A Perversion Of What Public Schooling Is All About

In 1983, James Harvey was the Chief of Staff at the National Institute of Education and was a key author of “A Nation at Risk.”  He was recently interviewed by educators Dr. Tim Slekar and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci for their podcast, Bust-ED Pencils. This is an interview well worth listening to. In it, Mr. Harvey shares the truth behind the “A Nation at Risk” report that duped America and hijacked American public schools’ democratic mission.

They discussed the truth behind the report, how its data was misused to attack public schools (“the books were cooked”) and resulted in “a system hell bent on testing students until we prove failure” and paving the way for privatization.

Slekar described No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a direct result of A Nation at Risk, as “just us playing part in our own demise.” Harvey agreed, noting “there was no way you could get 100% proficiency and at some point all schools in the country would be deemed as failures.” The constant false narrative of public school failures has driven the “reforms” focused on privatization.

Harvey described the impact on current teachers and says “we’ve had 40 years of people being brought up in this mindset that the only that’s important in a public school are test scores. And its heart breaking, as far as I’m concerned because teachers, by and large, I think, have the best interests of their students at heart and to have this false image of what they’re doing presented to them, both in their training and then their experience, and imposed on them by administrators who are being judged by test scores, I think is a perversion of what public schooling is all about.”

Listen to the podcast: https://timslekar.podbean.com/e/a-nation-at-risk-will-the-truth-finally-set-us-free/