Yes, that is exactly the point.

This is just a quick, "writing on the fly" post, but I think it's important and want to address it as best as I can before classes start and while it is still fresh in my mind.

It's testing week at my school district. This week, thousands of students will come to school and sit for 2-2.5 hours and take the OAA [the Ohio Achievement Assessments]. There is a lot of confusion about what these tests are for amongst the students. They ask me questions like, "if I fail these tests, do I have to repeat 7th grade?" It's 'interesting' to me that people believe that these kinds of tests are somehow meaningful, that they somehow reflect an authentic type of assessment for the whole of student learning. I guess interesting isn't the right word - perhaps, frustrating, terrifying, puzzling... pick one.

Even more unsettling is the purpose behind these types of exams. I do believe that there are people in powerful positions, making decisions about public education, how students are taught and assessed, etc... who believe that these types of standardized super-tests are the way to accurately measure student achievement. I also believe that these people are delusional, lol. However, although there may be a few naive policy-makers out there, I know that there are other political strategists - policy makers, legislators, etc... who use educational policy as a pathway to the acquisition of wealth, power, and the further development of a market.

Today, as the students poured out the buses and into the halls, a teacher came into my office to reheat his coffee. He lives in a town that has failed its levy 8 times in a row, with the final defeat at the special elections last night at the cost of 143 votes. This school, which is in academic emergency and has been taken over by the state, must now borrow $5 million from the state; a debt that must be repayed with money from the taxpayers who voted down the levy. As the microwave hummed in the background, this teacher turned to me and said,

You know, if you've been paying attention, I think there's a reason why we have all of these crazy tests, and 'no child left behinds' or 'race to the top' types of legislation. I think there's a reason for why school funding is broken in Ohio and so many school districts are failing. They want us to fail.

I was saddened and excited as I heard these words. Saddened because this teacher who had been teaching for over a decade had finally realized what was happening to his art. It was being consumed and redesigned for consumption. The privatization of public education; schooling for profit. However, at the same time I was excited that he had finally come to the conclusion that many teachers, educators, theorists, and scholars have been saying for the past 30 years. PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE US IS UNDER ATTACK by neoliberal interests. This alone isn't very exciting, but the potential of what happens next, of what happens now that teachers (and hopefully parents) across the country are making that connection is exciting. Hopefully it causes deeper consideration of what is at stake, consideration and thoughtful reflection that leads to action.

It's not enough to simply observe that schools are in trouble, but that we must realize there are more factors at play, more things to consider than just irresponsible finances and bad teachers (we have to acknowledge that these things exist, just as we should acknowledge the excellent administrators and teachers that bring hope to students and communities in school districts across the country). Instead, there are powerful, corporate interests that have focused their attention on turning school districts into market sectors, students into clients, and parents into customers.

Yes, they want schools to fail. That is exactly the point.