The Common Problem . . .
With education in the U.S. is that the final decisions are made by people who are too far removed from students. Too many student teaching supervisors have not worked with the same student body on a daily basis since the students were born. Federal funding from the Department of Education is controlled by bureaucrats who are six degrees of separation from the classroom. By the time you account for students and teachers in the classroom, principals, superintendents, school boards, and state-level Departments of Education, the federal bureaucrats are no more connected to the students than any random person in society is going to be.
If we expect educational reform that is going to make a difference in student performance, then it makes sense that educational professionals who work directly with students on a daily basis ought to be involved. If the U.S. Department of Education wanted to get serious about improving educational outcomes, it would fund a study group made up of past winners of state-level Teacher of the Year, including territories which want to participate. Get all the winners in the past decade, and you have a knowledge base of 500 recognized experts in classroom teaching. Have them meet two summers in a row. The first summer, have them identify actions and priorities which are common to many of the teachers, especially teachers in different age ranges. The second summer, focus on what successful teachers do differently, why they continue to do it that way, and why it still works.
The Uncommon Solution . . .
Identify what successful teachers do in common, and why what they do differently still works.
The Common Problem 