Nikole Hannah-Jones' Accidental Case for School Choice and Standardized Testing
Her story conveys the importance of these essential features of Texas public education that the political Left opposes.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times Magazine writer and creator of the controversial and historically inaccurate 1619 Project[i], recently sparked debate with an essay about her daughter’s schooling experience.[ii] Despite having the means to enroll in a private school or a higher-performing public school, Hannah-Jones and her husband chose schools with low academic proficiency rates for Najya because they “thought by sending Najya to a mostly low-income and Black school, [they] could help improve it for all the children there.”
Why would Najya’s enrollment improve the education at those schools? Hannah-Jones cited she and her husband’s “connections and time and status that should not matter, but that we all know do,” her being a New York Times reporter, their ability to financially contribute to the PTA, and their income status which would lend more “power” to parent “complaints” or “demands for resources.” Hannah-Jones recounts persistently advocating for her daughter’s education and that of her classmates, yet Najya finished eighth grade with substantial knowledge gaps. Her story conveys the importance of two tools the political Left opposes: school choice and standardized testing.
Najya’s schools failed her and her classmates in basic ways. In elementary school, Hannah-Jones once found Najya’s assignments ungraded, rife with uncorrected errors. She visited at lunchtime and found the children inadequately supervised and she also broke up a fight while she was there. In fourth grade, it appeared Najya’s teacher “never performed the school’s mandatory reading assessments for Najya or any of her classmates.” Hannah-Jones repeatedly pressed for improvements, but her attempts were met with delayed responses and sometimes no response at all. While the middle school principal was responsive, the school practiced policies common in jurisdictions controlled by the political Left, including no homework and allowing disruptive students to stay in the classroom.
Hannah-Jones’ efforts—and her “connections and time and status”—could not make up for the lack of competent instruction and school leadership. When traditional public schools fail, families need alternative schooling options. In Hannah-Jones’ case, her family had other, better options, but stayed out of a misplaced sense of principle. Ironically, in keeping Najya at those schools, Hannah-Jones withheld the main source of accountability for schools of all kinds: the ability to leave.
Hannah-Jones allowed Najya to choose which high school to attend, and Najya picked out a selective public school known for its academics. Once enrolled, she struggled to keep up with her classes in her freshman year. “Algebra, [Najya] thought, was the one exception — this was a subject she believed she knew. She had taken it in eighth grade but had to retake it because she [failed] the statewide exam. At the time, I was somewhat concerned, but as Najya had earned A’s in the class I assumed she didn’t pass because, like many children, she has trouble sometimes on standardized tests.”
The failed standardized test should have been a red flag to prompt immediate intervention. Instead, Hannah-Jones trusted the classroom grades. She was then surprised to learn that, when Najya re-took Algebra I in ninth grade, she regularly failed the tests. She got Najya a tutor, who discovered “Najya knew very little algebra and had huge gaps in many of the building blocks of math that she should have learned in elementary school, like mastery of long division and fractions.”
The disconnect between grades and standardized test results has become ubiquitous. Gallup reports: “Nine in 10 parents believe their child is at or above grade level in reading and math. If they’re using their child’s report card as a main indicator, it’s understandable, as roughly eight in 10 students in the U.S. receive mostly B’s or better. However, when looking at other progress measures, including standardized test scores, a minority of students -- roughly less than half -- are performing at grade level.”[iii]
Standardized tests are the truest way to know whether students have mastered academic standards and are especially necessary to counter grade inflation,[iv] which appears to have been standard practice at Najya’s school. How could Najya have been an A-student in eighth grade yet know so little of the material? Reflecting on middle school, Hannah-Jones explains that “Najya had performed better than most of the students in her grade, but she was not performing on grade level, either. Because so many students arrived with educational deficiencies, the school focused more on growth than mastery and essentially graded students on a curve.”
There are two unsung heroes of Hannah-Jones’ story. First is Najya, who, when given the chance to choose her high school, exercised school choice and enrolled in a school that focused on academic achievement. It was at this school that Najya was finally able to get the instruction she needed to succeed. Second is the statewide Algebra I standardized test, which exposed a problem that Najya’s grades concealed. If it weren’t for that failed test, Najya likely would have moved on to Algebra II and continued to fall behind. Defenders of the education establishment are quick to demonize standardized tests, but the real demons are the grades lulling families into a false sense of security that their child knows more than he or she does.
Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa’s website lists “public schools” first among its priority issues and leads that section with a commitment to end ‘the STAAR test and tests like it.’[v] Texas’ A-F accountability system, which holds schools to account based on the standardized test performance of its students and also serves as a crucial indicator to parents of the academic quality of their child’s school, is second on Governor-elect Hinojosa’s chopping block. Her policies would pull the wool over Texas parents’ eyes and prevent them from even knowing how their children’s schools are performing, which will make it more difficult to get the academic support they need.
During her time in the state legislature the Governor-elect was one of the leading opponents of private school choice programs and public charter schools. If her priorities are enacted, Texas parents may not know when their child is falling behind academically and, even if they become aware, they may not have access to any other schooling options. Essentially, she would force parents to make the same mistakes Nicole Hannah-Jones made voluntarily. Conservatives should hold the line and prevent that from happening. It is the right thing to do for the children of Texas.
