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School-reform critics ignore power of accountability***Critics of the law, such as the National Education Association, the powerful teachers union, are trying to stir up opposition from educators and Democratic presidential candidates. But a victory for them would strip superintendents such as Ross of the outside pressure needed to find better-qualified teachers, adopt more effective curriculums and educate children who in the past were allowed to fail.

Critics' arguments against raising standards and holding educators accountable don't stand up. Among them:

o There's no money to support reform . The federal funding of poor schools has grown 33% during the past two years.

o The reform goals are unrealistic . The law demands that by 2014, all children must score as "proficient" learners on state tests. Most educators agree that the ambitious goal probably won't be met. But it is worth striving for. Extending the deadline now would slow down the pace of school reform.

o The law relies on one-size-fits-all testing . In fact, the tests that critics revile identify the children whom teachers are failing to reach. In Gainesville, Fla., for example, Abraham Lincoln Middle School received an "A" under the state's grading system. But federally required tests revealed a wide racial learning gap. While 90% of Lincoln's white students were proficient in math and reading, only 22% of the black students were proficient in reading and 15% in math.***

A journalistic lesson in racism***When is a column poking fun at hip-hop not really a story about the music or culture?

When it becomes a minstrel show.

At least that's the reaction some had recently after reading a Dec. 2 column in the Naples Daily News satirizing the speech patterns of rap fans in an effort to describe a hip-hop concert that failed when the promised headliner didn't show.

Writer Brent Batten decided to tell the story using hip-hop slang and providing what he called an "English translation" as "a public service."

A sample:

"See, da brotha had some phat new school playaz lined up. Cris was in da house but 5-0 came down hard, wit Macs an' dogs sniffin fo' bud so da peeps all bailed."

His "translation": "The promoter had assembled an impressive lineup of popular hip-hop artists, featuring headline act Ludacris, but a heavy police presence, complete with guns and drug-sniffing dogs, deterred many would-be attendees."

According to a column written by Daily News editor Phil Lewis, the article didn't get much reaction in Naples, where rap shows draw a crowd of mostly white teens. But once the story circulated on the Internet - including on Jim Romenesko's Media News, a journalism Web site presented by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the St. Petersburg Times - readers from across the country responded, including me.

Eventually, the National Association of Black Journalists wrote a letter to Lewis calling the column "patently offensive, intellectually condescending and journalistically unfocused." (Full disclosure: As a longtime association member, I provided feedback on the issue to the group's leadership before it drafted the letter.) ***