In the recent vote for 2012 Educational Policy Turkey of the Year Award, the Florida SBOE race-based test score goals came in a close second to TFA for the prize. In fact, two of my Linkedin connections made the following comments in response the posting:

 I vote for ALL ESEA waivers that systematize the achievement gap in many, many states outside of Texas.

…I wonder if some of the waiver application approaches are bigger “turkeys”???

Their comments inspired this post.

In my Educational Foundations course that I teach each fall at UT-Austin, I have adapted the History of School Reform, one of my favorite graduate courses at SUSE formerly taught by David Tyack (and also Larry Cuban). Back in 2006, as a new professor, I approached Tyack and Cuban and they graciously helped develop my course with their syllabus and input —I am indebted to them. One of the…