Rory Stewart:Today, instead of deferring to long practical experience, and deep knowledge of a particular place, managers prefer to implement 'best practice' from somewhere else; they impose theoretical models with less and less understanding of what does not work on the ground; and they justify decisions with abstract metrics, and obscure concepts. And as more and more positions are filled with people with this mentality, there are fewer people, with the confidence, or seniority, to expose the shallowness of this approach. Our culture is beginning to forget what deep knowledge and contact with the ground looked like, or why it mattered.

The solution must be to give power back to people with deep knowledge. But it won't happen through running training courses. You need to force institutions to change their promotion criteria, and put those with knowledge, judgement and experience back at the very top. Some of them might not be ideal managers: they might be less popular with staff, unappealing to stake-holders, more difficult to work with. But they can offer things we have forgotten how to measure: not just long experience, but rigour, a sense of vocation, and unexpected frames of reference. They might have prevented some of our recent mistakes. They could certainly bring more flexible and inventive ways of engaging with the world. And we cannot afford to continue to ignore them.Something to consider in light of Oconomowoc's planned changes.

More Intelligent Life: Professor Claude Steele, of Stanford, studies the effects of performance anxiety on academic tests. He set a group of students consisting of African-Americans and Caucasians a test, telling them it would measure intellectual ability. The African-Americans performed worse than the Caucasians. Steele then gave a separate group the same test, telling them it was just a preparatory drill. The gulf narrowed sharply. The "achievement gap" in us education has complex causes, but one may be that bright African-American students are more likely to feel they are representing their ethnic group, which leads them to overthink. How do you learn to unthink? Dylan believes the creative impulse needs protecting from self-analysis: "As you get older, you get smarter, and that can hinder you...You've got to programme your brain not to think too much." Flann O'Brien said we should be "calculatedly stupid" in order to write. The only reliable cure for overthinking seems to be enjoyment, something that both success and analysis can dull. Experienced athletes and artists often complain that they have lost touch with what made them love what they do in the first place. Thinking about it is a poor substitute.

The DPI released graduation rates last year using both the new and old calculation method for the state and individual school districts, and did the same again this year. An example of the difference between the two calculations: The legacy rate for the most recent data shows Wisconsin's students had a 90.5% graduation rate for 2011, instead of the 87% rate for that class under the new method the federal government considers more accurate. Using the new, stricter method, the data shows Milwaukee Public Schools' graduation rate increased for 2011 to 62.8%., up from 61.1% in 2010. "We have much more work to do, but these numbers - along with ACT score growth and growth in 10th grade state test scores - show that we continue to move in the right direction," MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton said in a statement Thursday. MPS officials on Thursday pointed out that the 1.7 percentage-point increase between the two years for the district was greater than the state four-year graduation rate increase in that time. The state's four-year rate increased 1.3 percentage points, from 85.7% in 2009-'10.Matthew DeFour:The annual report from the Department of Public Instruction released Thursday also showed Madison's four-year graduation rate dipped slightly last year to 73.7 percent. According to the data, 50.1 percent of Madison's black students graduated in four years, up from 48.3 percent in 2010. The white student graduation rate declined about 3.1 percentage points, to 84.1 percent. District officials and education experts said it was unclear what accounted for the changes, and it's difficult to draw any conclusions about Madison's achievement gap from one or two years of data. "You need to be looking over a period of several years that what you're looking at is real change rather than a little blip from one to the other," said Adam Gamoran, director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. The graduation rates of black and white students in Madison have been a major topic of discussion in the city over the past year.Much more on the proposed Madison Preparatory IB charter school, here. Standing Firm on Grad Rates by Chuck Edwards:Even as the Obama administration is busy dismantling much of NCLB through waivers, it is standing firm on some Bush-era decisions. One of them is to consider high school graduation to be exactly that -- graduating with a regular diploma, even if it takes five or six years for kids with special barriers. For accountability decisions affecting high schools, the Bush administration would not allow states to give schools "graduation" credit for students who obtain a GED or certificate of completion -- only a regular diploma would do. In response to the Obama administration's new "ESEA Flexibility" initiative, states have taken another run at that decision, which was enshrined in last-gasp Bush regulations issued in October 2008.

Fred Grimm:Proficiency under pressure -- that's what we test for. Right? That's what public education is all about in the new Florida. Standardized tests decide whether students graduate, how much teachers earn, what performance grades schools get, how much bonus money to give to schools that excel. So much rides on test outcomes that classroom curriculums have been narrowed to a kind of perpetual test preparation. And test taking. The Fort Myers News-Press, looking at the state's mandatory testing regime, counted 27 standardized tests that eighth-grade students were required to jam into this school year. Students, teachers, principals, administrators, superintendents, even school board members, all know they're judged by the outcomes of tests. Yet the state superintendent, the state board of education and NCS Pearson, the giant testing corporation with a four-year, $254 million contract to administer the state's standardized test regime, seem to suffer no such accountability. Their competence, their proficiency under pressure has been tested this school year. They flunked and flunked spectacularly. Statement from Commissioner Robinson on FCAT Writing Yesterday's vote by the State Board of Education to recalibrate the school grading scale of the FCAT Writing test was done in response to a tougher grading system that appropriately expects our students to understand proper punctuation, spelling and grammar. The Board acted after it became clear that students were posting significantly lower scores under newer, tougher writing standards. We are asking more from our students and teachers than we ever have. I believe it is appropriate to expect that our students know how to spell and how to properly punctuate a sentence. Before this year, those basics were not given enough attention, nor did we give enough attention to communicating these basic expectations to our teachers. I support the Board's decision to recalibrate the school grading scale while keeping the writing standards high.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:Amid a crushing budget bind, Milwaukee Public Schools has had to cut dozens of specialized teachers from its classrooms in recent years - teachers who bring arts, music and physical education to Milwaukee's kids. That's why we like a new idea proposed by Superintendent Gregory Thornton. Thornton is proposing the creation of a $13.4 million fund in the district's budget to ensure that schools have at least one arts, music or physical education instructor. The money would be allocated to all MPS schools based on size. At minimum, schools would receive enough money to pay for one of the three programs for students at least one day a week. Studies confirm the value of such education for kids,...

Kristen A. Graham:Knudsen, in a news conference, avoided references to the "Philadelphia School District." "We are now looking at a much broader definition of education in the city that includes not only district schools but other schools as well," he said. Mayor Nutter hailed the plan, which he said would push control over education down to the school level. "If we don't take significant action, the system will collapse," the mayor said at a separate news conference. "If you care about kids and if you care about education, if you care about the future of this city, that's what we need to all grow up and deal with." Teachers union president Jerry Jordan decried the radical restructuring as the SRC divesting itself of many of the core responsibilities of public education. He called it a "cynical, right-wing, market-driven" blueprint. "This is totally dismantling the system," Jordan said. "It's a business plan crafted to privatize the services within the School District."Decentralization is inevitable, regardless of idealogy. We're no longer sending most kids to work the fields and cattle before/after school or in the summer.

Channel3000.com, via a kind reader:A teenager said she was attacked and beaten by three classmates near East High School. Two 16-year-old girls and a 15-year-old girl were arrested last week in connection with the assault. The victim, Alana Krupp, 15, said she knows the girls involved but maintains she wasn't talking trash about them. The incident happened last Wednesday at the intersection of Fourth Street and Winnebago Street a block south of East High School. Krupp arrived at the bus stop like any other day, but in a few seconds an otherwise OK freshman year at East High School was turned upside down when she was confronted by the girls. "She said, 'I wanted to fight you.' And I said, 'I'm not going to fight you, because there's no point in it. I never did anything to you,'" Krupp said. "She hit me in the face, and I got pulled down to the ground by my hair."Related: Madison police calls near local high schools: 1996-2006.