Stephanie Simon writes in Politico.com that Arne Duncan is not really in favor of Common Core. Common what? Common who? Never heard of it. Ah, how soon politicians forget what they said last week, last month, last year. And they expect us to forget too.
She writes:
“COMMON CORE LOSES ITS BIGGEST CHEERLEADER: It was less than a year ago that Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered a no-holds-barred defense of the Common Core in a speech to newspaper editors. He cited example after example of the benefits of common standards: Teachers in different states could use the same lesson plans; children of military personnel could move across country “without a hitch” in their schooling; and, first and foremost, “a child in Mississippi will face the same expectations as a child in Massachusetts.” In short: “I believe the Common Core State Standards may prove to be the single greatest thing to happen to public education in America since Brown v. Board of Education,” Duncan said.
— That was then. This was Tuesday: “Just to be very clear with this group,” Duncan told the House Appropriations Committee, “I’m just a big proponent of high standards. Whether they’re common or not is sort of secondary.”
— Duncan immediately added that his stance was “not news.” And his spokeswoman, Dorie Nolt, later pulled up audio from a press breakfast in January where Duncan was asked about whether the term “Common Core” was politically radioactive. “We’re not interested in the term,” he responded then. “We’re interested in high standards. There are a couple ways to come at it.” Indeed, the administration has never required states to adopt the Common Core; it just offered financial and policy incentives to adopt higher standards – and embracing the Common Core happened to be by far the quickest and easiest way to hit that bar.”
So what gives?
Here are some possibilities:
1. The Common Core standards have become so controversial that Duncan wants to pretend he had nothing to do with them.
2. Duncan has been warned by his advisors that his support and Obama’s is actually dragging down the poll numbers for the Common Core so the best way to help them is to back off.
3. Someone is planning to sue the U.S. Department of Education for illegally interfering in curriculum and instruction by supporting the Common Core, so Duncan must pretend he had nothing to do with their swift adoption by 45 states. His lure of $4.3 billion was just a coincidence.
4. Duncan realized that his cheerleading contradicted his insistence that the Common Core was “state-led.”
Can you think of another reason that Duncan forgot that only a year ago he said the Common Core was the most important development since the Brown decision?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reading this, I laughed out loud. Thank you for educating with humor!!!!
Is today April 1st?
Next thing you know, Cuomo will claim he’s never heard of Eva Moskowitz.
I’ll take door #3
Maybe his child just wasn’t as brilliant as he thought it was.
My guess is he is planning on running for a higher office and his advisors are telling him he needs to shake the stink of Common Core to solidify votes.
Please tell me he doesn’t want to come back to Illinois!
I think he is doing the very best thing he thinks he can to advance Common Core. He has already cut the deals with the states to coerce them to adopt. Now, the more he promotes it, the more he gives credence to those objecting to federal interference. So now, after pushing this to the hilt for years, it becomes an orphan.
“As always, should you or any of your [CCSS] force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”
-of Mission Impossible fame
Reblogged this on Middletown Voice.
It will be easy to rescind Common Core. Just do away with the MOU with the CCSSO & Natl Governors Association. But look out. This is a farce. The College Career Citizenship Stanards PLUS Common Core are already incorporated into each state through the ESEA Flexibility Waiver. This is a front for parents to think that Common Core would be removed when all along it’s already been embedded through Title I in any state that applied for the waiver. Poverty levels (40% free & reduced lunch) were dropped so EVERY child can be identified through Title I to meet college & career standards. What a farce. Duncan is misleading parents and legislators.
Are you suggesting, Anita, that one of our honorable federal officials would intentionally mislead the public about something?
Does a wild bear defecate in the woods?
Part of rebranding effort, perhaps?
(Rebranding the CCSS,that is. I assume Arne does not think he needs it)
bingo
Now that states are starting to slap a different label of CCSS (Florida State Standards, yeah, that’s the ticket!), there’s not much of a need to defend the CCSS label; indeed, the quicker it’s forgotten, the better.
I just think it’s bizarre that they’ve decided to ignore the testing. It’s millions of kids and it’s Duncan’s huge national initiative.
This is the USDOE Twitter. See if you can find one word about the fact that millions of kids are testing their tests:
https://twitter.com/usedgov
I don’t think it bodes well for public schools, frankly. Looks like all the cheerleaders have left the field now that the testing regime is in.
“See ya! Good luck with all that!”
Yeah, but the tests, they know, are going to bomb. another reason for bailing on this ASAP, or, rather, for going to plan B
Yesterday my superintendent sent out a mass email to all of the employees of the district saying that we are using “district standards,” NOT the Common Core. Never mind that the standards are miraculously the same. I’ve decided he thinks we’re stupid, and he wants us to tell the parents that we are NOT using Common Core.
Your suup is a true GAGA*er, eh!!
May he rot in that hell** especially designed for GAGAers.
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the Karmic Gods of Retribution upon their passing from this realm.
**Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along. The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
Ang hit the nail on the head.
The Deformers are masters of the fake handoff, of the slick sidestep. They sidestepped the law preventing the feds from doing curricula. They sidestepped the opposition they would get in Congress to stealing away parental control over their kids’ private data.
Now they are going to go around the overwhelming opposition to the Common Core. (They don’t for a moment believe their own BS about people supporting this drek.)
They have instructed all their wind-up toys in the states to follow Reverend Mike’s advice: rebrand.
Pass the same exact standards and call them The Buckin’ Buckeye Standards, the Hootin’ Hoosier Standards, the Show Me Some Standards Standards, the Pineapple State Pineapple Question Standards, the Cheese State Standards, the Banks of the Swanee far, far Up and Away Standards.
Common what? I don’t recall saying anything about that. And . . .
Pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain.
Here’s the challenge to an enterprising reporter:
Find the smoking gun memo or email in which a federal official lays out the rebranding plan
I know, hey, call them something else.
That’s the advice that their house preacher gave to them: Reverend Mike: Lie about it. Call them something else.
‘Pass the same exact standards and call them The Buckin’ Buckeye Standards, the Hootin’ Hoosier Standards, the Show Me Some Standards Standards, the Pineapple State Pineapple Question Standards, the Cheese State Standards, the Banks of the Swanee far, far Up and Away Standards.”
TAGO!
Can this be pre-election triangulation? Money-State Rights-Teacher Votes
Parents in revolt against high stakes test with unreasonable cut scores have targeted legislators who support the tests. NYS opt out by 33,000 parents will bite Governor and other politicians. Can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Sent from my iPhone
>
Fill in the blank
The Common Core by any other name, still smells __________.
like Mom’s apple pie?
. . . like porcine excrement.
Like money for 1%ers
Tell your state department and your state politicians that you want a real alternative to standardized test-enabling, fixed, centralized bullet lists at the national OR state level.
So, what’s the alternative? (Ed Deformers always ask this, expecting stunned silence in reply. Well, here’s the alternative.)
An open-source wiki to which are published, for every domain, in every subject, for varied learners, at every grade level, VOLUNTARY, COMPETING, ALTERNATIVE
standards
frameworks
sample lesson plans
model curricula
learning progressions (aka curriculum maps)
pedagogical techniques, strategies, and rationales
model assessments (diagnostic, formative, and performance)
texts
in a variety of formats (including video)
prepared by independent scholars, researchers, curriculum developers, practitioners (teachers, curriculum coordinators, other administrators), and professionals in various fields
That’s how you get innovation.
You don’t get it via regimentation, standardization, and top-down mandates from a national Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth, from a national curriculum and pedagogy Thought Police.
You don’t get it via regimentation, standardization, and top-down mandates from a state-level educational Thought Police either.
There IS an alternative. Open source. Teachers and administrators and parents taking back their schools.
So, which will be the first state to reject the early twentieth-century-style, top-down, hierarchical, factory approach to education and adopt, instead, a networked, open-sourced, collaborative, continuously evolving one?
Encarta
or
Wikipedia
Give me the latter ANY DAY.
I like it.
Here we go!!!!!! They will start changing the name of the standards just like they did in Florida and Indiana! Guess what Arne lipstick on a pig doesn’t make it beautiful. We aren’t falling for it – call it what you want-you can’t hide the fact that they are still awful educational standards!
5. His boss gave him an ultimatum to be a big boy and have a public debate with Diane.
lol
Maybe it’s his twin?
DoppelDunkin
This story from the Washington Post, Jan 30, tells about Mike Huckabee’s call to “rebrand” the Common Core but “not retreat,” made at a recent Council of Chief State School Officers meeting. (The CCSSO, along with the NGA, holds the copyright on the CCSS):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/some-states-rebrand-controversial-common-core-education-standards/2014/01/30/a235843e-7ef7-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html
Time for the Sequel to Son of NCLB:
Spawn of the Core
Ang, Bob Shepherd, et.al.–yes, it’s only rebranding. Just like No Child Left Behind became Race to the Top. Different name, same game. As always, they take us for being stupid. Since we’re not–we reject WHATEVER it is you call it!
That’s the thing that is mind blowing about this. They really do think that the people are completely stupid, that they will fall for this.
The people should be furious at such duplicity.
retiredbutmissthekids and Bob Shepherd: yes, eduproduct rebranding, and yes, overweening arrogance on the part of ArneRhee&Co.
What struck me most was—
I smell fear. Genuine fear on the part of some of the leading charterites/privatizers. While we still have “many miles to go before we sleep” [does one ever get to sleep when it comes to a “better education for all”?] I think this is a solid marker that we have just entered the beginning of the end.
This is a lot more than Michelle Rhee and David Coleman fleeing in reckless abject fear from an open public discussion with Diane Ravitch—while somehow finding the time to push eduproduct in other forums. This is a lot more than Karin Klein opting out her own children from high-stakes testing—while still desperately clinging to CCSS and its associated hazing rituals for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
I will not apologize for what I am about to write. The leaders of the self-styled “education reform” movement and their principal edubully enforcers are, at heart, craven cowards. Yes, “Dr.” Steve “Strap Up Head Injuries” Perry can post insulting and racist posts online while shirking his work duties and brazenly defend his actions. Yes, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy can fire Ms. Patrena Shankling, a fine substitute teacher, for doing her job while he wastes hundred of millions of dollars on vanity rheephorm projects. Yes, Eva Moskowitz can squeeze more than $70 @student out of her “most precious assets” [Michelle Rhee’s phrase] while kicking special needs students out of PS 149 and call herself a victim.
Yet the blowback from their mad dog pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$ hasn’t really hit home to them.
Until now. There have been hints before, such as Arne Duncan’s peculiar speech to AERA on April 30, 2013.
But this last bit is not simple cognitive dissonance, no garden-variety word salad. This is a man punching himself in the face, taking a real beating, all the while declaring that no one can question the courage of someone who can “take such a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.”
Except that we’re not talking about watches but his sanity and his inanity.
I look forward to the continuing fall and neutering of those who have abused their positions of authority and trust.
Thank you both for your comments.
😎
Krazy, I wish I could be so sanguine. This whole idea of a national set of standards, national tests, national curricula, was floated way, way back in the first Bush Administration, and the same gang has kept it alive through many resurrections. It is, as Diane has called it, Ed Deform the unDead. The oligarchs are not going to give up this push for total control of the training of the children of the proles.
It has been an enormous pleasure, these past months, to read your posts, Mr. KrazyTA. Thank you for the many, many laughs, the many insights, the many bits of wisdom from the other Marx and those dead Greek guys.
Speaking of which: How about a little Sappho and Hypatia?
Bob Shepherd: reading your comments, the pleasure is mine.
😃
But as for the unquoted, pardon me the explanation.
Once, just once, Arne the D walked into Pink Slip Bar & Grille. Unfortunately, Duane Swacker wasn’t there so he missed the pleasure of throwing a heavy tome of Noel Wilson at his head, I mean, explain Wilson’s explanations about how you can’t quantify a quality and such…
I digress. Anyway, I thought perhaps Arne just wasn’t getting good advice, that maybe if I could engage him in a little conversation he would begin to see things differently. So I invited him over for a drink [I paid] and after a little chit chat I let him have this bit:
“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” [Hypatia]
Needless to say, I was a little alarmed that he just seemed to freeze up. After a few moments I gently tapped his shoulder and he seemed to snap out of it. But imagine my astonishment when he shouted rather loudly:
“Think? Is that a real word? Or is it slang like b-ball for basketball? Can I palm it or dunk it?”
I am not normally at a loss for words but not a word, a single word, came to mind or passed my lips no matter how much I struggled. I guess he read my inner turmoil because he smiled graciously and then kicked me in the shins—perhaps he thought I was in a coma and need to be forcibly woken up. Looking me straight in the eyes he said, “THINK! THINK! Wait till I tell BO I learned a new word!”
He left forthwith. Unfortunately, I required a couple cups of sake before a few words could leave my mouth forthwith. To this day Socrates claims that the only thing he knows is that he knows he would rather not have known what I was babbling because, frankly, it didn’t make any sense.
So there you have it. I’m not proud of myself, but I suppose I developed some kind of memory block about Arne and Hypatia and such.
Can we talk about something else?
😎
Excellent. Thanks and keep it coming
You ran into Dunkin Duncan at the Pink Slip? I guess he must have been short a runner on his crew that day.
You’re right that it’s a good thing that Don Duane Swacker, Hidalgo, was not there to go tilting Wilson at him. Would have been funny to see, though.
But you, Krazy, you really should have known better than to mention thinking to him. It’s a wonder you’re still breathing. Being the capo, not the Boss, he is VERY sensitive on the thinking topic because his job is to do what the Boss says, and the Boss’s job is to do what the Big Bosses say, but everyone knows you don’t just go around SAYING IT, you know what I mean? It’s downright rude and emasculating.
Last time I was in the Pink Slip, years ago, I ran into Crazy Jane and she was going on about the Bishop and how seven hats wouldn’t make him a man, and I said the same thing to her.
At any rate, say hi for me to Diphtheria and Typhoid and all the other Greeks down at the Pink Slip. Sappho says,
Some say an army of horsemen,
some of footsoldiers, some of ships,
is the fairest thing on the black earth,
but I say it is what one loves.
Much love to all down at the pink slip. Where they are, I am.
Tell ’em, for me, that one day the bosses will be beaten down, and that’s no “The Iceman Cometh” fairytale. That’s how things happen. The day will come when the last will be first and the first last, and in that day the hills will break forth before us into singing and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
If I may KTA (hey that rhymes) add a bit to one of your thoughts (since this particular characteristic is well displayed by K. Klein):
“Except that we’re not talking about watches but his sanity, HIS VANITY and his inanity.
Sure to answer your question Diane… Duncan thinks if he puts the wool over his own eyes that everyone will believe what he says. Arne I am going to say this to you… “you can leave the wool over your eyes anyway… and dig your head in the ground… but guess what… we can still see you and yes… your ideas … well they smell pretty bad.
Time to put a stake in the whole Deform package: one-size-fits-all standards, VAM, standardized testing, test prep, stripping teachers of their due process rights, privatization, and Orwellian centralized student response databases.
Wouldn’t it be nice if, once again, the raging debates we were having were about whether to teach World Lit or English Lit in Grade 12, about whether The Hunger Games or Ender’s Game ought to be on the required reading list, about whether to teach the five-paragraph theme format, about the value or lack thereof of explicit grammar instruction, about use of math manipulatives, about homework, about grading systems, about whether nonspecific praise is always a bad thing, about the circumstances when flipped learning might be useful, about the value or lack thereof of “inferencing” lessons, about the uses and abuses of think-pair-share, and so on?
Just imagining a world post-Education Deform, one in which teachers and administrators have taken back their schools from the feds, from the plutocrats, AND from the state departments, one in which we can get back to thinking about stuff that isn’t actually destructive of our goals as teachers.
Call it what it is wherever you see it:
Spawn of the Core
I hope to live to see the day
when teachers are respected enough to be entrusted with making their own decisions regarding curricula, materials, pedagogical techniques, learning progressions, outcomes to be measured, and measurement devices to be used
when they work in teacher-led schools
when they have a great deal of time in their schedules for Japanese-style Lesson Study: to work collaboratively to plan the next week’s lessons; to go over what worked and didn’t; to share the best they’ve come across; to share with parents’ groups what they are doing; to assist the weakest among them, to make continuous improvement THEIR JOB, not something forced on them from above
when the deformers–the politicians and plutocrats and educrats and instaEduPundits are told to get the hell out and let teachers do their jobs
when they are told, you may advise (because we are always interested in better teaching) but you may not dictate; you may not so presume
Sorry about the many posts, all.
Keep em coming, that way I won’t be numero uno in 14.
We are watching “House of Cards” and that reminds me not to trust any of the fake ed reformers. If Arne is doing damage control by retreating from Common Core, then they are cooking something else to use soon that will be used in another attempt to achieve their goals.
Bingo!
Well, Duncan IS a politician. Politicians lie. Duncan lies. He has to or he’d be jobless. What gets me is WHO chose him in the first place. Duncan is a farce.
The problem in this country is equity. No politician wants to address this issue. It’s because of the horrid way this country does campaigning for office. It’s obscene.
Wouldn’t rebranding Common Core with individual State names violate the copyright?
TAGO!
word
Any state can withdraw from the MOU copyright. The copyright was part of the “50 state strategy” to standardize the system across the country to tie into the student longitudinal data system (SLDS). The agenda is to individualize and standardize the entire system based on individual standards, monitored by individual teachers teaching those standards (VAM), with curriculum validated toward those standards. Because of the heated controversy with parents and teachers understanding the direction this socialist agenda is taking, rebranding is used to throw everyone off the trail.
Just google your states ESEA flexibility waiver for the last 3 years. The direction of Title I for every child to individualize the funding where the money “follows the child” is pretty blatant.
Be sure to look at the ESEA Re-Authorization legislation too. This is the Chicago Obama Duncan Plan with a little Republican sugar added on top as amendments. Expansion of charters, federal choice money for private and religious schools, testing accountability, teaching and testing Grit, (whole child), teacher training, a national school board, and guess what else? Yup, you guessed it? State approved standards. What are the standards approved by the state? College ,Career Citizenship Readiness Standards. The CCSSO did not fool us. Look at any of the Innovation Lab Network states….this is your R & D for what every state will look like in 5 years. This is the model..and the model states is where most of the controversy is.
The Re-Authorization of ESEA legislation will federalize education in law…national,standards, national curriculum, national teacher training and certification, with a national test to be sure everyone is in compliance. Ugh. What an ugly picture.
Anita, I strongly recommend you read up on what Socialism is, or aspires to be.
CCSS is a perfect example of Corporatism, not Socialism.
While crying socialism might be a good dogwhistle to sell your books with, it is a flimsy straw man that is ultimately self defeating for those who insist that there is a socialist under every bush. There is nothing socialist about the CC$$ or any of the other corporate reforms. The only reason that anything resembling socialism remains alive is that it has a huge corporate monster to rail against and that socialists are better than those on the right at seeing that monster for what it is. If you really want to crush the pitiful remains of socialism, you’d be well advised to understand the crony capitalism/corporate influencers corruption of the constitution. Socialists do not have the money to buy any politician at will, the Koch brothers do.
There is nothing “socialist” about Common Core. It is a boon for big business.
Dear Citizens,
Well, I don’t think you read my post correctly. Are you just hung up on the word socialism and not the content of the post? I agree with Michael that the privatization happening now is more like corporatism. But the agenda is bigger than that. This system is preparing to do away with elected officials and public schools. What do you have left when public schools are pushed to the brink because of charter school takeovers? With caps on charter schools being removed by states with accepting federal grants like RTTT? What do you have left with charters having unelected boards? Obama is the one who unlocked FERPA so that outside contractors could access personally identifiable information without informed parental consent for data mining with an EO. Both Republicans and Democrats are pushing the privatization of education. The corporate monster that you speak of did a good job of making you and I enemies before we even had a chance to compare notes. I think we are on the same side.
My statements are about legislation that is happening soon that may change our system of government as charters continue to be expanded. If you understand the agenda that was laid out by the Department of Labor when the Republicans were in power in the 90’s called the SCANS report, maybe you could see through the forest for the trees. Common Core is not new. This agenda was being pushed under Outcome Based Education 20+ years ago. Common Core is a power shift away from local control. The ESEA flex waivers and federal ESEA re-authorization will put these phony standards into federal law by individualizing and nationalizing education. If the Republicans have their way, federal choice amendments will kill public and private schools, too. What happens to the tax base when ANY child can transfer out of the public school with a FEDERAL choice stipend? Private and religious schools accepting a Title I child will be forced to do Common Core. So all schools become nationalized. Title I funds sets that agenda up when the money follows the child. But, understand, both parties are making money from charter schools. It was Clinton who passed the legislation where capital investments could be made on charter schools.
So rebranding the name of Common Core is old hat. OBE, competency based education, individually prescribed instruction….many names from long ago come to mind. Just let the people think there will be a change…. While the system moves forward.
So attack the messenger if you want, but there’s more going on here than you think. If you want to call changing representative govt. something other than socialism, OK. I don’t care what you call it. But at least do your research before attacking someone who supports teachers and public schools.
BTW. I don’t have a book for sale. I researched for a book, that’s all.
If you want to read one of my articles about how the system will diminish Represntative govt. here it is, then lets talk.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hoge/anita104.htm
Diane,
We both understand that there is a bigger agenda than just making money. But not from Common Core. Of course money will be made by private equity firms investing in charter schools. Of course there will be money made by 3rd part contractors who have access to PII because Obama unlocked FERPA allowing data mining. Common Core just individualized the data for software and curriculum developers to individualize their wares. Of course there are huge contributors buying off the direction of education like Gates. But what about parents not being able to have a voice about public school closings being replaced by charter schools? Or charter schools not having elected boards? Or teachers being evaluated by how their students test, not on how well they excell at teaching? Or firing elected school board members? Common Core is the part that individualizes education, so that TQM can evaluate any child, teacher, or school on the business model agenda. What word do we want to call nationalizing education so that the govt. has total control of education and what is taught or tested?
The ESEA flex waivers are putting this agenda in place and the ESEA re-authorization will finalize this agenda in federal law.
Lets put a name on that!
I think, Anita, that you are referring to what is more properly called “State Socialism.” Socialism itself is proper defined as “ownership of the means of production by the workers.” By that definition, an Employee Stock Ownership Plan is socialist.
LOL
It might but they don’t care and won’t file charges as long as it gets pushed into place. Who cares about some damn law when there’s money to be made?
Maybe he read them?
Department of Education and Arne Duncan– We put the NO in inNOvation.
**Stolen from a friend who said it about his work place.**
My guess is that Mr. Duncan was distracted by the next shiny object coming along. Probably had a long chat with Bill Gates and is right now planning the Next Big Thing to Improve our Failing Schools. If only those silly teachers would listen to the central authority, we could get somewhere.
Reminds me of that song “A Little Sidestep” from _The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas_.
Let’s call it “The Arne Shuffle.”
Clearly, this an effort to rebrand Common Core to deflect attention away from a growing body of dissenting voices. This is similar to changing “global warming” to “climate change” to appease conservatives. The fact that Obama specifically referred to CCSS in his State of the Union address without calling them by name tells us they are in the process of retooling it’s image. The promoters know they’re in trouble because the public finally sees the man behind the curtain.
It seems Duncan received marching orders from Gates who fears the parental revolt now that parents know corporate reform is about monetizing every child who attends public schools in the US.
Here’s the latest propaganda from engage NY…
.http://www.engageny.org/content/high-stakes-really
those tests were never “high stakes” – where did we ever get that silly idea?
The way I see it, Arne has a major “re-branding” (re-naming) problem. Try to find a math or ELA document without the dreaded, “aligned with Common Core” printed on it. Now what?
The tests will be embedded in the curriculum…. Adaptive curriculum and software that is being researched through data mining from the unlocking of FERPA that allows third party contractors to access restricted file use on PII, personally identifiable information. Look for the testing mania to go away too, with the Common Core brand.
Look in the ESEA flexibility waivers. The teachers must use RTI for interventions to meet Common Core, oh I mean, state standards. So the system is being individualized and the computer will be used to do just that. If a teacher is not moving a child along this continuum, they will be forced out of the system or fired. Each child will have a career pathway or small letter IEP. That’s the plan.
Though it’s awkward to mention in polite so-called reform company, the tests fundamentally are the curriculum, in that schools live or die by them, and in that they embed habits of mind – obedience and its sibling, learned powerlessness, high tolerance for tedium, and submission to remote control/surveillance – that are the real objective behind the euphemism of “college (debt) and (poverty wage) career ready.”
It is called mid-term elections.
I saw the protests being positively profiled by FOX. The Republicans probably see an opportunity to use it in the next election cycles.
Yep. The Ohio teachers who voted for Kasich, were taking a second look at the Democratic party after S.B. 5. But, they’ll drift back to the anti-union and anti-woman Republicans, if Arne/Obama are linked to abusive testing. When Bill and Melinda Gates snap their fingers, the response is ASAP, by both parties.
Now that he’s thrown CCSS under the bus, will his beloved charter schools come next?
Don’t assume they have abandoned the Common Core standards and that the Charter schools will end up on the chopping block next. Instead, expect to see how they re-brand both and push harder using some other spin and/or tactic that is unexpected.
Exactly
The Federal DOE really needs to go. There should not be any Federal guiding, directing, assisting, helping, financing, supporting, strengthening, overseeing, suggesting, evaluating, observing, regulating, mandating, partnering, anything at all, of education. It does not belong. It is simply not their purview.
Another reason that Arne Duncan “forgot”? Maybe it just shows that his galloping senility is showing up – yet again.
Keep in mind that behind ALL of this reform is the MUCH bigger agenda of the Koch Brothers… Public Education must be dismantled in any way possible in order to fully take control of the government. Politicians are just pawns in a much bigger power grab agenda.
Hillary will lose if she continues the same corporate EdReform policies promoted by Duncan, Emanuel, et al. National Dems might be waking up to the threat of losing votes from educators & parents. EdReform was PBO’s biggest mistake. If he’s smart he’ll undo as much damage as possible before 2016 because by then American parents could be in full blown revolt against the overuse & misuse of forced, standardized, high-stakes testing. It was a huge blunder to put vendors in charge of edpolicy.