McGill Writes Scathing Analysis of Education "Reform"

Scarsdale Superintendent Mike McGill has objected for years to the push by so-called reformers to reduce education to its lowest common denominator, test scores, in the interest of measuring success. 

In fact, he and his district suffered the wrath of Richard Mills, then New York State Education Commissioner, when a group of Scarsdale parents in 2001 showed early success in their campaign to keep kids home on state testing days. 

Scarsdale parents are still seething.

So, apparently, is McGill.

"I've come to think that a school superintendent's main mission today is to protect teachers and kids from the ideological madness around us," is how he opens a commentary he penned for Education Week, the national newsweekly on all things education-related.

The corporate model of schooling, the twisted result of an initially benign call for improvements in "A Nation at Risk," relies on questionable logic and narrow definitions of and paths to success—and produces absurd results, he said. 

The attempts of Scarsdale parents and educators to explain that to state education officials have been dismissed, over and over, and often with distain, he said.

After 41 years as a top school administrator, the last 16 in Scarsdale, he's seen a lot. "As long as state and federal policies assume that one approach is right for everyone, they'll undermine real quality everywhere."

And how is he measuring his own success these days? If he can keep education reform from hurting the teaching and learning that's actually going on, "I'll have achieved something," he wrote.