Daily Kos: The Tragedy of Education Tranformation: Leadership without Expertise

Daily Kos: The Tragedy of Education Tranformation: Leadership without Expertise:

The Tragedy of Education Tranformation: Leadership without Expertise

byplthomasEdDFollow

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South Carolina's Superintendent of Education Mick Zais makes several claims in The State(March 25, 2012) that build on one central argument: "The most important information about teachers isn’t the degrees they have or their years of seniority. Their effectiveness in the classroom matters much, much more."

Like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Zais has no experience teaching children in K-12 public education. This complete lack of teaching experience and degrees in the field of education is a suspect position from which to claim that these two characteristics do not matter. In fact, political appointees and elected officials sit in unique positions often above both accountability (the mantra du jure of the political elite regarding education) and qualifications—unlike the real world markets they often praise.

Leadership without Expertise?

Since the early 1980s, U.S. public education has been experimenting with accountability,