About the School Principal

Katherine Cox has recently retired as a principal in the state of Arizona, full of thoughts and possible solutions about the state of America’s public school system. She worked as an elementary principal at a school with about 600 students, as a high school principal with about 2000 students, and as an elementary teacher, teaching 3rd-8th graders. For eight of those years, she taught a self-contained program for gifted 5th and 6th graders. She has seen a great deal of change in her 30+ years in public education. In her opinion, much of the change has ironically diverted us from our goal of a superior public school system. She believes that all students want to be successful in school. Throughout her career she was committed to helping students who were not motivated or who had difficulty learning. However, she believes that in our recent well-intentioned efforts to help students who are behind that we are neglecting our other students — those who are already motivated to work and who desire to learn — those students who are already finding success in school.

“I believe that with input from educators, parents, and local communities that we can eventually arrive at realistic solutions which ensure that every child in America does reach his or her potential. By communicating together on this blog in a problem-solving fashion, we just might be able to keep the train on the track before it derails. Please join me with your comments and your opinions. I am a person who puts my opinions out there. You won’t always agree with me. But that’s okay. If each of us communicates his or her experiences under NCLB and Race to the Top, we can identify where the problems lie. Without doing that, how can we possibly begin offering solutions unless we first understand the issues themselves? I believe there’s been a rush to judgment and that the federal and state governments have put solutions into place without fully understanding the complexity of educational issues. We need to convince the federal government to put the brakes on so that the nation can assess the consequences of the change brought about by NCLB. Congress should not reauthorize NCLB until this is done.” (Katherine Cox, September 20, 2010)

2011 Update:  I have now joined Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action and am on the Organizing Committee, the Information Committee, the Social Networking Committee, and I work on the website. Please join me. Go to www.saveourschoolsmarch.org