Quick Fixes, Test Scores, and the Global Economy

Myths That Continue to Confound Us

By Iris C. Rotberg

Our policy deliberations are dominated by a belief that we can cure our educational problems if only we can find a magic bullet—“scientifically proven” teaching methods, school choice, increased student testing. If we succeed, our students will rank higher on international test-score comparisons, which, in turn, will enable the United States to compete in the global economy. These beliefs are based on a set of loosely coupled myths about U.S. education. The myths form the basis for much of our rhetoric and many of our policies.

The first of these myths is that we can “fix” our schools without addressing the problems of poverty . We can’t. The achievement gap based on family socioeconomic status is the most significant problem in all countries, and accounts for about three-quarters of the variation in student performance among schools in the United States. Compounding the problem in this country are large inequalities in school resources, largely to the disadvantage of poor communities.

When we compare U.S. education with education in other countries, we might want to keep in mind that the United States ranks high on two international competitions that we perhaps would prefer not to win: We have one of the largest income and wealth gaps between rich and poor when compared with other industrialized countries, and, at the same time, our system of school finance is also one of the most unequal. Both have major consequences for the educational achievement of students from low-income families and for their...