Gerard Robinson Departs — and School Reform in Virginia Remains Nonexistent
And now, Bob McDonnell isn't the only one AWOL from Virginia's school reform scene.
Earlier this month, Dropout Nation criticized Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and the Old Dominion’s political leadership for failing to aggressively embrace school reform. The apparent unwillingness of the governor to actually use his political capital this year to push through a school choice measure (and push for a more-aggressive law allowing for greater expansion of charter schools in the last) was just one of numerous examples of non-existent political and civic leadership on overhauling the state’s public schools. The results of the woeful leadership — including falling behind Florida in improving education prospects for poor and minority children — led your editor to demand that parents do what their elected officials and school districts will not.
So today’s news that McDonnell’s Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson, is heading to Florida to head up the Sunshine State’s own efforts is hardly shocking. The former Black Alliance for Educational Options chief executive hasn’t exactly been able to gain make much progress since becoming head of the state’s education secretariat last year — and McDonnell hasn’t been all that helpful on that end. In fact, Gov. McDonnell’s press staff could hardly muster a list of accomplishments under Robinson’s tenure for the press release announcing his departure. This also says quite a bit about McDonnell’s own lack of success on the education front.
Certainly there is plenty that McDonnell could be doing when it comes to reform. And he can’t use the excuse that Virginia’s top executive office is weak in influence. All he has to do is look to Indiana — another weak governor state — where his fellow Republican, Mitch Daniels, has teamed up with state Superintendent Tony Bennett to push through the expansion of charter schools, creation of a new school voucher plan, and slowly overhauling how the state’s ed schools recruit and train aspiring teachers. Given what Scott Walker is doing in Wisconsin, the efforts of Chris Christie in New Jersey, and moves by Florida’s Rick Scott and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, McDonnell’s lack of action becomes even more stupendous to behold.
McDonnell has a lot of work to do. It can be done. Simply pressing the state board of education to overhaul the Old Dominion’s lowly-ranked reading and math curriculum standards (or simply replacing it with Common Core) and ending the handing out of so-called “modified standard” and “special” diplomas (which allows their schools to avoid teaching them Algebra I and other state-mandated requirements), would be important steps in the right direction.
But right now, McDonnell will have to find a successor to Robinson with the stature, credibility and force of personality needed to confront the state’s educational ancien regime. More importantly, McDonnell needs to actually back the successor with his own clout. Otherwise, Virginia will remain as much a laggard on overhauling teacher quality, installing a college preparatory curricula, and expanding school choice as it ever was.
Jennifer Little
330 days ago
I do not understand why all this uproar about charter schools and vouchers as being “The Way” to solving the educational crisis or mess we have in public education today. Yes, each of those options require parental involvement which will go a long way to helping children succeed in school.
But what about those children whose parents have abdicated any responsibility or involvement because they lack the skills to either advocate for or help their child with school assignments. I have worked in many urban, suburban and rural schools where the parents’ academic skills are challenged once the child reaches 3rd or 4th grade. Who is helping the parents teach and support their kids as classroom sizes increase, as complex and abstract academic demands push students beyond their ability to comprehend instruction?
The teachers and curriculum in charter schools or voucher-attended schools are no different from any other schools. Educators are trained with the same courses. They use the same textbooks and follow the same state and federally mandated curriculum. They teach the same legislatively defined standards.
From the point of view of a teacher who has always worked with the disadvantaged and at-risk student, you who inflame discontent and extol the virtues of politically driven “solutions” that really go nowhere are being counter-productive. You are not helping solve the problem. You are barking up the wrong tree.
If you doubt my position, I suggest you voluntarily substitute teach for a week in any classroom in any school in crisis in your area. Do that for a week and then talk about how charters and vouchers will solve the problems. Be sure you address all the issues at the root of the problems in your solutions. Be sure you know all those actively and passively involved in the educational system and morass of politics and monies directly and indirectly involved. Be accurate and fair of your appraisals and don’t rely on stereotypes. I’d welcome your workable solutions.
RiShawn Biddle
330 days ago
First, Jennifer, thank you for reading Dropout Nation.
Second: This publication does not argue that charters and vouchers are “the way” or “the solution”. School choice is one of many solutions that are needed to overhaul American public education and provide opportunities for high-quality instruction and curricula for all children. Even with choice, we still must address other underlying issues, including the abysmal way we recruit, train and compensate teachers (which does little to actually provide all children with high-quality instruction, fails to reward good-to-great teachers for their work, and allows for laggard instructors to stay in classrooms to commit educational malpractice). We must improve the quality of curriculum, so that kids get the kind of college preparatory curricula they will need no matter their ultimate career path (trigonometry, for example, is a critical skill for welders, one of the highest-paying blue collar professions). And we need to address the low quality of school leadership at all levels; this includes giving principals the ability to actually hire and fire teachers, assign teachers to classrooms
Choice matters for several reasons. For one, it actually gives families a clear lever in being able to make education decisions for their children; as education scholar James Guthrie has pointed out, parents need the ability to actually make decisions in order to be strong players in shaping education for their kids. This is why the Individualized Education Plans required under the federal IDEA Act have been imperfectly effective in engaging families; mothers and fathers can actually play roles in structuring student instruction and curriculum. School choice also gives parents the ability to help their children escape the worst American public education offers; as seen in the long waiting lists at charter schools, parents are more than willing to seek out high-quality schools if given the ability to choose them. Choice is not only good for kids in providing them alternatives to low-quality education, but important in actually engaging parents in the first place.
You argue that parents are abdicating responsibility. I say that isn’t so. The reality is that for most of the past two centuries, we have told parents than they can send their child to any school and they will get the education they need. That has never really been true, but it didn’t matter for most of American history because even dropouts and illiterates could get middle-class jobs. But this is not true today. Yet parents are only beginning to realize that not only education is important to economic and social success, but that the not every school and not every teacher is adequately equipped to help their kids succeed. As with anything involving people, it takes a long time for parents — even those from middle-class households — to fully comprehend this reality and adjust accordingly.
The reality is that the problem isn’t parents, in as much as there are uninvolved parents. In fact, there are few of them (and usually those parents are abusive in other ways). The reality is that we have a traditional public education system that doesn’t engage parents (especially those in urban communities, from economic poverty, and from minority backgrounds) in meaningful ways. From where many teachers and principals sit, parents are merely there for field trips and homework; as parents who fight fiercely for their children such as Virginia Walden Ford and Gwen Samuel can attest (and as proven in research by Peter McDermott and Julia Johnson Rothenberg of the Sage Colleges) parents in urban school settings don’t feel that their interactions with teachers and principals are ever positive. They are shunted aside when they ask tough questions and considered trouble makers for daring to ask even simple questions. We also don’t equip parents with the data they need to make smart decisions, so they can actually be strong players in education.
This is why school choice is necessary and why the creation of parent unions is happening. Parents unions, in particular, are working with school reformers to help address the very issue of helping parents understand what kids need to learn and showing them how they can obtain tutoring resources and other help that their kids will need. To say that reformers aren’t working to address those issues is rather nonsensical. Are they doing it perfectly? No, and Dropout Nation makes that clear. But it is happening.
As to your statement about teaching in schools: As someone who actually tutors children in reading — including in D.C.’s public schools — I know how difficult teaching can be. Especially in helping kids who didn’t get the intensive reading remediation they needed early on catch up. I applaud the good-to-great teachers who dedicate their lives to helping their students succeed.
But arguing that the system is fine, that efforts by those in education and outside of it to push for systemic reform is merely inflammatory rhetoric, and that parents are just lazy and unmotivated is merely arguing against facts, data and reality. And I won’t stand for it from anyone, even from you. Period. After all, these kids, no matter their race or ethnicity, look just like me and come from neighborhoods that looked like mine. I will defend their right to get a high-quality education and will challenge anyone who argues for the converse.
It is unfortunate, Jennifer, that you see school reform as a movement you fear than a movement that will actually help you achieve the goals that we all want: Ensuring that all children get the high-quality education they need for writing their own life stories.
KIm
329 days ago
Parent Unions may be a good step in helping get children quality education but living in a state that allows for school choice I have seen that the only people benefiting from this are affluent families that can afford to get their children to and from the schools that they want them to attend. Frankly until we have a standardized education program and accountability for teachers we could change our kids school every month and it won’t make any difference in their education.
Also to say that parents aren’t part of the problem is false. I know that my kids do better in school because I am involved in helping them with their homework (even when I have to call the teacher because I have no clue what the instructions mean). There are nights when I come home from work and I just don’t want to do homework but I do it because I know it makes a difference but I also know plenty of people who don’t help their children, their thought process is that’s what teachers are for, and it shows in the grades and attitudes of those kids. Those parents are not abusive and to state that they are is a very harsh assessment. It’s more likely that the “perfect” looking families are the ones that are hiding the abuse.
Until the Teachers Unions are taken down a peg it’s just going to go around and around because they don’t fight for quality education. They fight for pay and benefits for the teachers. They do not represent the most important people in the educational system, the children.