Letter
Centralized Schools Are Not the Solution
To the Editor:
Justin Baeder asks a lot of questions in his recent blog post about "Equity and Waning Local Control" (Oct. 9, 2012), to the extent that it's possible to decipher what exactly he's arguing. He seemingly criticizes the United States' federalist structure for creating "an extremely loose confederation" of schools that underperform "tightly coordinated, centralized system[s]" like Finland or Singapore on student-achievement scores.
But if Mr. Baeder were to glance at the Program for International Student Assessment's worldwide rankings, he would discover that not all countries with centralized school systems have high results. Low-scoring nations like Italy and Greece also have centralized systems with national standards, suggesting that giving greater power over our schools to bureaucrats in Washington is not the educational panacea that many pundits and (perhaps?) Mr. Baeder claim it is.
To the contrary, America's educational system is overly centralized already. The U.S. Department of Education has intervened in state school systems several times over the past two decades with laws like No Child Left Behind, and student achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress has only stagnated. Mr. Baeder points to the failure of such "poorly conceived legislation" in his article.
So, what makes him think that greater control will give different results?
Vol. 32, Issue 10, Page 22
Access selected articles, e-newsletters and more!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
Sponsored Whitepapers
• Best Practices in Information Management, Reporting and Analytics for Education
- Common Core Literacy Assessment Developer - Part Time
- The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, New York, NY
- Chief Financial Officer
- Hernando County School Board, Brooksville, FL
- Train Brilliant Math Students
- Art of Problem Solving, San Diego, CA
- Chief Innovation Officer
- The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®), Washington, DC
- Principal - Chicago Metro Area West
- The Menta Group, Hillside, IL



We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.