Public Schools, Private Scandals — Patrick Conley

Public Schools, Private Scandals describes a world in which Race to the Top refers to the mad scramble for power, prestige, and dominance in a public school doing all it can to cover up academic and moral deficiencies with expert public relations. No sex scandal can't be hidden from public view. Public Relations can airbrush any scene, no matter how sordid. No raw data on attendance or student performance can't be manipulated to show improvement where there is none. Test scores and test settings can be massaged. Data can be tweaked and investigators can be hoodwinked. Students matter little to aloof and distant educators with their eyes on the prize: a lucrative central office position or, perhaps even better, a consulting job. All that impedes their professional success is human frailty and the stubborn insistence of a few reactionaries, perhaps from a distant era, on academic and moral standards.