I LOVE SUSAN ROJAS - "I could teach a monkey to count." - this is the problem with American education and employers, they don't want thinkers, they want monkeys that count to three and push buttons.

This teacher sounds like my daughter's kindergarten teacher at Orca K-8, and I feel very lucky.

In Washington State, I could imagine the cream of the crop educators designing a new curriculum only to have it savaged eight ways to sunday by a variety of school districts because it didn't meet the specific needs of its student residents.

I did analytical work for Colorado Public Schools, specifically investigating the efficacy of the "No Child Left Behind" programs.

The results were astonishingly clear: The more state and federal funds a school got, the more the student's achievement rose. Location of the schools was irrelevant - rich and poor and middle class neighborhoods all saw the same results. More money = Better education. Period. No other variables had even close to as much influence.

We released the results publicly, but no one ever seemed to notice or care much. I guess everyone has their own beliefs, facts be damned.

@4 - give us a link! Would love to read it...

@5,

I dug around a bit on CO's dept of ed. webpage but I can't find the report I helped on. This one looks like a follow-up (although I just skimmed it, I can't be sure if it's the same work I was doing):
http://www.cde.state.co.us/FedPrograms/d…

There's a bunch of other reports on their website too if you feel adventurous.