give them saturday school or give them another year of 5th grade

a piece in yesterday's ny times seems to give evidence that accountability works, especially when there are consequences for families and students when learning doesn't happen.

but there's something else to this story: the mayor's promotion policy seemed to spur the improvement, but what got them there was an increase in resources --

Still, principals and other officials insist that this year's scores reflected real achievement, a result of increased spending on many initiatives. Some practices were new this year, like the Saturday classes in fifth grade. Other initiatives are nearly a decade old, like New York State's push to widen the availability of prekindergarten.

seems to give some creedence to these guys and those who follow their lead.