Giving Compass' Take:

• Forbes connects the old analogy of the "thirteenth clown" (no matter what he/she does, it's still just another clown) as it applies to education reform; additional voices often add to the noise, without any progress made.

• The solution may be to add stronger teachers voices to the mix: They are the "front line experts" and authorities when it comes to best classroom practices. Are we listening to them enough?

• Here's more on how to achieve impact philanthropy in education.

Many leading voices of the ed reformist movement have started calling for an emphasis shift from policy to practice. That makes a certain amount of sense; the last two decades provide plenty of evidence that policy can interfere with practice far better than aid it, and ultimately students are educated by classroom practices, not by policy ...

Good research that produces solid practices has a 13th clown problem. You may recall the old political observation: if 12 clowns are in a ring slapping each other with herring and falling on banana peels, you can jump into the ring and start reciting Shakespeare, but to the audience, you'll just be the 13th clown.

So how do we filter out and rescue the good stuff?

If the principal walks into a teacher's room and says, "Hey, I've got 143 program and textbook proposals on my desk. Could you go ahead and thoroughly check each one out so we can decide what to get. You know, in your copious free time," coffee cups will be flying ...

So is there a working pipeline into classrooms? Sure. The most effective PR for any classroom practice is a trusted teacher saying, "I've done this, and it totally worked." Publishers and other manufacturers of teacher stuff know this; that's one reason that sales forces are filled with former teachers. There is no better source of teacher-trusted research than a classroom.

Read the full article about the thirteenth clown problem and education reform by Peter Greene at Forbes.