Live Amtrak blogging: So I just finished the second day of kibbutzing on the "tool kit" that comes with NCLB, yukking about whether it works, whether it is even being used, etc. Yesterday was the formal conference, which AFT Michele blogs about here, here, and here. I presented a paper that basically took 30-pages to argue that NCLB is entirely a mythical myth when it comes to hard-core restructuring for districts that repeatedly fail to make AYP.

Today we got together to talk about how the collection of papers should be framed when the book comes out next spring. Basically, we were supposed to talk about the take-aways from the event.

This is probably the kind of thing where you had to be there yesterday to appreciate how surreal it all was, but I sort of feel like I just rolled out of a VW van in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show or something. Republicans arguing that the law can-not, will-not work. Democrats arguing it will turn back the clock in terms of Civil Rights if we walked away from the law. We know what works but there is simply no will. Bill Clinton taught more kids to read than NCLB. Cats and dogs, living together, etc..

The whole conference built up to an all-star panel of Mike Smith (a white male), Diane Ravitch (a white female), Kati Haycock (a white female), and Checker Finn (a white male,) which dazzled me with its collective brilliance, but left me (a white male) more uncertain than ever about what we can reasonably conclude about NCLB.

I do want to post a little later on a funny/interesting paper that was presented by Jay Greene (a white male).

UPDATE: Bloomberg News (another haven for white males) provides some clarity.

UPDATE II: Yes, thanks for asking. I did get a chance to meet AFT Michele (a perfectly lovely white female.)

UPDATE III: AFT Michele has a good summary, and I appreciate that she felt my pain. Melancholy is a good word for the overall tone of the event. And she points to part of the conversation that I think CAN actually establish some meaningful common reform ground: emphasizing more carrot-style incentives for states, districts, and schools to do what we know can work. (At one point in our meeting today, we had about 12 metaphors in play at once - like providing carrots and a roadmap, while maintaining a hammer somewhere for good measure.)