A Nation at Risk +40

>> Macke Raymond: The modern school reform movement began 40 years ago, with the release of the landmark report, a nation at risk. This urgent call to action, described a crisis in American education, and made recommendations, to improve student achievement. In the decades since, federal, state, and local leaders have pursued countless reforms, aimed at boosting outcomes.

But what actually worked, and what lessons can guide education policy today? The Hoover Education Success Initiative, brought together 12 exceptional scholars. To analyze the reform record of the last 40 years, in our own report, which was called a nation at risk plus 40. The goal, was to document attempted changes in areas like standards, assessment, governance, and more, and then analyze the available evidence, on each reforms impact.

Taken together, the series gives an unprecedented view of reform efforts over time, revealing both bright spots, and blind spots. The sheer volume of reforms pursued is striking. Billions of dollars were invested to adjust parts small and large across a mostly unchanged system. About half, focused their improving efforts on inputs, like teacher quality or learning materials.

These had limited effect, unless implemented deeply and over time. Process reforms like accountability policies were harder to assess, but they showed promise when sustained and coherent. Output reforms directly targeting metrics like test scores, did boost student learning initially, graduation rates rose, and achievement gaps narrowed, but many gains have reversed in recent years.

Finally, outcome reforms, set external quality bars for credentials and for student readiness. Though aspirations have grown, judging real progress, requires applying uncompromising standards. A staggering array of treatments, interventions, redesigns, and innovations that our authors identified, makes it a challenge to rationalize our collective experience into any semblance of order.

Despite the cacophony, the catalog of activity amassed by our authors, supports a few observations, about our 40 year effort to reform. That holds potential for illuminating future directions, for elementary and secondary education in our country. First, most reforms were rushed out broadly, without considering local fit, or interactions with any other changes already underway.

Second, the sheer volume of incremental, incoherent additions led to reform fatigue, without meaningful improvement. Third, impatience for instant success, ignored realistic timelines. Fourth, the system's resilience suggests reform attempts actually strengthened the status quo structures over time. And fifth, stagnant outcomes show a tolerance across the country for lackluster results.

In effect, the report card on 40 years of education reform reads, impulsive, incremental, incoherent, impatient, intransigent, and ineffective. This does not mean nothing worked. A few interventions, when implemented deeply, did improve student learning, but many more came and went, while the system's core remained untouched. Where does this leave policymakers seeking to help students emerge strong from our pandemic?

Our research suggests a few guideposts, ground education reforms in local contexts, rather than imposing one-size fits all solutions. Commit to depth of implementation over breadth, and stay the course over years, not months. Align components into coherent strategies, engage synergies, not isolated efforts. Anchor designs and realistic timeframes, and sustained support for the long haul.

Study implementation and refine as needed, and uncompromisingly assess impact to ensure reforms deliver their intended benefits to students. American education, faces no shortage of challenges. The one thing we may have conclusively proven, is that the system as presently constituted, has been resilient to reforms at scale. What is clear, is that we have a thin collection of reforms that have been shown to work and that can scale.

Instead, we have an impressive record of what not to do. We can't assume that ideas that have been proven effective in one setting, will be effective in every setting. We can't expect changes at the margin, no matter how well they are done, to be able to leverage an entire school model.

Our children deserve schools, that enable them to achieve their full potential. If we learn from experience, and hold fast to what works, better outcomes, surely wait, within reach. The time for thoughtful, sustained, and evidence-based improvement, is now.