Betsy DeVos apointed her friend and ally in the school choice movement, former Governor of Michigan John Engler, as chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Engler is a charter member of the “schools-are-failing” club. He recently retired as president of the Business Roundtable, an association representing some of the nation’s leading businesses, and before that was head of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Expect every release of NAEP scores to be a dire warning about how terrible our public schools are, how we are no longer globally competitive, and why we need drastic steps (school choice?) to close the achievement gaps.
Maybe some enterprising journalist will ask Engler about the failure of his reforms in Michigan, as reflected in NAEP scores. Since Michigan became a laboratory for choice, its NAEP scores plummeted.
As a seven-year member of that board, I can tell you we zealously protected the scores from politicization. Don’t expect Engler to maintain that tradition.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Jim Blew, the director of Student Success California, an education advocacy group, has gotten the official White House nod to lead the office of planning, evaluation, and policy analysis at the U.S. Department of Education. We wrote that his nomination was likely back in June.
Blew’s background could be a boon to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ push to expand school choice. He was the national president of StudentsFirst, an education redesign organization started by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. He took that job in late 2014, when Rhee stepped down from the organization,”.
No public school supporters or advocates allowed inside the bubble!
Wow. It is a great time to be a charter or private school student in the US.
Too bad about those public school students, huh? They’ve been deemed unfashionable.
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I don’t know that it’s possible for the US Department of Education to do more “choice” school cheerleading. Is there some level above “100% of the work day”?
They’re indistinguishable from charter/voucher lobbying groups, probably because they all come from lobbying groups and then go back there.
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Remember, though, they are draining those lobbying/political back-scratching swamps! One has to be a swamp denizen do know where the plug is.
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We wouldn’t expect any less from this right wing ideologue, Yesterday, she gave her “choice” pitch at Harvard. The audience was quiet, but the signs tell the story of how they really felt about her and her anti-democratic agenda. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/harvard-protesters-greet-education-secretary-betsy-devos-speech-article-1.3529565
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I would hope so. She paid good money for him.
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New NAGB appointees Engler, Perdue, and Cizek all very strong Common Core supporters. Engler and Perdue are former governors. Cizek works on the Smarter Balanced test.
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” As a seven-year member of that board, I can tell you we zealously protected the scores from politicization. Don’t expect Engler to maintain that tradition.”
I think that NAEP has been a captive of the Common Core for quite a while. This is to say it has been politiciized. For example Susan, Pimentel, pal and collaborator with David Coleman on the Common Core, also served on the NAEP governing Board from 2007 (while the Common Core was being launched). Pimentel was reappointed in 2011, and served as vice-chair of NAEP from 2012 to 2015.
And she is not the only one who paved the way to making NAEP an exercise in the blatant display of political influence.
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And please explain what that might mean. I can’t figure out what you are trying to say. Are those facts you cite a positive or a negative? For whom might they be positive or negative? Why do those appointees matter? TIA, Duane.
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From one of your posts on the nonpartisaneducation.wordpress site:
“For a while, ETS played that role well, producing some of the world’s highest-quality, most objective measurement research.”
What is the standard unit of learning in that supposedly “objective measurement research”?
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John Engler is a snake. He was our Governor for 3 terms and he left us with high deficits (he inherited a surplus), gutted worker rights, and basically screwed us every way he find.
He should be in jail instead of Washington.
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Absolutely correct Karla. He’s the Toad that “borrowed” money from the teacher’s pension fund that has never been repaid by the state. Now all we hear is how “underfunded” said pension fund is so new hires only have a 403b option without a defined benefit. This is the very person and his administration that started the destruction of education in Michigan. I could go on for paragraphs about this a$$ but my blood pressure is rising. GOd help us.
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