Blog #3: What 'Counts' as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm -Jean Anyon

 Connections

    In her article "What 'Counts' as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm," Jean Anyon argues that when educational policies focus solely on school-based reforms such as curriculum and testing, they fail to address the underlying socioeconomic conditions that stunt educational growth of urban students. The two readings, “The Broken Model” and "Privilege, Power, and Difference” focus on the frameworks surrounding the educational system and privilege in society, and directly tie into the arguments Anyon makes. All three authors explore how deeply ingrained social and institutional systems that we’ve come to accept as “normal” perpetuate inequality and limit human potential. 

    One of Khan's main focuses is examining the current education system as a whole, specifically the stubbornness and uniformity of the standard system.He argues that tracking and testing fail to measure deep understanding or long-term retention and hinder creative potential. By prioritizing static data such as rote memorization or test scores we capture only a glimpse of a student’s performance. Using this data to "label kids" and "squeeze them into categories" mirrors Anyon's argument that traditional policies focus on increased academic standards and teacher professional development while ignoring the "economic arrangements" that produce the poverty surrounding city schools. Anyons argument ties directly into Khan's critique of tracking and testing, pointing out that socioeconomic status (SES) is the strongest predictor of cognitive development, even before children start kindergarten. Standardized test scores also significantly impact funding; high-performing schools may secure grants, while underperforming schools risk losing funding. This creates a cycle where lower-scoring schools receive fewer resources. Hurdles of poverty create the very "labels" that Khan identifies as part of the broken school model.

    Allan G. Johnson’s work, Privilege, Power, and Difference, offers the sociological foundation needed to understand the socioeconomic obstacles identified by Anyon. While Anyon focuses on how education is impacted by external economic factors such as poverty and housing, Johnson explains the privilege system behind those factors. One of the main arguments that Johnson makes is that we are stuck in a sort of paralysis because we as a society avoid having these difficult conversations surrounding privilege and power. When policy makers continue to favor "school-only" reforms, it allows them to avoid the uncomfortable, systemic changes to the "structures of privilege" that Johnson discusses. He further argues that the "trouble" surrounding privilege is sustained by social systems rather than individual actions and that social categories like race, gender, and class are simply social constructs that organize power and privilege in society. This directly relates to Anyon’s claim that educational failure is tied to macro-policies, such as poverty-level minimum wages and regressive taxation, which maintain these hierarchies. Johnson’s emphasis on the problems of difference in privileges falls on everyone, and not only to those negatively impacted, supports Anyon’s argument that the failure to address urban poverty is a collective policy choice. When the wealthy do not contribute equitably to public expenses, funding for essential services like education will decline, perpetuating educational inequality.  

Reflection: 

There is such a large achievement gap in both funding and achievement between high and low poverty schools. Instead of focusing on the underlying factors that cause this, we continue to make stricter curriculum and aim to increase academic performance, when the real reason low academic performance is happening is external factors. When basic needs are not being met such as food, students cannot be expected to perform well academically. The focus needs to be on how we can help students and families in poverty, because this is when academic performance will improve.