Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's unsolicited confession: He's choking education.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's unsolicited confession: He's choking education.:

Duncan's unsolicited confession: He's choking education.

EPIPHANY...Arne Duncan has been talking with lots of teachers, principals and other educators, he claims, and has had an aha! moment. In his blog post, he offers this unsolicited confession:

"I believe testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools – oxygen that is needed for a healthy transition to higher standards, improved systems for data, better aligned assessments, teacher professional development, evaluation and support, and more."

Duncan, the biggest oxygen sucker of them all, then allows a one-year reprieve on test-based teacher ratings. Thank you, Lord Duncan. I'm sure a year from now, the oxygen will be back.



What Duncan refuses to recognize is that his Race To The Top/Common Core testing regimen is also sucking wind when it comes to equity in the schools. Even with a one-year reprieve on federal test-based teacher ratings (will school districts follow suit?), dramatic cuts in funding will still leave poor, inner-city schools and districts at a disadvantage. Take Philadelphia, for example.With an $81 million Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's unsolicited confession: He's choking education.: