There’s no way to soften it.  I was saddened to see Gerald Bracey’s piece in today’s Washington Post.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202004.html  Those who have read Bracey in the past recognize that he has been opposed to most reforms in recent years.  He’s a particularly vocal opponent of NCLB and all that it stands for.  And he has long stood again many of the accountability and assessment reforms that so many districts and states are now embracing.

So I shouldn’t be surprised when I see a Bracey piece that attempts to malign a significant number of organizations and institutions, including NAEP, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in particular.  In Bracey’s attempt to protect the status quo of lagging test scores, lacking student achievement, and absent accountability, he has assumed a stance that may work at a faculty senate mixer, but clearly does not fly in today’s education improvement-focused society.

Why?

First, the ultimate target for his vitriol is NAEP.  NAEP (along with TIMSS and PISA) is one of the few measures we, as a nation, have to truly understand how our students measure up against like-minded students.  School districts and states are able to use this strong assessment tool to ensure that instruction in Alabama stands up to instruction in New Jersey or Wisconsin or Arizona or Oregon.  It provides a common benchmark, a benchmark that helps educators, policymakers, and parents know that their kids are gaining the academic skills needed to succeed, both in college and in career.

If not NAEP, then what?  Bracey is good at tearing down, but he has offered no alternative solutions.  If you are seeking, rhetorically, to take away a valuable tool like NAEP, you better offer a better option.  One of the reasons our schools are in the predicament they are now in is because we have torn down well-intended and effective solutions out of personal politics, without building a better mousetrap.  But we need NAEP, particularly this 21st century global economy.

Second, Bracey almost seeks to say that everyone else is under par, so why should we aspire to improve?  Ask virtually any person on any street in the United States about education.  Our goal is to be the best in the world.  The smartest kids.  The best colleges.  The top scores.  Our goal is not be in the “great majority” or to coming close.  We aspire to be the top.  As a nation, we have the resources, the knowhow, and the motivation to exceed expectations in the classroom.  The rhetoric shouldn’t be about how we measure up to Sweden or Singapore or India, but rather how they measure up to us.  By believing we aren’t that bad, in comparison, Bracey has already given up.  Why reform if we don’t seek to truly improve?

Third, he mistakes our nation’s desire to succeed and to ensure that ALL students are prepared for good jobs as some sort of fear tactic.  There is often a fine line between fear and truth, particularly for those who fear change.  Those seeking to improve our schools are speaking truth.  When Bracey began his career as an educator, high school graduates and even dropouts could move onto careers that would allow them to support a family, buy a home, and lead a happy life.  But times have changed.  We now know that some form of postsecondary education is necessary to get one of those good 21st century jobs.  The truth is that we all bear some responsibility for ensuring our high schools serve as the gateway to those jobs, providing both a relevant and a rigorous curriculum.  And we need tools like NAEP to ensure that those high school students have the academic tools to move to postsecondary education and thrive in whatever career they choose.

Instead of the negative, common-denominator, defeatist rhetoric coming from Mr. Bracey, we need more of the bold words and bold actions necessary to truly improve the system.  We need to know what our presidential candidates will do to strengthen our schools.  We need to know how our states measure up against other states in terms of educational effectiveness.  We need to know how our students measure up against students across the country and around the world.  We need information (and advocates for it) to inspire us and drive us to action.

Education reform is ultimately about improving student achievement.  We don’t do that by calling for the abandonment of key assessment tools, by settling for second best, or by making ascribing false motives to our opponents.  We do it by continuing to talk about the need for reform — for us, for our children, for our community, and for our nation.  And we do it by empowering every interested individual and organization to take specific actions that will make a specific difference.  That’s how you break through the white noise.  That’s how you stop talking around a problem and start enacting the solution.