I have a piece in U.S. News today, I’m going to start contributing there more regularly.  The lede sums up the question:

The education reform world is increasingly obsessed with “diversity.” Organizations and individuals are struggling to ensure people with different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds have a place in the conversation about how to improve our schools. Although these efforts range from serious and thoughtful to plainly exhibitionist, it’s an important conversation – especially because public schools have never worked particularly well for minority students. Yet for all the attention to diversity, one perspective remains almost absent from the conversation about American education: The viewpoint of those who weren’t good at school in the first place.

This might be a problem and a blind spot. Big Picture’s Elliot Washor says it’s like a horse race with everyone wearing blinkers. He may be right and I’m a sucker for horse race analogies in any event. Read the entire piece for more on this question and how I think it impacts the norms of the field.

Do you work in education and weren’t good at school? Please send me your story! You can send it to me in 140 characters @arotherham if it’s really short.