Julian Vasquez Heilig: Secretary Arne Duncan Wins Contest for 2014!

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1. KrazyTA says:

   December 1, 2014 at 7:57 pm

   Ok, I’ll dip my toe in the water first…

   How could the result have been anything but?

   I refer all viewers of this blog to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s speech to the April 2013 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, “Choosing the Right Battles.”

   I have commented on this exemplar of word salad and cognitive dissonance before. But in honor of Arne garnering the #1 spot, I repeat his [speechwriter’s] moving words regarding the misuse and abuse of standardized testing—

   [start quote]

   Most of the assessment done in schools today is after the fact. Some schools have an almost obsessive culture around testing, and that hurts their most vulnerable learners and narrows the curriculum. It’s heartbreaking to hear a child identify himself as “below basic” or “I’m a one out of four.”

   [end quote]

   😱

   Link: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/choosing-right-battles-remarks-and-conversation

   Doesn’t that just break your heart?

   And he should know about the misuse and abuse of standardized testing since he’s a serious contender for being their #1 promoter and enforcer.

   😎

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2. NY Teacher says:

   December 1, 2014 at 9:50 pm

   CORRECTIONS/ADDENDUM IN ALL CAPS:

   Most of the STANDARDIZED, HIGH-STAKES, TEST-AND-PUNISH assessment done in schools today is after the fact BECAUSE WE ONLY NEED THE SCORES TO THREATEN TEACHERS INTO DOING THEIR JOBS PROPERLY.

   ALMOST ALL PUBLUIC schools have an almost obsessive culture around testing THANKS TO ME, and that hurts their most vulnerable learners and narrows the curriculum YET I AM CONFIDENT THAT IMPOSSIBLY DIFFICULT AND OFTEN DEVELOPMENTALLY INAPPROPRIATE TESTS WILL MAGICALLY CLOSE THE LEARNING GAP CREATED BY POVERTY.

   It’s heartbreaking to hear a child identify himself as “below basic” or “I’m a one out of four WHICH IS WHY CLAIRE AND RYAN WILL NEVER ATTEND SCHOOLS THAT MISLABEL THEM USING INVALID AND UNRELIABLE COMMON CORE TEST SCORES.

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3. Chiara says:

   December 1, 2014 at 10:30 pm

   He’s just unbearable. I was listening to a talk he gave to some poor group of browbeaten, eager to impress public school employees in North Carolina where he was announcing a grant because they complied with one or another ed reform directive and he said “this is NOT A GIFT”

   Well, no, of course it’s not a “gift”. It’s their money you’re giving them. Some. You’re giving them some of their money back.

   I think he believes he’s a philanthropist. Maybe a really generous private sector CEO?

   You just don’t get any sense that this is a collaboration or team effort between public employees and really, THAT’S what it is, or should be.

   Why do they all think they have to act like CEO’s? We have a private sector. They’re not in it. If they want to be in it, they should go do that. Is someone stopping them? I’m not.

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4. The Reading Professor says:

   December 2, 2014 at 6:52 am

   Here’s another beautiful headline about our USDOE leader…

   http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-proposes-plan-strengthen-teacher-preparation

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5. GE2L2R says:

   December 2, 2014 at 8:16 am

   There are two other possibilities. He may have found a new application for either:

   Harry Potter’s “Cloak of Invisibility”, or Star Trek’s “Romulan Cloaking Device”.

   In the first case, apparently it can be used to cloak a destructive policy as well as an individual and suggests that he is a member of Slytherin. Somehow, that sounds appropriate.

   And curiously, the latter device, which will be available in 2266, according to the Star Trek website, can generate an energy screen to render an object (or policy) . . . relatively invisible to sensors”, or in this case perhaps, censors! Perhaps an unexpected preview of another success from SkunkWorks®.

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6. Chiara says:

   December 2, 2014 at 8:20 am

   This is kind of interesting:

   “This will help teachers identify good materials and will produce some good materials for them to use,” said Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond. “This is also about how you teach.”

   It’s a teachers union and a university. Maybe one doesn’t have to go to WAR against public schools and harangue and threaten people into compliance? 🙂

   I looked at the financial backers and I don’t see any of the major ed reform orgs or “rock star” ed reform names. I don’t know all of them of course so maybe I’m wrong and ed reformers are supporting this. It seems more productive than haranguing and threatening public schools, doesn’t it?

   http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-learning-20141201-story.html

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7. Duane Swacker says:

   December 2, 2014 at 12:31 pm

   I think that the award is officially named “Turd of the Year”.

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8. Ken Watanabe says:

   December 2, 2014 at 1:48 pm

   I think I have a wonderful question for kindergartenders.

   Question: What is the name of the turkey in the video?
   Sample asnwer: Duncurkey(Habitat: Washington DC)

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