By Mark Phillips

From President Obama on down, I’ve given up on educational policymakers having more than a glimmer of a clue when it comes to educational reform. It should be clear that there is a huge schism between their top-down approaches and the growing number of schools creating effective educational reform models that oppose and/or ignore these approaches.

This has never been more evident to me than when I recently viewed two films and read one high-profile book that provided an almost perfect microcosm of the promise and problems of American education today.

In my post last month, I described Vicki Abeles powerful film Beyond Measure. It provides a perceptive, revealing look at exceptional grassroots approaches and relates closely to the film and book that are the focus of this post.

via The Problems and Promise of Educational Change | Edutopia.