I was in a discussion recently with a friend of mine who is also a public school administrator. As we bantered back and forth about what could be done to improve schools — increased teacher pay, which would rely on increased accountability for teachers to be high quality, a determination which shouldn’t rely on standardized tests especially for young children, and round and round and round — it quickly became clear that a simple request like “improve our schools” can be a tangled, and very opinion-filled process.
That shouldn’t be a surprising realization, since education reform or school improvement seems to be a perennial hot topic. But what struck me in the conversation was when my friend, in obvious frustration said something like, “It’s hard to figure it all out.”
