Education Week reports that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has tightened the screws on states and districts that get a waiver from NCLB issued by him.
They must comply with his interpretation of teacher quality and must reaffirm their commitment to Common Core (“college=and-career-readiness standards”), while upping the ante on accountability.
Based on his experience in Chicago, Duncan seems certain that more carrots and more sticks will do the trick.
The waivers enable him to impose Race to the Top requirements on every state, even those that won no money at all.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Someone please offer Arne something he can’t refuse and get rid of him.
Abolish the Gates USDOE.
It is congress that passed the stupidest law ever, NCLB, mandating that by 2014 100% of students would have to be on level. It is congress that has to repeal NCLB so that inept bureaucrats like Duncan can’t use it to whip states into compliance with CC. Lobby congress to fix it now.
I thought that anything which circumvents NCLB and Congress (waivers at least, but possibly RttT, too) violate the letter of the law. Did anyone file a law suit against DoE for this?
Perfect response. I concur.
The five day work week is gone. Even teachers are being pressured into working Saturdays either to baby sit for students who have discipline problems or have fallen behind in credits or need special tutoring or re-teaching during what Administrators happily call Saturday School. The schools get hundreds of dollars per student and pay the teacher a small fraction of that, maybe $18 per hour per class which may be 35 or more if the Administration can get enough students to attend. School Administrations make a nice profit, but who are they spending this surplus on during these times of cutting teacher pay? This must have been something created by one of those Capitalists like Bill Gates. I think Micro-soft might use something like this to rate their workers. Lets see, cut teachers pay, then force them to have to work Saturdays to pay for their home mortgage if they have a home or to pay their ever increasing electric or gas bills which seem to increase without any public input. Is this a tax increase? Oh No, it is Capitalism and a group of wealthy people are getting their well deserved profit from their investment. No one gets a profit from any Educational System, unless you live in a foreign country like Germany. So we should not invest in them? Next idea will be Sunday School and We are not talking about Church related Sunday School even though someone may figure out a way to pay the Churches to do it for less and of course it will be more successful if the state pays them enough money and we can do this with vouchers and give the money directly to the family to use at the Church or school of their choice. I wonder why Arne Duncan hasn’t imposed this idea on schools, yet? Oh, he is currently telling the President to fire missiles at Syria and reward with RTTT grands to the different ships depending on how well they perform and close or mothball the worst performing ships and fire all the crew or replace 25% of the crew with SFA (Solders For America) who could be recruiting from the unemployed. He told the President to give Waivers to the ships willing to go ahead without Congressional Approval. No problem, HE is either The Dictator or some GOD, who knows all the correct answers and HE said let the Capitalist System work as it should.
41 states + DC have waivers. How effective is NCLB?
It’s so tight, too too tight… we’re choking… need air, not dead yet. Not even close.
I’d quit and open my sandwich shop downtown; however any voice for integrity in public education must continue and endure this unbelievable war on education. I have to stay for my student’s education and my own kid’s education… and their kid’s education.
This “thing” of RttT and CC will be here for awhile.
So let’s keep working hard to be rid of it!!!!
But not forever
after too much damage which cannot be undone has been done…You can’t go back to the way it was
states control education, not the federal government…somebody better inform Duncan that like his boss, he is violating the Constitution…They like to circumvent the law and they know they can get away with it..It’s that Chicago mentality.
I bet even Al Capone had some standards! lol!
“In addition to the new requirements on teacher quality, the waivers wade farther into one other new territory: district-level accountability. The district-role in intervening in low-performing schools has been identified as a weakness in federal frameworks, and so the waiver renewal process requires states to develop a “high-quality plan” for holding districts accountable for their efforts in turning around struggling schools.”
It’s pretty obvious that Duncan’s just trying to help states impose a death sentence on as many districts as they can.
The whole idea is to crush traditional schools and replace them with privatized charter schools funded with public money. The only way this works is if they have a way to demonstrate that the students, teachers, and schools are failing. Investors are getting 39% tax credits for funding charter schools. They are making a killing. The money is too good. They want more.
The only good thing about teaching in Texas, no Race to the Top.
With all due respect, when you realize central government control over education is bad for all humanity, I hope you will also conclude that
Central Government Control is, in and of itself, bad.
Fed gov control of education is evil in no uncertain terms.
Believe it or not there are things real progressives believe that real libertarians also believe. I have found no progressive that wants to engage and address our common views.
Very say. Progressives hate libertarians and will not engage. I know of some libertarians with same view, but most I know would welcome progressive views
on education, snowden, manning and a bunch of other stuff.
So very sad we cannot engage.
Can you simplify without all the labels?
Not sure what you mean by “engage.” I’ve met plenty of people who would be willing to work with others – regardless of their political stripe – to get rid of the current test and punish culture that is being forced upon local schools by both the federal department of education and ALEC (another instrument of centralized control)
Well, If I remember what I read earlier this summer, the Student Success Act passed by the House would not be too bad. Unfortunately, it will never pass in the Senate and Obama said he would veto it if it managed to make it to him. As for Senator Harkin’s ideas in the Senate….they did not appear to be better than the status quo. We do need to lobby Congress, but we need to tell them exactly what we want.
We want to completely repeal NCLB. Make waivers unnecessary. It was a stupid law. It needs to be acknowledged as such. Who makes a law that mandates 100% compliance or fail?
The SSA would replace NCLB. It gives more control back to the states. I guess it would be up to the individual state to decide how to proceed with testing. States are still required to report tests scores similar to NCLB, give an annual school report card,
In NC, I don’t know if state control over grading schools would be any better.
http://edworkforce.house.gov/studentsuccessact/
Interesting. What’s his plan for dealing with teachers who are assigned students (based upon years of data) several years below grade level at the beginning of the school year in reading & math? What’s his plan for teachers who are assigned students in the middle or toward the end of the school year (based upon years of data) who are several years below grade level in reading & math? What are his plans for teachers who are assigned students who should have an IEP in place but do not because the district is out of compliance, based upon mandated timeframes? What’s his plan for teachers who are given students who belong in special day school (based upon available data) but continue to placed in a regular classroom putting themselves and their fellow students at risk? The “why” behind the “what” of the data is more telling than the data itself. If Arne doesn’t have the courage to take the time to understand the “why” behind the data then I guess it will be up to the Teachers Unions to file class action lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Education, States, and Districts to seek legal redress in the court system in response to this injustice against public school teachers. In cases where teachers have been individually targeted by an official or administrator, the official or administrator should be named personally as well in any litigation.
Agreed!
Now this is where I struggle with despair more so than from any state budget that is not public education friendly. It seems that it is because of the federal level that ALEC lovers are strengthened to bring about a market approach to education on the state level. RttT seems like a catalyst for bringing down public schools.
Here I have no place to turn but The Psalms of King David (Hebrew Praises). I got nothin here. Washington is why I am inclined to send my son to private school, not Raleigh. (And I was a Democrat for 22 years). Now I am unaffiliated.
This is the part that keeps me up at night (like right now, for example).
Bullying & Retaliation 101
Suspend Common Core
Expel Arne Duncan
Despicable him!
I teach in Ohio; this year 50% of my evaluation is based on students’ test scores. Our right-wing Governor, John Kasich, is a huge supporter of Michelle Rhee and her ‘organization.’ John Kasich believes that holding teachers accountable for student test scores will somehow dramatically raise test scores. Apparently he and Michelle think teachers aren’t doing their best work unless they are threatened with poor evaluations.
In Ohio many teachers seem to just hope ‘it’ will go away. Many are burying their heads in the sand and keep trying to ride this latest wave of ‘reforms’….
I hope to be part of a local, state, or national lawsuit suing the US Department of Education and/or the authors/framers of RttT; as it seems testing–and holding teachers accountable–isn’t going away anytime soon. Many republicans, and quite a few democrats, buy in to the notion that school choice/accountability, etc., are the panacea to poor test scores. Until someone or some group has a lawsuit, I don’t see this going away.
While we in Chicago await the first dozen copies of “Reign of Error” to add to the CORE “Book Club” reading lists, I’ve been working on a lengthy review of Horn and Wilburn’s “Mismeasure of Education” and it’s been fun. Looking to the side and reviewing our book shelf, which is filled with the critiques of this nonsense going back to David Berliner’s “The Manufactured Crisis” (and we also have an original copy of “A Nation at Risk”), I get a feeling that we are reaching closure on all this.
Yes. Even as Arne — that millionaire Trust Fund Baby from the cocoon of Chicago’s University of Chicago community, Hyde Park — “tightens the screws” democracy is rushing in against him.
It may be that Arne & Co. can deploy a dozen or two Peter Cunninghams to try and attack Diane’s work and books. After all, the Peter Cunninghams of the world come at a price, and they are cheaper by the dozen. (We knew Peter here in Chicago back in the day; I wonder if he’s inviting his neighbors to his living room to plan a protest against the bombing of Syria like we did in his living room during the Irag war… when Barack Obama was the “anti war” candidate…)…
However, Arne’s flat nonsense rhetoric is dying, and will one day live on in the history books as examples of the same eugenics silliness that we are exposing and fighting today. There is something about the Zeitgeist of the months commemorating Dr. King’s life and work — and not just his one speech. And we here find it wonderful that one of the events to accompany the book release this month will be at Judson Church in New York City. I hope that at least a moment will be devoted to remembering the courage it took Dr. King to take that same pulpit to denounce the War in Vietnam.
Happy Labor Day. Arne’s antics are soon through, a light at the end of the tunnel and all that.
The five day work week is gone. Even teachers are being pressured into working Saturdays either to baby sit for students who have discipline problems or have fallen behind in credits or need special tutoring or re-teaching during what Administrators happily call Saturday School. The schools get hundreds of dollars per student and pay the teacher a small fraction of that, maybe $18 per hour per class which may be 35 or more if the Administration can get enough students to attend. School Administrations make a nice profit, but who are they spending this surplus on during these times of cutting teacher pay? This must have been something created by one of those Capitalists like Bill Gates. I think Micro-soft might use something like this to rate their workers. Lets see, cut teachers pay, then force them to have to work Saturdays to pay for their home mortgage if they have a home or to pay their ever increasing electric or gas bills which seem to increase without any public input. Is this a tax increase? Oh No, it is Capitalism and a group of wealthy people are getting their well deserved profit from their investment. No one gets a profit from any Educational System, unless you live in a foreign country like Germany. So we should not invest in them? Next idea will be Sunday School and We are not talking about Church related Sunday School even though someone may figure out a way to pay the Churches to do it for less and of course it will be more successful if the state pays them enough money and we can do this with vouchers and give the money directly to the family to use at the Church or school of their choice. I wonder why Arne Duncan hasn’t imposed this idea on schools, yet? Oh, he is currently telling the President to fire missiles at Syria and reward with RTTT grands to the different ships depending on how well they perform and close or mothball the worst performing ships and fire all the crew or replace 25% of the crew with SFA (Solders For America) who could be recruiting from the unemployed. He told the President to give Waivers to the ships willing to go ahead without Congressional Approval. No problem, HE is either The Dictator or some GOD, who knows all the correct answers and HE said let the Capitalist System work as it should.
Every morning I wake up and swear I am going to be more positive, then I read this stuff and just get depressed again. I have had enough, I am more than a test score and I wear a shirt that says so. I am trying to start a business, I won’t lie, but I am also trying to start a movement. Please share my blog address http://www.ellenbennett.blogspot.com Yesterday I posted pictures of my shirts with an explanation for wearing and selling. Seriously, wouldn’t you love to see every teacher in every school, as well as the students, wearing a shirt that says Yes I am… more than a test score!
Rosemary Schimmel
I will be putting in my order shortly! LOVE this!
Glad you are doing this.
There is nothing wrong with starting a business. The business of America is business. It just has to be balanced with looking after people. Great work!
The five day work week is gone. Even teachers are being pressured into working Saturdays either to baby sit for students who have discipline problems or have fallen behind in credits or need special tutoring or re-teaching during what Administrators happily call Saturday School. The schools get hundreds of dollars per student and pay the teacher a small fraction of that, maybe $18 per hour per class which may be 35 or more if the Administration can get enough students to attend. School Administrations make a nice profit, but who are they spending this surplus on during these times of cutting teacher pay? This must have been something created by one of those Capitalists like Bill Gates. I think Micro-soft might use something like this to rate their workers. Lets see, cut teachers pay, then force them to have to work Saturdays to pay for their home mortgage if they have a home or to pay their ever increasing electric or gas bills which seem to increase without any public input. Is this a tax increase? Oh No, it is Capitalism and a group of wealthy people are getting their well deserved profit from their investment. No one gets a profit from any Educational System, unless you live in a foreign country like Germany. So we should not invest in them? Next idea will be Sunday School and We are not talking about Church related Sunday School even though someone may figure out a way to pay the Churches to do it for less and of course it will be more successful if the state pays them enough money and we can do this with vouchers and give the money directly to the family to use at the Church or school of their choice. I wonder why Arne Duncan hasn’t imposed this idea on schools, yet? Oh, he is currently telling the President to fire missiles at Syria and reward with RTTT grands to the different ships depending on how well they perform and close or mothball the worst performing ships and fire all the crew or replace 25% of the crew with SFA (Solders For America) who could be recruiting from the unemployed. He told the President to give Waivers to the ships willing to go ahead without Congressional Approval. No problem, HE is either The Dictator or some GOD, who knows all the correct answers and HE said let the Capitalist System work as it should.
You want to get rid of Duncan? Diane, print the letter and proof of the lies Duncan and Senator Feinstein sent to the California legislature during AB 1381, mayoral control for L.A. In those letters they both lied about the $1.8 billion debt left to Daley and Vallas in 1995. The truth is, and I have the financial records for Chicago from 1994, that Chicago when Daley and Vallas took over had a surplus. Rod Paige lost his job for less, why not Duncan. Do we need proven liars in that office?
Next, the real game is in California. There you have Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and the California Federal Waiver CORE schools. This is the lever to what this blog is all about. California is the petri dish for the entire nation to grow the virus to attack the whole country and Europe to start with privatization and the whatever so we can steal program. LCFF has been operated from day 1 illegally according to the California Office of Administrative Hearings rules and regulations concerning major changes in rules and regulations, has also broken the Greene and Bagley-Greene Acts also. When challenged with this at the last LCFF hearing in Bakersfield suddenly the end of comments that day is indefinately extended. Interesting, isn’t it? Not only that they refused the hand delivery in L.A. at the hearing at LACOE of the CORE-CA comments. It is illegal to refuse delivery of comments at a hearing by officials.
I have done spreadsheets on the CORE schools and the Feds picked the worse schools with the highest numbers of students who do not come to school everyday. One district has 24%, another 23% and LAUSD is 17% or more than 114,000 students with a lost revenue as a result as you are only paid for those who actually come to school of over $1.25 billion. The average not coming to school everyday is 14.1%. This is for 1/6th of the students of California.
Would you give the worse schools the most flexibility? They have proven they can be trusted haven’t they? Who is running this hellhole?
Someone needs to mail him a copy of Drive by Pink.
This is unbelieveable. He has taken on the role of superintendent of all schools in the usa.