• Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
Friday, July 11, 2025
Illinois Review
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
No Result
View All Result
Illinois Review
No Result
View All Result
Home Illinois News

Back to basics for conservative education reform

Illinois Review by Illinois Review
March 11, 2020
in Illinois News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
0
26
SHARES
431
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Yl-3-4-20

You might also like

Opinion: The IL GOP Belongs to the People — Not to Power-Hungry Insiders

Economos: Illinois’ Pension Crisis – A Tale of Mismanagement

Mayor Johnson: Chicago ‘Police Dept. Will Not Ever Cooperate with ICE’

A conservative education reform movement must focus on civics and culture, not technocratic test scores. Yuval Levin writes:

Public policy debates about primary and secondary education are oddly disoriented in our time. At almost any point in the 1990s or 2000s, it would not have been hard to say what these debates were about and what reformers were eager to achieve. Higher scores on standardized tests of math and reading skills were at the center of it all—whether they were understood as means of imposing accountability on schools, teachers, and administrators; as ways to measure racial gaps in educational achievement; or as a strategy to help America produce students and workers on par with its foreign competitors.

If scores turned out to be too low, in relative or absolute terms, an argument would emerge between the left and right flanks of the reform coalition about whether more competition might help or more money for public schooling could address deficiencies. There was much talk of “accountability.” But that debate happened within the framework of a broadly bipartisan coalition focused on quantifiable achievement scores. That coalition had opponents to its left and to its right, but it involved leading education experts in both political camps, and leading politicians of both parties were willing to play ball.

That era of the reform coalition did achieve some worthy, if modest, improvements in American education. Test scores increased some, especially early in that period. The charter-school movement is stronger, the idea of accountability for schools and educators is more widely accepted, and there is now a more equitable distribution of public-education funding within states—so that differences in local property-tax revenue are not as decisive as they once were. There is a fair bit for both the left and the right to appreciate in these accomplishments.

But the era of the reform coalition also exacted some real costs. Above all, it made American education policy awfully clinical and technocratic, at times blinding some of those involved in education debates to the deepest human questions at stake—social, moral, cultural, and political questions that cannot be separated from how we think about teaching and learning. This has meant less of a focus on public schooling as a source of solidarity in American life, which was once a powerful theme on the left in particular. And it has meant less of an emphasis on character formation and civic education, which were once fundamental to the right’s way of thinking about schooling.

[Yuval Levin, "Back to Basics for Conservative Education Reform," The Fordham Institute, March 4]

Related

Share10Tweet7
Previous Post

Obamacare: 10 Years of Distress

Next Post

End the Common Core Experiment

Illinois Review

Illinois Review

Recommended For You

Opinion: The IL GOP Belongs to the People — Not to Power-Hungry Insiders

by Jacqueline Garretson
July 11, 2025
0
Opinion: The IL GOP Belongs to the People — Not to Power-Hungry Insiders

By Jacqueline Garretson, Opinion ContributorA few months ago, I had the opportunity to speak on a podcast where I shared my personal journey in politics, how I became...

Read moreDetails

Economos: Illinois’ Pension Crisis – A Tale of Mismanagement

by James P. Economos, DDS
July 8, 2025
0
Economos: Illinois’ Pension Crisis – A Tale of Mismanagement

By James P. Economos, DDS, Opinion Contributor There’s been constant debate over Illinois' pension system – and for good reason. It remains chronically underfunded and plagued with issues...

Read moreDetails

Mayor Johnson: Chicago ‘Police Dept. Will Not Ever Cooperate with ICE’

by Illinois Review
July 8, 2025
0
Mayor Johnson: Chicago ‘Police Dept. Will Not Ever Cooperate with ICE’

By Illinois ReviewAt a Tuesday morning press conference at Chicago City Hall, Mayor Brandon Johnson — whose approval rating hovers around six percent — reiterated that local law...

Read moreDetails

Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

by Illinois Review
July 1, 2025
0
Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

By Illinois ReviewIn a shocking cost-cutting move Tuesday, Chicago’s AM560 The Answer terminated longtime morning host Amy Jacobson, as the struggling conservative station grapples with declining relevance –...

Read moreDetails

JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

by Illinois Review
June 30, 2025
0
JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

By Illinois ReviewIn one of the first nationwide hypothetical polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, Illinois Governor and billionaire JB Pritzker ranks at the bottom, receiving the...

Read moreDetails
Next Post

End the Common Core Experiment

Please login to join discussion

Best Dental Group

Related News

IL Freedom Caucus calls on Lurie Children’s Hospital to cease gender services for kids

October 27, 2022

Beckman: Is the Brigham Young University racial slur controversy another hoax?

October 27, 2022

Salvi polling shows closer race

October 27, 2022

Browse by Category

  • America First
  • Education
  • Faith & Family
  • Foreign Policy
  • Health Care
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • Opinion
  • Science
  • Second Amendment
  • TRENDING
  • US NEWS
  • US Politics
  • World News
Illinois Review

© 2024 llinois Review LLC Editor in Chief Mark Vargas Publisher Thomas McCullagh Chief Counsel Scott Kaspar

Navigate Site

  • Checkout
  • Home
  • Home – mobile
  • Login/Register
  • Login/Register
  • My account
  • My Account-
  • My Account- – mobile

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • Health Care
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • TRENDING
  • Education
  • Foreign Policy
  • Second Amendment
  • Faith & Family
  • Science
  • World News

© 2024 llinois Review LLC Editor in Chief Mark Vargas Publisher Thomas McCullagh Chief Counsel Scott Kaspar

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?