Take a gander at a sharp thinking editorial in the Wall Street Journal from scholar Terry Moe, who is able to articulate a lot better than the rest of us the reasons why teachers' unions have gained such a bargaining advantage, often at the expense of what's in the best interest of schools. Without engaging in simple-minded union bashing, Moe argues from that unions are not somehow "bad or ill-intentioned," instead they're organizations that are successful in furthering the interests of their members- even at the cost of children's best interests.

In spite of what Moe et al. may think, the cover story in the latest NEA Today is a call to NEA members to ratchet up their efforts to close the achievement gap, leaving the rest of us to continue with our obsession over testing. In the list of strategies that would do the trick are shrinking classes, hiring more teaching assistants, year-round schools, laptops for low-income kids, and reigning in parents to help their children. Signals NEA President Reg Weaver, "It's time to change the focus from defining the problem to doing something about it," calling for more pressure on officials to ante up funds, work closely with parents, and most importantly, better understanding the students.