What is reform?

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

The word "reform" has acquired a bad aura, captured, like too much of our language, by rightwing ideologues and the commercial interests they serve.

Corporate education reformers are pushing a dubious formula for success: cutting costs, stripping down curriculum, and replacing locally controlled public schools with private contractors looking to make a profit.

In this issue, Sarah Lahm exposes a little-known Boston-based outfit called the District Management Council that is quietly advising school districts all over the country on how to "reform" budgets by spending less on kids ("Cashing In on Special Needs Kids," page 16).

We need a better model for education reform.

Fortunately, a movement to save public schools and offer a genuinely enriching environment for children has been spreading from coast to coast.

One of the heroes of this movement is teacher, activist, and author Jesse Hagopian, profiled by Erin Middlewood on page 22.

Hagopian helped organize the successful MAP test boycott at Seattle's Garfield High School, and is leading a multiracial coalition of parents, teachers, local civil rights groups, and students who see stripped-down, test-focused education as bad for all kids--especially low-income kids and students of color.

That's a big deal, because national civil rights groups have taken a position against the movement to opt out of standardized tests, on the theory that kids of color need the tests to determine if schools are failing them.

"The idea that our school system implements standardized testing in the early grades to make students 'career and college ready' (in the language of the Common Core standards) is an utter absurdity--especially when you consider that one of the most popular career choices for a five-year-old is being Spider-Man," he writes. "And yet high stakes are attached to the MAP test--already in kindergarten!--using it as an arbitrator of who will be placed on the advanced track."

Hagopian sees a direct connection between a punitive...