“Ms. O’Neil, tell them I left with tears streaming and that I will always remember them.” These are the parting words of Drea, one of my most memorable 5th – grade students in 1998. Drea was in foster care and was removed from her foster mom without notice after it was discovered they were living in the home without food and electricity. The agency came to remove her from school without a chance for closure with her peers.

Drea loved middle-grade fiction, such as Louis Sachar’s Holes, and the Harry Potter fantasy novels, and she was adept at narrative writing. She was also skilled at other things, such as sneaking to eat teachers’ lunches while they were in planning and taking Mark’s dares to climb out of the first-floor windows during her bathroom breaks.

Ricky, another unforgettable, was as precocious as Drea. He was genius at being group leader when not having episodes where he was trying to curb his profanity and other inappropriate classroom behavior. The ambiguous term ” six – seven ” wasn’t a thing back then, but I chuckle often thinking of how Ricky would have put this trend to good use in my classroom.

Both students were part of my baptism by fire into the pool of urban public education. They and many other students swept me off my feet, challenging me to bring my A game everyday with meticulous lesson plans and creative instructional delivery.

I came into the teaching profession on the cusp of the widely known No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that was supposed to close educational achievement gaps for disadvantaged students as measured by high stakes testing in reading and math. By 2014, 100% of our nations’ children were to be performing at or above grade level in these subjects, including English Language Learners, those receiving special education services, those living in poverty, African – American, Latino and Asian students. The NCLB goal was far from met and many students, teachers and administrators were not only left behind, they were casualties of this federal policy.

What was it like for students, teachers, and administrators inside the NCLB bubble? My lived experience during these years included teaching in a low – performing school where 99% of students were African – African. Sociologist George Ritzer wrote the text The McDonaldization of Society. I am specifically framing my educator lived experience as The McDonaldization of Education. Yup! Just like ” two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun.” However, we weren’t flipping burgers; we were educating students.

Classrooms were inundated with timed schedules, required methods, prescribed curriculum, and mandatory assessments. As teachers, we were treated like cheerful robots who were expected to keep pace with grade – level curriculum, always be on task within the timed agenda, post classroom – based assessments in the online data management system by deadline, and use required lesson plans within the instructional framework; among other Big Mac constructing mandates.

For myriad lower – performing schools, punitive rigor stalled rather than accelerated learning and teaching momentum. Terms like accountability, write – ups, performance improvement, inspect what is expected, and contract non-renewal dominated administrative speak. In the worst environments, mindless implemention was the norm, not student learning.

Fear ruled the culture and this was the beginning of the great migration of talented teachers and principals from the underserved students who most needed them. Scientific Taylorism, indicative of factory – like assembly line production, sucked critical and creative thinking out of many schoolhouses. Once again, teachers were not hired to build cars at General Motors, they were entrusted with educating diverse minds. Yet, our students were reduced to a test score and they are so much more!

Lest it seem I am demonizing NCLB, as a teacher and school leader I also perceived some benefits that had a positive impact. Seniority no longer determined who principals were required to retain as teachers. With the mindset of students first, teacher effectiveness became the determining factor for tenure. Effectiveness was informed by factors such as the number of students meeting and exceeding grade – level standards, the quality of classroom practice as measured by formal and informal observations, student feedback, and student progress and performance on state testing. For the most part, this provided what students deserved. Zero for ineffective warm bodies hanging out for the pay. 100 for highly effective teachers building kinship with their students and garnering dramatic achievement gains. Well, that was the intent; however, not quite the result. More on this in later blogs.

Another plus. School districts worked with teachers to develop clearer pictures of what is meant by good teaching and in the best cases teachers received job – embedded coaching to support their professional learning around identified best practices. Gone was the one – shot workshop with no alignment to grade- level curriculum and assessments, and no – follow up instructional coaching.

Nevertheless, how did we end up with abundant casualties, including children, teachers, and administrators? Why are we continuing to hemorrhage talent from our nation’s schools? How do we solve for the crisis in American education which has persisted before and through NCLB and The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)? For what must we advocate in lieu of the proposed reforms of our current White House administration?

I argue that the McDonaldization of Education, with imposed teacher cheerful robotism(Ritzer), as well as the focus on high-stakes testing, are at least two contributing factors. There is much more to unpack.

This blog is a call – to – action welcoming crucial dialogue about systemic education reform in America, the history and the way forward. We will collaborate to share diverse perspectives, argue joyfully and campaign for what our schools deserve. In this forum, we are in deep pursuit of an educational renaissance for American students, teachers and administrators.

This is not a blame game. No pointing fingers. This is us. Join us on The Porch as we read, relax, relate, and restore. Deserving students like Drea and Ricky are counting on us.

• Systemic Education Reform
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