Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The flip side of testing madness. 'You will test only 2% of the time'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The flip side of testing madness. 'You will test only 2% of the time':

The flip side of testing madness. 'You will test only 2% of the time'

Duncan and Casserly making the media rounds... Last night on the PBS News Hour, no matter what Gwen Ifill asked about the administration's supposed shift on testing. Duncan responded with his stock answers. Michael Casserly, Director-For-Life, it seems, of the Council of Great City Schools, came off like the ultimate bureaucrat. He sounds reluctant, but willing to go along with the charade. "It's complicated" he says. Let's have lots more departmental and cross-state discussions and meetings. He's been 40 years atop the organization that could be funded to facilitate just such meetings and conferences.

Casserly

Was it just me or did they both sound like they were defending rather than reassessing current testing policies? It seemed like they're already warning us against the impending perils of "too little testing."

Duncan actually claimed that he had been on this track all along and that the new line on testing was an affirmation of his own long-standing views.

He tells Ifill:

Well, I think we have embraced this idea for a while. What’s different now is we actually have data. And I have been talking about this, as Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The flip side of testing madness. 'You will test only 2% of the time':