Mark Naison is the tireless advocate who co-founded the BATs (otherwise known as the Bad Ass Teachers). Wherever I go, I find BATs. He has created a genuine force, an outlet for teachers who want to act and feel helpless. As BATs, they are ready to act and they do.

Here he reviews Reign of Error.

He says that if reformers were serious about choice, they would open more “portfolio” schools, that is, schools were students are assessed by presenting their work to a panel of judges, including their teachers, not by taking standardized tests. He does NOT mean “portfolio districts,” where schools open and close like shoe stores.

Naison also says that reformers should “Create, or recreate the vocational and technical high schools that were once a fixture in every American city, and give them full or partial exemptions from state tests. Let these schools to be targeted to growth areas in the American economy as well as sectors where high wage jobs have existed for a long time- construction, automobile and elevator repair, computers and the like. These schools would give parents a most welcome alternative to schools which feature little more than test prep and no direct job preparation. And would create positions for a new generation of teachers who would love their jobs.”