More and more, however, our leaders are building strong relationships with school administrators, doing the hard work of collaborative school improvement -- and producing better results for children.
And finally, New Orleans has done the hard work of changing the school culture while embracing new instructional methods.
The improvement in results was welcomed by the government and teachers, who said it was testimony to the hard work of pupils and schools, but it will inevitably spark another row about exam standards as the pass rate edges towards 100%.
Did I ever think that the hard work of my childhood, schooling and professional years would lead to this? Nope.
But critics argue that school choice is akin to a boat captain jumping ship at the sight of an iceberg rather than just steering around it; in other words, the proposals avoid the hard work of actually improving failing schools, and instead funnel taxpayer money that are unaccountable to the federal government.
The constant drumbeat of charter schools, vouchers and small schools, largely encouraged by private money, are only a distraction from the hard work of maintaining a good public school system with uniformly high standards.
"Thanks to the focus and hard work of the local authority and school leaders, the city has turned things around.
The really hard work of repairing and reconstructing roads, schools and hospitals has barely begun.
But, with the strategy of involving schools, and the hard work of children like Dipish and the community, attitudes are now changing.
