MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And as we conclude this special Twitter education forum today, we are going to take our broadcast one more time back to our Tweet up room with Sarah Gonzalez. She's a StateImpact Florida reporter who is following our live forum on Twitter.
so Sarah, overall, how has our Twitter audience answered the question are American schools broken?
SARAH GONZALEZ: Well, first, let me just say that our tweets - as they say - are being very active on the Twitter conversation. We're getting multiple tweets every second - comments about technology and access to technology, the achievement gap and, of course, test scores, which has been a big thread from the beginning of the conversation.
Mrs. L135 said, are there bad schools? Sure. Can those schools be identified from one test score? No. And as we heard Nikhil talked about students having a voice in the education reform conversations, and that's been getting a lot of, has started a lot of conversations. Dr. Stephens Jones commented: Adults need to start listening to the students and implement the changes. Father Gator asked: Are students the customers or the products?
MARTIN: Interesting. But for what can you tell -overall what's the tone of the responses that we're getting. Are people hopeful? Do they feel pessimistic, optimistic about what's out there, what they're experiencing in their schools and schools that they know?
GONZALEZ: I think it's a pretty good mix of both sides. People are focusing a lot on funding and the achievement gap in low income schools and they're talking about what is a solution? Is it private school vouchers and charter schools? Is it more school choice? We have people saying no, that's not the answer. So it's been a good mix.
MARTIN: Sarah Gonzalez, thank you.
GONZALEZ: You're welcome. Thank you.
MARTIN: Sarah Gonzalez is a reporter for StateImpact, Florida, and she was with us here at member station WLRN in Miami. Thanks again, Sarah and everybody on our team.
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MARTIN: And that's our program for today. We'd like to thank all of our guests who joined us in studio and on the radio and everybody who took part in the conversation on Twitter. Also, special thanks to our partners in Miami, StateImpact Florida and member station WLRN.
And remember that on TELL ME MORE the conversation never ends. Use #NPRedchat on Twitter to tell us more about the education issues that matter to you. I'm Michel Martin and you've been listening to TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Let's talk more from Washington tomorrow.
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