This article was written not long after the documentary "Waiting for Superman" was released in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg donated a large amount of money to the public school system in Newark, and the controversial superintendent in Washington DC resigned.

The author gives three reasons to support his criticisms of urban school reform:

1. "Failing big city schools have become the image in the public mind for all school reform." The author feels that not all public schools are failing and the answer to fixing those that are does not lie in total school reform.

2. "Too many policymakers think that what they say, adopt, and fund is what happens in schools and classrooms." The author states that the programs policy makers develop do not consider or encompass what happens in a classroom and therefore barely make it in the door.

3. "What is prescribed now as the medicine that schools must take...ignores the history of earlier hyped cures for failing urban schools." The author goes on to mention several ideas of the past, all have failed.

In summary, the author gives several examples of ideas that would best meet the needs of failing urban schools and asks that the one-size-fits-all approach be put aside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWXwziQEa8w

I chose this video because it hits on a topic that the head honchos of education are starting to clue in on: It's people, not programs. Ineffective teachers will be ineffective no matter what program is being implemented. Although I think it could cause more problems than fix, the new evaluation system being set up currently is at least beginning to focus in on the teachers and not another program.