When it comes to schools, is the local authority all gloss but no action?

To be fair, it was not that bad and I know it's meant for education practitioners, not impatient journalists looking for an instant hit. But it's often a struggle to find anything concrete in these things. Beyond the words, what are they actually going to do?
Anyway, at this conference there were a couple of American experts, Steve Aos and David Hawkins, who talked about the latest "evidence-based" research in the States on how to deal with delinquent kids. (Click here fore link to article I wrote on this). The key thing was not to bunch bad behaving kids together. These are kids who need positive examples of behaviour. You need to make sure these anti-social kids mix with "pro-social" kids, said Professor Hawkins.
Investment in intervention that helps them bond with their community - be it family, school or neighbourhood - in a positive way will ultimately save shed loads of money on fixing things later, claimed Mr Aos.
Hence, in Washington, they're abandoning a multi-million pound project to build a new prison and instead plan to spend all that money on initiatives that have proven to work turning round troublesome young people.
It all made perfect sense to me and the fact that education chiefs in Birmingham were listening to these guys no doubt means they take it seriously too.
But what struck me most was the radical implications it would have for the way we currently do things.
For instance, it would mean excluding youngsters from school is the worst thing that you could do. It would mean places like pupil referral units should be abolished. It would mean that a project I went to see last week in which the Salvation Army is running a school for excluded kids is completely the wrong way to go about things.
If we are to follow it through, it also means having grammar schools is wrong. For these are effectively concentrated centres of "pro-social" youngsters who have been separated off from community schools.
Their more positive attitude to learning and - often - life, is lost to those who could most benefit from their example.
When I attempted to explore this with the city's head of education Tony Howell at the press conference after the talks I was brought down by Birmingham's education press officer Lawrence Vos, a keen follower of American football.
He said it wasn't relevant but I think it was. I chipped in again, directly asking Tony if he believed in selection. But again I was closed down by the super-efficient Lawrence.
We had a laugh about it afterwards. Lawrence thinks I'm obsessed by Birmingham's grammar schools. I'm not, it's just that I think it's a big educational issue in the city. We are one of the few places that still has a fair number of them - about a tenth of all secondaries in the city and so they have a major impact.
The Government is explicit in its opposition to selection.
Ask Birmingham City Council for its stance and you get a fudged non-answer. I know because I've tried (click here for relevant article).
One gets the feeling the authority doesn't really agree with selection, but is afraid to say so for fear of upsetting the powerful King Edward VI Foundation, which runs most of the city's grammars.
Selection is contrary to the council's admission policy. The authority actively dissuades primary schools from tutoring pupils on how to pass the 11 plus exam (which fuels an industry in private tuition for those who can afford it).
So why not have the guts to come out and say it?
It comes across as a lack of leadership. Which might make you question whether the authority has a clear, consistent and credible vision at all for the city. Beyond all the high and mighty words, will it actually do anything, or be too stymied by vested interests in the city and fear of rocking the boat?
Indeed, can it in fact do anything much, other than produce glossy brochures and lots of words?
I'm sure it can and does, but we need to hear about it in plain, simple English that we can all understand. Otherwise, what's the point of the local authority's involvement in schools?
The other day I talked to one of the city's most successful school leadership teams made up of three formidable women with 72 years experience at one site between them. They are all retiring from Lordswood Girls School at the end of this term.
Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a good word to say about Birmingham's education authority. A few months ago they removed themselves from local authority control by becoming a foundation school - perhaps the ultimate protest.
You can read what they have to say in Monday's paper hopefully.