When the Presidential election was in full swing, Teachers College Press published Grading American Education: Getting Accountability Right by Richard Rothstein, Rebecca Jacobsen and Tamara Wilder. They made an amazing proposal: establish a national cadre of expert inspectors to observe actual teaching and learning in the nation’s schools.
Their research showed that school inspection had been productive in several countries. Noting that they did not know enough to recommend a design for such a system, they proposed that each state design its own school visit system. The book also announced the creation of Broader, Bolder Approach to Education (BBA), a national task force that comprises a cadre of well-known citizens and educators. BBA has issued reports and run seminars that support the idea of including school inspection in the national and state systems of accountability.
In an August Commentary in Education Week, Rothstein argued that Congress should include a national inspection system in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA--now known as No Child Left Behind). The Act was up for reauthorization in 2007, so it is time.
While the US Department of Education has succeeded in focusing school people, state education agencies and national associations on the short-term issues of TARP money for schools and major grants through “The Race to the Top,” the potential impact of the reauthorization discussion will have major long term implications for the nations schools, as it will establish the federal agenda and the flow of money over the course of the next several years.
The discussion about establishing a national school inspection system is quite abstract. People are uncertain about the idea at this point, as they try to learn what has been done, how well it has worked and what its implications are for the national stage. You can tune in to this conversation through the Catalpa web site (www.catalpa.org) and participate through Tom Wilson’s Blog (http://catalpatomwilson.blogspot.com/) Check out the web site, and go to the blog to share your thoughts about what you think should happen and how.
