Ten years ago, the U.S. Congress adopted the No Child Left Behind legislation, mandating that all students must be proficient in reading or mathematics by 2014 or their school would be punished. Teachers and principals have been fired and schools that were once fixtures in their community have been closed and replaced. In time, many of the new schools will close, too, unless they avoid enrolling low-performing students, like those who don’t read English or are homeless or have profound disabilities. 

For at least the past decade, American education policy has been based on test-based accountability. Policymakers of both political parties now support federal legislation that promotes high-stakes testing and the expansion of privately-managed charter schools. Also, they support policies at the federal and state levels to reduce entry standards for new teachers and to make it easier for non-educators to become principals and superintendents. This agenda is supported by wealthy philanthropists, most notably, the Gates Foundation. The rationale for the agenda is that choice, competition, and accountability will improve the academic outcomes for disadvantaged students. In this session the evidence for this agenda will be debated.

While U.S. systems-level leadership has in many ways been destructive in ways outlined in the presentation of Diane Ravitch, countervailing forces aligned with community organizing and teachers' professional associations increasingly are working together to build civic capacity and a new policy approach. Discussants comments will describe the challenges and opportunities presented by such broad-based coalitions, with reference to his leadership with the Teachers Union Reform Network (TURN) and community organizing groups over many years.

Ravich, D. (2010). The Death and Life of the Great American School System. How testing and choice are undermining education. New York: Basic Books. Hargeraves, A. & Shirley, D. (2009). The Fourth Way: The inspiring future of educational change. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Sahlberg, P. 2011. Finnish lessons. What can the world learn from educational change in Finland. New York: teachers College Press.