Short on cash? Stop outsourcing education

Courtesy: http://www.al.com/

City schools are overusing costly outside tests

Every year Huntsville's schools spend millions of dollars paying companies outside the city for tests and scripted curricula. At what point in time did Huntsville's citizens decide that the teachers in their schools were not capable of creating curricula and tests on their own?

The answer is they didn't. Both have been increasingly imposed because of the No Child Left Behind Act, passed under the belief that local communities were not qualified to determine whether or not their schools were working. According to NCLB's supporters, failing schools - identified as such by failing test scores - could improve by adopting scripted materials that are "teacher proof" and administering frequent tests to make sure the teachers are doing their jobs.

There are at least two problems with this logic. The first is that there is not a single shred of empirical research supporting the use of testing or scripted curricula as means to improve human growth and development.

The second is the belief that teachers are "the" problem with schools. In reality, when it comes to "failing" schools, zip codes have more influence than the teachers. If that is not the case, we should immediately swap all of the teachers in Butler High School with all of the teachers in Bob Jones. If NCLB's logic holds, Butler's scores will drastically improve and there will be a corresponding decrease at the other school.

We don't need tests to tell us that this will not occur.

Chances are, if you are reading this op/ed, you went to a public school and graduated before educational outsourcing began. Somehow, despite failing schools and failing teachers, you managed to become successful to some degree. If that were not the case, you would not have the luxury of reading this newspaper.

As a former teacher, and now a teacher of teachers, I understand the importance of determining whether or not the individuals in our schools "are doing their jobs." And after visiting a number of schools it is easy for me to say that some are not. They are, however, dwarfed in number by the teachers doing amazing things with America's future leaders.

We don't have to pay a company outside of Huntsville to tell the difference. We (yes, you the reader) simply need to go into buildings and look and listen to the people inside of them.

Huntsville is easily spending more than $3 million a year in time and resources on imported tests and curricula. That's at least $3 million leaving the city every year.

If citizens could vote on the issue, I'd lobby for dropping all tests and scripted materials that don't come from within the city or county. I'd then ask students, parents, teachers, administrators, and members of the community to determine whether or not our children are becoming engaged, intelligent, doers. Am I to understand that this city, trusted to put humans into outer space, cannot be trusted with children on terra firma?

While I believe our principals and teachers are capable of charting student progress without federal or state interference, I recognize the benefits of inviting individuals from outside of an institution to ensure quality control.

I am, of course, partial to using UAHuntsville as a mechanism for helping the city measure student achievement robustly defined. For $3 million, UAHuntsville could do a better job of helping Huntsville's school system measure student development and growth than any imported test or curricula. And we could do it for a period of four years.

The city would save at least $9 million, teachers and administrators would be freed from a great deal of paperwork, and students would spend more time meaningfully employed in the most robust sense of the term. The only real obstacle is our collective will.