Contributed Commentary on
Volume 4 Number 1: Stedman The Achievement Crisis is Real: A Review of The Manufactured Crisis

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10 April 1996

John Stone

STONEJ@EDUSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU


On April 9, 1996 Dan Cline wrote:

However, I think responses to these works by policy analysts and scholars of whatever pursuasion, even the critics of the schools among them, should perhaps rise above conclusions based just on hunches derived from personal encounters.
(snip)
I am not sure whether Berliner & Biddle were making an empirical knowledge claim or a simple assertion that American students are more broadly educated, but in either case, an examination of the claim or assertion is more enlightened by empirical evidence, rather than recitation of impressions from personal encounters alone - the latter can certainly lead to hypotheses to be subjected to empircal test.

I agree that we need to go beyond personal experience in assessing this issue, but on this list, I see arguments buttressed by personal experience almost daily. Andrew does not need me to defend him but I am confident that he could have been much more specific and data based about Berliner & Biddle.

There is a mountain of credible empirical evidence that points in the opposite direction from Berliner & Biddle. Their claim that the larger public's perception of the schools is the product of a conspiracy or right wing extremism or mere bad publicity is preposterous. I agree with Andrew that Berliner & Biddle are doing the cause of public education no favor by trying to dismiss its critics and their arguments.

I know that the criticisms, the unflattering studies, and the negative reports in the media are distasteful--especially to people who are working hard to do what they feel is the right thing. However, as one who follows that which is being said in the larger public arena, I think we of the education community will either have to move in the direction of that which the public wants or progressively be replaced. People who are as committed to public education as Al Shanker have been saying the same thing for years. Professor Stedman's refutation of Berliner & Biddle may be painful to contemplate but if it moves us to confront reality rather than quibbling about its existence, he has, in my opinion, done us a great favor.