Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University/January, 2011
As critical as good teachers and rigorous standards are to improving student achievement, there is no silver bullet for student success. Too often, the education policy debate fails to acknowledge the complexity of the task. We ask schools to educate, nurture, and prepare students for college and careers; mediate, intervene, differentiate, organize, exercise, coordinate, communicate, train, discipline and celebrate our children. Then, we cut their budgets and complain when large numbers of uniquely challenged and gifted students don’t get the individualized help that they need and deserve.