A recent study showing that test-score-driven school turnaround models fail to yield long-term improvements may be the final nail in the coffin for technocratic education reform strategies.
Going forward, education reform will thrive by empowering parents with choices, rather than by ordering them to obey self-appointed experts.
Technocratic reform strategies typically rely upon experts using student test scores to identify what schools and practices “work.” The technocrats then attempt to replicate what “works” by steering families into approved schools using favored techniques and to shut down what does not “work” by forbidding families from selecting disfavored schools and practices.
According to the technocrats, education can be improved if we just “follow the science.”
This all sounds great until you remember how those pushing us to follow the…
