Waiting for Supermen

Honestly, it doesn’t wake me in the middle of
the night: leaving a child behind —or lots.
Hell with ‘em if they  can’t  take a joke.
Or get it.
 
Get it?
 
Takes a village to raze a child
 
Let China and them other countries beat us
out in math & science, go to school weekends
and summers, ok by me. Outsource the hard
& rigorous rubric stuff I say.
 
   
 
We can be the philosophers. Ah so...
 
“In 2008, Michelle Rhee sought to renegotiate how
the school system compensates teachers. Rhee offered
teachers the choice of:  being paid up to $140,000
based on what she termed "student achievement"
 -- but losing tenure;
 
 or, retaining tenure – but earning much smaller pay
raises.
 
This controversial move to end teacher tenure and
 promote "merit" pay was strongly contested by the
teachers unions.”
 
Sell out?
 
In today’s education reform era, student achievement
is king.  We want to see our kids succeeding. We want
to see test scores rise. We want to know we can better
compete against foreign nations on things like PISA and
TIMSS. We want assurances our students are getting
a top-notch education measure by  results, and not by
processes.
 
I know that student achievement should be our primary focus,
and that we must ensure that all students are performing at the
necessary levels in all subjects. I know that national standards
are key to delivering on this promise, providing a singular yard
stick by which to measure all students in all 50 states And I know
that such measures in reading/ELA, math, and science are the
most important ones to provide us a real benchmark on where
our students are … and where they  need to go. 
 
(Patrick R. Riccards: Currently CEO of  Exemplar Strategic
Communications, an education advocacy agency,)
 
Ratcheting up for excellence.
Top notch.
 
“How can he well use his ignorance
which his growth requires who
as so often to use his
knowledge?” (HDT)