Special Report
Federal Opinion

Too Many Carrots, Too Many Sticks

By Arthur H. Camins — June 23, 2010 6 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Under the leadership of U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan, the federal Department of Education has achieved a remarkably high level of policy consistency. From its application guidelines for Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, Teacher Incentive Fund, and Title I School Improvement grants, to the proposed blueprint for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the department has chosen to address the challenge of improving persistently low-achieving schools by means of externally imposed competition, rewards for success, and prescriptive dictates to correct insufficient progress.

Unfortunately, these strategies constitute superficial and short-term approaches to complex and enduring problems. Gaps in student performance associated with race and socioeconomic status have persisted for decades precisely because they do not respond to simple solutions. Therefore, we should cease funding “get smart quick” proposals. Instead, we need to invest in cultivating the capacity of educators in each school. To do so, we need to develop the content-specific pedagogical knowledge of our teachers and principals. We need to help them create school-based learning communities that build common commitment to continuous long-term improvement and provide time for professional collaboration and growth, drawing upon the best expertise and latest research. We need to rethink and restructure teacher preparation and teacher induction. We need to comprehensively support students’ social and emotional needs and the provision of health services. That would be money well spent.

Regrettably, the Education Department’s spirit of urgency to address seemingly intractable problems is undermined by the fallacious reasoning behind its current policies. The issue is not that the department’s leaders in any way oppose the principles behind these more complex solutions. It is that they do not recognize that their unswerving reliance on carrot-and-stick responses actually undermines more nuanced approaches. There are four fundamental fallacies in the Education Department’s policies as they are now being applied to low-achieving schools.

Gaps in student performance associated with race and socioeconomic status have persisted for decades precisely because they do not respond to simple solutions. Therefore, we should cease funding “get smart quick” proposals.

Extrapolation to Scale. Effective principals and superintendents intentionally hire the best teachers they can find and systematically remove the least capable. From a school or even a district perspective, the pool of highly skilled teacher applicants is theoretically unlimited. But at the state and national levels, the number of extraordinarily qualified teachers is finite. As federal policy, a simplistic focus on replacing half the teachers in low-achieving schools falls apart under the weight of the erroneous assumption that there is a very large pool of untapped classroom-level talent that has somehow been ignored or overlooked by school districts across the nation.

When it comes to restaffing classrooms, extrapolation from individual schools to national policy fails the test of validity. A far more productive approach would entail a massive national investment in—and the reimagination of—teacher-preparation programs in order to increase the quality and efficacy of the total candidate pool.

Redistribution of Effective Teachers. Race to the Top regulations demand equitable distribution of effective teachers. School districts that value equity avoid the self-fulfilling-prophecy practice of automatically placing the least experienced teachers in the neediest schools. At scale, however, it is naive to imagine that a sufficient number of effective teachers can be either forced or coaxed into transferring from successful to persistently low-achieving schools.

First, it is reasonable to assume that the more successful schools, at least as measured by test scores, tend to be in more-affluent areas with more political clout; they would likely resist the wholesale transfer of their most effective teachers. Second, teachers who are successful in working with students who face minimal learning challenges will not necessarily achieve the same level of success with students who are struggling to overcome many challenges. Third, it is unlikely that the most effective teachers will in large numbers want to work in schools where their jobs would always be on the line with the next release of annual test scores. Finally, a national steal-teachers-from-effective-schools strategy is bound to pit teachers, schools, and school leaders against one another rather than unite them in common purpose.

Improvement by Reward and Threat. The potential loss of stable employment figures prominently in the Education Department’s turnaround models. This feature decreases rather than increases the ability of low-achieving schools to attract and retain the best teachers. If I ask myself, “When and under what circumstances have I gotten better at something,” several answers echo in my head: when I cared deeply about an outcome beyond my own personal needs; when I derived a sense of satisfaction from challenging myself; when other people with whom I had a shared purpose supported and worked with me to get better together. I also know that I have gotten better when it has been comfortable to admit what I do not know.

My own answers reflect what teachers tell us. It is strong, supportive leadership and collegial relationships that keep teachers in schools and inspire them to do their best—not rewards or threats. The current federal approach insults educators by assuming that they are unable to learn and improve, unmotivated by larger social purpose, and therefore more in need of external control to change their behavior. A better approach would be to create for others the conditions under which each of us have learned to do our best. This strategy requires investment in the time and skills needed to convert schools into professional learning organizations.

Overemphasis on Results. Sometimes, the shortest distance is not the best route to our desired destination. The pressure in federal regulations to include summative student results as a “significant” component in teacher evaluation and compensation decisions presents just such a case. Most of us know that when we are anxious about an outcome, we tend to take shortcuts that lead to careless or unintended errors. Abundant research suggests that, with the exception of avoiding imminent danger, fear and anxiety are not productive responses, because they suppress high-level brain functioning. The task of differentiating instruction to promote in-depth learning across ever-changing variations in student needs and abilities requires just such high-level thinking.

The recent subprime-mortgage and banking scandals offer a powerful example of the long-term damage that can result from focusing on a single outcome. The pressure on low-performing schools to make “adequate yearly progress” has already contributed to a narrowing of the curriculum and superficial teaching to the test. Adding loss of employment for individual teachers and principals would only increase this disturbing trend. We should be evaluating teachers and principals based on how and to what extent they use data from formative and interim assessments to address gaps in student learning, rather than singularly focusing on summative outcomes.

Carrots and sticks may achieve short-term results, but their use frequently has unintended consequences to the detriment of core values and long-term goals. It is long past time that we stop endorsing policies and programs based on fallacies, and instead demonstrate the leadership and integrity to act on what we know makes all of us better.

A version of this article appeared in the April 26, 2017 edition of Education Week as Too Many Carrots, Too Many Sticks

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal No 'Gender Ideology': Ed. Dept.'s New Focus for Mental Health Grants It Yanked
The Trump administration abruptly canceled $1 billion in mental health grants in April that it said reflected Biden-era priorities.
5 min read
Amelia, 16, sits for a portrait in a park near her home in Illinois on Friday, March 24, 2023. “We are so strong and we go through so, so much," says the teenage girl who loves to sing and wants to be a surgeon. Amelia has also faced bullying, toxic friendships, and menacing threats from a boy at school who said she “deserved to be raped."
The U.S. Department of Education has revealed new priorities for two mental health grants after it abruptly canceled awards the Biden administration made.
Erin Hooley/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Starts Moving CTE to Labor Dept. After Supreme Court Order
The Education Department put arrangements to move some of its programs on hold while court battles over downsizing played out.
4 min read
Students make measurements to wood to add to a tiny home project during their shop class at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022.
Students make measurements to wood to add to a tiny home project during their shop class at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022. The Trump administration is shifting management of career and technical education programs to the U.S. Department of Labor now that the Supreme Court have given the go-ahead to proceed with downsizing of the U.S. Department of Education.
Nate Smallwood for Education Week
Federal Hope Shattered for Laid-Off Ed. Dept. Staff After Supreme Court Order
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to proceed with 1,400 Education Department layoffs.
6 min read
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Supreme Court on July 14, 2025, allowed the Trump administration to proceed with department layoffs that a lower-court judge had put on hold.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Says Undocumented Students Can't Attend Head Start, Early College
The administration issued notices saying undocumented immigrants don't qualify for Head Start and some Education Department programs.
7 min read
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami.
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. The Trump administration said Thursday that undocumented children are ineligible for Head Start and a number of other federally funded programs that the administration is classifying as similar to welfare benefits.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP