- There’s a reason we don’t bounce our grandkids on our knees and delight them with stories of how Congress muscled through the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984. As the saying goes, there’s nothing pretty about the way the sausage gets made. But for those who were begging for a new federal education law, Politico’s postmortem on the passage of the Every Student Succeed Act provides an inside look at a splendid, savory knackwurst of statutory goodness. In the year following the 2014 Republican midterm landslides, draft legislation had to overcome anti-testing fervor from teachers’ unions, the remnants of the anti-Common Core crusade, and the sudden resignation of House Speaker John Boehner. Between clearing these obstacles and stitching together the perennial philosophical differences of Left and Right, the ESSA used up seven or eight of its nine lives. Thankfully, it’s now a matter of settled law.
- Speaking of the backlash against high academic standards: Reporting out of Colorado suggests that we might need to think differently about the opt-out movement and its adherents. Though the bulk of the students who absented themselves from the state’s PARCC test were indeed residents of wealthier, high-performing districts—you know, where the white suburban moms do their white suburban mom stuff—a whopping eighteen of the twenty counties with the lowest participation rates were rural and sparsely populated. That includes districts like Dolores County (opt-out rate: 91.6 percent), Buffalo (90.4 percent), and Mancos (86.7 percent). In such far-flung spots, officials claim, locals are wary of the government collecting (apparently any) information on their kids or dubbing school districts as underperforming. While it’s obviously worth selling the bigger, more affluent districts on the value of these assessments, it seems that accountability proponents need to spend their time in the country, too.
- A good education can improve a child’s life in innumerable ways. It can make him a better citizen, help him escape the grind of poverty, and bestow the skills he needs to lead a fulfilling life. That being said, you really don’t have to be some bleeding-heart to support improved academic programs as a public policy priority. According to a new paper co-authored by renowned Stanford economist Eric Hanushek, there’s a justification that Scrooge McDuck could get behind as well: cold, hard, cash. The country’s Gross Domestic Product would grow by some 14.6 percent—that’s $32 trillion, in case you were curious—if all students could be brought up to NAEP’s “Basic” standard of proficiency, the authors suggest. That’s probably a tall order, considering our dismal national scoring averages over the decades. But with employers practically begging for a better-prepared workforce and international competition growing by the day, it’s also a job we’ll eventually have to tackle. Improving the nation’s schools is good for students, their families, the U.S. economy, the world (provided you favor a prosperous America as the guarantor of a thriving, rules-based global order) and the galaxy (provided you believe in Earth’s intelligent life as the last, best defense against sinister forces from outer space).
- It hasn’t been the easiest couple of years for Teach For America. Applications have slowed dramatically as the economy has emerged from its recessionary depths. College activists have waged a truly out-there campaign to kick recruiters off campuses. And the critical voices (including a few emanating from unhappy alumni) have reached such a din that a rapid response media team has been organized to counter damaging narratives. But a piece of news from the Seventy Four should warm a few hearts, even among the skeptics. After more than two decades changing the lives of students in persistently struggling schools, the program is beginning to attract a second-generation cohort—that is, corps members who were themselves taught by TFA teachers when they were kids. Nearly one in ten New York City recruits this year are considered second-generation TFA instructors, and their stories are inspiring: local kids who made good, then came back to follow in the steps of their childhood role models. As one new teacher put it, “I feel like I’m living my purpose.”
