Less money and diminished resources. Fewer instructional days. Summer school and after-school programs eliminated. Libraries and some school campuses closed. Thousands of teachers and classified employees fired. These are some education news stories that dominated 2010.
Political ironies are much overrated these days; however, we can note that the year of cuts was accompanied by a year of raised expectations. The federal government's Race to the Top competition called on states and districts to pledge more action and better results. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing story of the year was the Times publishing the so-called value-added scores of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers. Disclosure of testing results for teachers in these three grades was promised to improve instruction even as the supports for teaching and learning declined across all 12 grades. Little in the news addressed schools' struggles to accommodate cuts in effective teacher
