For all the talk about education by the Washington Post and the current election cycle...

For example these op-eds, "Weast's legacy reaches far beyond Montgomery " about Montgomery County, this about DC "Tough reforms, tougher politics ," and this terrifying story about the arbitrary and capricious personnel practices of the DC Public Schools, "D.C. teacher's transfer seems like revenge," all from the Post, you'd think that the Washington Post could run a special back to school section annually--I mean, they can do a section on the all-metro high school athletes for the fall, winter, and spring sports sections.

I was in Louisville in 2004 for a conference, and I discovered that the Louisville Courier-Journal runs a special back to school issue of their weekly neighborhoods section--the Post eliminated the zoned county/city news sections last year--every year.

This is the one for 2010.

The Post could really step it up here. But they don't.

At the same time, they could sponsor a multi-jurisdictional First Day Festival, which would be pretty interesting. See "First Day Festival awash in fun" from the Charleston (SC) Post and Courier.

The fascinating thing too about yesterday's op-eds is that while Michelle Rhee is lionized by the Washington Post and the national media as a great reformer, the likelihood is really that her "efforts" will fail because unlike the efforts in Montgomery County, they are not systematic and structured, but really more about personalized experiences that in too many cases rely on happy accidents rather than interconnected and robust structures, processes, support systems for teachers, students, families, schools, principals, and neighborhoods.

I don't understand why the national best practice example of school improvement in Montgomery County is deemed by the Washington Post to be for the most part irrelevant to the issue of public school education "reform" in Washington, DC.


Charleston's First Day Festival is an effort to get children and parents excited and ready for the school year. Sandwiched between morning and late afternoon showers, thousands of people came to Liberty Square on Sunday for free school supplies and free admission to the South Carolina Aquarium.


Photos by Wade Spees, Charleston Post-Courier. Volunteer Tylaja Penny, a rising 7th grader at Jerry Zucker Middle School of Science, volunteered to hand out supplies and her t-shirt reinforced the purpose of the day.