Amid the chaos of a presidency whose early weeks were dominated by lies, tweet storms, and hysterical reaction to sexual assault allegations, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos quietly forged new ground on education reform. Her move to reshape standards and the curriculum is a sign of a broader movement that seeks to rethink how schools function in our democracy. This new direction unites populists and traditionalists troubled by the left’s overreach and double standards. It also empowers parents and local leaders to make their own choices about schooling.
For decades, the dominant approach to school reform has focused on redressing societal ills. This has led to an overly narrow focus on boosting reading and math scores. As a result, a generation of students was taught in schools that had narrow curricula and squeezed time for recess and the arts. Testing systems labeled thousands of popular schools as “failing” while teachers complained about bean-counting bureaucrats and test-informed teacher evaluations.
These policies were not well-matched to the realities of the classroom. For example, focusing on raising reading and math scores ignores the fact that many children come to school already developmentally ready to learn those subjects—and often better than the 50 percent of students who were defined as below grade level in those subjects by norm referenced tests. Assessments that only measure a single number for reading and math and then use it to compare students across schools—without examining individual student progress and intervention prescriptions—do not improve learning outcomes.