"Manifesto" Criticized For Unfairly Blaming Teachers For Education Failures

Steven J. Klees, professor of international education policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, writes in an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun (10/22), "A group of 16 school superintendents, including Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso, recently published a 'manifesto' on 'How to Fix Our Schools.'" Klees criticizes the manifesto for placing unfair blame on teachers for education failures, adding that teachers "need to be treated as professionals, with commensurate pay and considerable say over the means by which they are evaluated. ... And we need superintendents with a much broader vision of education than offered in the 'manifesto.'"