Monday, November 30, 2009

Jay Mathews - Jay Mathews: Five strikes against an education writer - washingtonpost.com


Jay Mathews - Jay Mathews: Five strikes against an education writer - washingtonpost.com:

"It's almost December, time to sum up and see whether I added value to life on the planet this year. Others can assess my successes, if any. I prefer to dwell on my failures. Here are five I consider important.

-- I spent too much time covering political and ideological battles. Exhibit A is, of course, the controversy over Michelle A. Rhee's tenure as D.C. schools chancellor, particularly the firing of hundreds of teachers. My colleague Bill Turque has done a terrific job following that story, but I could not resist butting in, both in this column and in my washingtonpost.com/class-struggle blog. The distractions hurt everybody in the short run, something worth noting, but in the long run, such disputes rarely yield policies that raise achievement."