Education is the great equalizer and is required in a well-functioning democracy. Unfortunately, our Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has proven that he is out of touch with the needs of our students:

1) He stated that “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.” The result that he heralds is a system where public schools have been dismantled. It is now completely comprised of charter schools.

2) Standardized testing has grown under his tenure. The high-stakes nature of these tests is stressful for students, leaves less time for instruction and wastes limited education funds.

3) He has never taught in a classroom and should be seeking the input of teachers on what reforms would actually help our students. Instead, he has alienated them.

Sign the petition to fire Arne Duncan at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/fire-arne-duncan/2gNq0vgP

This is what happens when someone hires their basketball buddy to the position. It's the model that FCPS uses for promoting to administration as well. It doesn't usually turn out well.

if i left my digital signature here. i'd be afraid 1/2 of ffu would use it to mail order a russian bride

Hilarious! Mindless right-wing assholes are still mad that Duncan and Obama killed the failed DC voucher program. Here's a clue, dirtbags -- none of your asshole ideas actually work.

The teachers union has turned on him because he's an advocate for Common Core which by extension lends itself to standardized testing and is used in teacher evaluations. They don't mind evaluating students based on standard tests in the classroom (same test for all students) but don't want to be held to the same level of accountability. This is especially true knowing how woefully unprepared most students now show up to the classroom and how little support they receive at home.

Go back to bed, Edna. You are still lost in some semi-conscious faerie world.

LOL! Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hilarious! Mindless right-wing assholes are still
> mad that Duncan and Obama killed the failed DC
> voucher program. Here's a clue, dirtbags -- none
> of your asshole ideas actually work.


What is hilarious is that the loudest group wanting him removed is not anyone associated with the right-wing. It is actually, ........... wait for it......... The National Education Association. LoLz.

Nice try asshole. You must be a product of public education.

You mean it's not some Koch Bros.-Limbaugh-Beck driven conspiracy? That can't be right. Did someone run this by Salon or HuffPo or MoveOn first? Sounds like someone dropped the ball.

Really? Like common core is working? You are just another part of the problem with no solution. If this jackass were to be rated on performance in a REAL job he would have been fired long ago.

No problem with sol test. they are easy. teachers thinks we are gong to fail them, we proof them wrong every single year...

"The teachers union has turned on him because he's an advocate for Common Core which by extension lends itself to standardized testing and is used in teacher evaluations. They don't mind evaluating students based on standard tests in the classroom (same test for all students) but don't want to be held to the same level of accountability. This is especially true knowing how woefully unprepared most students now show up to the classroom and how little support they receive at home."


You need to read more. This is much more complicated than what you have posted. Arne's (and the feds) one size fits all solutions are ruining our schools. Teachers, believe it or not, have never been in love with standardized testing. It has nothing to do with their own evaluations and everything to do with the joyless, data centered classrooms they produce. Who wants to teach in that atmosphere? Who wants to work in a job where you are not free to use your brain to solve problems? When a test drives instruction, the teacher does not. We might as well just put the kids on computers and attach mechanized whips to the walls. Teachers are viewed as idiots who must be controlled. And, yes, liberals hate this and so do conservatives. Some of the masses in the middle have been brainwashed. Check which states are rebelling against Common Core. They are mostly conservative.

Oh, and check which schools the kids of these "decision makers" attend. You will find that most of them are in private schools. Common Core is good for the hoi poloi, but not for them.

Do any of you know what Common Core even is? Do you know where it came from or why? I don't think so. As for Arne Duncan, what angers teachers most is simply that he is limited in how far or fast he can go by the fact that Republicans in Congress will simply pass nothing. The drag of what remains of NCLB could be cleared away quickly with an apt bill or two, but Republicans care more for their partisan blockades than they do for the welfare of the country. It's that simple.

^ Arne Duncan initiated "Race to the Top" in order to get schools to accept Arne's agenda, buy from his approved buddy vendors, and evaluate teachers with the tests. Don't tell us that he could not control that and that the Republicans were the ones making him do that. I'm not buying it.

I do know where Common Core came from and by itself it is not bad. What is bad is that it is another top down initiative that will be used in ways that have no validity. Tests were not designed as a measure of teacher performance, only student performance. Using them this way is just plain wrong.

We need to get politicians out of the business of micromanaging education---especially at the federal level. They have lost all credibility with NCLB and nobody trusts their new Common Core to be much different. At this point it will take an awful lot of convincing. The people hawking all of this should spend a year teaching kids. Arne never did.

to Coleman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ^ Arne Duncan initiated "Race to the Top" in order
> to get schools to accept Arne's agenda, buy from
> his approved buddy vendors, and evaluate teachers
> with the tests. Don't tell us that he could not
> control that and that the Republicans were the
> ones making him do that. I'm not buying it.

Common Core is a way to recognize and modernize the objectives for education that we all have and then organize in pursuit of those together. One of the principal benefits of our universal free education system has been the melting-pot effect that provides a shared basis and groundwork of understanding to all of us. But as knowledge in general has grown by leaps and bounds in modern times, there has been mounting feedback from universities and employers alike that K-12 education was not properly preparing even nominally successful students for what comes next. Our arrows have been falling further and further short of an ever-receding target. Development of Common Core began in the mid-1990's (long before Arne Duncan), and it came into being in large part through state and local development efforts. With others in the works, the program has so far produced standards for English and Math only as it seeks to alter our deteriorating situation through reassessment and expansion of the scope of materials that need to be taught while also developing and evaluating new means for doing that teaching, Scary, huh.

NCLB mandated state testing (without providing states with funding for it), and sure enough, one of the companies that benefited big-time from that was in the pocket of Bush's brother. There is no comparable situation with respect to Common Core and Arne Duncan.

The requirements to conduct and apply standardized testing are in the Education Act. The administration can do and has done a lot to unshackle states from many of the worst parts of NCLB, but the executive cannot order things that are simply in violation of the law. That's where Congress comes in, but Republicans would never dream of doing anything that would make life easier for Obama. The nation's kids can go to hell in a hand-basket first.

> I do know where Common Core came from and by
> itself it is not bad. What is bad is that it is
> another top down initiative that will be used in
> ways that have no validity. Tests were not
> designed as a measure of teacher performance, only
> student performance. Using them this way is just
> plain wrong.

Then write your Congressperson and tell him or her to rip the remains of NCLB out of the Education Act. Your problems here are with Bush and Paige, not Obama and Duncan.

local matters more Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We need to get politicians out of the business of
> micromanaging education---especially at the
> federal level. They have lost all credibility
> with NCLB and nobody trusts their new Common Core
> to be much different. At this point it will take
> an awful lot of convincing. The people hawking
> all of this should spend a year teaching kids.
> Arne never did.

How many classroom-hours do YOU have? It's quite apparent that you haven't spent as much as 10 minutes on learning what Common Core is. Maybe let smarter people do the heavy lifting here.

"local matters more Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We need to get politicians out of the business of
> micromanaging education---especially at the
> federal level. They have lost all credibility
> with NCLB and nobody trusts their new Common Core
> to be much different. At this point it will take
> an awful lot of convincing. The people hawking
> all of this should spend a year teaching kids.
> Arne never did.

How many classroom-hours do YOU have? It's quite apparent that you haven't spent as much as 10 minutes on learning what Common Core is. Maybe let smarter people do the heavy lifting here."



I have been teaching for 27 years and have 4 certifications and a master's degree. I graduated at the top of my classes in both universities I attended (and not an education degree). I obtained my teaching credentials later after five years in another career. I am bilingual. I have taught in two states and in many different situations using all 4 of my certifications. I guess I was certainly was stupid to become a teacher. I have read plenty about all of this stuff.

I'm not against Common Core. I know we need to get there. Everyone is good at telling us where we need to be, but nobody is telling us how to get there. It's easy to write standards and design tests. The "heavy lifting" that you speak of (that you "smart people" are doing apparently) is totally misplaced. We, the teachers, along with our students, are where the "heavy lifting" must be done. You cannot make it happen by sending us more tomes of standards and tests (as much as you want to believe that you can). At the same time that you say you are going to make things better with these standards, our class sizes are increasing, pay is decreasing, and no real support is being given. The money is being put into the wrong places. Kids and parents are not reading your standards. They are seeing what is going on in the school down the street every day. The real work will be in preparing and hiring the best we have in our universities and colleges (which is not happening right now). Good luck.

Oh, and how many years have you spent teaching?

"Common Core is a way to recognize and modernize the objectives for education that we all have and then organize in pursuit of those together. One of the principal benefits of our universal free education system has been the melting-pot effect that provides a shared basis and groundwork of understanding to all of us. But as knowledge in general has grown by leaps and bounds in modern times, there has been mounting feedback from universities and employers alike that K-12 education was not properly preparing even nominally successful students for what comes next. Our arrows have been falling further and further short of an ever-receding target. Development of Common Core began in the mid-1990's (long before Arne Duncan), and it came into being in large part through state and local development efforts. With others in the works, the program has so far produced standards for English and Math only as it seeks to alter our deteriorating situation through reassessment and expansion of the scope of materials that need to be taught while also developing and evaluating new means for doing that teaching, Scary, huh."



This doesn't scare me at all. What scares me is that it scares you.

Fear is not a good motivator.

OK Mr. heavy lifter superstar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have been teaching for 27 years and have 4
> certifications and a master's degree.

Thank you for your service. You might wish to work with rather than against those trying to make your work easier and more productive.

> I'm not against Common Core. I know we need to
> get there. Everyone is good at telling us where
> we need to be, but nobody is telling us how to get
> there.

Public education is decentralized in the United States. State and federal agencies can establish policies and set objectives, but implementation will be done at the level of local schools and school boards. That means you. What are you doing? How are you involved?

> We, the teachers, along with our students, are where
> the "heavy lifting" must be done.

So stop your whining and get busy.

> You cannot make it happen by sending us more
> tomes of standards and tests (as much as you
> want to believe that you can).

How will you march if there is no consensus of what direction to go in? Teaching is not all science and it is not all art. You need to follow best practices and set complementary agendas just as much as any other profession.

> At the same time that you say you are going to make
> things better with these standards, our class sizes
> are increasing, pay is decreasing, and no real support
> is being given. The money is being put into the
> wrong places.

It shouldn't be an either-or situation. Funding issues you can blame on tax-hating TEA Party types trying to strangle every sort of public enterprise in existence, no matter how valuable it is. Bottom line there is to de-elect the bastards.

> Kids and parents are not reading your standards.

They aren't expected to. Just as they aren't expected to read medical journals or auto diagnostics manuals.

> They are seeing what is going on in the school
> down the street every day. The real work will
> be in preparing and hiring the best we have in
> our universities and colleges (which is not
> happening right now). Good luck.

Parents are among the worst at "seeing" what goes on at school. Kids learn what little they "know" from playground rumor. That leaves you in charge here again. When the baton is passed to you, you're supposed to grab it and run.

> Oh, and how many years have you spent teaching?

A little over forty. All of it at post-secondary levels though. Retired now, so have a better chance to pitch my own two cents worth into things here and there.

"A little over forty. All of it at post-secondary levels though. Retired now, so have a better chance to pitch my own two cents worth into things here and there."


You are way out of touch. You needed to stop reading and get your hands dirty a long time ago, but you never did. Telling me to "stop whining and get busy" is really not what I would expect as an argument from someone at your level. I think that it's time for the parents, teachers, and students to take back their schools.

By the way, you would be surprised if you knew how involved I am.

now I understand Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You are way out of touch.

Well, I know who David Coleman is and you don't.

> You needed to stop reading and get your hands dirty
> a long time ago, but you never did.

LOL! As an actual teacher would know, you don't last four decades at any level of education by sitting on the sidelines.

> Telling me to "stop whining and get busy" is
> really not what I would expect as an argument
> from someone at your level.

Do you think a belief that someone should come along and tell you what to do makes you look like an effective teacher? Effective STUDENTS are more self-motivated and self-directed than that.

> I think that it's time for the parents, teachers,
> and students to take back their schools.

Where do you get off? Who do you think you are? You don't own the public schools. You are an EMPLOYEE. Maybe you should just quit and go back to riding the circuit as an itinerant tutor.

> By the way, you would be surprised if you knew how
> involved I am.

Nothing really surprises me these days. The extent of public stupidity is simply staggering. Like so many other things, Bush messed up in his plans to be "The Education President". His successors have been hard at work trying to undo the damage. Some people just mindlessly heckle them. This does not count as "being involved".

"Where do you get off? Who do you think you are? You don't own the public schools. You are an EMPLOYEE."


Okay. I'll stop thinking. I get it. The public schools are owned by Arne Duncan and Co. Obviously I'm just the dummy who works in the school and who tries to make everybody else happy by raising the test scores. I'm a nobody. So are the students and parents. Got it. We are supposed to go along with everything without thinking. This might actually work once you get the standards lowered far enough for teachers (which is happening).

David Coleman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> A little over forty. All of it at post-secondary
> levels though. Retired now, so have a better
> chance to pitch my own two cents worth into things
> here and there.


so today you're a teacher?

lulz