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Jonathan Alter Found the Easy Button

vonzastrowc's picture
By Claus von Zastrow on June 11, 2009

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter lives in a world of delightful simplicity.

Here's his advice on how to spend the education stimulus money: "We know what works now and should just go ahead and fund it."

And here I was, thinking it's challenging to choose among many pressing spending needs. How silly of me.

And what works, according to Alter? He doesn't give us much insight here, but he does mention performance pay for teachers. OK--that's an important idea that deserves our attention, but where's the evidence that it "works"? The most thoughtful advocates of performance pay for teachers acknowledge that it has enormous logistical and statistical hurdles to clear before it can be a very stable foundation for teacher compensation decisions.

Unfortunately, we don't have ironclad knowledge about "what works." Just ask Russ Whitehurst, the former director of the Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences. We do have good ideas about effective practice--many of them featured in our stories about successful schools and districts. But it takes time, capacity and resources to implement these practices well. All three are in short supply in the current economic crisis.

Believe me, people in public schools are clamoring for good research on how they can best close achievement gaps and serve their students' needs. Yet Alter prefers to tell a simple tale about evil "Educrats" who scheme to undermine miracle reforms--performance pay and (presumably) charter schools. Sadly, neither reform is a miracle prescription for fixing all that troubles schools.

Alter may in fact do serious damage to his favored reforms by pushing them too quickly. The most effective performance pay systems take time to implement, and it is no easy matter to scale up the most successful charter schools. Nothing kills a promising reform idea like half-baked implementation.

And even if we do implement Alter's favored reform strategies, that does not absolve us from the need to do the arduous, time-consuming but ultimately rewarding work of improving teaching and learning.

Don't pretend this stuff is easy.

Link to this story: http://www.learningfirst.org/jonathan-alter-found-easy-button

6 Comments Digg this article Del.icio.us

Thanks for pushing back on

Submitted by John Norton on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 16:33

Thanks for pushing back on Alter. My wife handed me Newsweek, and I was gasping for breath before the end of the first column. I know the new Newsweek is kind of "People for nerds" (maybe "journalism fanzine" is closer), but this cheezy off-top-o-head commentary is STILL embarrassing.

I thought Dan Brown made some good points about it at Huffington Post, too:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/jonathan-alter-joins-the_b_21442...

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Thanks for your comment,

Submitted by vonzastrowc on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 16:37

Thanks for your comment, John--and for reminding me about Dan's piece. I had meant to include an update about it, but the day got away from me....

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Quite seriously, this is one

Submitted by Liam Goldrick on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 22:04

Quite seriously, this is one of the best blog posts I've read in a long time.

You rightly note that time, capacity and resources--the trifecta--are needed to improve teaching and learning. Any policymaker, commentator or educator who puts forth a single idea or concept as a silver bullet is selling snake oil. Indeed, this work is not easy, but is often too easily conceived.

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Hmmm...Alter and his

Submitted by Mary K. Tedrow on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 09:32

Hmmm...Alter and his simplistic view of how to "fix" schools reminds me of H.L. Mencken when he said, "The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." You'd think his readership could handle a more nuanced message.
Maybe even Alter would be surprised at the conclusion Michelle Rhee has drawn after she polarized her teaching force by offering to pay more to teachers who would be willing to be evaluated against student progress. (See front page of Washington Post, June 14) She says, in effect, money isn't everything. I would guess that most teachers would be just as willing to be valued as equal players in the evaluation of themselves, their peers, and the school's mission and curriculum in return for an end to the daily media bashing.

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Thanks, Liam and Mary-- It is

Submitted by vonzastrowc on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 09:53

Thanks, Liam and Mary--

It is without a doubt troubling when influential media figures make a fetish out of one or two reform ideas--however intriguing and worthy of development. People should definitely stop promoting these ideas as the only hope for struggling schools. If we rush into such reforms and they don't work, people might give those schools up for lost.

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I am reminded of H.L.

Submitted by Fred Nelson on Thu, 06/25/2009 - 14:05

I am reminded of H.L. Mencken's quote when I hear quick-and-sirty solutions to the complex problems of education:
"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong."to- Decatuur

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