U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has
released broad principles for renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that seek to address perennial complaints that the law's current version — the No Child Left Behind Act — is inflexible and focuses too narrowly on student test scores to get a picture of a school's achievement.
Also in November, former Wake County superintendent Del Burns, who resigned on
principle when conservatives began trying to re-segregate the public schools,
released a significant new book, Preserving the Public in Public Schools, which details the importance of pursuing integrated education and drives home the larger message that the
broader purpose of public education is to preserve our democratic republic.