New Column, Old Columnist

I retired in June, sort of, but not really. When I took the early retirement package The Post offered, it was clear to everyone -- my family, my colleagues and particularly me -- that I was too immature to change my daily routine in any way and not fall apart. So The Post kindly gave me a contract so I could keep coming to work and writing about schools. It's pathetic, but that's all I want to do.

Part of the deal is a new education column, starting today, to run every Monday in the Metro section of the newspaper. I want readers of this weekly online column, Class Struggle, to know that if you have grown accustomed to checking my musings here on washingtonpost.com every Monday, and fear change as I do, you have nothing to worry about. I plan to write this column until I die.

I'm serious. Here on the Internet, I can grab topics from every part of the education world, and every part of the country. That means that no matter where the rest of my life takes me, I think I can talk the editors of washingtonpost.com into letting me keep writing this until I lose touch with reality. When that happens, I am sure you will let me know.

I will also continue to write the Extra Credit column for The Post Extra sections on Thursdays and the Admissions 101 discussion group on college application issues that I moderate on washingtonpost.com. Although today's Class Struggle column is introducing the new Metro column, and thus is close to what you will see on Page 2 of our Metro section, henceforth the two columns will follow different paths. The Metro column will focus on important or bizarre developments in Washington area schools, while this column will be all over the map, as usual letting me vent on whatever I find most brilliant or idiotic in what is going on in classrooms all over the country these days.

There are not many education columns. Some would allege that is because the subject is so dull. I would say it is because it is too dangerous. Columnists who write about sports or politics or finance can say anything they want and people will accept it as interesting comment, since most of us, when it comes to those fields of endeavor, are just spectators. We might have a little money on a game or a candidate or a stock, but that's about it.

Schools, on the other hand, are an integral part of our lives. Almost every one of us went to school. Many of us have children going to school. Most American parents think the most important thing they can do for their children is make sure they get a good education. Writers who mess around with such a personal issue find that readers have very passionate views on the matter. Factions form. Tempers are lost. But I have been writing about students, educators, parents and policymakers long enough to know that I can avoid unnecessary mayhem by remembering, whenever I start tapping at the keyboard, that none of us knows for sure what will help our schools improve, and many people know more than I do.

Since I walked into Garfield High School in East Los Angeles 26 years ago and was shocked to see low-income students succeeding in a torturously difficult calculus classes, I have been intent on looking for teachers and schools that defy expectations by raising significantly the achievement of our most disadvantaged children. Most of my books have addressed that issue, in my view the most important of our era. But I also wrote a book about high schools in our most affluent communities, and another about how students and their families should handle the nationwide lust for places in the Ivy League.

The new column will discuss many ways of improving education, particularly in the Washington area. We have some the best schools in the country, and some of the worst. I will write about both, and about their teachers. In my experience, they are the most knowledgeable, and often least consulted, experts on how to enhance learning.

What will this school year bring? Here are some of the questions I plan to explore:

1. Will Michelle A. Rhee succeed? The D.C. schools chancellor, and her ally Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, are the most interesting education story in the country. She is making many changes that the best teachers I know support, and a few changes that puzzle them. Eventually, I think, the principals she has hired are going to start taking unpopular, but necessary, measures, such as firing ineffective teachers and insisting that students do their homework. What happens then I can't predict.

2. Will Prince George's County finally reach its potential as an educational model for ethnically diverse suburbs? The Maryland district, despite its checkered political history and large number of disadvantaged students, has also picked a superintendent -- John E. Deasy -- whose moves please the teachers who most influence my views. Next to the Districtit may be the most intriguing story in the country.

3. Can Fairfax and Montgomery counties and our other wealthy suburbs survive another round of budget cuts without tarnishing their reputations as some of the best public systems in the country? I often call suburban Washington the golden triangle of American schools. Nowhere else is the teaching as good or the standards as high. But tax revenues are down. That will make it difficult to maintain such quality.