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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

This Week In Education: Thompson: Collective Effort Vs. Teacher Scapegoating

This Week In Education: Thompson: Collective Effort Vs. Teacher Scapegoating:

Thompson: Collective Effort Vs. Teacher Scapegoating

Problem-SolvingDavid Cantors’ EdWeek commentary (Who Is Responsible for Student Achievement?) starts as if it was another exercise in the blame game. Cantor’s focus groups with teachers, parents, and other stakeholders could never answer the question "who should be responsible for making things better." But Cantor listens and realizes that educators "were shouting to policymakers: You can't put anything else on our plate" and that "this sense of exhaustion and frustration has consequences." Even better, Cantor notes that all sides, while not wanting to take the blame for the system’s undeniable failures, point to the same solution: We must instill the love of