These bloggers are not union executives, yet in just a couple of months, they’ve been able to shine a very large spotlight on the powerful force these private entities have become in determining educational policies in this country.

The UFT has chosen to go along with many of the corporate initiatives, as in the case of charter schools, and put up a belated and/or feeble opposition against some of the most egregious attacks coming from the business models in the private sector (data processing, test mania, diminishing autonomy in the classroom, outside ed contractors, etc.).

Thank you for joining the discussion, Mr. Casey. You offer much to think about.

But as usual with this union stewardship, it comes years too late. And no matter how good the analysis is, it won’t do anything at this point to stave off the corporate aggression and restore the dignity of the profession.

Yesterday’s story in the Washington Post (hat tip) on in-person reviews of schools by external committees is one step in the right direction for accountability: using in-person eyeballs instead of statistical eyeballs to see what should be done. Rhee …

I was going to spend some time last night connecting my weekend entry on hubris to the debate over whether a preponderance-of-evidence standard is right for policy, when I discovered that the macrotheoretical gap had already been filled by Leo Casey’s…