Conclusion
Concluding essay
Education Policy Has a Mic Problem
February 11, 2026 · Medium
Read original article · Source details
In education, authority and credibility are often misaligned. The voices that shape education policy are rarely those of current teachers. Firsthand insights gained from classroom experience take a backseat to the musings of outsiders. Frequently, those farthest from students dictate the narrative, while ever fewer actual teachers influence national discussions about teaching.
Bored Teachers, a comedy website run by teachers with over 4 million Facebook followers, highlights this reality. While its followers may include international educators and non-teachers, I believe American educators are the core audience.
According to the most recent data I could find from the National Center for Education Statistics, during the 2020–21 school year, “there were 3.5 million full-time and part-time traditional public school teachers, 251,000 public charter school teachers, and 466,000 private school teachers.”
One Bored Teachers skit features a full-time teacher playing both her own role and that of a person leading a professional development meeting.
“How long ago were you in the classroom?” she asks in her teacher persona. “Because, you know, classroom management kind of changes over time, so I’m assuming if you’re running a classroom management PD, you must have been in the classroom, like, last year?”
A quick camera pan shows the session’s host.
“I mean, I taught for three years before I left to work at the district,” she says. “It’s been about a decade since I was in the classroom, but I keep up to date on all the latest research.”
Back in teacher persona: “Yeah, because research and working with actual children are totally the same thing.”
As a veteran teacher of high school history, government, and journalism students, I’ve often reflected on this issue.
In the professional world, consultants, former teachers, and “thought leaders” often lead panels and development events, while classroom teachers, who feel the impact of instructional decisions, find themselves excluded from those discussions.
To better understand this dynamic, I see two kinds of authority at work.
The first is extracted authority: the power of people whose ideas spread easily because they no longer face classroom realities. Distance brings them clarity — patterns emerge, and they analyze failures without facing the daily pressures.
But that clarity results from a Faustian bargain. Removed from the real constraints of classrooms, ideas risk losing relevance — in practice and appearance — both important to teachers. For most of them, what matters is whether an idea aligns with daily classroom realities, not its theoretical or logical purity.
Still, it’s important to recognize that alignment is sometimes possible. I’ve learned much from those no longer in the classroom, perhaps none so much as Rick Wormeli, a now-retired teacher who wrote one of the most impactful education books I’ve ever read: Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom.
Our conversation about missed assignments changed how I think about helping students become competent; I recount it in Essay 5.2.
I found equal utility in reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking and in interviewing its author, Susan Cain, who has not taught in a PreK–12 classroom. During our conversation, she shared an idea that has stayed at the forefront of my mind.
Cain warned that well-meaning teachers can make introverted children feel that something is wrong with them.
Cain and Wormeli’s words continue to matter, even as classrooms change. Technology and students’ needs evolve quickly, making it easy to see insights from those who have not taught recently as outdated. I hope teachers, me included, remain thoughtful about whose advice we adopt, even as extracted authority can spread easily online, sometimes seeming disingenuous to teachers.
In contrast, embedded authority comes from full-time classroom teachers writing from direct experience, shaped by continual reflection and adaptation. This credibility is harder to sustain and easier to overlook but grounded in practice.
I try to contribute to embedded authority by publishing articles on instruction, assessment, and education technology in outlets like Edutopia, PBS NewsHour Classroom, and my blog.
I write for reasons beyond money. I do not market a program or guarantee scalability. When I write, my arguments have been tested by my own students.
That qualification brings accountability. Teachers writing publicly still answer to students, parents, and administrators. When an idea fails, its impact is instant — a confused learner, a failed lesson, or poor writing.
Consultants and former teachers aren’t wrong to speak confidently. Distance offers perspective but also reduces risk. When an extracted idea fails, it usually fails in someone else’s classroom. Schools often prefer voices that offer certainty over those that add complexity. Accordingly, they reward slogans and simple arguments. Classroom perspectives, though grounded in practice, are less valued even if more nuanced.
This is not an argument against consultants, but a call to recalibrate how we weigh different voices. Education needs to consciously elevate authentic, current classroom voices alongside others in shaping policy and professional development. It’s past time to share the mic.
When schools give more attention to those who no longer teach than to current educators, they send the message that experience matters most only after it becomes theory. That value system is unusual for a profession rooted in daily practice.
For more thoughtful dialogue, education must focus on which voices it elevates. Not all expertise is equal. Some does come from distant reflection; much also from daily engagement.
Schools and districts should prioritize amplifying the voices of current teachers in professional development, hiring, and policy conversations. Educational media must balance academic and professional sources by featuring more work from those still in the classroom. Rather than viewing the complexities of embedded authority as a problem, the field should recognize them as strengths vital to meaningful improvement.
Embedded authority is less noticeable because it seldom fits into simple frameworks. It also tends to be less self-promoting. However, it may be the most authentic voice in the field, and authenticity in education is crucial. Pass the mic.