Reply #34: You're right, I should have been more specific

[Rage for Order]

For clarity's sake, the statement I'm referring to is:

"Teacher quality represents only a small percentage of achievement, and there is little evidence that teacher quality is the greatest issue, or even one of the main problems, facing student achievement in public schools."

You did not personally state that teachers can't be blamed for poor performance on behalf of students. However, since you chose to excerpt that statement from Guardian column in your OP it led me to believe that you agree with the premise. I apologize if I was wrong in my assumption. Let me rephrase:

Teachers are either a big factor in student success & failure or they are not. One can't, on the one hand, state how vitally important quality teachers are to a child's education while also saying that poor student performance isn't the fault of teachers because "teacher quality represents only a small percentage of achievement".