Be Clear About the Heavy Lifting Ahead for New Assessments
While Thursday’s award of $330 million to two state consortia, PARCC and Smarter/Balanced, to design and implement new student assessment systems was not unexpected — there were only two applicants — it’s still an important moment. The consortia’s plans are ambitious and Secretary Duncan is correct that these new assessments have the potential to be an “absolute game-changer.” This is perhaps the most important part, more important even than Race to the Top, of the Secretary’s discretionary stimulus funding. Nice job.
But game-changers take resources, persistence, and above all else, a multi-pronged effort to impact such as vast and fragmented enterprise as American education. While the $330 million is a big investment, states and districts need to be prepared to invest much more to implement the technology, teacher professional
848 billion and counting
That’s the total amount of outstanding student loan debt in this country, courtesy of Mark Kantrowitz at Finaid.org.
As Michelle Singletary says in her column about the Student Loan Debt Clock, “It’s haunting. It’s crazy. It’s sad.” And, just like the national debt clock in Midtown Manhattan, it should make us all wonder, “What does this mean for the economic health of our country?”
$848 billion is a lot of debt (more than we owe on credit cards) being shouldered by young people – the ones in our country who are supposed to be using their new earning potential to buy houses and cars, and not just