The Reform Debate

Everyone’s chattering about Sam Dillon’s weekend NYT story on the reform debate.  

I don’t really think the debate that is going on today is a reform v. no reform debate — and that is a change from a decade ago when Bill Clinton was criticized for talking too much about low-performing schools.   Both sides in today’s debate want changes.  Rather, it’s fundamentally a debate about how much of the education problem stems from elements of what schools do, or don’t do, and how much from other factors and all else equal what more schools can realistically be expected to do.   Why the debate matters is because in terms of setting policy for schools, where one comes down on that question is important.

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