![]() DO AS THEY SAY! Our scribes applaud high standardsfor kids. For themselves and Ed Secs, not so much: // link // print // previous // next //
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009 How did she get on that team: We couldnt help it! Involuntarily, we emitted low, mordant chuckles when Howard Kurtz wrote in the Washington Post about Obamas meetings with journalists:
But what makes Maureen Dowd a liberal? Whatever it is, it made her a liberal at Salon too! Indeed, Alex Koppelman made matters worse. He even put Dowd on the left!
Koppelman could have called her a moderate. But to him, shes a gal of the left! Why would anyone call Dowd a liberal? Theres nothing wrong with not being a liberal, of course; according to their self-descriptions, most Americans arent. But Dowd has little observable politics. She voices views on almost no issues. Instead, she dreams silly personality talesand many of her silliest tales have been at the expense of Big Dems or their troubling wives. From 1997 through 2000, Gores bald spot nearly drove her insane. In 2004, the frumpy wardrobe of Howard Deans wife pretty much finished her off. Ewww! And not only that! Dr. Steinberg was blithely uncoiffed! So how did Dowd get on the liberal team? Kurtz knew Sullivan didnt belong; Koppelman knew that some guests were just mods. But each saw Dowd as a fiery lib. Why do such listings continue? DO AS THEY SAY: Margaret Spellings is all about The Cult of High Expectations. For the record, we too support high expectations. But then too, were wary of cults. Last Tuesday, Spellings wrote a Dear Arne letter to Arne Duncan, Obamas incoming Secretary of Education (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/14/09). At one point, she urged Duncan to defend No Child Left Behind against those who would try to dismantle it. (For the record: We think some parts of the law are constructive. Other parts? Not so much.) Later, she spoke for a coalition of reformersand she recited a standard belief of a well-known modern cult:
When we raise expectations, we achieve results, Spellings said, explaining what those reformers all know. Soon after that, she offered Duncan a murkier bit of advice:
According to Spellings, every student should be taught to grade level in reading and math. No, were not quite sure what that means; the ladys syntax was a bit hard to parse. But it sounds like she wants to maintain those high standardsthe high expectations which only naturally help us achieve results. Again, lets make it clear: We believe in high expectations (and high standards) for low-income school kids too. Many years agoit would have been 1970 or 1971we stood outside Dorothy Riddicks classroom door and heard the demanding instrumental music teacher chewing her young blowhards out. Yes, Mrs. Riddick will fuss, she announced, in tough-talking tones. Mrs. Riddick is going to fuss until she sees you doing this right. We liked the way she used the third-personand we liked the message she was sending. (And we began to copy her act.) These were low-income, low-scoring Baltimore kidsbut Mrs. Riddick was going to fuss until they met her high standards. Indeed, we thought of Mrs. Riddick last week, when we read this passage from Marc Fishers piece, in the Washington Post, about Broad Acres Elementary:
There was more, but you get the (inspiring) idea. In our view, you cant say enough for the kind of hard work public school teachers like these expend on behalf of their low-income students. Four days later, Fisher described similar efforts at DCs Truesdell Educational Center. There too, he saw teachers going the extra mile on behalf of their low-income kids. You cant say enough for what Fisher sawbut was the reported judgment at Broad Acres correct? Is it true? Does the conviction that nothing will stand in the way of achievement really make the difference? Writing about Truesdell, Fisher attributed a similar outlook to the schools admirable principal, 36-year-old Brearn Wright:
But is it true? Are high standards really half the battle? And if so, whats the other half? Like so many upper-end journalists, Fisher made little real attempt to answer either one of these questions. But then, its been this way for decades now when it comes to public school journalism. Journalists recommend high standards for low-income kidsand maintain a low bar for themselves. In his piece about Broad Acres, Fisher displayed a severe lack of skill when it came to interpreting test scores (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/13/09). But statistical illiteracy has long been the norm when journalists assess low-income schools. Our question: Has Broad Acres admirable faculty really moved the school from failure to remarkable achievement, as Fisher claimed in Sundays piece? In fairness, theres no real way to answer that question from the test scores Fisher citedand if Broad Acres has really done that, it looks like a similar story has played out all over Maryland. But Fisher didnt seem to know these things. And by the way: When Wright asked teachers to mark down what percentage of Truesdell kids should be making the proficient grade in reading, what answer were they supposed to give? [O]nly a few dared to write 100, Fisher wroteimplying that only these few brave souls got it right. But is it obvious thats the right answer? (Is it even clear what that paraphrased question meant?) If youre writing a novel, it is. And thats what journalists have typically done, for decades now, when they take their limited skills for a drop-by at low-income schools. Or when they let Ed Secs write open letters, in which they make politicized statements in support of their signature programs. In her Dear Arne letter to Duncan, Spellings implied that test scores have risen to record highs due to her baby, No Child Left Behind. But whatever you think of this federal program (we think some parts of the program are good), it just isnt clear that thats really the case. Nor is it clear that we automatically achieve results just because we raise expectationswhatever that is taken to mean. Nor is it clear that every student [should] be taught to grade level in reading and mathwhatever that murky statement might mean. But this is the kind of murky discussion that has long been accepted from people like Spellings. (The rules were the same for Bill Clintons Ed Sec.) You know the rules inside the palace! Low-income kids should be held to high standards. Big hacky Ed Secs? Maybe not. But then, silly, novelized, feel-good discussions have driven our education journalism for decades. Journalists show up at low-income schools without any technical skill at all; they mill around for an hour or so, then go home and type whatever narrative is currently current. In the present environment, its chic to sing the praise of teachers maintaining high expectations/high standards. But what do such pleasing mantras mean? What kinds of achievement are these notions producing? Fisher didnt sem to know how to approach those Maryland test scores. And the Post didnt make Spellings explain what she actually meant when she said we should teach to grade level. But then, its been this way for decades now, at least since the early 1970s. Talk about the bigotry of low expectations! Journalists applaud high standardsfor low-income kids. For themselves and Ed Secs? Not so much. For extra credit: For extra credit, we recommend this somewhat implausible piece by John McWhorter at The New Republic. (Shorter McWhorter: Weve known for decades how to erase the achievement gap!) At one point, McWhorter drives his piece with third-grade test scores from two Virginia school districtsscores from 2005. But Virginias grade-school test scores were utterly bogus at that time, as the head of the state school board correctly acknowledged in March 2006 (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 3/23/06). Did McWhorter know that? Are his data good? We dont know, but we plan to ask. Please note: McWhorters larger claim could be true even if these data are bad. But we couldnt help noting this possible problem. (Why not compare these two school districts now? Nothing relevant has changed, and their scores are now much more similar.) By the way: When the state acknowledged that its data were bad, the Washington Post didnt report it. In a rational world, this was obvious news. But the Post, applauding high standards for kids, seemed to maintain a very low standard for the affairs of the state.
(Today, when Virginia reports its test scores, it starts with 2006. Just click here, then pick any school.)
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