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The is the third in our series of impossible problems articles.  Education is an easy target because so many problems of education have no solution or at least no clear solution consensus. See, Impossible problems - conflicting information: http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/10/impossible-problems-arising-from.html Impossible problems - complexity: http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/09/impossible-problems-arising-from.html Impossible Problems – Arising in Education by G. Donald Allen Almost all of the problems of education are impossible, or at least difficult. In fact, there seems no field of study for which almost every problem is impossible. The education literature is totally loaded with impossible problems; even still we are constantly hearing of local solutions on this problem or that. A teacher has finally connected with her students and this is how… ; A district has developed a professional development program that fully engages the teacher in fully engaging the stu

Bulletin:   School test scores are down.  Students aren’t learning math. Students can’t read very well.  Students come to college much underprepared.   The United States scores near the bottom at many assessments of math competence (e.g. PISA test*).  (Gee, even Washington politicians speak at the 10th grade level.) The alarm is raised.  Educators from the highest levels in Washington to the States, to the School Districts are concerned.  They are lost on what to do.  They are lost on how to repair these problems.  They suffer a decline in the number of capable teachers entering the field; they endure the exodus of teachers from their ranks; they embrace alternatively certified teachers hoping some of them will last.   All write scholarly white papers, convene meetings,  try to link the schools and colleges.  Nothing works very well.  They are truly lost. What does a huge infrastructure do when faced with insoluble problems, with conditions they don’t understand, with issues that k