Thread by @citizenstewart

About 10 education truths I hope the next president understands.

1. Our kids are capable of achieving far more than their teachers and schools think they are capable of achieving.

The #BeliefGap is real and dangerous.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

2. Money matters in education, but money properly spent matters much more.

The way districts spend money on staffing, programs, and buildings is rife with inequity and waste.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

3. Good teaching matters regardless of where students come from. At present, students who struggle the most are assigned to teachers least capable of providing great teaching. That is a national scandal.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

4. No, teachers do not know best. Currently, Ed Schools draw teachers from the lower end of the collegiate pool and then fails to prepare them with evidence-based teaching knowledge. That is untenable.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

5. No one-size-fits-all program will ever deliver a humane education to every American child. Parental choice of educational programs are not a threat to education, but a fulfillment of it.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

6. Charter schools, like magnet schools, are neither the sole solution nor the sole problem in public education. They shouldn't be singled out for special critique while ignoring the inefficient traditional public schools for the same scrutiny.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

7. Standardized testing is no more biased or inefficient than the unstandardized tests constructed by a nation of teachers who harbor biases and low-expectations for children of color. When you get fat, don't blame the scale.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

7. Standardized test scores have been used for decades in the service of civil rights cases against states and school districts. Imagine erasing that data.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

8. School boards are not models of democracy. In fact, most of the bad things that have happened to people of color in schools has happened under elected school boards.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

9. Yes, there are no silver bullets in education. That doesn't mean there isn't usable knowledge about "what works" that isn't being employed in classrooms every day.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden

10. Per-Pupil funding is for the pupil, not the pedagogue. When families move a student, the per-pupil allotment moves with them. This isn't "siphoning," this is a child-centric system rather than a system-centric system.

#HowAreTheChildren @JoeBiden