GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

The most important common standard to have is for true educators to be in charge of and accountable for school systems.

Bloomberg and Klein have failed to meet the lowest of expectations regarding progress, accountability, community outreach, active listening, abiding by the law, decency, and reason, outside of breaking apart the mess that was the BOE. Granted, we need people with gumption, savvy, and clout to push forward when unions, communities, schools, and city administrations become deadlocked and all efforts are systematically hamstrung, but we still need people who actually have a good idea of what education should be. It is vitally important those people know HOW to implement standards, WHAT those standards are, WHAT appropriate curricula are, HOW to assess according to those standards, WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO with the resulting scores, WHAT to advise administrators, HOW to manage and support staff, HOW all of this comes across to students, parents, and communities, HOW tactics and testing can affect motivation and pysches short-term and long-term, etc., etc., etc.