Testing Race: Civil Rights Groups, Teachers Unions, and the Politics of the Contemporary Education Reform Movement

• In Event: From Philanthropists to Parents: Interest Groups in the Battles for and Against Education Reform

Abstract

This paper analyzes the historical origins and contemporary political dynamics of the divide between civil rights groups and teachers unions over education reform and federal accountability policies. The two sides—both crucial members of the Democratic coalition—have long been united by the push for greater education spending but in recent years have engaged in an increasingly charged fight over school testing, accountability, choice, and teacher evaluation reforms which the teachers unions generally oppose. Many civil rights leaders believe that federal mandates for disaggregated achievement data and school accountability offer an unprecedented and powerful tool in the fight for educational equity. Many in the education community, however, believe that the law unfairly holds schools responsible for resolving educational problems that have their roots elsewhere, in broader social ills like poverty. This paper will provide an overview of the historical relationship between the teachers unions and civil rights groups, identify the factors will have led to their divergence on education policy, and examine the possible consequences of this rift for the politics of education and the direction of future school reform efforts in the U.S.

The passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, a watershed moment in American educational history, did not merely expand but also transformed the federal role in education by adding a new focus on assessment and accountability to the traditional federal emphasis on resources. While NCLB’s impact to date on student performance is ambiguous at best, it is clear that the law radically upended and reshaped the politics of education in America, blurring traditional partisan and ideological markers. Nowhere was the new politics of education clearer than inside of the Democratic Party, where a contentious debate raged over President Obama’s education agenda and the reauthorization of ESEA. This paper will use the “policy-centered approach” to social analysis developed by political scientists Soss, Hacker, and Mettler to explore how new federal policies have created new politics in education.

This paper will draw on a series of elite interviews to provide an in-depth analysis of the position of the country’s major civil rights groups on the central education policies of the “reform agenda.” While it is not possible to fit every group neatly into the pro or anti-reform camp, the two narratives discussed above identify a broad divide within the school reform debate—and particularly inside of the Democratic Party—today. The pursuit of expanded educational opportunity in the United States stands at a fascinating and crucial moment as the country contemplates the future direction of school reform policies in the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) era.

Author

• Patrick James McGuinn, Drew University