The finding -- reported by the Times this weekend -- that really good, and really bad, teachers are evenly distributed around New York City is jaw-dropping news...But assume it's true. What are the implications?...

If the debate around the federal role in accountability is coalescing, a much bigger question remains wide open: Could we be watching the beginning of the end for the accountability movement in toto...?

Moving toward a fairer and more modern system of gauging teacher effectiveness and using that information to inform personnel decisions will give districts the flexibility their leaders crave -and need even more when budgets are shrinking...

...[A]ccording to a study Matthew Chingos and I just completed, teachers get better in the first few years of teaching, and then their performance slips in later years...