• “The President has said that changes are needed to close the persistent gap between poor and privileged students, drive up high school graduation rates, and produce a workforce that can compete globally. But it is impossible to predict whether his policies, which are years from full implementation, will work. There is little or no research showing that these measures lead to better-educated children or higher graduation rates. Unions and some parents contend that Obama’s approach over-emphasizes testing and crowds out the arts and other subjects. There is widespread agreement, however, that the administration has been particularly successful at pushing through its flavor of education policy.” ~ Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
  • “In education, the question, ‘How do we assess kids/teachers/schools?’ has morphed over the years into ‘How do we measure . . .?’ We’ve forgotten that assessment doesn’t require measurement, and, moreover, that the most valuable forms of assessment are often qualitative (say, a narrative account of a child’s progress by an observant teacher who knows the child well). Yet the former may well be brushed aside in favor of the latter by people who don’t even bother to ask what was on the test. It’s a number, so we sit up and pay attention. Over time, the more data we accumulate, the less we really know.” ~ Alfie Kohn, educator and author
  • “The [No Child Left Behind] waivers were a mistake. It’s a crazy quilt of a system which I think will die [on its] own . . . What the president giveth, the president can taketh away.” ~ Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education
  • “If parents do nothing else, they should persuade their sons and daughters to take part in their own education. Kids should hear the message loud and clear. ‘You have one life, and this small part of it will make all the difference.’ And parents, you should walk the talk by showing up for the play, the debate, the science fair. There were evenings when, as an English teacher hosting an open house for parents, I stood mostly alone.” ~ Tony Danza, actor and one-year teacher at Philly’s Northeast High School
  • “The awkward fact is that teaching in America has become a quasi blue-collar profession mostly shunned by top college graduates. The countries with the best education systems recruit from top graduates. What about our top grads?” ~ Richard Whitmore, author