Secretary Duncan’s Urgency to Reauthorize ESEA is Wise, but Serious Concerns Remain

Forum for Education and Democracy National Director Sam Chaltain issued the following statement on Secretary Duncan’s priorities for ESEA reauthorization:

“At The Forum, we share Secretary Duncan’s sense of urgency regarding the reauthorization of ESEA, and we appreciate his call for substantive policy ideas from the field of advocates, educators and others.  We also agree that standardized tests, when used as the sole measure of student achievement, distort our public education system and discourage educators from creating healthy and high-functioning learning environments.

“Of course, systemic education reform requires not just a more balanced strategy for measuring student learning, but also a plan for identifying, recruiting, retaining and supporting a profession of highly effective teachers. For this reason the Secretary and Congress must give dedicated attention to teacher recruitment, preparation, distribution, evaluation, and retention.  We also enthusiastically share the Secretary’s desire to ‘build a law that discourages a narrowing of curriculum and promotes a well-rounded education that draws children into the arts and sciences and history in order to build a society distinguished by both intellectual and economic prowess.’

“At the same time, we have grave concerns about the lack of attention in the Secretary's remarks to fairness issues beyond quality teachers.  Simply put, children cannot learn optimally and teachers cannot teach optimally in schools that are under-resourced. Children from disadvantaged neighborhoods need a real opportunity to learn in which they attend schools that possess the same resources as those schools serving the most advantaged students.  To maintain a focus on outcomes when the inputs are grossly unequal is therefore not just unfair to students, teachers, and society – it is a violation of the core principles on which this nation was founded.

“In the weeks and months ahead, we look forward to helping the Secretary identify a concrete and proven replacement for our current myopic method of determining student growth and achievement.  To that end, we are prepared to offer our guidance on how federal policy can further America’s commitment to public schools that are engaging and challenging places for all of our children. This guidance will be informed by our own experience in school change and from the input we gain through our partnership in the Rethink Learning Now campaign (rethinklearningnow.com), a national grassroots initiative that was launched to provide clarity on the core principles that support a high-quality public education – powerful learning, effective teaching, and a system committed to ensuring fairness and providing all children with an equal opportunity to participate in the American dream.”

(Secretary Duncan's speech may be found here.)