why i'm here

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For over two decades I worked inside American public schools as a teacher, assistant principal, and building principal. I believed in the system. I still believe in the kids.

But somewhere along the way the system stopped trusting the people closest to children - the teachers who know them, the parents who raise them, the principals who walk the halls with them - and started trusting vendors. Companies that write the standards, sell the tests, fund the politicians, and collect the contracts. Every year. Without proof that a single child’s life got better.

Here’s what I know after 22 years.

A percentile is permanent by math. Half of all kids will always score below the 50th percentile. Always. That’s not a crisis to solve - that’s how percentiles work. But we built an entire industry around pretending otherwise.

And when they tell you it’s not about percentiles - that there’s a standard score, a benchmark, a cutoff number - I have one question.

What happens below it?

Because if you’re drawing a line, you’re making an assumption about the kids on the wrong side of it. So tell me specifically: what life are you afraid they’ll have? What does that person look like? What do they do? Who are they?

I want to be clear about something. This isn’t about test scores predicting whether someone becomes a good person or a hard worker. I know electricians and contractors and welders and parents and neighbors who scored well above that line. That’s not the point. The point is the system decided which life is worth aiming for - and quietly told every kid who didn’t fit that picture that something was wrong with them.

Are you willing to look those families in the eye and tell them their life was the outcome everyone was trying to avoid?

Because that’s what the number implies. Every time.

Imagine if we did this with PE. If we pulled kids who couldn’t run a mile fast enough out of recess, put them on a treadmill alone with headphones, drilled them on cardiovascular data, measured them against a percentile, and told them they were behind. Everyone would call that cruel. Everyone would say let the kid play, let them grow, they’ll be fine.

So why is reading different?

It’s a skill. It develops at different rates in different kids. That doesn’t make their life worth less. It makes them human.

We started measuring kids like this in the early 2000s. We told them they were behind. We pulled them from the things they loved and put them in intervention. We did it again the next year. And the year after.

It’s not a coincidence that’s exactly when kids started not wanting to go to school anymore.

I’m not against accountability. I’m against fake accountability — the kind that makes vendors rich and makes kids feel like the problem.

It's time.

Parents - I’ve seen your texts. I’ve heard your conversations at pickup. You already know something is wrong. You’ve been saying it quietly for years.

Teachers - you know. You’ve known. You close your door and you teach the kid in front of you because that’s what actually works. You’ve been doing the right thing in spite of the system, not because of it.

It’s time to stop being quiet about it.

This isn’t about being angry. It’s about being honest. Our kids deserve that.

Every child deserves a floor. After that, it’s their life.