The Goal Of School Reform

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School Reform : It’s Relation to the Goal of Public Education in a Democracy
Payton Iannarino
Miami University
EDL SECTION 204

School reform is a highly debated topic in today’s world of public education. In an article titled “What is the Goal of School Reform?” Michael Katz and Mike Rose argue what school reform should be doing. In said article, Katz and Rose claim that education should rely on two questions, the first question being: What is the role of education in a democracy? In the beginning of the article, the authors state that America’s current school system relies too much preparing students for personal economic responsibility and national economic stability. Instead of taking this viewpoint our schools …show more content…
In the article, Katz and Rose (2013) state; “many lessons are pre-packaged, scripted lessons and [lean towards] a strong focus on test preparation” (pg 3). Because of this, in today’s classrooms, there has been a significant constricting of the curriculum in order to teach to the test. Standardized testing has practically eradicated all forms of intellectual engagement, creativity, curiosity, etc. These ideals should be aspects of schooling that American students should be acquiring through their classes. The authors made this point very clear in their article. Democracy involves an aspect of freedom, and by not invoking creativity, intellectual engagement, and curiosity, in America’s students, standardized testing is taking away a certain freedom by not allowing said ideals be examined in the curriculum of todays …show more content…
Within the article itself, the points are somewhat unclear, but after reading article several times the comprehensibility of their points progressively became clearer. Within the article, the authors use several rhetoric tools to persuade the reader into believing their argument. For example, when arguing about inequality within standardized testing in schools, using the appeal of poor students and minority students, the authors are using ethical reasoning to draw the reader in. The technical term for the use of this brand of persuasion is called ideo graphs. Another rhetoric tool the authors use is a cultural narrative. A cultural narrative is designed to relate to a variety of audiences through a story. In their article, Katz and Rose use the narrative of a teacher teaching her students critical observation and interactive skills within the classroom through the use of hermit crabs. Unfortunately, this particular cultural narrative weakens their argument as the narrative adds no real sustenance to the argument. Sure the narrative, demonstrates a good teaching technique, but in no way does the narrative contribute to the critical ideas presented in regards to school reform. Overall, the rhetorical tools used in this article could have been used more strategically in order to achieve a more persuasive article. However, all in all, the points in the article were
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