Waiting on Amy

I just called Washington D.C. pursuing Amy Wilkins. Amy Wilkins is a principal of the Education Trust. All Kids can learn is one of the beliefs that I share with Amy so I am most interested in what other ideas may converge. Amy also shares a belief, that the teachers association or union if you will can voluntarily link teacher evaluation and assessment to student achievement. The recent Innovative Fund grants are indicators of a possible new direction from the AFL-CIO and its leader Randi Weingarten.

3.3 million dollars have been granted to the AFL-CIO's teachers. Parts of these funds are going to two of eight winning affiliates who will work to modify the link between teacher assessment and student attainment. The Obama administrations Race to the Top funding is a catalyst for this reform thinking. The Race to the Top funding includes the accountability premise: that student achievement is indeed linked to the quality of instruction.

New thinking can grow new tools in the educator's tool kit. If Amy and I are correct in our perspectives, the next four years of Obama incentivized reform, may bare sweet fruits for our nation's children. Possibly, this is the beginning of a means for reducing the oppressively high poverty rates among Americans. At the root of prosperity is a sound educational system.

Amy, where are you?