Yes, the US “race to the top”, “No Child Left Behind”, and so called “league tables” seem to formalise, dare I say institutionalise, an expectation or assumption that there will be education winners and losers – perhaps part of the baggage of an old industrial production model of education, in part perpetuated for over a century by the accepted community attitude that everyone is an expert on education as most of us spent a decade in a school and can remember our favourite teacher. No wonder schools often struggle to win community support for important reforms.

I like the UK policy title “Every Child Matters” (a telling alternative to the title NCLB) and the work of Professor Gordon Stanley (NSW Board of Studies, Australia – Google him) a decade ago. Stanley’s statewide reforms to formalise descriptions of what children _can do_, rather than merely ranking them against one another was effective; encouraged new approaches to learning and assessment (especially a re-evaluation of the assumed quality of state tests); produced cohorts of more reflective learners and teachers; and encouraged the sort of critical thinking required to contribute to society in the admirable way in which Martin Luther King did.

Accountability is important, so important that it should not be primarily referenced to a school or district’s performance in a state test, especially a test that that fails to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate authentic higher order thinking.

And we wonder why it is so often that those the education system ‘fails’, or fails to recognise, go on to make outstanding contributions to society, being a light to others?

Thanks for the share and links.