Why Duncan had it in for Starr
Starr opposed Duncan testing madness
Here's more on Arne Duncan's direct interference in de Blasio's selection of a schools chancellor. Duncan and his assistant, Jim Shelton (the man from Gates), pressured BdB against the selection of Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr. WaPo education writer Valerie Strauss explains why Duncan felt so threatened by Starr.
Starr, who runs Maryland’s largest school district, just miles from the White House, became nationally known last year when he made a call for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes standardized testing, a central component of Duncan’s school reform policies. Starr said the country should “stop the insanity” of evaluating teachers according to student test scores, calling it a flawed method.Let's Make a Deal
Having lost the battles, both to prevent de Blasio's election and then to get him to pick aMichelle Rhee-type schools chancellor, N.Y. corporate reformers are now calling for a "truce". Charles Sahm from the right-wing Manhattan Institute writing in the Daily News, calls