A couple of weeks ago, I discovered an ed blog that has become a bit of a fascination for me. Written by an as yet anonymous 21 year-old member of Generation Y (or the Millennials, pick your poison), Urban Angle takes cold, hard look at education reform from the standpoint of an individual just a few years out of the system. Well-informed and eloquent, the author seeks to situate the effects of current ed policy in terms of what has and what hasn’t worked in urban schools.

On the importance of leadership in schools:

“Great lengths are being taken to monopolize power into the hands of a few people who think leadership, and not curriculum, student motivation, or other community issues, is the only thing worth focusing on.

Failing to empower and include the local community in reform efforts, strips people of their ability to organize if and when current administrators move on. Kids get caught up in the process, and if those at the top fail to deliver real results with their myopic approaches, it’s kids who will end up repeating the cycle of low achievement since they will have even less hope than they started with.”

Born in 198_ and an outlier from the first wave of Generation Y, Urban Angle is like music to my ears…er computer screen. In meeting after meeting I attend, the lack of fresh voices in ed reform discussions is often stifling. Not to say that good ideas aren’t floating around the discussions of educators and policymakers, but frankly, I yearn for the “I’ll-say-it-if-I-want-to,” risk-taking and creativity of students and recent students. And I truly believe, if we gave students a chance to own certain pieces of ed reform, we’d see some amazing results. That’s why I have to give Urban Angle a virtual high-five. Write on!

Apparently, he/she is also developing a targeted business plan for urban schools. Interesting…