It's the title of Frederick M. Hess's forthcoming book, which will be released next week (Monday, methinks). It's also an apt description of articles like this one?a New York Times piece about a report by the Council of the Great City Schools (vague name; are we talking about great-city schools or great city-schools?) that finds black students are doing a whole lot worse in the classroom than white students. The same thing over and over. How many times?have we read the same New York Times article? How many times?have we read the same report? The Times writes about the CGCS's publication:
What it does not discuss are policy responses identified with a robust school reform movement that emphasizes closing failing schools, offering charter schools as alternatives and raising the quality of teachers.
The report did not go down this road because ?there's not a lot of research to indicate that many of those strategies produce better results,? Mr. Casserly [head of the CGCS] said.
First, is Casserly right? Is there ?not a lot of research to indicate that,? say, a pupil with a savvy, committed teacher will learn more than a pupil taught by an educator who is indifferent and untalented? Second, assume Casserly is right. So what? Because there's ?not a lot of research? compelling us to do things differently we should just continue doing things as we always have? We should just keep doing the same thing over and over?
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow