Admirable in theory, the Common Core State Standards force regulations on schools regardless of a local district's ability to fulfill them.

Statistics that appear in the media comparing U.S. student achievement to that of students in other countries often come from the PISA survey conducted every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Common Core Standards have a lot to say about traditional academic subject matter, but educators have latched onto computers and the Internet as the magic bullet that is going to enable them to turn every child into “an independent critical thinker fully prepared for the future,” Bad idea.

Critics of Teach for America are outraged that participants are placed in teaching positions with only five weeks of teacher training. Compared to the training that prospective doctors must undergo, four-year teacher training programs should spark the same sense of outrage.

Like the other powerful school reformers who are presently changing the course of U.S. public education, Duncan comes from a privileged background and sees education as a platform for social engineering.

Public education is falling prey to the educational consulting scams proliferating as a result of the latest corporate approach to school reform. The Danielson Group is making millions offering services that an educated school workforce ought to be able to do for themselves.

Like so many of the well-bankrolled frontmen leading the discussion of school reform, Michelle Rhee is a child of privilege who brings little classroom experience to her profession of telling teachers how to teach.

Most cultural attitudes go unquestioned. Many attitudes held by Americans do not promote the idea of academic excellence in either parents or children.

Parents and teachers who don't want to be deceived as to the purpose and probable effects of the Common Core Standards need to recognize the script. Challenge school administrators and journalists to use their own thought out words when discussing the CCSS.

U.S. schools K-12 succeed in educating only about 40% of the nation's children. The only meaningful school reform would purge both schools and teachers' colleges of the "whole word" theory of reading instruction that dooms 60% of our children to semi-literacy.