Discussions on Poverty and Ed Reform on HuffPost Live

On June 7, 2013, I participated in a HuffPost Live segment called, "Get Rich Quick With Education Reform." Two articles that are critical of school reform, notably, charter schools, standardized testing and increasing attention on teacher accountability, inspired the segment (see below).  I was one of four panelists on the segment, and the only academic. Two of the panelists are writers for online magazines and the fourth panelist is a parent in New Orleans. The experience was interesting. From my perspective, the general discourse about school reform lacks important nuance and complexity and ignores larger structural issues. In other words, it is far easier to blame student underachievement solely on teachers rather than consider the impact of inequities relative to resources and mandatory standardized testing as a measurement of student learning and teacher effectiveness.  During the segment, one of the panelists who were critical of the reform, especially charter schools and teacher accountability, raised poverty as a significant factor in student learning. While research suggests that poverty (among other factors) significantly impacts student achievement, this correlation fails to contextualize how poverty impacts student learning and achievement. Thus, while the segment was ostensibly about the profit motive of school reform, the discussion focused mainly on the claims made by reformers to justify reform policies that call for more testing, testing preparation, and teacher accountability, rather than the relationship between these three reforms and growing education market.

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/03/instead_of_a_war_on_teachers_how_about_one_on_poverty/

http://www.schoolbook.org/2013/06/03/anti-testing-supporters-feel-momentum

By Adrienne Dixson

Whose Opinions Count in Educational Policymaking?

Currently in the U.S., major educational reforms are being incentivized, which has effectively created pressure to innovate.  For instance, Race to the Top, a four-plus billion dollar federal competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, has been designed to advance major, specific policies across the states (Race to the Top Fund, 2012).  Related, a narrative of U.S. educational crisis, whether or not it is overstated or dubious, continues to hold sway in many circles.  A crisis, real or manufactured, presents opportunity for would-be reformers.  As such, some individuals and organizations may be advancing their policy agendas by engaging media through individuals who possess little or no educational expertise. 

With this in mind, we (Malin and Lubienski, in review) became interested in assessing the relationship between expertise and media impact. To do so, we made use of two educational expert lists (Hess, 2012; and Welner, Mathis, and Molnar, 2012).  We treated educational press mentions, blog mentions, and newspaper mentions in combination as a dependent variable representing “media impact.”  Likewise, we treated four criteria— educational attainment, Google Scholar-listed publications, book points, and highest Amazon rankings— in combination as an independent variable measuring “expertise.”  We used linear regression to assess the strength and direction of relationships between these variables.

When these expert lists were combined, we found a non-significant positive relationship between our measure of expertise and our measure of educational impact (see figure below).  When we constrained our analysis to the NEPC list, however, expertise significantly predicted media impact.

We conclude that media impact is at best loosely related to expertise, which is troubling and points to the responsibility of the media to vet experts before citing them or their work.  Certainly, future research should be aimed at exploring and better understanding these relationships.  Perhaps most importantly, we join the growing chorus of individuals who seek to re-establish tighter relations between research, policy, and practice.  Education is immensely important and policy changes should be carefully discussed and weighed prior to implementation.  This is most likely to occur when individuals with educational expertise are positioned to inform the process.

By: Joel Malin