Letters to the Next President and the Son of a Preacher Woman

The 2008 Election edition of the award-winning book Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education will be in bookstores this coming week. With debates ranging over the progress and reauthorization of NCLB, and with presidential candidates formulating education agendas for the future of American schools, we should use this period of time to influence our legislators at all levels of government about what should be done to improve education and society. The book is a collection of thirty short, readable letters written by students, teachers, parents, legislators, entertainers, and others ranging in age from eight to eighty and in position from Navajo children to the world's most famous astronaut.

One of the letter writers recently, and unexpectedly, died while conducting his annual summer study tour of Africa. Some of you may have known this proud man, Asa Hilliard, also known by his African name Nana Baffour Amankwatia II. His mother was a Pentecostal minister and his father was a high school principal. Asa was a railroad worker, bartender, waiter, cook, soldier, teacher, father, grandfather, and always a proud African American educator advocating for children of color and poverty. He spoke candidly and passionately about the pernicious effects of racism and classicism perpetuated by the marketing and selling of curriculum, standardized testing, and school reform programs.

When the National Assessment of Educational Progress report was released recently, one newspaper headline blared that scores are rising, and another shouted that results are mixed. Naturally, the U.S. Department of Education credits gains, not losses, to their implementation of the Title One NCLB legislation. But people like Asa drew a much bigger picture about the consequences of using standardized tests to determine the educational health of students and schools. He wrote, "Reform programs claim victory when they reach narrow, minimum-competency achievement goals. High-level academic goals that go beyond standardized tests...are rarely evaluated at all." Asa was very clear about what is happening to children in high poverty schools across our country: In his words, the use of reform efforts such as NCLB have created "a new form of segregation."

Asa pointed out that scripted, repetitive, and test-focused curriculum is used only on poor children and would never be acceptable to schools that serve wealthy parents. He raised profound questions, such as, are we successful if our students can pass a national exam but do not know how to use what they have learned to solve real problems with real people? Should we be concerned about how students do in all intellectual aspects of a broad curriculum? Should we be concerned that our youth have become increasingly disenchanted with participating in civic, community, and political matters, and that such knowledge and skills are not emphasized in schools that serve low income children? Are we saving democracy or are we giving up the noble goal of public education?

And, in essence, this is why we need broad, inclusive, and participatory forums. In a democracy, the rulers do not rule the people. It is up to us at every level of school and community to think through this central question: What is an American Education?

So, to Asa: Although your voice is still, your passionate thoughts about "what should be" remain. And now it is time to add our letters and voices to the public discussion about the future of our children and our society.

(To read the letter from Asa Hilliard, click here. To learn more about the 2008 election edition of Letters to the Next President, go here.)