Be sure to check out Common Good’s Phillip Howard in today’s NYT.
…Law is brilliantly ill suited as a management system. Law is rigid and leaves no room to adjust for the circumstances. Once the idea of rule-based management takes root, the bureaucracy grows like kudzu. Teachers and principals spend the day tied up in legal knots.
…Schools depend on the energy, skill, judgment, humor and sympathy of teachers and principals. Liberate them to draw on all their human traits. Then liberate some of us to hold them accountable. Throw most of the rules overboard. Let law set the goals and basic principles, not dictate daily decisions…
Elsewhere, superintendents sure don’t last too long in Cincy.
In The Gadfly, PPI analyst Sara Mead recaps the new IDEA bill.
Here’s a short update on San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales’ attendance challenge. And, if you missed it, this John Merrow News Hour report on dropouts in Florida is well worth checking out.