Like a lot of nerds, my jaw dropped this weekend when, on the NYT‘s opinion page, Tom Friedman concluded that what our education system needs to help children perform better is … drum roll … better parents.

Well gosh, no one ever thought that before. Um, could you follow that up with a policy Rx, please?

Fortunately, Dana Goldstein has indeed done that, right here. Her column is a nice guide to school-reform thinking on precisely this question, with great links.

E.J. Graff writes on social-justice and human-rights issues, particularly discrimination and violence against women and children; marriage and family policy; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives. She is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center and the author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (Beacon Press, 1999, 2004).