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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Arne Duncan Wants to Have it Both Ways | Scathing Purple Musings

Arne Duncan Wants to Have it Both Ways | Scathing Purple Musings:

Arne Duncan Wants to Have it Both Ways

Writing in The New American, Michael Tennant caught this odd little admission that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made during a recent webcast:

During the course of the webcast, in which Duncan answered questions submitted via Twitter, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was raised. NCLB is the 2001 version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) signed into law by President George W. Bush that imposes national standards on schools and measures schools’ success in meeting those standards primarily via standardized testing. Its emphasis on testing and its lack of flexibility have caused consternation in state capitals and school districts across the country, especially since failure to meet the standards could mean a loss of federal money.

“Some people are saying the real lesson of No Child Left Behind is that Washington cannot run