Post by William Murphy, EdD

Christopher Stewart is one of the few education writers I still read because his orientation remains unsullied by ideology, self interest, and cash incentives that have taken over the world of hot-takes and easy solutions. Funnily, and clickbait title aside, he apparently feels the same about Tim Daly. Tim is about as solid a dude as “Ed Reform” still has to offer and the combination of their two articles is wicked smart. As Indianapolis has to navigate an Ed Reform lobby taking what many are calling a premature, self-aggrandizing victory lap over recent legislative actions that should neither yet be called a victory nor a failure, I think the key learning from Chris is prescient: “… the history of education reform is an America-sized graveyard of confident diagnoses, over-confident prescriptions, and chronic disavowal of interventionist failures. We diagnosed teacher quality and built evaluation systems that changed little. We diagnosed standards and built Common Core. We diagnosed school governance and built portfolios of choice. Each diagnosis contained truth. Each remedy underperformed because the diagnosis was partial…” Keep an eye on Indy, but be a critical consumer of convenient narratives.