Well-prepared teachers are critical to student success, and California's Commission on Teacher Credentialing sets some of the highest standards for teachers in the country. A recent op-ed in The Sacramento Bee by a group representing physical education teachers claimed that the commission is lowering its standards. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The group said that the commission had dropped its requirements for California teachers to hold a bachelor's degree and complete preparation. This is incorrect. Standards for teachers have not been reduced, and in fact have been intensified over the last year - especially for teaching the new Common Core State Standards and for teaching English learners effectively.

Because most Washington school districts don't have 100 percent of their students passing state math and reading tests, the federal No Child Left Behind law says the districts must send letters to families explaining why.

But the districts don't have to like it, and 28 school superintendents have jointly written a second letter they will send along with the first, explaining why they think their schools are doing much better than the No Child letters make it seem.

Feds' failed school rules inspire revolting response  by Danny Westneat in the Seattle Times

That educators now must send out a million letters to families here telling them that all of the state's K-12 schools are failing has got to be the lowest point yet in the drive to reform public education.

It's definitely the most absurd point. But maybe it's also a turning point.

Under the folly of the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools will be judged failing unless 100 percent of students have passed state reading and math tests. That level of perfection is as rare with kids as with adults, so it effectively means all our schools are failing.