With the Congressional summer recess soon upon us, now is the time to begin planning on meeting with your Senator and/or Representative to let them know what you think should be done with ESEA.  While it seems unlikely that a reauthorization attempt will be made in this session of Congress, that does not mean members of Congress are ignoring the issue.  Congressional staffers continue to meet to try and hammer out a bill and this summer gives us all the opportunity to make our voices heard when members of Congress travel home.

For the past eighteen years I have worked as a high school/middle school  principal along side a dedicated staff and a committed community to improving a school.  In that time we have increased graduation and college going rates, engaged our students in more internships and college courses, created an advisory system that keeps tabs on all of our students, and developed the highest graduation standards in the state (including a Senior Project and Graduation Portfolio). 

But reading the popular press, and listening to the chatter from Washington, I have just found out that we are not part of the movement to ‘reform’ schools.

(This blog also appeared in the June 6th edition of the Washington Post's Answer Sheet.) 

The Sunday before Memorial Day was Wayne’s day.

It was the day he graduated from our school.  A day he did not think would come.  But a day he made happen—and we helped.

Wayne came to me last summer and asked could he please come to our school.  Eighteen, having been pushed out of his school in northern Ohio, he had moved in with a girl friend in the area. 

(first published on May 27th, 2010 in The Nation)

Before his election President Obama carved out what many regarded as a more progressive and enlightened position on education reform. Recognizing that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had become widely unpopular because of its overemphasis on standardized tests, he declared, "Don't tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend too much of the year preparing him to fill out a few bubbles in a standardized test." He pledged to lead the nation in a different direction.

Deborah Meier's education advice to Obama

As the Obama administration explores new ways to support a national culture of learning – as opposed to our current national culture of testing – it faces a central dilemma: How to satisfy all of our country’s education stakeholders at once.

Earlier this month Governor Charlie Crist of Florida surprised lots of folks by vetoing a school ‘reform’ bill passed by the state legislature.  Who knows how this figures into his political calculations; I’ll just say that the veto made educational sense.

Dear Friends,

The saga of education reform continues, now almost 30 years after the release of the Reagan administration’s “Nation at Risk” report. Some might say that we are more at risk today than ever. More students live in poverty; high school graduation rates are stable at an unacceptable rate of 70 percent for the overall population, but fall below 50 percent in many urban and rural communities; the United States has fallen from first in the world to 13th in higher education participation.

Clearly, our economic interests and our democratic traditions cannot tolerate this situation.

Now that health care is finally behind the White House and Congress, it’s time to get busy with the rest of the agenda for change – and that means public education.

Most people in this country understand the importance of public education to our society.  Schools are the only institution where we prepare the next generation not just for jobs and careers, but also for participation in our democracy.  Yet our schools continue to be separate and unequal, and our children’s opportunities to learn are not the same.  With graduation rates below 40% in places like Detroit and Cleveland, while national graduation rates for Blacks and Latinos hover around 50%, it’s clear that education is one of the unfinished pieces of our nation’s civil rights agenda.

As a school principal, I read everything about education with an eye towards how it would affect my school and my kids.  So it is with the recently released ‘blueprint’ from the Administration on changes in NCLB.

I have approached the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) with cautious optimism.  During the last campaign season I heard lots of talk about ending the over-reliance upon standardized tests, supporting teachers, and equalizing educational opportunities.  I hoped this would mean my school, our teachers and kids, would have something to look forward to.

This past week I was in Washington to talk with colleagues and friends about the upcoming debates over NCLB.  While I enjoy the city and my friends, it was great to get back to my school just in time for Friday—one of my favorite days.  And it has nothing to do with it being the day before the weekend.

Every other Friday my staff and I meet for what we call ‘planning period meetings’.  Since we are on a semester schedule with long periods this means we have about an hour to talk about our shared work.  During the first semester of the year we read a book together and discuss it.  In the second semester we take on a protocol called ‘looking at student work.’