Longtime Flypaper readers might remember the old Reform-o-Meter, in which I would rate the Obama Administration's efforts on school reform, from ice-cold to red-hot. Well it might be time to pull it out of the attic for Secretary Duncan's speech at AEI today, ?The New Normal: Doing More With Less.? Red Hot! Red Hot! Red Hot!
Yes, we're a little biased, and perhaps more than a little flattered, because the Secretary took so many ideas from our recent book, Stretching the School Dollar (edited by Rick Hess of AEI and our own Eric Osberg). But mostly we're ecstatic that reformers around the country (including in our home state of Ohio) can point to this speech as evidence that pushing for common-sense approaches to budget cutting isn't some crazy right-wing conspiracy. Here are some of my favorite passages:
The wrong way to increase productivity in an era of tight budgets is to cut back in a manner that damages school quality and hurts children.
I'm talking about steps like reducing the number of days in the school year, slashing instructional time spent on task, eliminating the arts and foreign languages, abandoning promising reforms, and laying off talented, young teachers.
And:
Our K-12 system largely still adheres to the century-old, industrial-age factory model of education. A century ago, maybe it made sense to adopt seat-time requirements for graduation and pay teachers based on their educational credentials and seniority. Educators were right to fear the large class sizes that prevailed in many schools.
But the factory model of education is the wrong model for the 21st century. Today, our schools must prepare all students for college and careers?and do far more to personalize instruction and employ the smart use of technology. Teachers cannot be interchangeable widgets. Yet the legacy of the factory model of schooling is that tens of billions of dollars are tied up in unproductive use of time and technology, in underused school buildings, in antiquated compensation systems, and in inefficient school finance systems.
Rethinking policies around seat-time requirements, class size, compensating teachers based on their educational credentials, the use of technology in the classroom, inequitable school financing, the over placement of students in special education?almost all of these potentially transformative productivity gains are primarily state and local issues that have to be grappled with.
And:
Doing more with less will likely require reshaping teacher compensation to do more to develop, support, and reward excellence and effectiveness, and less to pay people based on paper credentials.
Districts currently pay about $8 billion each year to teachers because they have masters' degrees, even though there is little evidence teachers with masters degrees improve student achievement more than other teachers?with the possible exception of teachers who earn masters in math and science.
Or consider the debate around reducing class size. Up through third grade, research shows a small class size of 13 to 17 students can boost achievement. Parents, like myself, understandably like smaller classes. We would like to have small classes for everyone?and it is good news that the size of classes in the U.S. has steadily shrunk for decades. But in secondary schools, districts may be able to save money without hurting students, while allowing modest but smartly targeted increases in class size?
I anticipate that a number of districts may be asked next year to weigh targeted class size increases against the loss of music, arts, and after-school programming. Those tough choices are local decisions. But it important that districts maintain a diverse and rich curriculum?and that they preserve the opportunities that make school exciting, fun, and engage young people in coming to school every day.
Wow! So in one speech, this (Democratic) Secretary of Education comes out swinging against ?last hired, first fired,? seniority-based pay raises, smaller class sizes, seat time, pay bonuses for master's degrees, and over-bloated special education budgets. Which means he just declared war with the teachers unions, parents groups, education schools, and the special education lobby. Not a bad day's work!
To be sure, Duncan has control over almost none of this. Still, this is classic bully-pulpit stuff, and I expect it will resonate big-time in state capitols all over the country. When the unions start busing in kids, parents, and teachers to rally against increases in class size or pay freezes, expect a lot of Republican governors to start quoting their good friend Arne.
-Mike Petrilli
