Thanks to the Reading Today Daily blog I learned about a new report called A Broader, Bolder Approach To Education.

It’s an excellent statement that focuses on the importance of working on inequalities outside the schoolhouse door, such as economics and health, to promote academic achievement, as well as calling for a broader interpretation of what “academic achievement” is. You can also access summaries of important research backing-up the statement.

The statement is issued by a large number of people whom I respect, including some whom I worked closely with during my nineteen year career as a community organizer before I became a public school teacher.

One other thing that I noticed is that there doesn’t appear to be a single initiating signer of the statement who is presently teaching in K-12 public schools (at least, I didn’t see anything in the short bio’s of all the signers that indicated they were). That doesn’t take away from the wisdom or importance of the statement itself, and people can easily become co-signers on the website, but it does seem like an odd omission.

I’ve contacted them to ask about it.