From NCLB to CCR

The last ten years emphasized accountability of schools through standardized testing requirements. The ultimate goal was that every child would meet standard on state required tests. Each year the numbers of students meeting standards increased until all students were to be meeting standards, or beyond, by year 2012. Schools whose student numbers that didn't meet requirements started receiving consequences: this was No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and seems a logical path right?

With the end of an administration and an era of education legislation comes a new philosophy that emphasizes preparedness for college. In other words. All schools should follow the same standards across the country that are rigorously preparing every student for college or careers. This sounds pretty good right, because everybody gets the same education.

The problem:
NCLB was a pipe-dream that unfortunately led to extensive test-prep, unethical behaviors in testing situations to avoid penalties, and in truth, ten years of a lot of bad teaching, not to mention a somewhat justified loss of respect for public education. Kids were still being left behind and there was a decline of fresh educators entering the force and a growing exodus of experienced teachers tired of of the brow beating. This has further led to a rise of districts outsourcing positions to oversees teachers. Now that's effective legislation for the betterment of our country.

So, does CCR offer a better solution? It does offer change, but is limited in funding. It seems to be some cruel legislative Superbowl idea of having schools compete for limited governmental perks in order to be able to upgrade to 21st century technologies, and equally important, needed staff training. In the meantime financially strapped states have already had to cut funding of various institutions and with schools being large portions of states payrolls, schools have taken sizable financial hits. It sounds like another pipe-dream and we know who being left behind.

But have I talked about the real problem? The initial proponents for educating children publicly were the puritans in the 1700's. Their primary belief was that an educated society was crucial for a stable safe society that could interpret scripture and live accordingly. They had lived under religious oppression prior, that discouraged the commoner from learning to read. They believed their former teaching to be erroneous. Compulsory education did not come for another hundred years. Fast forward to 1962 and a critical court case Engel v. Vitale ruled against prayer in the school. The big picture: schools have been relied upon to address social needs/ills of the culture they serve throughout the decades, but have gradually had impediments added over time. As a general rule, they do the best they can, but is it enough? The answer is no. Legislation is not the answer to our society's issues and that includes public education especially now when our social ills are far from agreed upon.

I used to say when I first started in education, "We shouldn't take the light out of the public schools." However, I have come to realize that yes children are also carriers of the light but, to rely on the government's answer to learning doesn't align with scripture. It is the family's job to train up the child in the way that he should go. School's mission used to be to support all other institutions, including family. Times have changed and so has the idea family. That mission no longer exists and in some cases the relationship is adversarial.

The answer is found in the Word and the Church. I recently read a Barnum report about church's investing. The biggest investment is in adults as a rule. Barnum feels it should be reversed due to poor retention of our kids and I agree. I live in a city of 109,000 population. There are 7 Catholic churches in town. Each church claims a constituency of 1500 families. That is approximately 35,000 professing catholics: every church is tied to a school. Talk about an impact on a community. Protestant churches aught to take note. If we want to spread the gospel the best way to do it is through kids. Our investment should be in creating top notch, high tech, affordable education that not only educates, but indoctrinates the Word of God. If we truly want to evangelize our communities we need to follow the Puritan example and invest our money in our children and their educations and not rely on a faulty state system with proven failure.