Education Week - February 6, 2013 - 31

EDUCATION WEEK

neediest youngsters. Nclb and
rtt have finally provided innercity families with some degree
of an opportunity at an education for their children, where
previously they had nothing.
PAULHOSS@HOTMAIL.COM

We should expect that the children of presidents attend elite
schools, befitting of their status
in the society. I see absolutely
nothing wrong with that. Sidwell
has been used as the school
where the children of previous
American presidents have gone,
partly because of security reasons, as well as for the quality of
education it offers.
BEEBAN

“

Alan Jones aptly describes just
those changes that have come
about due to nclb, which private
and independent schools can
avoid due to direct funding by
parents and foundations. This
is a good op-ed for better school
funding and a return to childcentered education and a move
toward better funding for public
schools.
N. CHAMBERS

are specifically identified for an
achievement gap between two
or more subgroups in the school,
and nclb waivers have allowed
districts the flexibility to implement
allowable interventions to address
achievement gaps.
Now that we have been able to
observe the implementation of
the waivers and how schools are
responding to the new flexibility, I
have noticed the following:
• Some schools have more
flexibility than others, and, as
expected, the lowest-performing
schools have less flexibility than top
performers.
• Budgets are tight, and despite
significantly greater flexibility in
how federal education dollars are
spent, tightening school budgets
inhibit the implementation
of differentiated intervention
programs.
• Local education agencies and
schools are left with little choice
but to develop targeted supports
for struggling students. To leverage
limited resources, schools must
target subgroups of students that
need additional help. With the new
focus on growth, principals should
re-evaluate which students get the
bulk of intervention resources.
Nclb incentivized states to lower
standards in order for more students
to be able to “pass” the test. As such,
we have seen tremendous disparities
between state scores and the
National Assessment of Educational
Progress results.
Having said all that, quality
programming is on the rise—greater
flexibility coupled with diminished
budgets has caused decisionmakers
to focus on quality.

Isaak Aronson
President
SmartStart Education, LLC
New Haven, Conn.

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

www.edweek.org

A Muzzled Generation
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 36

disempowers the weakest students
in the school. It is institutionalized
bullying of the worst kind.
When Tennessee’s Lenoir City
High School fired its award-winning journalism adviser in response to pressure from religious
zealots over a feature story in the
yearbook about “coming out” as gay,
gay and lesbian students heard the
message unmistakably: The school
board, the superintendent, and the
principal agree with those who find
your existence abhorrent, and they
will not come to your defense.
Student media is the safe haven
where students who are not athletic stars or beauty queens find
acceptance and self-worth. To tell
marginalized students that their
opinions have no value is an act
of bullying more vicious than any
Facebook insult.
A better way exists. Seven states
have statutes that restore the sensible balance between authority
and individual liberty that Hazel-

wood threw out of whack, by limiting the grounds on which schools
may censor student expression. (Illinois has such a law that applies
only at the college level.)
Combined, these states provide
us with 146 years of experience
with student-controlled publications, and in those 146 years, zero
documented cases of any successful claims for libel, invasion of privacy, or any of the other imagined
“horribles” with which lobbyists for
school administrators terrify legislators whenever “anti-Hazelwood”
legislation is proposed.
These states have shown us that
it is possible to govern schools
from a place of trust and not from
a place of fear.
More poisonous than the flawed
legal doctrine that Hazelwood introduced is the mentality it has
fostered. It is a mentality that the
paramount concern of school governance—more important than effective teaching and learning—is
to get through a day without controversy.
It’s time to acknowledge that

Hazelwood is a
failed experiment on America’s young people
and to recognize
that public schools
are a forum where the
discussion of diverging
views on political and social issues is not merely to be
tolerated, but welcomed. Students
cannot learn constitutional values
as a remote abstraction that exists only in history books. And they
cannot learn civic participation by
being told to keep their opinions
to themselves because the government is always right. n

Why Educators’ Wages
Must Be Revamped
form means ending that, not just adding on
to what was done before.
tion, total compensation paid by schools,
The only way that efficiency will be
are unrelated to student outcomes.
significantly improved is by strengthenDealing with either side of this efficiency ing the relationship between salaries and
equation has no historic precedent, and dis- performance. Currently, we dramatically
tricts are unlikely to focus on these issues underpay our best teachers while drajust because funding is cut. Partly because matically overpaying our worst. Efficient
of existing state labor and education
policies imply paying significantly more to
laws, these issues are
the best teachers—not just giving small,
often simply not on
temporary bonuses for student
the table even in
achievement—to keep them in
times of fiscal
the classroom longer. Additionstress. Yet, that
ally, it probably also means
is not the full
having them teach more
story, because
students, because
even when these
dealing with tighter
constraints are
budgets and paynot binding, we
ing significantly
see little systemhigher salaries will
atic movement toward
most likely require
rationalizing instructional
slightly larger class
spending and performance.
sizes. At the other end
A number of states have iStockphoto.com/Michael Mathis
of the performance specmoved forward by at least elimitrum, we cannot reduce the
nating pure lifo—last in, first out—rules pay of the worst teachers enough, and we
for reductions in the teaching force, which simply must move them out of the classare designed to protect more-experienced room. The impact of the small numbers of
teachers during layoffs. Wisconsin got the unacceptably ineffective teachers is disprobulk of the publicity for its work on this portionately large and represents a huge
front, but Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Okla- drain on both achievement and finances.
homa, and others have also opened the way
These are not things that happen easfor decisions more closely related to teacher ily or automatically. As we embark on a
performance. These states have taken the new budget season, we should not delude
first necessary steps of reducing teacher- ourselves that just cutting school budgets
tenure guarantees and calling for better will lead districts to a new, more efficient
evaluations of teachers and administrators. place. Left to their own devices, districts
These actions, however, will probably be are much more likely to do what they have
insufficient. There is considerable inertia always done, but on a somewhat restricted
in local districts. There are contracts that scale. This path will lead neither to more
restrict action. There is resistance from efficiency nor to better results—and in fact
teachers’ unions. There is little experience could significantly harm students.
or political will to change.
Improving outcomes—either with fewer
And there is the final defense of the sta- or more resources—requires significant
tus quo: “Surely reform would cost money, change. It will be virtually impossible to
and we do not have it.” But, yes, districts do get such change without active state polihave it. They are currently spending money cies that push for the alignment of salary
in ways unrelated to achievement, and re- budgets with classroom performance. n

Jeff Dekal

Confronting Pop
Culture Head-On
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

their homeroom teacher. The teacher reviews the
material and, if he or she deems it inappropriate,
approaches the student for a one-on-one discussion
of why it is offensive generally, or why it might
offend certain students and faculty members. Thus
begins a conversation that is rich in emotions,
cultural references, and moral attitudes.
In addition, our school addresses the popculture thicket through its radio program. Our
students create material for the show, ranging
from composing their own music to writing
reports about musicians, movies, and video games.
All of this material has the potential to be ageinappropriate. While we recognize that we have
no control over what our students do at home,
we guide them within the school with the hope
that some of what we teach may wear off when
they leave. So, when students want to report on a
violent video game such as Call of Duty, we point
out that the material is restricted to teenagers and
thus inappropriate for our middle schoolers. But
we don’t stop there.
We use the conversation as a platform to discuss
why the game isn’t suited to students of all ages.
When students want to report on a rapper, we
seek in-depth appraisals noting that some of these
artists have had difficult histories and often rap
about their experiences. Again, this is a chance
to talk about the issues, helping to sharpen
students’ critical-reasoning abilities and broaden
their attitudes. And we see important gains, with
students developing more-nuanced perspectives
and becoming able to recognize inappropriate
content and to discuss it intelligently. Needless to
say, this is not a topic of discussion and education
that ever ends. But it is a topic that should be part
of teachers’ responsibilities.
Bottom line: We can’t hide from the explosion
of music, books, and movies that contain either
morally challenging or inappropriate content
far beyond the mental grasp of the children who
consume it. As much as we may wish to act like
ostriches with our heads in the sand, we can’t. We
must confront this material head-on. My hope is
that educators take on this task without hesitation,
making it a priority and advancing learning and
enhancing our children’s moral awareness. n

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Education Week - February 6, 2013

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