Testing. Standards. Teacher evaluation. School turnarounds. Those were the issues that dominated education policy for decades. But they took a back seat in most places in the 2018 midterm elections. And experts expect that could be the case again in the 鈥渋deas primary鈥� for the 2020 presidential race, which is expected to feature an unwieldy Democratic field.
At the state level, candidates for governor were far more likely to have touted career and technical education, STEM, expanding early-childhood education, social and emotional learning, and especially, education funding, as opposed to issues like accountability, and even charter schools. That鈥檚 according to an analysis of candidate websites by the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank.
That evolution makes political sense, said Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at AEI.
鈥淪chool reform the way it鈥檚 been understood in the Bush-Obama years became narrower and narrower and more and more removed from a lot of families鈥� concerns,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ver time you saw that the stuff of that agenda鈥攖esting, accountability, teacher evaluation鈥攈as no constituency anymore.鈥�
Instead, in his view, candidates are pivoting to politically safer topics that impact a broader range of children. And they are choosing to emphasize issues that aren鈥檛 well-defined and which have widespread support, he added. 鈥淭hese things are pretty amorphous so it鈥檚 easy to make them sound nice without offending anybody.鈥�
But Charles Barone, the chief policy officer at Democrats for Education Reform, a national group that advocates for charter schools and stringent school accountability among other policies, said he would never expect candidates to emphasize policies like testing on the campaign trail.
鈥淲hen did people ever run on things like accountability?鈥� asked Barone, who served as an aide to Democrats on the House education committee. 鈥淭he reality is you have a very different set-up in each state or locality, you can鈥檛 make sweeping generalizations.鈥� He noted that candidates who are fans of charter schools and strong accountability ran and succeeded in Colorado, the District of Columbia, and elsewhere.
It wouldn鈥檛 make sense, he said, for candidates to run on issues like the Common Core State Standards when most states have already figured out their standards and don鈥檛 want to open them back up. Right now, he said, supporters of education redesign are pushing for things like ensuring that disadvantaged students have access to rigorous coursework and other issues that more directly affect teaching and learning.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the kind of hard work that is going to need to take place now,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just not the kind of change that鈥檚 easy to explain in a stump speech.鈥�
The DeVos Factor
Democratic candidates for governor, in particular, were more likely to focus on early-childhood education and education spending, including increasing teachers鈥� salaries, AEI鈥檚 analysis found.
Those ideas鈥攁long with expanding career and technical education, offering all students free lunch and breakfast, improving school climate, and overhauling school facilities鈥攚ere featured prominently in a list of 鈥済reat education policy ideas for progressives in 2018" published by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that was closely associated with the Obama administration. CAP鈥檚 list did not mention testing, accountability, or dramatic school turnarounds.
Talking about things like early-childhood education and workforce preparation isn鈥檛 just about avoiding controversy鈥攊t鈥檚 about capturing the imagination of voters, said Lisette Partelow, the director of K-12 strategic initiatives at CAP.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a campaign, you鈥檙e talking about big exciting ideas,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are future-thinking visions.鈥� That doesn鈥檛 mean that many Democrats are going to suddenly stop supporting, say, the Common Core State Standards, she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that means that there is a big shift in focus when it comes to policymaking.鈥�
To be sure, the shift away from a political emphasis on accountability, standards, and testing is partly a function of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which turned major policy decisions over to states, said Elizabeth DeBray, a professor of lifelong education, administration, and policy at the University of Georgia.
鈥淐ongress really designed ESSA to be politically palatable to the states, and I think what you鈥檙e seeing is that, by and large, it is,鈥� she said.
What鈥檚 more, lawmakers at the federal level haven鈥檛 focused much on these issues since passing ESSA. Democrats, in particular, have generally been attempting to push back on the agenda of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, not arguing the finer points of state accountability plans, she said.
The secretary has helped bridge long-standing political divides in the Democratic community between civil rights groups, which favored strong accountability measures to help disadvantaged students, and teachers鈥� unions, which worried about the impact of those measures on teaching and learning, said Tamara Hiler, the deputy director of education at Third Way, a think tank in Washington that champions center-left ideas.
鈥淏etsy DeVos is sort of a uniter in a way, on the left,鈥� Hiler said. 鈥淒emocrats had a lot more infighting when their party was in power. It鈥檚 easy to be anti-Betsy DeVos. It made some of the infighting that we used to see a little bit less of an issue.鈥�
2020 Implications
The lack of talk about testing and accountability doesn鈥檛 mean though, that the so-called 鈥渞eform鈥� wing of the Democratic party is no longer influential, Hiler said. She pointed to two gubernatorial victories by education-redesign-minded Democrats鈥攃harter school fan Jared Polis, a Colorado congressman who won his race for governor, and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who has clashed with teachers鈥� unions and was re-elected this year.
But some candidates seemed to make headway running against Obama-era education redesign. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who was just elected governor of New Mexico, sought to get rid of the state鈥檚 A鈥揊 grading system and ditch the PARCC tests, which were designed using a grant from Obama鈥檚 Education Department. And she called for scrapping the state鈥檚 tough teacher-evaluation system, another policy pushed by Obama and company.
Richard Woods, the newly re-elected Republican state schools chief in Georgia, turned an endorsement from Obama鈥檚 long-serving education secretary, Arne Duncan, against his opponent, Otha Thornton. Duncan touted Thornton鈥檚 advocacy for rural students. But Woods said Duncan was for high-stakes testing, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The change in tone on accountability opens up the question of whether Democratic presidential candidates鈥攚ho will be fighting for airtime in the runup to the 2020 contest鈥攚ill decide to take on the issue of annual standardized testing. After all, ESSA is technically up for reauthorization in 2019, and Congress could use that opportunity to back away from the requirement.
鈥淭he Democrats that I鈥檝e heard talking about testing are not talking about testing in an equity way, but more of an opt-out way,鈥� said Andrew Saultz, an assistant professor and program director of educational leadership at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. 鈥淲ho are the interest groups that are really going to go out and fight for accountability policy and testing policy? And absent the kind of wonky policy folks and researchers, I don鈥檛 see the public saying, 鈥楾his is really important for our kids.鈥� They鈥檙e saying, 鈥楥an you believe they have another test?鈥� 鈥�
But, even given that, Saultz doesn鈥檛 expect that proposals to ditch standardized testing will get much traction, in part because ESSA鈥檚 predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, helped focus attention on achievement gaps. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they鈥檇 go away from that requirement,鈥� he said.
