Beware of Enemies of Your Enemy

Charles Murray, co-author of the infamous Bell Curve with Richard Hernstein, appeared on the op-ed page of Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, attacking NCLB. For those who may have forgotten, or who are too young to remember, Murray’s Bell Curve stirred a major controversy when it was first published in 1994. At the center of the debate was its racist argument that the ‘achievement gap’ was a function of the innate intellectual inferiority of people of color.

Now, Murray is writing polemics against NCLB, arguing that the agenda of bringing all students to levels of proficiency in English Language Arts and Mathematics defies the iron law of the ‘bell curve,’ along which students must be distributed in neat intervals.

And, distressingly, Murray’s op-ed is being favorably cited on anti-NCLB and anti-testing Internet list serves.

It is worth taking note of this development, and of reminding ourselves that while there is much in the NCLB fully deserving of all the criticism educators can muster, there are also parts – especially the disaggregation of achievement statistics by race and ethnicity – which are just as deserving of our support. It is absolutely vital that school districts be accountable for what they are and are not doing to bridge the achievement gap, and the disaggregation requirements of NCLB have been pivotal in this regard. No wonder that Murray would be finding fault with these parts of NCLB.

What requires more explanation is why ostensibly progressive educators would be willing to enter into an alliance with the likes of Murray.

Sometimes the ‘enemy of your enemy’ is… also your enemy.

 Print