Clay, thank you for pointing out the challenge and responsibility of public schools to educate homeless students. I agree that it's a difficult issue, but it's one of so many that public schools face. Children from homes can be just as emotionally vulnerable as homeless children for a variety of reasons. Such is the challenge of public schools --they take all children, as opposed to deciding which ones they want to take. And such is the beauty and strength of public schools as well.

When Katrina hit several years ago, I was serving on a local school board in the Dallas, Texas, area. Our school district received 1100 Katrina evacuee children in a matter of a few days. They were scattered in several schools, but the sheer number of them were the same as if we had suddenly, overnight, opened a new school. I am happy to tell you that these children were welcomed with open arms and open hearts by the school district, community, teachers, and other students. They were served successfully during their time in those schools. Some stayed indefinitely, and others moved on. But their "homelessness" did not keep them from receiving quality instruction. And their presence did not disrupt anything for other students -- quite the contrary, it was a wonderful chance for other students to understand their plight and reach out to them. Many public schools do an amazing job in light of such challenges as this one and the others you mention.

Thanks, Marie and Clay. I certainly didn't mean to imply any indifference to the already-homeless. I think schools have to educate everyone, and this applies to all the ones we are talking about, on an ongoing basis. The school district I am talking about was extremely successful in showing high academic results for all children -- homeless, Katrina victims, immigrant children who came speaking no English, kids in poverty, and many other challenging situations. The issue Clay is bringing up was always present. How can schools achieve success with these kids and be measured fairly on standardized tests and the accompanying ratings for schools? One way is to measure success not strictly from the test scores but from the aspect of growth -- showing improvement for children who are not yet able to fully master the material (possibly because of homeless issues or time needed to learn English). Schools and teachers that show they are bringing kids along should be rewarded and acknowledged just as surely as the ones that have the highest scores. I hope that Secretary Duncan fully appreciates this concept and will work to incorporate it.

Thanks for the post Clay.  The video with the 6 reasons was also great.  Would teachers be opposed to "merit pay" based around their contribution to the school culture - development, cocurriculars, etc?  

Clay, regarding its being standard practice to pay teachers for extra-curriculur activities, my experience is that it is --but is often too little for the time they work and is often not updated regularly to reflect reality.

I did watch the video on growth models --thanks for that. I have heard pros and cons of growth models and know that they are not perfect. This whole arena is complex and frustrating -- even when one is trying to come up with methods that are fair and equitable. My school board experience showed that rewarding some teachers for the growth, rather than high test scores that their students were not yet capable of, at least honored their work and showed that they had made progress -something that did not happen when focusing solely on whether or not the goal was reached on test scores. I just know that many teachers of students from challenged populations actually accomplished much more than some other teachers whose kids scored off the chart ....