Diann Woodard

The 2012 State of the Union address and budget submission have come and gone without offering much hope of greater understanding among policymakers of the crushing impact on student performance of poverty. As public school leaders, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of choosing between two likely presidential...

If the stakes for creating workable plans to improve the quality education for our school children weren't so high, the experiments being proposed by business-model reformers,who are inexperienced in either education or school management, would be laughable. They routinely exclude -- or ignore -- input from the leaders essential for...

Educators from across the country will be meeting this week with Education Secretary Arne Duncan in Denver to discuss Advancing Student Achievement Through Labor-Management Collaboration at a conference cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the mounting nation's top education unions.

Ironically, our meeting to discuss paths to renewed...

The recent spate of resignations by heads of school districts in Chicago, Washington and New York City who advocate the so-called business model of school reform has predictably been followed by new appointees as ill-prepared for the challenge of improving student performance as their predecessors.

The common theme in the...

While the purveyors of data-driven education reform keep Waiting for 'Superman', the real needs of children in our public schools continue to go begging. Superman is not going to save the day for students -- especially inner city kids. They need basic resources that support their families and reduce the...

The hype about Waiting for 'Superman' has given leaders of the business model of school reform an opportunity to promote their cause with renewed vigor, as evidenced by an opinion editorial in the Washington Post on October 10. In it, heads of 16 of the nation's larger urban...

The recent report that 23 percent of students taking ACT and SAT tests do not qualify for college-level courses has reignited criticism of the education profession for "failing" to solve the problems plaguing the nation's schools.

While the need for improvement is beyond question, those of us working in the...