The report Market-oriented education reforms’ rhetoric trumps reality issued this month (April 2013) by the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education concludes that so-called education reforms have led to bigger gaps and lost ground, “for the students they were supposed to support” – low-income, low achieving and Abbot District students. Outcomes were measured in Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Market-driven education is a concept introduced by Milton Friedman in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom.
Education reform initiatives currently being applied across the northeast US include standardized test-based teacher evaluations; the increasingly controversial practice of assessing student development through standardized testing; proliferation of charter schools (especially in poor communities where a legal funding loophole makes it extremely profitable for developers to found charter schools); public school closures; reduced funding for public education, after school programs and enrichment programs such as clubs and music instruction and public school takeovers from Maryland to Ohio. The report concludes that these reforms “… deliver few benefits, often harm the students they purport to help,” and fail to address or relieve, “the link between poverty and low educational attainment.”
Powerful information.
Read the Executive Summary
Read the full report
Read about the recent New Jersey State takeover of Camden, New Jersey Public School District