User:Htevans/First, Kill all the School Boards"

Reforming our Schools: One school Board at a Time

Reforming our Schools: One school Board at a Time My summary of Matt Millers essay entitled "First, Kill all the School Boards," is in answer to an assignment posted to our English course. This particular essay was published in The Atlantic in 2008. In his essay, originally published in the Atlantic in 2008, Miller discusses what he believes to be a direct correlation between the decay of local school boards, and the decline in educational performance in American schools. Although he references urban area school districts, he believes his message to be relevant to all school boards across America. His argument is based in factual knowledge. Miller cites test scores and graduation rates in certain areas, as well as national ranking as foundation for his claims. At that time according to Miller's research, we were ranked 24 out of 29 countries. Despite spending more money on education than almost all of those other countries, we were still scoring extremely low. He claims that school boards have become complicated, political and of lesser quality. This decline in quality has made it hard for these boards to attract funders for research and development, which if given the right support could help to raise test scores and overall educational performance. Miller claims that local school boards eventually surrender to teachers unions, which according to Miller put the priority with its members, and not with the schools themselves. He argues that because there is not a standard testing practice, each school and district essentially make their own testing qualifications. This control leads educational leaders to be delusional about how well the students are actually doing in their studies. The teacher argument towards this is that each student should have customized learning strategies. This misinterpretation of performance makes it difficult to push new reforms through, or to even know which reforms may be needed. Another reason unions delay progress according to Miller, is that when school board members ask for more money, the unions simply say no. Although Miller focuses most of his essay on the performance of the local school boards, he does conclude with a plan of action. Miller proposes changes that would allow the school systems to progress. Most of what he proposes has to do with giving some control to the Federal government. He maps out the steps the government could take in providing more money for research and development, higher teacher salaries, and providing grants to schools who adopt new reforms. Lastly, he wishes all school boards to be disbanded. He believes all of these changes would make it possible for our schools to move forward and face the challenges of the future.