Final
Test: Peter Schrag's Compelling New Analysis of the Education Adequacy Movement
Describing the education adequacy movement as a "potentially revolutionary
set of ideas," noted education journalist and author Peter Schrag has written
an important new book, entitled Final Test, which comprehensively describes
the origins, current status and future directions of what he terms "the battle
for education adequacy in America's schools." "As we approach the fiftieth
anniversary of the Brown decision,"
Schrag writes, "adequacy looms as the next, increasingly important milestone.
In the effort to realize the great promise of education, this may be our ultimate
test." Final Test describes in poignant detail the impact of
funding inequities on individual students and why "money matters" in
rectifying educational inadequacies. The heart of the book is a set of highly
readable mini case studies of recent (and in some cases still on-going) adequacy
litigations in eight states: Kentucky,
California, New
Jersey, Ohio, Alabama,
North Carolina, Maryland
and New York. Intermixing important
analytic insights, such as the impact of the elected status of judges on the ultimate
outcome of the litigations in some states, with human dramas, like the abusive
cross-examination of plaintiff school children by high powered corporate defense
attorneys hired by the State of California, Schrag's litigation overviews convey
significant social commentary through delightful character sketches and engrossing
stories. Schrag's extensive research ---- he interviewed dozens of the
educators, lawyers and advocates leading the fight for adequacy and their opponents
and personally reviewed thousands of pages of court decisions and transcripts
---- resulted in a number of powerful and convincing conclusions. Some of the
most significant, stated in his own words, are: "Described
most simply, the suits merely demand that the states, which have the ultimate
responsibility under their own constitutions for public education, meet their
constitutional duties. If the states are making the schools and students accountable,
then surely the states have a reciprocal duty to make certain that the students
have an opportunity to learn and thus a chance to succeed. Instead of allocating
school funding in the great annual political contest among competing claimants
on state resources, the adequacy principle asks the states to determine the actual
cost of providing decent educational resources for each child and to use that
as the gauge for school spending." "Even where there are no suits,
adequacy has become a powerful weapon. High-stakes tests themselves are still
being challenged as unfair or discriminatory, but in recent years the demand or
the necessary resources to enable students to pass those tests and meet the standards
has become the primary weapon for poor and minority children. Rather than attacking
the tests, advocates are using them to improve the educational opportunities children
are getting." "The adequacy cases are born of two levels of frustration.
The first reflects the long-standing political weakness of the poor and minority
communities that are disproportionately dependent on schools and other public
services. But more important, the suits are also attempts to cut through the various
layers of government, the red tape and buck passing, the jumble of agencies, and
the often incoherent and contradictory programs that are involved in funding,
management, and policy making in local schools. [...] Many states have never bothered
to figure out what it costs to properly educate a student neither the average
student nor the student with special needs much less discovered how districts
spend the money the state gives them. Ultimately, the suits contend, the state
is responsible for everything because state constitutions say so: the buck stops
in Albany, in Concord, in Trenton, in Columbus, and in Sacramento." (pp.
5-7) "[T]he implicit coupling of accountability and adequacy has started
to bring some of the elements of the educational left and right together in common
policies trying to link higher standards, especially for children in high-poverty
schools, to increased resources." (p.13) "For all the questions
it raises, the adequacy argument is also a sophisticated and passionate declaration
of faith in the great promises of American society: equality, opportunity and
human and social betterment---- a sine qua non for a modern technological democracy."
(p.249) Final Test presents a significant,
well-researched, and impressive analysis of the continued quest for education
adequacy, and is highly recommended. Prepared November 3, 2003 |
