Published in the Augusta Chronicle, Sept. 11, 2016
This November, voters will decide if Georgia public education needs more layers of government to operate schools.
The proposed constitutional amendment would create a new layer known as the Opportunity School District, under which Gov. Nathan Deal would appoint a highly paid bureaucrat with access to local tax dollars to “fix” unsatisfactory schools. This appointee would answer only to the governor as to what he or she does with the money. (Apparently, the governor dislikes working through the elected state superintendent – who, after all, must answer to the people.)
The OSD plan illustrates the reflex of education “reformers” in Georgia – more government must mean better schools. Georgia voters have seen this before, when they were urged to vote for the charter-school amendment and thereby create another bureaucratic layer. But the achievement gains promised in the charter-school campaign haven’t materialized. Georgia is headed for another blunder in education reform if the OSD amendment passes.
Education reformers love fads, and the greatest fad being ignored in the OSD push is the Common Core State Standards (now renamed the “Georgia Standards of Excellence”), adopted to qualify for federal Race to the Top money, which is meant to reward innovation in state and local schools. The metrics and other internal variables embedded in the implementation of the CCSS will guarantee more “failing” schools to be taken over by Deal’s OSD.
EMERGING RESEARCH indicates that teachers are losing faith in the CCSS implementation and the metrics that define its success. As implementation continues to unravel, teachers increasingly are dismayed about curriculum and professional-development materials that are inconsistent with the standards or otherwise not based on well-established and well-researched instructional practices.
Some researchers report that the CCSS authors ignored these best practices. So the standards themselves, and the deficient curricula and professional development associated with them, will increase the likelihood that more schools will “fail” and be subjected to the OSD.
Another problem is related to the well-documented phenomenon of “curriculum narrowing,” which means subjects not included on the high-stakes testing are given less emphasis in the curriculum. CCSS and its aligned tests will continue to contribute to curriculum narrowing (because CCSS addresses English and math), but even more rapidly because of ineffective implementation.
Teachers are struggling with poorly aligned instructional materials that foster ineffective teaching practices. Furthermore, these studies note that high-poverty schools have difficulty obtaining and creating aligned resources to prepare students for the high-stakes tests associated with the CCSS.
The chaotic implementation of the already problematic CCSS makes it more likely that schools – especially high-poverty schools – will fall short on the accountability measures that will subject them to the centralized OSD.
In addition, with simultaneous implementation of unreliable teacher evaluations; disparities in textbook alignment; lack of digital resources; poor or nonexistent teacher professional development; and other problems related to the CCSS; it is plausible that such “reforms” aligned to the CCSS have destabilized the teaching profession – with predictable effects on the success or “failure” of schools.
FOR EDUCATORS who have endured similar reforms for many years, the intent of the OSD is clear –consolidation of power in the governor’s office to the detriment of local control. And if the operation of the OSD schools is turned over to private companies (as in New Orleans, which Deal touts as a model for OSD), these companies will turn a net profit courtesy of Georgia taxpayers. Education reform will be shown to be a euphemism for the destruction of public education.
Georgia education reformers might merit more trust if they made it a practice to base policy on peer-reviewed studies and practical anecdotal evidence. Unfortunately, their track record shows otherwise.
Case in point: the adoption of the untested Race to the Top policies, which included the CCSS. In 2010, to qualify for a federal bribe of $400 million spread over four years, Georgia adopted the CCSS and much of the Race to the Top policies associated with President Obama’s education agenda.
By 2013, to comply with all the Race to the Top mandates, Georgia education leaders adopted more than 80 percent of Race to the Top policies – even though none were supported by persuasive evidence of effectiveness. Then, when the expensive and unrealistic expectations of the CCSS and all of its testing glory actually harm schools, Deal uses this as an excuse to entrench another bureaucracy that siphons dollars away from local control.
This “reform” misstep will ensure a public perception that teachers are continuously ineffective, thus further destabilizing the profession. Of course, this will invite more “reforms” with no empirical evidence that they improve the learning of our most deprived students. We are at a critical mass with public education in this state.
Vote no on OSD. It’s just more useless government.
(The writer is a veteran Georgia educator of 16 years with a master’s degree in teaching and an education specialist degree in educational leadership, and is a doctoral student who provides education policy consulting. He wrote this column on behalf of the American Principles Project think tank.)
