Public Ed Defender Syllabus 1.0
An overview of High-Stakes Testing, Teachers Unions, Privatization and “Choice,” DEI, Censorship, and Public Ed Disruptors.
While candidates who support inclusive, well-funded public schools performed quite well during the midterms of 2022 and municipal elections in 2023, underlying educational battles will continue to stymie progress unless we arm ourselves with awareness that leads to strategic actions. This syllabus attempts to cover the major issues in public education today. Please comment with your feedback, questions, and suggestions. What articles would you add to the syllabus? The idea for this post was inspired by 2017’s “The Charlottesville Syllabus,” by the University of Virginia Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation.
Table of Contents
Introduction
High-Stakes Testing
Teachers Unions
Privatization and “Choice”
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Censorship
Public Ed Disruptors
Introduction
“In Defense of Public Education,” by Randi Weingarten for National Press Club (28 March 2023)
Only public schools have as their mission providing opportunity for all students. The founders believed that an educated citizenry is essential to protecting our democracy.
“The Education Reform Movement Has Failed America,” by Diane Ravitch for Time (1 February 2020)
It is clear that the test-and-punish strategies of the past twenty years did not vault U.S. students to “the top.”
High-Stakes Testing
“It’s Long Past Time to End the Tyranny of High-Stakes Testing in Public Education,” by Nora De La Cour for Jacobin (9 June 2023)
Attaching high-stakes, or punishments, to student standardized test scores does not improve educational outcomes. Instead, it results in perverse consequences, with poor, minority, and disabled kids experiencing the greatest harms.
“What do state test scores measure?” by Illinois Families for Public Schools (22 March 2023)
Testing companies and policy-makers invented cut scores at which test takers are purported to have met learning standards. Cut scores are a subjective, political decision, not a scientific one.
Teachers Unions
“The Data Tells All: Teacher Salaries Have Been Declining For Years,” by Jenny Abamu for EdSurge (5 April 2018)
Teacher pay—adjusted for the cost of living— decreased 8% in Illinois between the years 2000 through 2017.
“How Due Process Protects Teachers and Students,” by Richard D. Kahlenberg for American Educator (Summer 2015)
Tenure significantly strengthens legal protections embodied in civil service, civil rights, and labor laws by shifting to the employer the burden to prove the termination is justified.
“The 11-day teachers strike in Chicago paid off,” by Alexia Fernández Campbell for Vox (1 November 2019)
Teachers asked for improvements in pay, school social workers and nurses, affordable housing for teachers and students, reduced class sizes, and sanctuary protection for undocumented immigrants on school property.
Privatization and “Choice”
“The Danger Private School Voucher Programs Pose to Civil Rights,” by Bayliss Fiddiman and Jessica Yin for Center for American Progress (13 May 2019)
Through voucher programs, private schools receive public funding even as they fail to protect the most vulnerable students from discrimination. Evidence has shown that these programs are not effective at improving educational achievement.
“Vouchers Fund Discrimination,” by Illinois Families for Public Schools (21 December 2022)
Public schools in Illinois can't discriminate on the basis of disability status, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, pregnancy or parenting status, marital status, or religion. But under the Invest in Kids voucher program, public dollars are now going to private schools in Illinois, many of which do discriminate against students in all these protected categories.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
“Heather McGhee's Quest to End America’s Zero-sum Thinking on Race,” by Alana Semuels for Time (23 July 2021)
Racism actually costs all Americans, by allowing wealthy conservatives to take away resources from all of us. Rather than share the benefits of government with Black people, many white Americans have sought to end benefits for everyone. This history helps explain why America doesn’t have well-funded schools.
“What Happens When American Children Learn About Racism?” by Neil Lewis Jr. for FiveThirtyEight (17 June 2022)
When American children are taught more challenging lessons about history, young people of color are inspired to become civically and politically engaged, and young white people gain greater appreciation for their fellow citizens of color.
“Inclusive Curricular Standards: Representation of LGBTQ+ and Other Marginalized Communities Promotes Student Achievement and Wellbeing,” by GLSEN (2022)
Research indicates that teaching LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum has profound positive impacts for LGBTQ+ students.
“Schools aren’t ‘indoctrinating’ kids and teachers aren’t a threat,” by Greg Talberg for Bridge Michigan (20 April 2022)
Somehow districts who propose an emphasis on social-emotional learning are being characterized as “radical” and of attempts to “indoctrinate.” Many districts are also trying to make their curriculum more accurate and more inclusive. This is not designed to be subversive. It’s simply an attempt to be inclusive and enable students to understand history in its entirety. Our history is complex and students should learn to process that complexity in our classrooms.
“English Language Learners: How Your State Is Doing,” by Claudio Sanchez for NPR (23 February 23 2017)
NPR found that no matter where they go to school, most ELLs are struggling because they have little or no access to quality instruction tailored to their needs. Although 90 percent of these kids are enrolled in designated ELL programs, at least one recent study argues that the quality of these programs is suspect.
Censorship
“The Freedom to Read Statement,” by the American Library Association (25 June 1953, last adapted 30 June 2004)
Suppression is never more dangerous than in such a time of social tension. Free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture.
“Kids’ Right to Read Action Kit for Students and Parents,” by the National Coalition Against Censorship (25 September 2017)
Censorship is the removal or suppression of words, images or ideas thought to be unacceptable by those with the power to ban them. The First Amendment protects against government restrictions on or interference with the content of speech because of disagreement with its viewpoint. This includes speech in public schools.
“US educational authorities must resist ‘anti-woke’ censorship,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Angela Davis, Ibram X. Kendi, Gloria Steinem, Nikole Hannah Jones, Cornel West, and Kimberle Crenshaw for The Guardian (8 March 2023)
Compliance with today’s “anti-woke” imperatives is grounded in retrenchment – in recovering a mythic past in which the subservient role of women and the rigidity of race, gender and sexuality is established and secured.
Public Ed Disruptors
“Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow: Using Accountability to ‘Reform’ Public Schools to Death,” by Alfie Kohn for Phi Delta Kappan (April 2004)
A defense of public education is wholly consistent with a desire for excellence. By most conventional criteria, public schools have done surprisingly well in managing with limited resources to educate an increasingly diverse student population. Still, there’s plenty of room for dissatisfaction with the current state of our schools. Valid criticisms are quite different from—in fact, often the exact opposite of—the particulars cited by most proponents of vouchers and similar “reforms.”
“The Koch Network and the Capture of K-12 Education,'' by UnKoch My Campus (11 August 2021)
The Koch network advances their interests by working to increase charter schools and voucher programs, disseminating favorable curriculum and textbooks, and manufacturing a ‘culture war’ against progressive ideas.
“Conservatives’ war on emotions in the classroom,” by Fabiola Cineas for Vox (23 February 2023)
When far-right conservatives couldn’t find evidence of critical race theory being taught in K-12, right-wing political strategists went back to the drawing board to find something that would stick.