The News, a Fable, and Books

Reading the Papers During this past spring break, we drove east. Inveterate readers of newspapers, we read dailies from Des Moines, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Albany, New York City, Boston, Burlington (VT), and Cape Cod. Like many of you, we had recently been in Phoenix for the AACTE Annual Meeting; we read dailies there as well and believe that what we write applies to the West as well as the East. Newspapers everywhere contain both news stories and Op-Ed pieces about education. As we indicated in a recent editorial, the presence of education stories in the media can be positive; it can also be troublesome. The current, news stories have several negative themes: Test scores are too low; schools must test students more; students are not learning enough (rare specificity as to enough of what); no more new resources are available (in fact, in most areas of the country, fewer resources are available). Tests, Tests, Tests Above all else, we see the test, test, test urgings without supporting resources as untenable to remedy what some conclude to be poor performance. Schools seek more time for instruction, but testing and retesting in various states consumes more and more of the instructional hours. As we thought about this matter, we began to think metaphorically. Perhaps the following brief fable may help illuminate education's dilemma. A Fable The town of Brewstable has had a long-standing feud with the town of Orangeville about which town has the best track-and-field teams. One spring, the teams from the two towns had a 2-day meet during which the athletes from each town competed against each other. Among the many events, two stand out: pole-vaulting and the 100-yard dash. Youngsters of both genders from Orangeville won in pole-vaulting, whereas youngsters from Brewstable won in the 100-yard dash. The adults in Brewstable, many of them prominent professionals in their fields or CEOs in leading businesses and industries in the neighboring metropolis, were very upset after the meet. The town had striven for world-class status in many areas, and they could not bear the thought of coming in second in anything. Two weeks after the event, the track-and-field coaches installed a new training program for the pole vault, following the wishes and ideas of the prominent professionals. The most significant change in the new training program was to raise the bar 3 inches at each height for the individual pole-vaulters and conduct daily tests to monitor progress. So they raised the bar. On the following Monday, all the pole-vaulters failed to clear the bar at their respective heights. The coaches wondered if perhaps they were doing something wrong; maybe they should not have raised the bar so quickly. But the CEOs in town who had urged raising the bar would have none of this. Keep at it, they counseled. This town and the nation need higher and higher standards. Eventually these young people will have to compete against the rest of the world in pole-vaulting! Test them more often! If they know they're going to be tested, they'll jump higher! Several days went by; no vaulters made it over the top of the newly raised bar; all failed to achieve the new standard. In the second week, four vaulters quit. As the year passed, the disgruntled prominent professionals met on occasion at social events and discussed the matter of the pole-vaulters. They agreed that come spring, they would take another look at the situation. Spring came; new candidates came out for track and field, including seven new pole-vaulting hopefuls. None of them, after a week of trying, could reach the new standard. In the third week of spring practices, the coaches announced that they were canceling the pole-vaulting portion of track and field. Meanwhile, the people of Orangeville took a slightly different approach to improving performance. They considered that perhaps the runners in the 100-yard dash had not prepared properly; perhaps their diet had been inappropriate; maybe they were distracted by watching the other events; or maybe some of them should have been in events other than the 100-yard dash. …