Conform: A Book Report

In Glenn Beck’s new book, Conform, I realize the one thing that would unite a liberal like me and a conservative like him is the fact that we both believe to conform to what a system deems appropriate, proficient, or standard is detrimental to creativity, autonomy and most important, independent thinking.

The fight against standardization, high-stakes testing, big data and shady education policy is not exclusive to any party or ideology. After reading Conform, I realized Glenn Beck and I agree on many things. Here are just a few:

Common Core is not the answer.

In Conform, Mr. Beck meticulously outlines Common Core and reveals that this new government initiative is about money and control. Those who are the major players in the Common Core push are those who stand to profit either politically or financially off of our students.

I was pleasantly surprised that Mr. Beck goes after the right people in his critique of the Common Core: Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, The Gates Foundation, Achieve Inc., President Obama and US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan – a hodgepodge of democrats and republicans pushing our students into, what I call, the machine.

The idea that a standard curriculum like the Common Core would solve problems like high mobility rates and achievement gaps is simplifying the multifaceted and complicated problems in our current system – problems exacerbated by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (RTTT).

The push towards College and Career Ready limits our students to a grim future.

According to Mr. Beck, Common Core is designed to create workers not thinkers, and I agree. I use the word drones when referring to ideal students under standardization.

Drones are what I saw when I visited a first grade classroom in a Florida public school recently. All the students were sitting in front of computers. I asked the teacher, “And what are they doing?” thinking they must be on the Internet creating something or looking up information. She told me, “They are getting ready for FCAT (the current standardized test for Florida students). We are teaching them how to take online tests.” It was something out of a Brave New World or 1984 and literally sent chills down my spine.

The underlying premise and discussion regarding the Common Core is, “students must be college and/or career ready.” So basically the Common Core is running on only two choices, which are grim at best. The first grade class I visited was a prime example of that preparation.

I argue, and so does Mr. Beck, students should be given freedom in how their future unfolds. Students should be able to choose whether they want a traditional education or whether they want to pursue a tech school, trade school, online school, internship, apprenticeship and more.

There are an infinite amount of possibilities for students. Why are the Common Core crusaders only pushing 2: College and Career? We should be preparing them to make choices not preparing them for a life designed by a testing company. 

Standardization and high-stakes testing is about MONEY.

There is money to be made in books, curriculum and tests. And when they are all aligned, a word used often in education, they are easy to package and sell to districts and states.

Private companies can then control our students while they give kickbacks to Common Core crusaders on Capital Hill. In Conform, Mr. Beck exposes the tangled web of interconnection among the Gates Foundation, testing companies, and data collection/storage services.

High-Stakes testing, like those left over from NCLB and those being administered for Common Core and RTTT, bring in big profits. Companies like Pearson print the books, build the curriculum, make and score the tests, and store the data. Testing companies lobby hard so high-stakes tests are the only measure we use to assess our students and hold teachers accountable.

And here’s the shocker, the same people who are pushing Common Core, accountability, and standardization, all have their hands in the companies tasked with providing the services needed for test construction, test administration, and data collection, storage and analysis.

We don’t need any more data.

Mr. Beck and I are in complete agreement that currently districts, schools, teachers, administrators, students, and parents are required to bow down to the almighty data. Every decision has to be data driven. We collect it, store it, use it, and worse, waste it. In classrooms all over the country there are data walls, data folders, data software, data chats, data groups, data, data, data. We are over saturated with data and it has become impossible to use it effectively.

This push towards collecting, storing, using, distributing and analyzing the infinite amount of data we accumulate in schools and beyond is big money for those who stand to gain. In fact, Mr. Beck explains $787 billion dollars were spent in stimulus money to build systems capable of tracking and storing longitudinal data of student progress. Eventually we will be tracking people from conception until death.

The Common Core is State Led? Really?

The audacity of the federal government to say this is state led is preposterous. Many state governors were asked to adopt the Common Core before the standards were even written. And as states stand up and say, “No, we are not going to proceed with the Common Core,” the federal government is threatening them with heavy fines and loss of school funding. How does this type of intimidation and fear tactics occur if this initiative is state led?

Solutions

Glenn Beck has a valid point when he says, “Americans may not be able to go from the glut of standardized testing we have now to nothing – but maybe there is some middle ground.”

I believe there is middle ground to explore. Here are just a few suggestions.

1. Scale back high-stakes testing. We do not need the amount of tests we currently have in circulation. Under the Race to the Top Grant, districts have been forced to implement content area tests separate from those already in place. Students are testing 1/3 of the school year. Media centers, computer labs and other resources have been stolen by testing companies.
2. Create a global perspective on school design. For example maybe take a few notes from Finland. Yes their demographics are different but if that’s the only reason we are refusing to explore the tactics Finland uses to be as successful as they are, we are missing the mark. A few things to take from Finland right off the bat: they don’t standardize, they revere teachers, and they allow students to make choices in their learning.
3. Allow districts and communities to develop curriculum in tandem with parents, students, teachers and administrators. Relinquish some control and have faith in people to decide their own destiny. Educators are smart; give them back their autonomy.
4. Eradicate isolation in education. We isolate students based on test scores, abilities, poverty levels, and exceptionalities. Stop categorizing unique students into finite classifications. When we do this, we determine their future before they have a chance to know who they are.
5. Use your voice. Stand up and stop conforming. Talk to teachers in your area; talk to parents. Students can learn the laws and their loopholes and refuse standardized tests.

Mr. Beck and I both agree this country was built on the backs of men and women who stood up, said no and refused to get into the machine. Every evolution and revolution in this country has occurred because people refused to allow the machine to determine their existence and the existence of their children.

And in the words of my conservative friend Mr. Glenn Beck, “We have the right solutions and the will to implement them. We are ready. Are you?”