The shrill whistle pierced the humid August air, and the ten players, all African American high school students, gathered around the referee. The ref pointed to a young man who was wearing a t-shirt.
“Malik, here’s the word. ‘Ambiguous.’ Define it and use it in a sentence.” 
The young man did so in a strong voice, and the ref called over to the scorer’s desk, “That’s a point for the shirts.” Then he turned to the other team (the skins), picked out a player, and gave him a word, “Optimism.”
When the player confused the noun with the adjective, the ref turned to a player on the shirts, who gave the correct answer. “Another point for the shirts,” the ref called. “Now let’s play ball.”
How would one go about measuring caring? I’m a big fan of trying to compare effort, not just amounts, so here’s what I came with. I decided to compare the percent of revenue that a leading pet company spends testing its goldfish food, puppy toys and flea drops to the percentage of our education spending that we devote to testing and measuring our children’s performance in school.
When it comes to parent involvement, too many educators love to play the blame game. And if they’re not carping, they’re probably emitting hot air. It’s fundamentally arrogant, based on the assumption that parents don’t get it.
The Merrow Report 