Open Letters To Reformers I Know. Part 1: Whitney Tilson
I think what gives me that extra motivation to participate, as much as I’m able to, in this current debate on how to improve this country’s schools (and yes, I do think they need to be improved) is the fact that I know, personally, many of the main people pushing the reforms that I consider destructive. Some I’ve known for over 20 years. Some I’ve only met recently. Some I’ve partied with at TFA events back when I was a corps member or at various TFA reunions. Some, during their training, attended the workshop I used to present at institute. Some I consider friends while others are just acquaintances. Yet these are the people I find myself in opposition with. People that it sometimes pains me to have to ‘fact-check’ and expose how I believe they are fixing the numbers to fool the public and the philanthropists into believing that they know what they are doing.
Over the past two years I’ve exchanged emails with all the people on my list of reformers I know. All have, at one time, written back to me. Many have stopped returning my emails. The ball, as the saying goes, is in their court.
I’ve written so many ‘left brain’ posts over the years — debunking this schools statistics, analyzing school report cards, investigating value-added evaluations, that I’d like to try something from the other side of the brain. Debate, like teaching, is more effective when it has a human component. The relationships between the participants enables each side to see the