A story dropped in Tuscon last week that is among the least surprising education stories of the year. Arzona has school letter grades. The argument for this dumb idea is that it allows parents to get a quick yet clear idea of how the schools are doing. This is supposed to help with the problem of asymmetric information, a condition you get in a market where the people who are trying to sell something have way more information than the people trying to buy it. So in a school choice system, where education has been turned into a commodity, school grades are supposed to create pressure on the school to Do Better, and they are supposed to help families make choices.
At best, a school “grade” is like taking your temperature. It might indicate a problem, but tells you nothing about what the problem(s) might be. The typical range of responses simply treat the fever without diagnosing the source. Doesn’t work in medicine & doesn’t work in education.
What markets do best is reward the winners and punish the losers. This might be okay when we're talking about a brand of phone and a phone company with a bad product goes out of business. But in education it will only lead to vicious cycles for already struggling schools and virtuous cycles for well-funded schools and perpetuate inequality.
At best, a school “grade” is like taking your temperature. It might indicate a problem, but tells you nothing about what the problem(s) might be. The typical range of responses simply treat the fever without diagnosing the source. Doesn’t work in medicine & doesn’t work in education.
What markets do best is reward the winners and punish the losers. This might be okay when we're talking about a brand of phone and a phone company with a bad product goes out of business. But in education it will only lead to vicious cycles for already struggling schools and virtuous cycles for well-funded schools and perpetuate inequality.