But whining and playing victim is not the best way out of the mess. Administrators need to be clear and passionate regarding what matters most. And they need to be persistent in staying focused on this. Then they need to accept suggestions about how they can achieve the demands being made on them in order to increase student achievement. Most parents report that they are satisfied with their public schools, but they complain about schools elsewhere.
Many people have no children in school and are remote from education.
As mentioned earlier, people are influenced by the press of media. Therefore, parents feel comfortable relying on their own information sources about their own children's schooling. However, they turn to the negative reports in the media to draw conclusions about schooling in other parts of the nation. Therefore, indeed one of our country's greatest challenges is working with inner city and immigrant children. As an illustration, imagine a principal from a successful suburban school being transferred to an inner city school with the charge to reform the inner city school in a manner that eliminates the achievement gap between the suburban school and the inner city school.