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Quote by Dana Goldstein

“The persistence of housing discrimination and housing segregation makes it difficult at times to integrate schools. So what flows from that is disappointment and cynicism and the search for what's next. And it's really in the search for what's next after that that we come upon ideas like increasing standardized testing for kids and using those tests scores to hold teachers accountable.”

Author

Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein is an American journalist and author specializing in education, social policy, and public affairs. She writes for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other major outlets, known for her in-depth reporting on education issues. Her book 'The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession' explores the evolution and controversies of teaching in the U.S. Goldstein's work focuses on educational inequality, teacher policy, and school reform, aiming to illuminate complex issues in the education system. She resides in Brooklyn, New York, continuing her writing and reporting. more

“The first generation of school reformers I talk about - nineteenth century education reformer Horace Mann, Catharine Beecher - they are true believers in their vision for public education. They have a missionary zeal. And this to me connects them a lot to folks today, whether it's education activist Campbell Brown or former D.C. public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. It's a righteous sense, a reform push that's driven by a strong belief in a particular set of solutions.”

Today School Belief Strong Vision Solutions Driven Believer Activist Missionary Righteous Public School Zeal Public Education True Believer

Author:Dana Goldstein

“I don't think school reform should be motivated by missionary zeal. I think it should be motivated by evidence of what works. I have been critical of Teach For America in the past but I think one of the things about their model that's interesting is that they're constantly looking at it and whether what they're doing works and reassessing their model, and making changes. So to the extent that I believe everyone in the education sector should be looking at evidence, reassessing, making tweaks to figure out what works, I think it's a positive model.”

Thinking Believe School Past I Believe Interesting Teach Evidence Motivated Missionary Making Changes Zeal Tweak

Author:Dana Goldstein

“In North Carolina, for example, it takes 15 years to move a teacher's salary from $30,000 to $40,000. So it's really difficult to argue that pay doesn't have something to do with the lack of prestige.”

Moving Difficult Arguing Prestige

Author:Dana Goldstein

“There's a small movement of teacher-led schools across the country. These are schools that don't have a traditional principal, teachers come together and actually run the school themselves. That's kind of the most radical way, but I think something that's more doable across the board is just creating career ladders for teachers that allow certain teachers after a certain number of years to inhabit new roles. Roles mentoring their peers, helping train novice teachers to be better at their jobs, roles writing the curriculum, leading on lesson planning.”

Thinking Writing Kind Country Helping Running School Together Teacher Train Planning Radical Mentoring

Author:Dana Goldstein