Consistent with Clayton M. Christensen, I'm dreading the prospect of three years from now seeing traditional comprehensive high schools having a plethora of technology still structured with the old modality of 'classes' and focus on content coverage.

I'm convinced change will happen only due to enough academies, charters, homeschoolers and independent schools demonstrate the real-world application of more dynamic ways of teaching and learning; Great leaders in this will be groups like EdVisions, High Tech High, Big Picture and ELOB... they can no longer be treated as trivial side conversations in the mainstream.

Shane Krukowski
Project-Based Learning Systems
http://www.projectfoundry.org

Stimulus funding should be used to reinvent Public Education. Think about it: If you had the opportunity to create an ideal school, would you create the schools we have today? Probably not. In the words of former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, we must change the way we "do" school. One such way is Learning Teams - where teachers, principals, students, professionals from the broader workforce and community members work together. Visit http://wwww.learningteams.org to learn more.

I find these comments particularly lacking in any specifics. They put forward many nice platitudes, but how do you actually do it? I suggest you push people harder in the future to provide some specific plans and do not include their comments it they don't. This was disappointing from people of this stature and I am surprised you let them get away with it.

I'm wondering if there will truly be any possibilities for additional funding for schools. My understanding is that the governors of 9 states have kept educational funding flat by giving the schools the education stimulus funds and then proceeding to cut the state funding to schools by that amount, thereby resulting in reduced resources for the schools as they scramble to cover increases in salaries and energy costs, etc. Apparently, in 10 states the cuts in state funding to schools were larger than the stimulus monies!

As an educator, I couldn't agree more with Esquith's thoughts. The idea for matches, while certainly tounge-in-check, is critical. We spend so much time preparing students for these standardized tests at the expense of creative, project-based,individualized, authentic learning. The high stakes results of these tests take much away from what real teaching/learning can and should be.
Additionally, having had the opportunity to be in a wide variety of classrooms last year, I found my personal growth as an educator enormous. So often, we are holed-up and isolated in our own classrooms, and we desparately need validation for what we do and the opportunity to recharge and refresh our tricks of the trade. What better method than time in highly energized classrooms of other exceptional teachers!

Since I actually spoke with Clayton Christensen when he was thinking through what he would say in response to this question, I happen to know that he was asked for roughly 50 words. I just thought this context might be important for the person who attacked him saying they expected more. Clayton and I have written some of our more specific thoughts in articles on CNN.com, HBR.org, and The Huffington Post among other places.

Hats off to supporting teachers and raising our profession up to be respected and regarded as one of the most important professions and ways of life. But, how do we judge one teacher as, "smart"? I believe the teachers I work with are highly intelligent and capable. They are also tired, working at a site which is over 90% Ell and very poor. If we used test scores to judge teachers, which is invalid, then we may not fair well. I strongly believe teacher's salaries must be raised to a living wage plus and with that the bar must be raised. Teachers must be consulted more around the curriculum and we must be educated and re-educated to do so. There still lingers the old school of thought and teaching and it must fade. Growing professionally is a must and collaborating too. My vision of the service educators provide is that of working with children and the community (parents), even politically, to create a healthy society. To do this we need to think outside the box of the curriculum, we need to be innovative with our teaching strategies, and the arts need to be integrated! So many needs! Teaching has become so complex due to our children being so unhealthy.

I love this teacher! (Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire is one of my very favorite books.)I see so many hours lost because teachers need to prepare students for our AIMS test. Meanwhile, students come to me needing help with integrating and applying math concepts, critical reading, grammar, writing. . . I prep students for the SAT because that preparation makes them better students, better mathematicians, better readers and writers. The proof of that pudding is in their improved performance in their classes and their enhanced scores on OTHER TESTS as well as on the SAT! I don't teach to the test so much as use it as an excuse to teach them what they will need to know to succeed in college.

I read the comments above and agree with all that was stated. Children cannot help where they live; they live where their parents can afford and I believe that children should receive the same quality education from infancy to high school so that not only get off to a stimulating early start but are able to compete with the other children from around the world; they are the leaders of tomorrow and they need to be prepared for the world and its pressures and problems. I also think that some of the stimulus money should go into teacher pay and more professional development that benefits the students we teach. In addition, we need to find other means, rather than testing, testing, testing for our students to demonstrate what they know. I am fortunate to work in a Charter School (the first in Georgia) and what we attempt to do is to do what is best for our students. We have made much progress but we are still learning because our students have a long way to go.

Kudos to Kozol, Reich, Esquith, Ravitch and Calegari for their excellent and specific suggestions for improving education for all our children. I'd like to elaborate on Ms. Calegari's comments because I consider them to be extremely important in reaching our goal of providing a first-rate education to every child in our country.

Much has been said about the need to improve the quality of teachers in failing, urban schools, but I have read little about why we are not able to attract the "best and the brightest" to the profession.

In the 1960s when I became a teacher, it was well-known that anyone "with a warm body and a degree" could become a teacher. It was also known that teaching was a job "for girls" and for working class people. Middle class professional people advised their daughters to be teachers "until you start a family," but their sons were routinely counseled out of the profession "because there's no money in it." And so teaching at the K-12 level became a low-status profession that appealed mainly to women and upwardly mobile working class people from non-competitive colleges and universities. Highly educated people who wanted to become teachers were often encouraged to go into higher education. This is still happening today as Ivy League graduates are encouraged to donate two years of their lives to teaching poor kids until they begin their "real" jobs. Think about the message this sends to our young people.

When I applied for a teaching position in a large urban city in 1964, the personnel director didn't even interview me. She just asked for proof of my college degree (No teacher certification was needed) and then whipped out a map of the "inner city" and asked me where I wanted to go. Needless to say, I was not prepared for the challenging job that awaited me; nor were my colleagues. When I became fully credentialed, I went on to suburban schools, as did most of the other teachers.

The current practice of teacher bashing is only exacerbating the situation further. My own sons, graduates of Harvard and Stanford, screamed with laughter when I suggested teaching to them. The equally talented children of my friends have chosen the professions of law, medicine, engineering and academia where they can be certain of high status, decent salaries and professional autonomy. Who will take the place of the Baby Boomers who are now beginning to retire? IN MY OPINION THE DISRESPECT AND DISDAIN SHOWN TO OUR TEACHERS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR CONTRIBUTING TO OUR INABILITY TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST TO THE TEACHING PROFESSION. Every country with an enviable education system shows extraordinary respect for its teachers. It is my understanding that in Korea, Japan and Finland the teacher is revered and accorded the highest status in the country.

The unfortunate treatment of our teachers provides us with one very inexpensive way to bring immediate improvement to American education: We can respect our teachers and empower them to be full professionals. If we want the top college graduates to enter the profession, we need to trust them to make decisions about faculty, curriculum and instruction, evaluation and all other factors that affect the education of their students. Intelligent people want to be decision-makers.

Thank you, Ms. Caligari, for your wise and insightful comments.