Arne Duncan: ‘White suburban moms’ upset that Common Core shows their kids aren’t ‘brilliant’

[Redfairen]

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

Yes, he really said that. But he has said similar things before. What, exactly, is he talking about?

In his cheerleading for the controversial Common Core State Standards — which were approved by 45 states and the District of Columbia and are now being implemented across the country (though some states are reconsidering) — Duncan has repeatedly noted that the standards and the standardized testing that goes along with them are more difficult than students in most states have confronted.

The Common Core was designed to elevate teaching and learning. Supporters say it does that; critics say it doesn’t and that some of the standards, especially for young children, are not developmentally appropriate. Whichever side you fall on regarding the Core’s academic value, there is no question that their implementation in many areas has been miserable — so miserable that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a Core supporter, recently compared it to another particularly troubled rollout:

"You think the Obamacare implementation is bad? The implementation of the Common Core is far worse."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/16/arne-duncan-white-surburban-moms-upset-that-common-core-shows-their-kids-arent-brilliant/?tid=pm_pop

[MisterP]

1. they're back to "it's racist" again? it's barely been a year since the NSA story...

[burrowowl]

3. CORE

Promotes test by Testing Corporations and Bill Gates

A hell of lot of money is made by these corps. and the tests are cruddy. I was on a team that graded some from Houston school district and we were asked to lower the standards so Houston would look good. The tests were asinine.

[MisterP]

8. or like when Walmart's outrach to the African community turned into a Korean-bashing orgy of hate

[tblue37]

2. One of the main complaints educators have about all the recent

emphasis on testing is that the testing itself, as well as the preparation for the testing, uses up so much time that should be used to actually teach.

There is an old farmer's saying relevant to all this excessively test-based education "reform": You can't fatten a steer by weighing it.

[Myrina]

4. Indeed. It's all about teaching-to-the-test AND

.... those schools who don't produce enough scores in X-Y-Z range lose funding or get taken over.
Coincidentally, those schools most often end up being inner city schools - not the 'white suburban' ones.


Arne can eat shit.

[Blue Idaho]

6. This whole "movement" is driven by corporate interests.

Arne is a stooge for all the private - for profit - school industry. All this testing won't make students smarter, but they will make the testing firms and their charter school chronies very very rich.

[dsc]

5. He is right about one thing

when standardized testing causes blacks and Hispanics to fail we tend to blame the kids, when it causes white kids to fail we tend to blame the tests.

[Pisces]

7. Ha! Great observation!