tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post2394450813429701796..comments2024-03-29T04:34:05.185-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: Duncan's Magical One Size Fits All Test UnicornPeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-42900361489610020122015-08-25T08:23:39.826-04:002015-08-25T08:23:39.826-04:00Thank you for shining a light on this, another Dun...Thank you for shining a light on this, another Duncan disaster. In addition to this being awful policy, I find the fact that the USDOE released this on a Friday in August so disrespectful, like they were hoping no one would notice. Especially since this sat on the back burner for 2 years. People need to call and email and write to their senators and congressman. Americans have to stop accepting this usurping of the democratic process.workingmomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03623939041270657087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-10513861549332853752015-08-25T07:33:47.409-04:002015-08-25T07:33:47.409-04:00Add to this that teachers who tried to object to t...Add to this that teachers who tried to object to the cheating were transferred or fired.Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-38047854152086394592015-08-25T01:26:56.541-04:002015-08-25T01:26:56.541-04:00Here's another doozy from Arne Duncan circa Au...Here's another doozy from Arne Duncan circa August 2011. <br /><br />On CNN, they repeated an interview Arne Duncan gave on the Atlanta cheating scandal, as the full scope of this was just coming to light in a mammoth report that was released:<br /><br />Back when this news broke, what was Duncan’s take on the Atlanta cheating scandal?<br /><br />Mehhh, it’s no big deal.<br /><br /><br />ARNE DUNCAN (blase):<br />“This is an easy one to fix: better test security.”<br /><br />Watch the August 2011 video:<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/atlanta-cheating-scandal-_n_892169.html<br /><br />Oh, I’m so glad Arne got to the bottom of this whole problem, and identified the cure. We can all relax now.<br /><br />This interview is great. Apparently, this was just some local Atlanta reporter, but she asked some unexpectedly (it seems from Duncan's reaction) pointed questions.<br /><br />She asks him if the unrealistic expectations of NCLB are part of the problem, and he’s totally non-responsive… he doesn’t give a yes or no to this.<br /><br /><br />Instead, he just says, “There are great teachers who are amazing… beating the odds… blah blah blah”<br /><br />Later, she says that “a lot of this is about money”, and asks if punishments and monetary rewards “need to be de-coupled from student learning.”<br /><br />Instead of owning up and admit this obvious reality—painfully obvious, in the light of what just happened in Atlanta– Duncan responded…<br /><br />oh no… not at all. We need to implement this MORE test-based monetary rewards for teachers and principals. Now is the time to double-down on all of that.<br /><br /><br />We need to keep what's been "coupled" and "couple even more." <br /><br />Check out this word salad (including the usual Duncan smarmy snow job of praising teachers and principals… the same folks whose profession Duncan has destroyed... test-score-based monetary rewards is just Arne's way of "celebrating great teachers and principals"):<br /><br />(at 02:30)<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/atlanta-cheating-scandal-_n_892169.html<br /><br />————————————————————–<br />DUNCAN: (at 02:30)<br /><br />“Well, I think rewarding teacher excellence is important. I think I would argue the opposite (i.e. don’t “de-couple”), that far too often we haven’t we haven’t celebrated great teachers. We haven’t celebrated great principals who are making a huge difference in students’ lives.<br /><br /><br />"You just want to make sure that they’re doing it honestly, and again, the vast majority of teachers are doing an amazing job, often in very difficult circumstances, in helping students beat the odds every single day. I think we need to do a better job of spotlighting that, and incentivizing that, and encouraging that, and learning from that.<br /><br /><br />“In education, we’ve been far too reluctant to talk about success. We just need to do that.<br /><br />"We just need to make sure that we’re doing it with integrity.<br /><br />“Not too hard to do.”<br />————————-<br /><br />Really Arne? “Not too hard to do”?<br /><br />“Merit pay” and basing personnel evaluations and decisions on test scores has been tried countless times for over 100 years, and it has always failed.<br /><br />What you claim is “not hard to do” HAS NEVER WORKED.<br /><br />IT DOES NOT WORK.<br /><br />IT WILL NEVER WORK.<br /><br />The Atlanta fiasco is but the latest, and perhaps the most dramatic proof of all this.<br /><br />In fact, when it’s tried, it actually causes severe harm—narrowing of the curriculum, turning schools into test prep factories, etc.<br /><br />Duncan’s corporate reform masters need testing to drive privatization, corporate profiteering, and union-busting, and so Duncan will defend to the death the misuse, and the over-emphasis on testing, and the massive over-testing in general, etc.<br /><br />Near the end, the interviewer is despondent over the news from Atlanta, claiming that she's lost her last heroes... teachers. She's desperately trying to get Arne to face the magnitude and far-reaching implications the Atlanta cheating situation has.<br /><br />Finally, Arne decides to change gears, and, in a moment of transparent insincerity, does some half-assed attempt at mirroring her feelings, just to placate her. It's totally fake and insincere.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911854468188214107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-49339213505254965752015-08-24T14:17:44.300-04:002015-08-24T14:17:44.300-04:00Peter, TY for helping us laugh through the tears. ...Peter, TY for helping us laugh through the tears. USDOE demands we cure disabilities because they say so with magic tests, knowing full well there is no money to implement even rudimentary supports for very challenged children. For parents who are also challenged by familiarity with English, or by poverty, or little awareness of their child's IDEA rights, districts will take full advantage to deny needed services and resources. All this in the name of equality. And there is NO requirement that states and communities provide the needed funds to even minimally enforce what children are entitled to under IDEA. Tragic.teka21https://www.blogger.com/profile/01940482505192254008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-228866671909355202015-08-24T13:46:02.576-04:002015-08-24T13:46:02.576-04:00Yep, he just waved his magic wand and solved every...Yep, he just waved his magic wand and solved everything.<br /><br />"The magical testing unicorn can carry any student, whether she's 400 pounds or ten pounds or can't grip reins or is deathly afraid of unicorns."Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.com