Oh, what a year it was.
The 2010-11 school year might not have looked much different from the one that preceded it to all the kids who woke up early, slogged to school, took test after standardized test and went home to study some more.
(MARVIN JOSEPH/WASHINGTON POST) - Then-D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and Vincent C. Gray, a candidate for mayor at the time, are pictured in September. Rhee resigned in October. Her strategies for improving education, including firing hundreds of teachers, sparked criticism and debate.
But to the adults in public education, there was incredible tumult.
When classes began in August, Maryland and the District joined several states as winners of a federal competition called Race to the Top that led many states to revamp education rules and laws to win cash. That contest, plus a controversial film about charter schools called “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ” propelled a reform movement that stresses choice and incentives rather than equity and funding.
There was also deep instability in many schools as financial troubles destroyed education budgets. More than 100 districts in at least 16 states operated four-day school weeks and gutted after-school activities. Platoons of teachers got pink slips.
School systems in the Washington area escaped the most draconian cuts, but others weren’t so lucky. Detroit officials unveiled a plan to close half of the city’s high schools, a move that could lead to classes with up to 60 kids apiece.
The best-known name in education reform, “ ‘Superman’ ” star Michelle A. Rhee, resigned as D.C. schools chancellor in October and took her reform agenda — no excuses, teacher evaluation by test score growth — to the nation.
Her successor, Kaya Henderson, carried on as an investigation was launched into possible test cheating in some schools during Rhee’s tenure.
Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry D. Weast announced that he would retire this summer after a 12-year run widely seen as successful because he raised the floor for student achievement. Joshua P. Starr, a young superintendent from Connecticut, was named to succeed him. Maryland’s powerful superintendent of schools, Nancy S. Grasmick, said that she was stepping down after 20 years.
Fairfax County Superintendent Jack D. Dale led Virginia school chiefs in a polite revolt against the state’s Standards of Learning tests, a move that underscored growing dissatisfaction with the effect of standardized testing on the curriculum.
Said Dale, “Our students are bored because they’re not doing the hands-on kind of learning that they’re great at.”
Dale faced his own mini-revolt after a series of stories in The Washington Post raised questions about the severity of the county’s disciplinary practices. One student struggling amid the fallout of an infraction committed suicide. Last week, some discipline policies were eased.
The clock kept ticking on the 2002 No Child Left Behind law — or, rather, on its “annual yearly progress” provision, which sets a goal for virtually all students to become proficient in reading and math by 2014. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for an overhaul of the law, saying in March that perhaps 82 percent of American schools would be considered failing this year under the provision.
Congress still has not acted.
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