StickWithANose

Beneath the veneer of the Republican Lite education policies being pursued by the Obama administration lies a stark reality that remains neatly out of sight from the gentle gaze of the Heartland. [aka. Places where middle class, white people live] The testing and accountability regimes that we are now constructing produce perverse incentives that push the neediest of students out the door and [in many cases] on to a life of incarceration. While we may achieve a mechanical increase in test scores through drop-outs and disappearances, the real question is: At what cost?

The Advancement Project has just released a policy brief that does a surprisingly good job of summarizing the evidence on the outcomes from high-stakes testing and zero tolerance education policies. In effect, the order of the day is “Test, Punish, and Push Out.”