John White’s Journey: Why he decided to ask his Louisiana Department of Education to alter student test scores

Worth a careful read. Jason France’s post brings together corporate reform ideology and its failure to produce the “must win at any cost” actions for which Louisiana Superintendent John White is well known.

Crazy Crawfish

Believe it or not, John White did not start off with the intent of trying to delude Louisiana into believing his education reforms worked simply by altering a few scores. At first I think White believed much of his own rhetoric. Namely:

• that teachers were lazy and holding kids back with their incompetence
• that State workers were lazy union wannabe’s, and essentially worthless
• that IT folks were unnecessary
• that data would almost magically flow in the department’s coffers with little effort on anyone’s part
• that most corporations in the education business had kids best interests at heart
• that charter schools are inherently better than all public schools
• that simply improving reading and math test scores is the keystone to unlocking all other student learning and overcoming the challenges of poverty
• that Common Core will improve student outcomes and level the playing field across the nation
• and that the data will…

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