A little bit of staff development is a useless thing. He points to data that shows that when teachers worked together on developing math texts, their students did better. This correction needs to be directed at the seeming disconnect between the standards and the means by which mastery of these standards is assessed. If you play the violin, you demonstrate your competence by playing your instrument. You don't take a paper and pencil test.
Many teachers get nervous when they hear talk about exposing their classrooms to close scrutiny.
A more general take on Wolk's remarks seemed to be that, if this is where education reform should be going, the National Writing Project is in exactly the right place.