It is time to move on from the empty rhetoric that generally characterizes educational reform policy. Promises of smaller class-size, better teacher training, and less micro-management on the part of administrators have done very little to improve the state of public schools, despite what Mayor Bloomberg and other New York politicians may claim.
Many of the shortcomings of the public school systems are due primarily to a lack of truly meaningful educational reform, on the city, state and national level. Legislation like the No Child Left Behind [NCLB] Act that promise to boost the quality and equity of the public school system has not proven successful due to under-funding and a strategy of "passing around" students from one failing school to another, in order to give public school students "choices," when in fact, the choices available to public school students in most urban areas are largely unappealing. We need to start looking at the reasons that our public schools are failing, instead of implementing "band-aid" solutions, as NCLB seeks to do by upping the stakes of standardized testing and shutting down schools that do not achieve high test-scores.
In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has instated the "No Social-Promotion" policy that requires students in the third and fifth grades to pass their Math and English standardized tests in order to move on to the next grade. While it is clear that students who are not ready to be promoted should not be pushed on prematurely, this policy does not address the problem of the students who have fallen behind and need remediation. Students who repeat a grade under this policy are mandated to receive a variety of support and remediation services, which in many public schools is simply not happening. Students in need of extra help need to be targeted in kindergarten and first grade, where learning to read and perform basic mathematical operations is the main focus, instead of waiting for the “safety net†of standardized testing in the later grades.
Another significant challenge in public school classrooms is the management of difficult or dangerous student behavior. Many schools have very little if any disciplinary procedures in place, and often times principals are reluctant to suspend students, as it reflects poorly on their schools "report card," which has a significant impact on the determination of whether a school is "failing" or not under NCLB. There is a lack of social workers, school psychologists, guidance counselors, and general support staff in schools. Even those schools that receive federal Title I funding often spend this money on new books and supplies instead of the support staff necessary to manage students in underserved communities where the majority of failing schools are located. A priority needs to be placed on funding a staff equipped to support underserved communities, in addition to training teachers to manage challenging student behavior in a classroom setting. Additionally, resources outside of public schools need to be explored as options for students who struggle to succeed in the normal classroom setting.
Only when we begin to address the roots of the problems in our public schools will true change take place.
