Where I'm Coming From
by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 24, 2010 at 9:42 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
This week, in light of my posts jabbing the Nashville merit pay study, the irresponsibility of tax cutsunaccompanied by spending cuts, and Waiting for Superman, I've seen a pretty big uptick in my "you're a terrible person" mail quotient. And that's been accompanied by some puzzlement about just "who the hell I think I am" and what my agenda is.
In the spirit of being as clear as I possibly can, here are six tenets that I typically find guiding my writing, scholarship, and the rest:
1] Policymakers and policies can't "fix" schools or make teachers into good teachers; they can create conditions where it is easier or more difficult to improve teaching and schooling.