If politics makes strange bedfellows, then enough money makes all strange bedfellows whores. Such is the reality in Washington today, where the US Department of Education cannot speak without sloshing cash from their philanthrocapitalist sugar daddies.
In a summary of a radio interview with Richard Rothstein and Duncan's Communications guy, Peter Cunninghem, Caroline Grannan notes that ED spokesperson Cunningham conceded every major point made by Rothstein, whose research to back up his arguments is impeccable: 1) high-stakes testing has caused great harm to children, with a disproportionate amount of the harm done to disadvantaged children in the form of stress, reduced quality of teaching, and shrunken curriculums; 2) charter schools (National Charter School Study Full Report) are more often than not worse than the public schools they replace; and 3) standardized tests are not good measures of teacher quality.