The misguided quest for a constitutional right to education

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (6) ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Nicholas Tampio
Keyword(s):  
San Antonio ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Fourteenth Amendment ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Independent School District ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
Federal Judges

The Supreme Court ruled in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973) that there is no constitutional right to education, but that has not stopped families and education activists from arguing that this right is implicit in the Fourteenth Amendment. Nicholas Tampio contends that, based upon the history of federal involvement in education, a constitutional right to education would likely lead to an increase in high-stakes testing. The way to prepare young people for citizenship is to raise them in communities, including communities of color, that govern the schools themselves without the oversight of federal judges.

Need for a more Democratic Procedure of Amending the Constitution

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-688
Author(s):  
Seba Eldridge
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Due Process ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Fourteenth Amendment ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
Electoral Control ◽  
Democratic Procedure

That final legislative authority in this country is lodged in the letter of a constitution that is amended with the greatest difficulty, and with a supreme court which is entirely independent of electoral control has become a commonplace of political discussion.To quote Professor Goodnow: “Acts of congress and of state legislatures are declared to be unconstitutional ‥‥ because they cannot be made to conform to a conception of the organization and powers of government which we have inherited from the eighteenth century;” and Dr. Blaine F. Moore: “If we may judge from the decisions based on the due process clause in the fourteenth amendment and applying to the States, the court has it in its power to make the similar clause in the fifth amendment cover practically all federal legislation dealing with new problems concerning which there are few or no precedents. If the court does make this entirely possible extension of its power, then the legislation dealing with the more recent and pressing questions is under the control of the popularly inaccessible justices of the supreme court.”Both these quotations are from studies published before the adoption of the sixteenth and seventeenth amendments, but they are only a little less true now than then, as an analysis of the history of those amendments will show.

Assessing the field

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Frawley ◽  
Larissa McLean Davies
Keyword(s):  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Perceived Need ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Test ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the interface between high-stakes testing, disciplinary knowledge and teachers’ pedagogy in English. The most prevalent standardized assessment form in the current Australian context is the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) undertaken each year by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in all Australian States and Territories. Understood in the context of the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) (Sahlberg, 2011, pp. 100-101) – the NAPLAN tests serve as a bi-partisan governmental response to a perceived need to improve the quality of teachers and schools in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw on the key sociological constructs of Pierre Bourdieu (1995) to analyze the ways in which the writing component of the suite of NAPLAN tests serves to legitimize and idealize particular kinds of writing, writers and teachers of writing. Findings – The authors suggest that in the absence of current literacy policy and curriculum instability, this national test shapes the literacy field, influencing the direction of writing practices and pedagogy, and, therefore, subject English itself, in Australian classrooms. Originality/value – This assessment intervention is considered in the context of the history of writing, and addresses accordingly fundamental questions concerning the changing nature of the writing/writerly field, the impact of assessment on teachers’ conceptions of disciplinarity and pedagogical content knowledge and students’ experiences of writing and thinking in subject English.

A Right to Equal Education

Troublemakers ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 131-170
Author(s):  
Kathryn Schumaker
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Fourteenth Amendment ◽  
Equal Protection ◽  
Equal Education ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter discusses the development of Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence in the area of students’ rights during the 1960s and 1970s. It focuses in particular on the courts’ interpretation of equal protection in regard to school desegregation, bilingual education, and students with disabilities. The chapter argues that, during the 1970s, the Supreme Court dramatically narrowed its interpretation of equal protection, and in doing so, it limited the ability of advocates for students of color to pursue racial discrimination cases in court. The chapter discusses how advocates for non-English-speaking students and students with disabilities sought to use the Fourteenth Amendment to make claims on behalf of these children, who were sometimes excluded from schools entirely. This chapter also examines the San Antonio v. Rodriguez case, in which the Supreme Court rejected the claim that the Constitution protects a right to education.

scholarly journals High-Stakes Testing and the History of Graduation

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherman Dorn
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Graduation ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Graduation Requirements ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Educational Exchange ◽  
History Of ◽  
School Graduation ◽  
High School Diplomas

An historical perspective on high-stakes testing suggests that tests required for high school graduation will have mixed results for the putative value of high school diplomas: (1) graduation requirements are likely to have indirect as well as direct effects on the likelihood of graduating; (2) the proliferation of different exit documents may dilute efforts to improve the education of all students; and (3) graduation requirements remain unlikely to disentangle the general cultural confusion in the U.S. about the purpose of secondary education and a high school diploma, especially confusion about whether the educational, exchange, or other value of a diploma is most important.

scholarly journals High-Stakes Testing & Student Learning

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey L. Amrein ◽  
David C. Berliner
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Test Preparation ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Testing Program ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Testing Policies

A brief history of high-stakes testing is followed by an analysis of eighteen states with severe consequences attached to their testing programs. These 18 states were examined to see if their high-stakes testing programs were affecting student learning, the intended outcome of high-stakes testing policies promoted throughout the nation. Scores on the individual tests that states use were not analyzed for evidence of learning. Such scores are easily manipulated through test-preparation programs, narrow curricula focus, exclusion of certain students, and so forth. Student learning was measured by means of additional tests covering some of the same domain as each state's own high-stakes test. The question asked was whether transfer to these domains occurs as a function of a state's high-stakes testing program.

The High Risks of High-Stakes Testing

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce B. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
High Stakes
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document