“What now is called ‘data-driven instruction’ seems to be just a euphemism for ‘get those scores up, by any means necessary,” says Diane Ravitch in a thoughtful and wide-ranging intervew on ednews.org this morning. She continues to press the need for “a far more coherent curriculum than we now have in most schools,” and also makes a connection too few have made between a coherent curriculum and teacher training. “If teachers knew what they were expected to teach,” notes Ravitch, “we might also have far better teacher preparation.”
Ravitch confesses to becoming increasingly critical of No Child Left Behind. “Its relentless focus on basic skills in reading and math has not contributed to better education,” she notes. “It seems, in fact, to have led to dumbing down, since it does not challenge students who have leapt over its low bar. When I look at NAEP data, it is clear that national scores are virtually stagnant since the passage of NCLB and that the increases were greater before NCLB
On testing, Ravitch notes, “I have never been a critic of testing, NCLB has turned me into one. Today, many (if not most) districts are obsessed with raising scores on standardized tests, and they seem to confuse means and ends. Indeed, they seem to have lost sight of ends altogether. With the track we are now on, we might see scores go up while levels of knowledge (and education) collapse under the weight of basic skills testing and test-prep.”
