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

The foundations demand that public schools and teachers be held accountable for performance, but they themselves are accountable to no one. If their plans fail, no sanctions are levied against them. They are bastions of unaccountability.

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

Accountability makes no sense when it undermines the larger goals of education.

Teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions

Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools.

I support charters, but the right kind of charters. I support charters that support kids who have the highest needs. A charter should be targeting students who are in serious trouble. It should serve students who didn't succeed in public schools when it can help them. Or, at least, charters should agree to accept similar proportions of the kids with the highest needs.