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Yes, it is interesting how these people who ostensibly wanted to improve learning for children insulted the very people who could do so. "When the largest stakeholders in any endeavor are seen as the opposition, you will fail."

As you say, there are school districts across the country that are quietly but persistently improving education for all children. I happen to live in one of them - the Long Beach(CA)Unified School District. For many years Long Beach has built a reputation of excellence by hiring carefully, providing excellent in-service training to all teachers and providing the best possible instruction to students. My own son received a world-class education at Long Beach Polytechnic High School and was able to earn admission to Harvard University. His teachers were excellent.

One thing citizens in Long Beach NEVER hear: Talk about "bad" teachers. When this recession is over, Long Beach and other districts that treat their teachers with respect will be able to continue hiring the best qualified teachers, while places like DC and Los Angeles will go begging once again. They'll probably blame "the unions" or some other organization that has nothing to do with hiring teachers, but we'll all know the truth and we'll remember.

John Merrow hits the same button - loggerheads rather than colleagues (see http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=5232). His poles are Arne Duncan and the test batteries vs. smart kids who don't show smart on those tests and good teachers whose teaching isn't mirrored on their kids' scores. Another nuance of those same poles are unions vs. philanthropists, or the poor vs. the rich, or any of several similar formulations back to when Washington was a guy and the Brits were bad.

Those polarities are deliberate impositions of stumbling blocks formulated to stop change. They don't really exist. Duncan, et.al., are not malevolent monsters, they just want data driven decisions; unions, teachers, and kids aren't bumps on logs, they just want inspiration. We need good models of good teaching to "go viral."

Ironically, the tech is there. One such model, the Khan Academy, is working. I had a class of Algebra kids formulating how they could "teach their teacher" how to use Khan to make their classrooms more fun and productive. Another such model, all over the googlized net in fact, shows how to end HIV and AIDS with tests, early medication, and early treatment. I had another class of Health Ed formulate how they'd teach their health teacher how to use the net to update her curriculum.

It really isn't hard at all. Just stop screaming at each other and listen, look, and respond.

I agree with the general sentiment of your post, however I disagree that the problem is in the "how." There is a sizable number of people in education who will not agree on the "what." Even the three "whats" you listed have been vehemently opposed by what you call the "establishment" [evaluating teachers and removing low performers from their positions; closing under-enrolled school buildings; recruiting new principals and/or school management companies to take over troubled schools]. Also, to be fair, I don't think anyone in education does not agree that outside factors play a major role in student achievement/performance. They may not do such a good job at talking about it as others do, and that may be because they then move on to the "whats" that could create the better EDUCATION system that will serve these students. I also think that the climate as it currently exists has led one group to focusing on reacting rather than drawing attention to their own "whats," ideas on the "hows," and finding common ground.

I do not agree with the fact that when children come from poverty or some other outside factor, they can not learn to read, write and spell like their peers. Research has long concluded that poverty or race or homelife were not contributing factors to a child's ability to learn to read and write satisfactorily to the standards. I would agree that it is difficult to get consensus when we are shooting barbs at one another. Bottom line...our teachers need to be trained in our Universities to be surgeons and not general practitioners in our classrooms. It's not the unions, it's the Universities that fail to prepare our teachers for their job assignment in the real world classrooms of today. Think about the dollars spent in PD today in our nations schools. Check out Hazleton School District. They have masses of ELL children and children in poverty yet they managed to improve their reading scores by 50% by using a professional company by the name of Step By Step Learning. They guarantee 20% increase. This is exciting news at a time of crisis. Perhaps a quick call to Hazleton or Step By Step Learning could settle this easily and swiftly. Check it out. I was amazed at their success.