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Monday, August 1, 2011

School Tech Connect: The Unified Theory of Poverty, Testing, and Jobs

School Tech Connect: The Unified Theory of Poverty, Testing, and Jobs

The Unified Theory of Poverty, Testing, and Jobs

I'm still recovering from the DC heat. Holy cow-- I think my internal organs were parboiled. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I'm still in awe of what the SOS steering committee and volunteers accomplished.

One thing that has to be kept in mind is that when people like me, for example, criticize high-stakes testing, Arne Duncan rolls his eyes because he thinks he's cured that problem. As you know, a friggin' ton of the stimulus money was scheduled to be spent not on fixing infrastructure or building high-speed rail, or building libraries in poverty zones, but on the creating of new, magical tests that go along with the Common Core standards and that will be expanded into every subject.

The tests, which don't exist yet, will be online, and will have the appearance of being magical because in all