ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, I looked at the limits of ethical arguments when thinking about questions of evidence. I have focused on the importance of bringing a wide swath of methodological tools to bear on the questions that face educators and researchers today. In this chapter, I return to the terrain of economics, looking at how the Left has taken on the question of encroaching business logics in education-a phenomenon discussed throughout. As is well known by now, No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB) tied high-stakes test scores to school “success” or “failure” writ large (Hess & Petrilli, 2006). This move has enabled a whole host of logics to unfold-the eff ort to close schools failing to meet these largely unfunded mandates, the reallocation of public funds to charter schools, the tying of teacher employment to student test scores, etc. We see, as well, moves on the part of private industry to colonize public schooling services. The most visible example here is the “Edison School”—a for-profi t venture that looks to widely deliver standardized curriculum in the name of “maximized effi ciency” (Saltman, 2005). Moreover, it has become quite clear that, though NCLB has something of a “branding” problem, many of its logics will survive reauthorization. In particular, we see a continuing faith in the market to solve educational issues and problems. In a recent article, Henry Giroux (2010, p. 20) stresses that “Almost all of [U.S. Education Secretary] Duncan’s policies are indebted to the codes of a market-driven business culture, legitimated through discourses of measurement, effi ciency and utility.” He focuses on Duncan’s support for charter schools, high-stakes testing, schoolbusiness alliances, as well as a general faith in neoliberalism.
