WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Austin Poly's first graduating class.

Austin Poly H.S. junior Deandre Joyce

The spring protest over the teachers’ firing was a highlight of his year, Mr. Joyce said. He was among the 36 students suspended for participating in the walkout and sit-in. “Our voices can be heard,” he said. “There is power in numbers.” -- Chicago News Cooperative

D.C. Chancellor Kaya Henderson

Upon hearing of principal Bill Kerlina's resignation: “I guess that we all know everything ain’t for everybody.” -- Bill Turque, Washington Post

Shael Polakow-Suransky

“The dilemma that schools will face is whether to cut a teacher who has been working with kids all day long in a classroom or cut teachers who are working in a support capacity, like librarians." -- NYT

The Reform Pretenders

"I do not blame Mr. Brizard for not raising the graduation rate to 75% in so short a time. Anyone who has engaged in real school reform knows that it would be virtually impossible to do what he promised that quickly. However, I do blame him for pretending that he could. Yet if one is a Klein reformer, trained by the Broad Superintendent Academy, one is taught to scoff at incremental change. The hard work of deep reform that transforms systems is for those old apologists who stay in town for a decade." -- Principal Carol Corbett Burris, 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator