Work hard. Do what you’re told. Then, you’ll be rewarded.
Simply, through its emphasis on discipline and obedience to authority (and by its opening mocking of liberals on the school website), AIPCS is teaching its students a conservative worldview. And the excellent test scores are supposedly validation of this worldview, and its application in other struggling schools.
The question remains: Is Will right? Does a return to more conservative values in school – dress codes, strict discipline, and absolute obedience to authority – ensure that we can educate students better? Does turning students into respectful Borg mean they will be more likely to succeed? Will it make for a better economy? A stronger country? A fair country?
The 21st Century Student?
Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explored what skills students needed to succeed in the rapidly changing global economy by interviewing hundreds of business and tech leaders, and observing classrooms (Before becoming a professor Wagner has been a teacher and principal).
His answer: “Work, learning, and citizenship in the twenty-first century demand that we all know how to think – to reason, analyze, weigh evidence, problem-solve – and to communicate effectively. These are no longer skills that only the elites in a society must master; they are essential survival skills for us all.”
But the tests – such as No Child Left Behind, which AIPCS does so well on by “teaching to the test” – don’t evaluate thinking. According to Wagner, they don’t test problem-solving, innovation, or asking great questions – all qualities needed to be a successful member of an increasingly competitive free-market system, and qualities valued by a wide range of employers he interviewed. Rather “our current accountability system primarily tests how much students have memorized and can recall at a given moment in time.”
Wagner is saying that success on the “standard measures” might not be good enough anymore. That simply because the students at AIPCS – and other urban and suburban schools across the United States – are doing well on the tests, simply because they follow directions well and memorize information, doesn’t mean they are prepared to enter the global marketplace (or even college, where critical thinking is valued). The tests they work so hard on should better reflect what they will do in the working world, which doesn’t necessarily require just discipline and hard work, though few would disagree these are necessary qualities (and should be encouraged).
Beyond the economy, beyond what will make students better workers, a greater moral question remains: What values do we want our schools to instill in students?
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