if you like educational policy...

Hey Obama,

Want our educational system to be better than other countries? Go check out what they are doing. I am willing to bet my state-sponsored health insurance that not a single nation besides ours is using Open Court Reading. I would also wager that most foreign countries teach subjects besides reading and math, so that a student will have seen a world map before the sixth grade.

Behold: Your blueprint and my commentary.

We will set a clear goal: Every student should graduate from high school ready for college and a career, regardless of their income, race, ethnic or language background, or disability status.

I don't think anyone disagrees with this. Lofty goal, slightly unattainable, but that's what goals are for.

But actually, one more thing: Do all students have to graduate in the same time frame? Some kids, like recent immigrants or those with learning disabilities, need an extra year or two to catch up. In the current system they don't get that, and are swept along to later fail or drop out. Getting rid of social promotion would help. Getting more money for summer school and intervention programs would help even more.

Following the lead of the nation’s governors, we’re calling on all states to develop and adopt standards in English language arts and mathematics that build toward college- and career-readiness by the time students graduate from high school.

While we're at it, let's make sure our standards for history, science, geography, technology, music, theater, and physical ed are also top notch. Part of our educational stalemate stems from an absence of relevant content.

We will support the development and use of a new generation of assessments that are aligned with college- and career-ready standards, to better determine whether students have acquired the skills they need for success.

If a student DOESN'T have the skills they need for success, are you going to allow them to fail? Do they get a redo? Because I have taught several children who were clearly not ready to advance but were denied the opportunity to relearn the skills they missed. It is virtually impossible to retain ("flunk") a kid these days. Those are the students that are going to get to high school and be so behind and so overwhelmed that they drop out, which will ruin our aforementioned graduation goal.

This here is a huge part of the problem with NCLB. Testing gives you data, but it does not solve any problems. Teachers themselves can probably give more reliable predictions about students' future academic successes. We don't really need more fancy tests.

Students need a well-rounded education to contribute as citizens in our democracy and to thrive in a global economy – from literacy to mathematics, science, and technology to history, civics, foreign languages, the arts, financial literacy, and other subjects...

Finally.

...We will support states, districts, school leaders, and teachers in implementing a more complete education through improved professional development and evidence-based instructional models and supports.

Oops, lost me at "evidence-based instructional models." Do you know how hard it is to design a lesson plan that will be successful with every single classroom in the country? That's basically what they are asking. "Evidence-based" means they tested the shit out and students scored higher than when they tested the other stuff out. Students are human, though, so scientifically-testing instructional models is hardly reliable and usually impossible. (How do you gather reliable evidence of thoughtfulness?)

Effective teachers and principals.

This section goes on and on about how we need better teachers but what they don't say is how they are going to measure "effectiveness." It damn sure needs to be something other than test scores. What if Consumer Reports rated stereos solely on how loud they go?

Greater equity. To give every student a fair chance to succeed, and give principals and teachers the resources to support student success, we will call on school districts and states to take steps to ensure equity, by such means as moving toward comparability in resources between high- and low-poverty schools.

I do like this and am curious how the administration proposes to close the resource gap. One suggestions is let schools control their own budget. My old school, for example, really didn't need to spend all that money on a literacy coach who sat around and fussed with test data. We would have been better off with some teacher aids.

Fostering a Race to the Top.

Just because you raise the speed limit does not mean your cars are going to be safer.

Investing in Innovation Fund will support local and nonprofit leaders as they develop and scale up programs that have demonstrated success, and discover the next generation of innovative solutions.

Again, I have a problem with how they define "success." Some programs are successful because they keep kids out of gangs. Some programs are successful because kids grow up happy and enjoy learning. Their test scores might not be high, though, and with current legislation, they are labeled a failure.

You know what this blueprint forgot to mention? Teachers deserve greater respect and more pay. It's not us who's broken; it's the system.