Trouble does, indeed, lurk, as President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan gird themselves for the inevitable debate about the overhaul of No Child Left Behind, the nation's signature education reform initiative. Obama's upcoming state-of-the-union address, we're told, will highlight education, and Duncan's been conveying a great sense of urgency as he makes his rounds in all the public forums. On NPR, in an interview last week, the Secretary referred to education as "an economic imperative," a matter of "national security," and "the civil rights issue of our generation" -- all in one breath.
But the trouble lies beyond elusive bipartisan support. There's that little problem of teacher quality. The mantra du jour of 21st-century education reform, teacher quality has become the proxy for all that is wrong with our broken education system -- indeed, our society at large.
