Stunned?
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is reportedly “stunned” by stories confirming cheating on test scores in Atlanta Public Schools. Why is he stunned that school district cultures are heading in this direction? Is he unaware of the laws that mandate closing of schools that are consistently low-performing on state tests? When asked in the interview linked above, Duncan says he thinks such cheating is actually “very isolated” and he blames a systemic problem. Does he not follow the news in education?
I guess our Secretary of Education missed that story about erase marks in DC Public Schools that came out in May or this one in June that mentioned examples of suspected cheating across the country. Meanwhile, educators and parents from districts across the country have long been expressing concerns about the emphasis on standardized tests and its flawed use as an
