Required reading: A blogroll

• http://dianeravitch.net/ -- Diane Ravitch's blog: "A site to discuss better education for all." I never could have imagined, when I was chairing the assessment committee, that I would ever agree with Diane Ravitch on anything. Now she has the most comprehensive and credible website tracking education issues.

• http://preaprez.wordpress.com -- Fred Klonsky: "Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data." If you've been missing Slats Grobnik the last 10 or 15 years, check out the Tony at the Red Line Tap archives. Indispensable source on Chicago schools, Illinois politics.

• https://deutsch29.wordpress.com -- Mercedes Schneider, who has a Ph.D. in psychometrics and now teaches in the public schools in Louisiana. Her critique of high-stakes testing is withering because she understands the science behind it and how it is being abused.

• http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com -- CURMUDGUCATION: A grumpy old teacher trying to keep up the good classroom fight in the new age of reformy stuff. By Peter Greene, a high school English teacher in northwestern Pennsylvania. Writes a local newspaper column, too. Keeps up. Has Common Core, charters, other "reformy stuff" absolutely nailed!

• Jersey Jazzman

• http://edushyster.com -- "EduShyster: Keeping an eye on the corporate education agenda" by freelancer Jennifer Berkshire who edited an AFT newsletter in Massachusetts. (She's also originally from Springfield [Ill., not Mass.]! Funny. Incisive. Has cool stickers that say "Rotten to the Common Core" and "Blame Me -- I'm a Teacher."

• http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/ -- "Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Sharing some ideas about public education, school reform, and ed-politics in general" -- Chicago.

• http://www.schoolnewsservice.com Jim Broadway's Illinois School Policy Updates. Bio here.