The Status Quo Is Always Changing
Sorting out the hype of reform rhetoric from the substance is a fulltime job. No one has yet applied for the post.
In the current dogfight between reformers vs. anti-reformers (labels that Stephen Brill bestows on these hardly monolithic groups in his best selling book Class Warfare), positions harden as salvos of criticism fly back and forth between warring camps. Epithets such as “deformers”* are hurled at those who style themselves as “no excuses” reformers dead-set on seeing urban schools as places where effective teachers and principals can overcome the effects of poverty. And these hardy reformers fire back salvos of criticism on anyone who supports teacher unions, opposes evaluating teachers on the basis of student test scores, and snickers at charter schools. “Defenders of the status quo” is a common epithet they use. Slinging nasty names at one another creates ozone.
Who are these “defenders of the status quo?” Superintendents who worked well with their teacher unions–say
