Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.

There is something fundamentally antidemocratic about relinquishing control of the public education policy agenda to private foundations run by society's wealthiest people; when the wealthiest of these foundations are joined in common purpose, they represent an unusually powerful force that is beyond the reach of democratic institutions.

Those who can’t teach, pass laws about how to evaluate teachers.

When you succeed at keeping almost everyone in school, you must figure out ways to educate everyone you keep in school.

Most people believe that schools were good enough when they were children and that they are good enough now. But the dynamic growth of our system of education has spawned serious problems of educational quality.

Congress and state legislatures should not tell teachers how to teach, any more than they should tell surgeons how to perform operations.

We will continue to chase rainbows unless we recognize that they are rainbows and there is no pot of gold at the end of them