Duncan on testing: ‘We can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’
Here is the text of a speech (as prepared for delivery) that Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave this week to the American Educational Research Association, meeting in San Francisco. Duncan addresses growing criticism of high-stakes standardized tests, among other subjects. … Continue reading →
What Happened in DC in 2008 – & Does it Still Matter in 2013?
If a prominent urban school leader told you he couldn’t recall being informed that half his city’s schools may have allowed the gross mistreatment of students to occur, would you believe him? And even if you did, would you still want him in charge of your children?
Now imagine that the leader in question is not just prominent locally, but nationally as well. Imagine that this individual has appeared on the cover of iconic news magazines and been interviewed on Oprah’s iconic couch. And imagine that this person has come to embody a singular approach to determining the effectiveness of schools and teachers – the rationale for which would be challenged if the allegations of mistreatment were ever proven to be true.
Would you want to know if any actual wrongdoing had occurred?
In fact this is not a hypothetical question, but an actual one we can apply to the nation’s capital, and to our nation’s most visible school reformer, Michelle Rhee. It