A frustrating story... but read through to the end.

When I heard the report on NPR yesterday about the issues surrounding a Rhode Island high school and the "failure" of the school to produce results despite radical changes in the organization of the school, I started reacting to the story and talking back to the radio. But by the end of the story, I was frustrated and largely resigned to accept that schools have largely become political institutions.

In the story as it appears on the NPS web site, we see  a large section of the story is dedicated to "placing blame." Teachers blaming administrators, administrators blaming teachers. In the end, students losing.

In the last several years, I have observed what I call "smoke-and-mirror" education becoming more common. Teachers are calling silly and irrelevant classroom practices "student-centered instruction." Principals are calling last-minute changes implemented to avoid labor disputes or reductions in staff "innovative reforms."

At the end of the story about Central Falls, we hear that the school has become "a cautionary tale about the complexities of school reforms and whether the federal government should be dictating what those reforms should be." Based on the evidence in the story and the observations I have made, I am beginning to wonder if educators should even be involved.

Just as the frustration sets in and I begin to loose hope, I had some messages in my inbox from NELMS friends, and I was reminded that there are good educators around and they are doing great work, and the NELMS community is full of these professionals.