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: NEOLIBERALISM AND EDUCATION In March 2008 a private jet provided by the Pilot Corporation touched down in Boston to pick up a rising star to interview for the position of superintendent of Knox County Schools. The candidate was an alumnus of the Broad Foundation’s Superintendent’s Academy, an executive training program that succeeded, in just 9 years (2002-2011), to place graduates at the head of one-third of the nation’s 75 largest school districts (Samuels 2011). James McIntyre brought “business-minded accountability” and a laser focus on student achievement. He invited collaboration with private partners—consultants, businesses, and education service providers. He raised academic standards, revamped evaluations, introduced performance pay, and helped administer statewide changes to tenure and collective bargaining. In just 5 years graduation rates improved from 77% to 88%. He was invited to testify to Congress in 2013 about his success and noted gains in “virtually every quantifiable measure of student learning and success.” The district became an “Exemplary” School District, the first and only metropolitan system to earn that distinction. But all was not well. Fixation on metrics and private sector intervention had warped the school system’s institutional values. Teachers complained that high stakes testing had “turned teachers into robots and our kids nothing but a bunch of test takers.” Many felt the metrics were a “sham” and evaluations were “farcical dog and pony 1 shows.” “I love teaching, but I hate my job,” was