Don't Get Me Wrong...

Update: It occurred to me after reading the Gadfly's thoughts on the WaPo article referenced in my last post that some might interpret my remarks below either as advocating "drill and kill" methods of teaching or as admitting that NCLB is producing such methods on a mass scale. Both assumptions would be incorrect. As E.D. Hirsch has spent a lot of time demonstrating teaching to the test is not the best way to help students pass the test; teaching to high and meaningful standards is. As the principal of a famous, "success story" public high school says, "If you teach to advanced, proficiency takes care of itself."

The reason I harped on this point about why drill and kill test prep would still be an improvement for failing schools was because I wanted to show that the worst-case scenario version of NCLB would still be a good thing, or at least I suppose, the lesser evil. Like democracy, NCLB is the worst system of school accountability, except for all the others. So, for the sake of argument, I momentarily assumed that NCLB was as bad as its enemies say it is. I leave it to a soon-forthcoming post to talk about what I think the real consequences of NCLB are for pedagogy, and also what I think a vision of truly inspiring teaching looks like in the era of standards and accountability. Until then I challenge the David Keyes's and Dan Brown's of the world to prove that even their straw-man NCLB has (or would) produce worse results than the system that existed prior.