Friday, August 29, 2014

video: Washington state parents demand RESPECT from Arne Duncan

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has denied NCLB waivers to many states and taken away the waivers from others including Washington, Vermont, and now Oklahoma -- on the basis of their refusing to adopt junk science value-added teacher evaluation systems or the unpiloted, rigid  Common Core. According to Michelle McNeil of EdWeek, nine states now lack NCLB waivers.

This means that every school district in these states must send a letter to parents, saying their child's school is failing.

NCLB was probably the dumbest law in the history of the United States because it mandated that every public school student be at grade level in every school by 2014 -- or else states would face penalties.  NCLB waivers that depend on states adopting the particular evidence-free predilections of Arne Duncan and Bill Gates are even dumber.  

Even the usual supporters of corporate reform, like Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Institute, has urged these states  sue the US Department of Education,  as Duncan has "no constitutional right to do is dream up new mandates out of thin air and make flexibility contingent upon their embrace by supplicant states."

Watch below is the message sent by the parents, students and teachers of S. Kitsap school district in Washington state to Arne Duncan.


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