We know what to do to end the educational abuse of struggling learners. It has more to do with general education than special education. And it ain’t rocket science. Topping the list of essential reforms is early identification and intervention for struggling learners through the RTI framework.
Yes, this will cost more money. But just more money isn’t enough either. The money must be spent on evidence-based best practices and must be more efficiently managed.
Yet, our nation does none of this. Which is surprising since, even in the super-politicized era of Donald Trump, the American people express a common desire to see public schools dramatically improved. Most of us are even willing to pay more taxes if necessary.1 Nonetheless, reform of general education and reform of special education are at best treading water, while millions of children, particularly poor children of color, are drowning academically.
Where do we turn for reform? One place to start is to identify those who dug the deep hole in which K-12 public schools are mired. Who’s to blame?
This part of the book lines up the usual and some unusual suspects in two large groupings: “Us” and “Educators.” Us includes policymakers and the general public who don’t do enough to support Educators and therefore aid and abet the abuse.
But Us/we aren’t the only culprits. Educators are complicit too. Do I mean to wrap all educators in a blanket accusation? No. Am I talking about the able, caring, hardworking and underpaid teachers in our schools? Absolutely not. The wrongdoers, let me underscore emphatically, are not frontline teachers and other school-based staff.
Rather, as I have tried to make clear throughout the book, the Educators who stand charged are, first and foremost, those I term the “education establishment.” They are officials in the upper ranks of federal, state and local departments of education, teachers colleges, national associations of education professionals, and, though less culpable in my view, teachers unions. They, directly and indirectly, set the tone and call the shots for K-12 school policy. They are primarily responsible for how schools are managed and mismanaged. In sum, education establishment major-domos betray the rank and file. And the profession as a whole is victimized.
To be sure, the realities of public school policy and politics make it hard to isolate the wrongs that Us do to Educators and what Educators do to themselves. That’s apparent when we line up the usual and unusual suspects under the sub-groupings of Money and Management. Money is mainly the fault of Us. We don’t provide Educators with enough of it, while Management—rampant mismanagement really—is the fault of Educators. Educators don’t convince Us that they spend the money at hand as wisely and efficiently as they should. Would Us put up more money if we had more confidence that Educators would better spend it? Would Educators spend it better if they had more money up front for state-of-the-art management capacity?
The next two chapters try to unscramble this chicken-and-egg who’s-to-blame omelet. Chapter 6 focuses on Us and our collective failure to provide educators with adequate resources and support. Chapter 7 focuses on Educators and particularly their management failures.