Education Reform

David Brooks recently wrote an interesting Op-Ed for the New York Times entitled Smells Like School Spirit. He criticizes Diane Ravitch, one of “the nation’s leading educational historians,” who once was a great proponent of the charter schools, accountability, and testing of the educational reform movement. She now is one of it’s most vehement critics, arguing, according to Brooks, “There is no education crisis. Poverty is the real issue, not bad schools. We don’t need fundamental reform; we mainly need to give teachers more money and job security.”

Even though she makes some good points about the “humane” and relational nature of teaching, Brooks believes she goes too far in throwing positive change movements under the bus. Even though many of these schools are high on accountability (testing) he cites Whitney Tilson who “ has pointed out, the schools that best represent the reform movement, like the KIPP academies or the Harlem Success schools, put tremendous emphasis on testing. But these schools are also the places where students are most likely to participate in chess and dance. They are the places where they are most likely to read Shakespeare and argue about philosophy and physics.”

Brooks also points out that cities like New Orleans have multiplied their number of charter schools and “choice” (vouchers for private schools) since Katrina “Since 2007, the New Orleans schools have doubled the percentage of students scoring at basic competence levels or above. Schools in New Orleans are improving faster than schools in any other district in the state.”

The point of the article? “The real answer is to keep the tests and the accountability but make sure every school has a clear sense of mission, an outstanding principal and an invigorating moral culture that hits you when you walk in the door.”

For the Christian, we must ask two things. Within the Christian School world, is there proper accountability to ensure that schools excel? Unfortunately, the independence of far too many Christian schools has led to lower standards. Second, however, we must ask “From where does an ‘invigorating moral culture’ derive?” Brooks says that the best schools have, “a willingness to infuse the school with spiritual fervor.” I’m not sure where that spiritual fervor would come from for a secular person. For the Christian, however, that “fervor” forms the bedrock of a holistic education, founded in Christ, focused on students, and directed toward service.