Juliana

Borges

Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 1
Juliana Borges
Honors 232A
6/14/13
Final paper

The Political and Moral Context of Education & Schooling:

Putting it All in Conversation
Note: = Quoting directly from book, article, email, or conversation.
Otherwise, dialogue is informed from class discussion and my own interpretation
of the readings, concepts, and opinions of others.
More than anything, this quarter in Honors 232A has helped me to continue
to realize the true value of learning for the sake of learning rather than for a
numerical grade. This concept is something Ive been pondering ever since I
entered college, and while grade point average and the importance placed on it
was something I had hoped we would discuss in class a bit more explicitly, my
professor and fellow students pushed me to think more critically about the actual
context of education within greater society. This was especially important
because we were forced to think about the how and why behind our schooling
system, rather than just the what. In other words, we were asked to not only
consider the facts regarding the situation of education and schooling in our
society, but also consider why certain standards and mandates exist as well as
how to best adapt and change them for the better.
Of the eight central issues posed to our class at the beginning of this
quarter, four have persisted in my thinking throughout all of the readings and
beyond our class. First is the question of the appropriate role of higher education,
and who determines this role. Next is the issue of the appropriate role of the
teacher, and how our teachers should be prepared, selected, and assessed.
Third, and going along with the previous point, is the question of how we know
whether or not we have good schools. Finally, especially moving forward, Im
interested in some of the factors that limit efforts to change education and
schooling.
In particular, a theme that has continually piqued my interest is the concept
of evaluative techniques evaluation for schools, teachers, and students and
the relative effectiveness of these techniques in future attempts to improve our
schooling system. Historically, there seems to be some general consensus that
US schools are not where many think they ought to be, as our analysis of data
obtained through a variety of evaluative techniques has shown us. How, then, do
we determine the best ways to effect change in a moral way? There are many
perspectives from different authorities on the subject that should be considered in
attempting to answer this question, a few of whom were able to convene for an
afternoon chat with me while walking through the UW campus...
Roger Soder: I trust most of these folks dont need much of an introduction, as

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 2

their ideas take care of introducing themselves for the most part. Briefly, we have
with us a remarkable group of individuals, ranging from Brother Counts, a
twentieth century educator and education theorist, to Shana Brown, a modernday teacher and curriculum specialist, and everyone in between.
----------------In any conversation about evaluation, assessing the abilities of the students
seems to naturally come to the mind first; it is, after all, the performance of the
students that is by far the most visible to society as a whole. As the group was
nearing Drumheller Fountain, the professor, teachers, authors, scholars, and I
began to converse about various evaluation models, paying particular attention to
how students are evaluated and why they are evaluated. We discussed the
merits and downfalls of trusting standardized testing, as well as alternative
methods of assessing student learning. Naturally, this topic also leads to the
question of who gets what and why in relation to acceptance to higher
education. At this moment, we ambled past a campus tour guide talking to a
group of people, and in particular we noticed a boy who appeared visibly upset.
Boy (to friend): Maybe if I would have done better on the SAT, I would have
gotten into the UW.
Juliana Borges: Did you hear that? That person just said that he didnt get into
UW because of his SAT score. How ridiculous is that? And his case isnt unique,
either. Its not an uncommon story that someone is intelligent and has a good
work ethic, but is simply a poor test-taker or gets test anxiety, and is therefore
denied the chance to get a quality education. Is it fair to judge a student so
harshly on a standardized test score? I was successful on the SAT so it all
worked out well and good for me, but I dont think its fair to assume that this
standard works for every single type of student. I can say from personal
experience that Ive known people who because of their work ethic,
extracurriculars, and grade trends would have belonged perfectly here at UW,
but they didnt get in because their composite SAT scores were sub-1900. What
are your thoughts?
Bill Mester: A very fair point, Juliana. Going off of that, I often wonder where we
let our creativity go to throughout our lives, or perhaps more accurately, when
and where we teach our children to hide it away because it supposedly isnt as
valuable as hard facts and rote memorization. In younger grades, if you ask
children to draw a picture about what theyre learning or to make up a skit or sing
a song, they do so oftentimes without hesitation. On the other hand if you ask
them to read a chapter or do a certain problem in a textbook, they might at first
resist or at least find it more challenging. In high school, though, all you have to
say is turn to page 394 and the class will immediately begin performing the task
in the textbook. Sometime between kindergarten and 11th grade, we have
taught kids to conform. And theres very little value in this. What do the rest of
you think about the concept of teaching to the test?

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 3

Soder: I read an article in the New York Times not too long ago following the
case of several teachers in Atlanta who were fixing their students test scores.
This takes cheating and teaching to the test to a definite extreme, but the point is
that this pressure to outperform other teachers and other schools pushed the
teachers in this district to a breaking point. The higher the stakes, the more
desperate the game. If test scores were tied less tightly to perception of student
success and assessment of teacher performance and value, its feasible to argue
that these teachers in Atlanta wouldnt have gone to such drastic measures.
Borges: I read that article, too its crazy how much animosity you can sense
just from this one little vignette of the situation. Its fostering unnecessary
negative feelings between teachers, from teacher to principal, from principal to
superintendent...and just think, situations like this could be avoided if we just
agreed that standardized tests do not hold the absolute answer to student
achievement and success.
Kenneth Sirotnik: I agree; we cannot effectively discuss high-stakes standardized
testing by looking at the results of these tests, because the issues dig so much
deeper. There are distinct troubles inherent in coercive methods like these, which
make us believe that we must mandate some form of standardization or we will
have no incentive to improve in schooling. In the end, learning goals should not
be confined to just the students; we have to put in an equal effort for continued
professional education of teachers and faculty.
Borges: At this point you all have likely gotten a sense of my general attitude
toward standardized tests, and to put it simply, its a negative one. But I have to
wonder, where do we go instead? How do we assess students without
standards? We have to have a way to rank students in some way or another.
Sirotnik: There are definitely some good uses for test-based evaluations, and the
public has a right to know how well schools are educating their children. What
we have to avoid is manipulation and instead focus on measuring whats actually
there. Now, thats a hard question, but I do believe thats the way we must
approach it.
Charles Murray: All of you are missing the main point. Maybe this kid shouldnt
even be going to college. Too many people are going to college, after all, and
the mad dash for higher education has to stop somewhere. If were going to talk
about evaluating students, we might as well also consider the notion of whether
or not every student in college even belongs there. Clearly not everyone is meant
to follow this path, so why does our evaluation of their standardized tests and
GPAs point them that way? A bachelors degree should not be the goal for the
majority of students.
Sirotnik: Why shouldnt more young people aim to become more educated?

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Final Paper 4

American higher education isnt perfect, but university level work is at least more
holistic than most of the high schools in this country, which focus on teaching to
the test more than anything. A test score is a mighty poor indicator of a human
beings potential to become all that he or she can be. How do you suggest that
we change our evaluation system, Murray? You cant simply suggest that not
everyone belongs in college and not suggest a way for us to improve the way
that students are accepted into college. Surely, what matters more [than test
preparation] is the cumulative impact of teaching and learning and the future
potentials of each child and young adult in the care of our public schools.
Murray: Yes, true, and not too long ago I spoke to The American about my
evolving views on the SAT. The test has already been ruined by political
correctness, and we would do well by replacing it with the College Boards
subject achievement tests, which are not nearly as corrupted....yet.
Soder: Great discussion. At this point in our conversation, I think its interesting to
consider a special case at the University of Washington: the Dream Project. Ive
worked with the Dream Project in the past, and it would be interesting to hear all
of your thoughts perhaps especially you, Murray on the idea behind this
program and if its working. Here you are saying too many kids are going to
college, but here the UW is trying to get more kids to go to college. Wheres the
line to be drawn?
Murray: Well, half of the children are below average, so Im not sure its a
question of granting opportunities as much as it is a question of allocating
resources. Why put so much energy into this program if an average of half the
kids arent ready to achieve at a post-secondary level? Im not sure its a wise
way to expend our energies. A couple of years ago, I was on the panel for the
first Intelligence Squared debate in Chicago. By the end of the debate, more
people agreed with the motion that too many people are going to college than
disagreed. This shows that while on the surface people might think debating the
value of college is undesirable, after hearing the facts and the arguments from
either side, it begins to make sense that not everyone belongs in the postsecondary setting.
Borges: Im not sure we can draw valid parallels between Murrays analysis and
something like the Dream Project. I was drawn in by Murrays thoughts from the
beginning of this course and I think he definitely makes a great point, but I dont
think the Dream Project follows that trend. While Ive never been a part of it
myself, I have several friends who have, so I have some background knowledge.
The Dream Project is all about offering the opportunity or option of college to
lower-income and minority groups. Its not, as Murray suggests we do too often,
about encouraging all students of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds to
make college the ultimate goal. Rather, its about finding and reaching out to
students who might not otherwise ever consider college if it werent for these
college students acting as their role models and mentors. Moreover, mentors in

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 5

the Dream Project are trained from the beginning to not market college as the
only option for graduating seniors. They are encouraged to inform their mentees
about a wide variety of post-high school options, including vocational school or
simply preparing to apply and interview for a job right out of high school. In the
end, I think the Dream Project isnt about preparing students who shouldnt be
in college, but rather offering the opportunity for kids from lower income brackets
and lower socioeconomic groups.
Soder: Ah, so youve been paying attention in discussions and reading Lareau, I
see. She has quite a bit to say about the power and limits of social class.
Annette Lareau: Indeed I do. We love to believe that we live in a world with little
class difference, at the very least in the context of education. However, this is not
the case. In one of my writings, I juxtapose two separate parenting methods,
which are often divided by social class. These methods involve concerted
cultivation and accomplishment of natural growth. The former is seen most often
in middle-class families, and its characterized by the parents taking an active
interest in their childrens academics and extracurriculars. Working class parents,
who elect to allow their children to more or less choose their own path in their
free time, have historically adopted the latter approach. This means less
organized activities and more time to play with friends or simply pursue passions
in a more relaxed environment.
Soder: Right. Is the variance [in student performance] by chance alone? Given
what we already know about the presence of racism, sexism, and social class in
the schools and the larger society, it seems reasonable -- imperative, I would
argue -- that we analyze the test score data by race/ethnicity, by gender, by
income. If it turns out that rich kids are just as likely to have the same distribution
of scores as poor kids, for example, then good, we can be reasonably confident
that the math instruction isn't favoring one group over the other. Not that
standardized testing is the way to go to analyze this, however. Im merely
suggesting that we observe our current techniques more closely for variance
among social class, ethnicity, and so on.
Lareau: Agreed! As I wrote in Unequal Childhoods, What is the outcome of
these different philosophies and approaches to child rearing? Quite simply, they
appear to lead to the transmission of differential advantages to children. It is
therefore the duty of the community and the schools to try to mitigate these
differential advantages by ensuring that children of all classes and races receive
the same quality of education. Now, the how part of this is still rather muddled,
but this is the situation we have at hand and the perspective I think we need to
adopt in order to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution.
Mester: Along with that discussion of the Dream Project, I think its interesting to
look at where motivation comes from. In other words, is motivation extrinsic or

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 6

intrinsic? High-stakes testing is certainly extrinsic, in that it employs the rewardsand-punishments model. In my opinion, guidance is a more reasonable and,
indeed, more desirable approach to education than is control.
Borges: I agree that intrinsic motivation is more desirable, and that a teacher who
guides her students rather than try to control and force them is likely going to be
more effective. But then comes the question of just how many students are able
to possess that intrinsic motivation. It might be unreasonable to suggest that
thats even a majority of students at the secondary level, because so many kids
are just ready to graduate high school (or drop out) and never look back. Im not
sure its a question we can quite answer at present.
---------------------------------Next, many people in the realm of education are keen on praising or
criticizing the people who make the schools what they are the teachers. So,
the question must be asked: what is the appropriate way to evaluate teachers
and to what extent can a universal standard even be applied? The group tackled
this question with enthusiasm, as they walked through Savery Hall and observed
various classroom models.
Soder: Teacher is the name of.....of what? Its certainly a difficult role to define,
and a rather ambiguous one in any case. Attitudes toward teachers often depend
upon their view of themselves; for example, does the teacher see himself as a
pawn in the system or does he embrace his moral role as an educator?
Borges: Its difficult to tell without observing a teacher consistently, but take these
two classrooms as examples. In this first room, we can see the students staring
at the front of the classroom, occasionally taking notes, and two or three students
nodding off. Then in this classroom across the hall, you can see the TA walking
through the rows and speaking to the students, who are working in groups.
Obviously its problematic to cross-compare college TAs with high school
teachers, the latter of which is our main unit of analysis, but it does illustrate my
point. From this perspective, the second TA is clearly taking a greater interest in
the value of learning for his students, and not merely writing up powerpoint slides
to distribute in class. This brings me to a point Ive been pondering in Soders
class for the better part of the quarter, and that is at what point do we say a
teacher is bad and once we determine that, what is the best method to get rid
of him or her?
R. Clark: My research is primarily about the use of student results in evaluation,
but I can also speak to the need for improving teacher evaluation methods. Rules
of seniority and negotiated contract laws exist because of problems in the past
with petty excuses for dismissing teachers. However, the present-day response
to such unjust actions may have created conditions where teachers who are truly
incompetent continue to be employed making victims of the students in their

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 7

classes. This is a significant problem because teachers can get by on poor

teaching simply because of mistakes in the past. We need to come up with a
better way to eliminate incompetent teachers.
Spencer Welch: How many bad teachers have you actually had in your life?
When I ask students or graduates or parents this question, its usually a hard one
for them to answer and gives them pause. When you really get down to it, there
arent that many bad teachers out there its just one of those things that gets
talked about, and then the idea catches on, and before you know it everyone is
saying how the system needs to be fixed and whatnot. Of course there are
teachers who need to improve their teaching style or approach here and there,
but I dont think its correct to overemphasize the need for consideration of how to
best get rid of these teachers. The focus should be on improvement, not
expulsion.
R. Clark: I agree with you, to an extent. I think there is definitely a case to be
made that plenty of incompetent teachers exist, but I do agree that teaching is
not a similarly competitive enterprise in comparison to careers in sales,
entertainment, athletics, and the like. Teachers shouldnt be rank-ordered against
one another, and the truth is that childrens education should be characterized
by cooperation. Otherwise, we run the risk of unfairly judging teachers and
passing on that judgment, because as you said, the idea catches on. Informal
judgments about certain teachers being more or less successful will only
increase the conflict, because parents and students will be upset about being in a
classroom with a teacher who is judged to be second-best even though there is
no actual criteria to back up this point of view.
Shana Brown: Yes, thats a fair perspective, Spencer, but I dont think its
accurate to say that bad teachers are a myth. Ive been a teacher and
curriculum specialist in the Seattle School District for years and I can very clearly
recall a time when the teacher in the room next to me would yell at her kids. She
would tell them to shut up and they were stupid. I can tell you that under no
circumstances is that effective teaching, and under no circumstances should a
teacher belittle her students or use petty techniques like name-calling.
Welch: Understandable, I suppose my point was more that bad teachers arent
nearly as common as many people may think. But, perhaps weve had different
experiences at our respective schools. So, how did the situation with that teacher
eventually get resolved?
Brown: A group of teachers got together to resolve the situation and, well, the
teacher in question eventually stepped down due to pressures from the school
and the other faculty. I think there are better ways to deal with this kind of
difficulty but in the end, this way was effective and was beneficial for everyone
involved. She clearly did not enjoy her job and was not good at it.

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Final Paper 8

Borges: Interesting story, and definitely one I can relate to from a students point
of view. I wonder, then, who really decides what and how teachers teach, and for
that matter why teachers teach? As in, how are people channeled into this
career?
Soder: The state to a large extent does dictate what and how teachers can and
cannot teach, and the extent to which they teach to the test, as we were
discussing earlier. These many laws and rules and regulations may be all to the
good in protecting children from bad teachers. But curtailment of the freedom to
act limits teaching. That is to say, to a certain extent its fair for someone to stay
the state should have a role in determining curriculum, etc, but teachers also
need to have the liberty to create and grow in their own classrooms.
Borges: I think thats a very good point, and it makes me remember just how
much I appreciate teachers who take an active interest in their students and in
their subject matter. In my experience, I have had teachers and professors on
both extreme ends of the spectrum. Particularly in high school, there were
consistent examples of teachers who didnt mind at all the constraints of teaching
in the public school setting, and who went about their day lecturing and assigning
practice problems from the textbook assigned by the district.
*The group walks through Savery Hall and pauses outside a lecture hall where
the professor is using some very text-heavy PowerPoint slides.*
Borges: This is exactly what I was talking about earlier as well. Ive had this
experience in higher education and in secondary education, this experience
where the teacher doesnt take an interest in the student and instead lists all the
facts on the whiteboard, insisting that students must read the textbook and
synthesize what they learn, only to turn around and write a multiple choice exam
that only really tests how well students can memorize minute details and not how
well they comprehend class concepts.
------Finally, the last major component to think about with regards to evaluation is the
school itself. How do we know we have good schools, how do we get there, and
how in the world do we define good? Again, the variety of perspectives present
in this conversation proved beneficial for a complex handling of the topic.
Borges: This is definitely the most difficult concept of evaluation for me, because
I really cant think of a set of solid criteria. At least for students, its grades, or test
scores, or even perceived level of morale or well-being. For teachers, its the
students performances and the students and facultys attitude toward them. For
schools, what is it? How well the students perform? How well the teachers
perform? How much the community likes the school? How diverse the school is?
How well the sports teams and clubs perform? Moreover, what are the units of

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 9

analysis? Someone could argue that one unit of analysis is student-teacher ratio,
but at the same time, Im not sure there is actually an effective difference
between a class with 20 students versus a class with 30. Maybe we consider the
relative qualifications of the teachers, but then how do we judge? Masters
degrees perhaps, but does it matter where the degree comes from? Pardon all
the questions; but this class has taught me nothing if not to question more!
Ray Rist: Schools affirm, reflect, and strengthen the social system which created
them. I have performed some extensive studies on the subject and Ive found
some intense results. In the particular school I studied, the students were
assigned to a particular group at the beginning of kindergarten. This group was
reflective of the clothes they wore, their behavior, and so on so they were
assigned based on social class. These same students at the end of grade two
were in the same groupings. What does this tell us? Schools in the US dont
have their priorities straight and ought to focus more on making the system more
equitable.
John Ogbu: I agree, and the first step toward overcoming barriers is to
understand them. We must first dedicate ourselves to understanding the fact
that schools are not yet equitable before we attempt to overcome the challenges
with which we are faced. Plus there have to be jobs available, and minority
groups must be aware of these jobs as a payoff, for there to be change in our
schooling system. There have to be real opportunities out there, otherwise
whatever good changes the schools make wont mean much.
George Counts: Can we just come out and say it already? American schools
dont take initiative. They dont possess an adequate amount of direction in
executing policies that emphasize the importance of activity and paying attention
to the individual learner. We should be suspicious of child-centered schools. Mr.
Rist, Mr. Ogbu, with all due respect, the idea of education without some aspect of
social dimension is a foolish one. The expansion of organized schooling in my
lifetime (and beyond) is indicative of our schools being directed by forces of
change, not the reverse. Our schools are not resisting the social order, they are
part of it. Like all simple and unsophisticated peoples we Americans have a
sublime faith in education. You all need to wake up and address these issues
squarely in the face.
Soder: Thanks for your words, Brother Counts. Plus, weve got to consider the
difference between a condition and a problem. For example, when no girls were
in calculus classes decades ago, was it a problem of not offering that class to
them or a condition of girls not enjoying math? To what extent is it actually the
fault of the school for not offering or tracking students into certain classes or
programs?
With no sufficient answer to this question, the group fell silent for a few
moments and continued walking through campus.

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Honors 232A, Spring 2013

Final Paper 10

------------------The groups conversation up to this point meant very little without a

discussion of the implications of these different types of evaluation for the future.
The point of analyzing the effectiveness of evaluative techniques is lost without a
deeper consideration of where and how and why to move forward. They walked
at this point through the Quad and then between Paccar and Denny Hall; the
ultimate juxtaposition of old versus new.
Borges: Im not sure any of the evaluative techniques we have in place are
adequate as-is. How can we impose graduation requirements on students
despite the fact that all of these standardized tests have not yet proven their
worth? Heck, when I was in high school barely two years ago, we were still using
the WASL as a requirement. Now its the HSPE and rapidly moving on to MAPS
and other subject-specific standard tests. These tests have only been in place a
couple of years, so how can anyone argue that it can be an accurate measuring
stick for learning? Maybe it can reliably measure a specific skill set, but surely it
isnt totally valid.
Soder: A good point. Do you want memorization of state capitals or do you want
students to have a deep understanding of their rights and how to fight for those
rights? Surely the latter is more difficult to measure, but it also seems more
moral to teach this way.
Borges: So even if we agree on the ends of where schools ought to end
up...regardless of whether that is knowing state capitals or understanding
democratic rights...we must also attempt to reach an agreement on the means to
those ends. Moreover, we require a moral means to achieve those ends. Even if
we agree on the subject matter that were trying to teach, we also have to
discuss how best to measure attainment of this knowledge whether by
standardized tests or some other method.
Dr. Jennifer Wiley: To add to this point, Ive seen Franklin High School make
great strides toward that latter goal, Roger. Ive been there about a decade now
and weve undergone massive changes in my time there. I chose the UW for
graduate study in educational leadership because its school of education
possesses a clear social justice agenda. Other public institutions I looked at did
not have the courage to explicitly address the moral endeavor of public
education. UW staff create a sense of urgency about the direct link between a
healthy and representative democracy and public education like no other."
Juliana: So, what are some of the factors that limit how we change education and
schooling?
Soder: In discussing some of the factors that limit changes, the first question may
very well be just where the impetus for change comes from. Those who are

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Final Paper 11

benefiting that is, those of higher socioeconomic classes and, thereby, those
with power probably wont be invested in involving themselves with change, at
least initially. There needs to be a powerful impetus for these people to get
involved. I think maybe we should consider our approach to evaluating
evaluation, if you will. We usually reverse evaluation planning and determination
of what we think ought to be objectives for schooling. We have the bloody test,
we accept the WASL (or whatever test is being imposed), and only then do we
turn to the "oughts." What if, in our approach to changing education and
schooling, we decided to consider the means more heavily? If we only consider
the ends, then were stuck in the rut of accepting the WASL, the HSPE, what
have you, and only working on changing the end results of those: the students
test scores and our subsequent assessment of teacher performance.
Borges: Valid points all around. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses to
these complex questions; Ive learned a great deal from each and every one of
you. Im confident our discussion will continue into the future.
----------------With that, the group went their separate ways, but each individual with a
new and more holistic way of viewing the political and moral context of education
and schooling. In summation, there was a great number of intriguing themes in
this course that I took to heart, and it was difficult to decide on a couple to home
in on for this final analysis. I feel fortunate to count myself among a group of
people who had the option of taking this class; its such a universal subject
because even though many of us are not interested in a career in teaching or the
education field at all, schooling is something we can all relate to. Its what we all
have in common, and I think its too easy for a lot of us to get so caught up in
getting the grade that we forget the context and the circumstances that led us to
where we are today. Its one thing to think about the different methods of
evaluation for schools, teachers, and students, but its an even more fruitful
discussion when we consider the implications of these evaluations and how to
move forward when there wont necessarily ever be consensus on the methods
of, and the values of, these assessments. More than anything, its crucial to take
into consideration a wide variety of viewpoints as we progress in our discussion
of the appropriate role of and context for schooling in this country.