A march for public schools . . .

After Tucson I think it will take me a week to get caught up on my RSS feeds. I came across this post today and had read about the march prior to this, but thought I’d share with you this important weekend event. In this post from Jay Mathews Class Struggle he shares his thoughts about the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action.


In the post Mathew shares his concern about the factions in the education debate struggling to find common ground.

Our educational factions don’t seem capable of agreeing to disagree, even when they reveal sympathy for what the other side is saying.

He does, however, see potential for this march and rally where thousands will converge on Washington D.C. to focus on public education and demand change. The guiding principles of the march include the following.  More detail can be found here.

• Equitable funding for all public school communities
• An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation
• Teacher, family, and community leadership in forming public education policies
• Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

These are principles that I can support, but I know there are many others who see the need and advocate for high stakes tests, a national curriculum and aligned instructional materials, and evaluations reflecting student achievement. Where is the common ground that can bring us together to create systems that support success for all young people and that recognize that one size will not fit all students, schools, and districts in this learning journey?