The Weekly Update: No money for Common Core in Seattle, Broad left Seattle in the cover of darkness and has reappeared in Oregon, ACT for Kindergartners, Creationism in schools and the US as an Oligarchy. How much more fun can one have?
Much is going on in the wide world of education. Every time I’m ready to wrap up this post, something new comes across the wires.
First up:
Thanks to our state legislators who understand the negative ramifications of tying test scores to teacher evaluations, the bill that would have brought new meaning to the term “high stakes testing” was shot down even after Arne Duncan had a special meeting with our Governor explaining to him the importance of the Federal government determining local education policy.
It will behoove all of us to remember the members of our state Congress who voted this bill down. They will need our support in upcoming elections. Big money was behind this bill and they are not likely to go away after this defeat.
From Diane Ravitch:
The Education Department is pulling Washington state’s No Child Left Behind waiver because the state has not met the department’s timeline for tying teacher evaluations to student performance metrics.Washington is the first state to lose its waiver. The loss will give local districts less flexibility in using federal funds.For instance, they may now be required to spend millions on private tutoring services for at-risk students. The waiver revocation could also result in nearly every school across the state being labeled as failing under NCLB.Washington had pledged in its waiver application to make student growth a significant factor in teacher and principal evaluations by the 2014-15 school year. But the state Legislature refused to pass a bill mandating that student performance on statewide assessments be included in teacherThe Weekly Update: No money for Common Core in Seattle, Broad left Seattle in the cover of darkness and has reappeared in Oregon, ACT for Kindergartners, Creationism in schools and the US as an Oligarchy. How much more fun can one have? | Seattle Education: