Dana Goldstein, a journalist who has written for The Atlantic, Slate and other publications, recently wrote a response to a blog post I published last week. The post that prompted the reply offered data on the progress of students over a period when several big-ticket education reforms such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top were passed. In it, I noted that student achievement increased, gaps narrowed and dropout rates decreased over the decade. We had even seen that much-needed reauthorization of the ESEA in 2009—well, perhaps not that, but the news on the whole was pretty positive.
“Attributing this good news to recent reform pushes, like No Child Left Behind and new teacher accountability schemes is extremely iffy,” Goldstein responded. “No proof that any one kind of reform, or even reform itself, has led to these changes.”
All fair points. Goldstein properly notes that we cannot simply hoist positive NAEP trends as proof of the effectiveness of our preferred policies. Extremely iffy is a diplomatic manner of saying wrong.
I agree—which is why you won’t find phrases like as a result of and because and caused in the post. Since discussions of federal education policy are typically draped in heavy sheets of rhetoric, we sought to use the post to contextualize a period of reform with data. Without being heavy-handed in the process, the hope was to throw some cold water both on the claims of those who treat American schools as the site of unmitigated catastrophe (Things are getting better!) and those who say that education reform is a Machiavellian plot to destroy public education and, uh, profit as a result. (Things aren’t getting worse!)
“After a decade of reform, schools are performing better” is a claim distinct from “schools are performing better because of a decade of reform.” Goldstein’s assertion that we should be extremely careful before we attribute NAEP trends to specific reforms is entirely correct. That’s why we didn’t do it in the post.
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 interested 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.