Edwards On Education
EDWARDS ON EDUCATION....A "West Point" for teachers? I'll hold off on endorsing that idea until it gets fleshed out a little more. But John Edwards' new education plan also includes this:
No Child Left Behind used cheap standardized tests to measure our children's learning, failed to accurately identify struggling schools, and mandated unproven cookie-cutter solutions for our schools' problems. Edwards will totally overhaul it so it meets its goals of helping all children learn through accurately identifying and improving struggling schools. Based on North Carolina's successful education reforms, Edwards proposed a School Success Fund to allow teams of experienced educators to spend a year at struggling schools helping launch reforms.If you're wondering just what problem Edwards is addressing here, check out "Hire Ed," by Marc Tucker and Tom Toch from our March 2004 issue. It turns out that identifying failing schools — let alone turning them around — is a lot harder than you think.