Originally posted on Teachers for Education Reform website
As I remember from the dawn-to-dusk world of teaching, reading outside of work is more than a little difficult. It’s painful. After grading 45 consecutive essays, personal reading sounds appealing in the same way that a visit to the orthodontist sounds fun after a root canal. By the end of every school year, I found myself stuck with a list of books that had grown long during the year.
The beauty of summer vacation is that it gives teachers a much-needed window to catch up on all those things that were left behind over the year–like their reading. In honor of this, we decided to launch the TFER Summer 2013 Book Club to introduce teachers to a recently released book on education policy, The Allure of Order by Jal Mehta.
“The people we draw into teaching are less than our most talented; we give them short or nonexistent training and equip them with little relevant knowledge; we send many of them to schools afflicted by high levels of poverty and segregation; and when they don’t deliver the results we seek, we increase internal pressure and accountability, hoping that we can do on the back end what we failed to create on the front end.”
So starts Mehta in the introduction to his provocative new book, The Allure of Order. In it, Mehta argues that the effects of a poorly selected and prepared American workforce of teachers drives policymakers towards the standards-based accountability policy paradigm, which he argues is an ill-conceived and inadequate response to America’s domestic and international achievement gaps.
This is an argument that does not fit comfortably within either polarized camp in today’s education policy debate. Many reform groups mindlessly push on the accountability gas pedal without considering the limits of teacher capacity while unions and other groups question the need for accountability without acknowledging the valid concerns about student achievement or leading on improving teacher preparation and professional standards. It’s the way that Mehta’s argument cuts across the rhetoric of both camps that makes it such an engaging book to read. The TFER Book Club will review The Allure of Order in five roughly sequential parts:
- The Sociology of The Allure of Order: Mehta received both his MA and PhD in sociology and the influence of this background is imprinted heavily on the book. Our first entry looks at the chapters that set up a sociological framework for considering how accountability came to be accepted as a policy response and then jumps ahead to consider a chapter on the sociology of the teaching profession.
- The History of Accountability 1: This part takes us from the Progressive Era to the “Forgotten” Standards Movement, covering the first half of Mehta’s historical account of the accountability movement.
- The History of Accountability 2: This part takes us through the second half of Mehta’s account, from the Charlottesville Summit to today.
- The Failure (and Success) of the Accountability Movement: In this part, we’ll consider Mehta’s view of the accountability movement.
- Recommendations Beyond Accountability: Our last part will conclude with Mehta’s recommendations and discuss their impact on the education world.
You can find a link to purchase Mehta’s book here. Expect to see a new entry on The Allure of Order about once a week interspersed with our regular material.
Mac LeBuhn is a policy analyst at Democrats for Education Reform (DFER). Before joining DFER, Mac was a fourth grade teacher at Rocketship Si Se Puede, a charter school in San Jose, CA. He became involved in education policy through internships at the offices of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Colorado State Senator Mike Johnston.