Friday, July 08, 2011

Atlanta Test Cheating Kills the Canary in the Mine


The recent exposure of cheating in the Atlanta Public Schools gives me an opportunity to address the issue of public education based on my own personal observations. The issue of massive fraud has characterized urban public schools for some time. My generation went into many urban schools with the attitude of helping the poor and bringing knowledge to those in need. We rarely presumed that the problems in urban schools extended beyond the schools themselves. Since then we certainly have learned better.

The rhetoric of “community leaders” and public officials has continued to obscure the root causes of the failures in the public education system. Unlike the Republicans, I do not give much credence to the Republican claim that teachers’ unions are the blame for school failures. The fact is that they really do not do anything that significantly contributes in any way to teacher job security or professional development. The Democratic argument in regards to funding issues, likewise, doesn’t really address the fundamental flaws in public schools.

What becomes obvious here is that it is the cover-up that reveals the lack of integrity of those caught in its web. The lack of integrity begins with students who refuse to prioritize education in their lives and manipulate the various actors to hold themselves blameless. The lack of integrity continues with parents bullying teachers and administrators with “NOT my Johnny” to cover-up their child’s lack of performance at school. The lack of integrity flows to the teachers who are unwilling to speak publicly in regards to the real issues around discipline and student behavior and their disruption of the education process in the classroom. The lack of integrity appears in the principal’s offices when they seek to put a lid on real issues and work overtime to project an illusion of calm to all. School administrators then play politics with failing schools and leave critical gaps in our children’s education. Federal and state Education officials implement new programs to demonstrate their engagement while failing to delineate the basic responsibilities of the general public in the education process.

The business community has been raising the alarm for some time. They have been dismissed out of hand by public officials seeking to flush the system with cash for their constituents. Business people have noticed it because they can’t find qualified applicants to fit into their job requirements. Politicians use rhetoric and posture as if they were really addressing the substantive issues. Parents point their fingers and yell at school board meetings. Teachers picket the state house to protect their unions and their pension plans as they exist. But no real change is forthcoming.

When schools stop getting tagged, we will know that education has become an important function in the lives of young people. When parents start spending more time with their children with homework, we will know that we are on a road to change. When teachers are able to instruct without the chronic interruptions and violence prevalent in urban public schools, we will know that there will be real change comin’ down the road. Let’s not play games with the future of our state and nation. The canary in the mine was choked to death in the Atlanta Public School system. Let’s skip the drama and get to work on what we all know needs to be done.

8 comments:

Alex Walker said...

Well, Martin, this is quite a statement and very well done. I really would like to see what some of our Green activists think about this matter.

Liberals cry: "Education! Education! End the war! Spend money on Education!" as the fix for nearly every problem (which is one reason the public school "TODO List" became overloaded in the first place). America spends a lot on education like it spends a lot on health care, we rarely hear what is to do be done.

michael said...

You say we should "get to work on what we all know needs to be done," but it's not self evident to me what that is. What specific things would you propose to improve education in this country?

Martin Zehr said...

That comes down to answering the question yourself. What can you do to get young people to value the importance of education? How can you help the schools? What can you do in the Boys and Girls Clubs? As adults we have not projected our concerns for our young people's education. We have not worked with them and supported them in the face of the thousand and one obstacles that stand in the way of them learning to value education in their lives. We have let them off easy instead of expecting them to maximize their potential.

When we cheat for students we presume that they are not capable of better and we continue to deny what is obvious to all. If you ever scored these tests you would be shocked. See http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2009-10

Martin Zehr said...

Here is a public policy option:
http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0708bb.html

Alex Walker said...

City Journal "Buffalo’s Parent Revolt" = Western New York Republican Party Machine union-busting, dump-on-the-poor agenda.

There you go again, Martin...

Can you not think of even one education "reform" that has not been vetted by the Republican Party propaganda factory?

Martin Zehr said...

I pick up on things from sources I trust and sound like they make sense. I do not trust either the policy or the politics of progressive analyses. It is better for you to provide a critical analysis rather than bait me. Sometimes I am just being provocative, but other times it is because it make more sense in the real world. Progressive is not "good for the poor", it is a replacement for real politics led by working people. Urban Green politics needs to start from a premise that our first obligation is to break the Democratic Urban Machine. We need to establish a two party system with Greens being the second party.

Martin Zehr said...

Alex, see first comment in that story and you see my own thoughts.

Alex Walker said...

Martin, you know I agree 100% with your summary of the mission of the urban Greens. In this regard you and I are just a couple of old comrades haggling over strategy and tactics.

A few years ago, the Black Commentator published an explosive article on the myth of Atlanta as the Great Black Promised Land. Part of the problem, of course, is that Atlanta is a world-class city in the middle of a wasteland otherwise known as the State of Georgia. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland have no such excuse.