The Roots of Conflict

What exactly do we consider educational progress?

I feel that throughout history, the United States has always been a beacon of hope, a place where freedom prevails, and where the “American dream” can be realized.  However, it seems that in the educational realm, we are always playing catch-up with the others.  Ever since the Russians beat us into space, we’ve been comparing ourselves to the rest of the world.  The policies and demands placed upon education have sought to help us close that gap and to show our prowess and progress.  But where do they fall short?

The 4 values of equity, efficiency, choice, and excellence are great ways to structure the foundation of measuring greatness, but, as the text mentioned, too much focus on one value may hinder the other three.  I think that, if we get to the root of the conflict, we do need educational reform, we do need to focus on the four values, but we need to do it based on where we as a country have come from and where we need to go.  Too much time is spent on comparing ourselves to everyone else.  Some country will always be better than us at something, so why do lawmakers continually push for us to receive better grades on tests than those countries? 

The main insight I received when reading through this was that, yes, we need to improve, and yes, there is a way to do it, but that what we’ve done really hasn’t improved us all that much.  But if we can constantly be improving ourselves from day-to-day, year-to-year, then we can consider that to be progress.  If we can again become our best self, we won’t have to worry if others are beating us, because we’ll know that we are great. 

Rothstein, Jacobsen, and Wilder’s quoting on page 17 that, “It is impossible for a goal to be ‘challenging to and achievable by all students across the entire achievement distribution’” is blunt and beautiful.  I’ve always argued that NCLB is trying to make us all the same, while America has thrived on creativity and uniqueness.  How can we raise every student, not just the low ones?

I think that understanding our past will help me greatly in my future.  I always want to be improving, while using the one measuring tool that works for each of us: ourselves.  This new knowledge will help me assess where a school is at, so I can help push it along and hopefully reach its potential.