From Achievement to Engagement
17
The Age of Achievement and Effort
For those who felt that previous reforms had been too wishy-washy, and too subject to the whims of individual teachers, principals, or system leaders, the Age of Achievement and Effort had its merits. Educational reform in this period was driven by four questions. 1. How are we doing? 2. How do we know? 3. How can we improve? 4. How can this benefit everyone? In the best-case scenarios, these questions led teachers and leaders to pay attention to performance, measurement, improvement, and equity. They made educators focus on helping all students, especially those who struggled the most, rather than on raising the overall or average levels of attainment. The assumptions and motivations behind the Age of Achievement and Effort were sometimes far from virtuous, though. The age first emerged in the English-speaking world in the United Kingdom in the 1980s when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher believed that the path to economic prosperity was to open up markets, roll back the state, pare back government support for the vulnerable, and replace manufacturing with finance and services. Her government fomented mass
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Since the early 1990s, increasing student achievement, especially for subgroups perceived to be underperforming, was among the most prominent policy priorities for educators around the world. This was an Age of Achievement and Effort. In this age, cyclical reviews of performance data drove teachers to engage in intensive interactions focused on short-term problem solving. These interactions led, in turn, to rapid interventions to improve performance and close achievement gaps. Teachers and leaders worked hard to measure and accelerate the progress of every student, in every class, and in every school. The Age of Achievement and Effort was a golden age for testing, data teams, and teaching to prespecified standards.
