American school fail

The truth about failure in American schools found here is a great piece of writing. Rather than write more about this subject as others have done, I prefer to note for future reference what Stephen Downes has found to be the best part:

"Throughout the world, the full picture of any nation's schools reflects the social realities of that country; when schools appear to be failures, the facts show that social failures (the conditions of children's lives outside of school) are driving the educational data. And we will certainly never address these social failures – and the truth about our schools – if political leaders and media voices refuse even to say the word 'poverty', while promoting simplistic manipulation of data." And I would add that much of the churn around 'school reform' is deflection in an attempt to avoid dealing with poverty and social equity.

So, when will we critically think issues and stop focusing on band-aid reforms and pointing fingers?