One of the most frustrating things about the corporate reform, aka GERM (Global Education Reform Movement) is its glib attitude toward the impacts of poverty on a child's learning. "Poverty isn't destiny", its proponents proclaim. And for some kids, surely it's not. But the GERM strategy to focus almost exlusively on improving teacher quality measured by their students' improvements in their math and reading test scores defies common sense.
Even if there were "a great teacher in every classroom", it would do little to close the so-called achievement gap unless deeper problems that relate to the negative impacts of poverty are addressed. GERM puts way too much of a burden on schools and their teachers to solve complex historical/cultural problems, and as the Chicago Teachers Union is trying to get through Emmanuel's thick skull, teachers cannot be held accountable for variables they have no control over.
This weekend's This American Life addresses this problem in an interesting and constructive way. It explores how the negative impact of poverty has less to do with the lack of money and more to do with the culture of poverty: the way children's continuous exposure to stress, trauma, and violence shapes their brain development. There are remedies for this that can be taught in school, but no techniques can work if children are continuously traumatized. I'm not saying that reading and math are unimportant; I am not saying that all standaridized test are useless. The problem lies in that we have allowed them to become the tail wagging the dog.
This episode also talks about the work of James Heckman, a University of Chicago Nobel laureate economist, whose work on the central importance of a child's development of non-cognitive skills should debunk once and for all (like that might happen) the approach that math and reading scoreswe tell us predictive about future success and productivity.
I think that the programs that teach kids these non-cognitive life skills look promising. They are an important puzzle piece in a larger picture that needs to be assembled. [See item 3 at this post.] The jury is still out on how scalable teaching these skills can be in changing the academic outcomes for the great majority of kids who grow up poor and are failing. As with anything, it's all about motivation, and if kids aren't motivated, they aren't going to learn anything, even these important life skills.