T&G has a change of heart

(or maybe just a change of editor?)

Today's lead editorial "Raising Achievement" regarding yesterday's panel sponsored by the Research Bureau is most interesting in its ending:

...the forum did provide some guidance for what works that all can apply: opportunity for all, school-based planning and control, and a mindset that emphasizes bold innovation and experimentation over cheap political talk.

Wait a minute! "(S)chool-based planning and control"? Is this the same newspaper that for years has been telling us about how important statewide standards are? The same paper that has been pro-NCLB since its inception?

And how about that "bold innovation and experimentation"? If we take this at face value (as opposed to, say, code for "lift the cap on charter schools"), this would require that we trust our teachers. That we allow some light and air into classrooms. That we allow, even encourage, much less top-down and much more bottom-up curriculum development.

I'm all for it. I'm hoping that the editors at the T&G are, as well, and that they are willing to follow through on exactly what that really means.