Arne Duncan

Gates, Duncan, Fordham et al misunderstood from the beginning who the strongest critics of Common Core would be.  Just because they successfully sold Common Core as a workforce development panacea to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce didn’t mean that mothers across the...

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/02/national-standards-costly-in-dollars-and-liberty-lost/ Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s comments last week, in which he equated state lawmakers who question the Common Core national standards push with conspiracy theorists, are another indication that the Common Core Initiative is not the states-based movement the Administration claims it...

http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/02/mandatory_volunteerism.html The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of middle and high schools mandating volunteerism.  I am not a fan of forcing volunteerism, and “mandatory volunteerism” offends those who treasure meaningful language.  But within a set of courses and...

http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/02/do_school_turnarounds_work.html The waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act will, as noted yesterday, have a number of effects, with three big ones being: It moves the goalposts for accountability back years (at least 2017, more likely 2024) and weakens the...

http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-core-cunundrum/31719 Yesterday (February 23) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called criticisms of the Common Core State Standards, “a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy.” He is referring to the idea that the supposedly “voluntary” K-12 curricular standards now adopted by 45...

http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/02/moving_the_goalposts.html Massachusetts and nine other states made news last week by seeking and receiving waivers from major provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).  The law was never a favorite of mine but I think the way it was...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-21/state-based-education-reform-needs-tough-common-progress-standards-view.html The Barack Obama administration has begun issuing long-awaited waivers giving states some flexibility in complying with the No Child Left Behind education law. But with the exception of politicians, educators and parents in the 11 states that have received them, nobody...

Despite three federal laws that prohibiting the federal government from directing, supervising or controlling K-12 curricula, the U.S. Department of Education has placed the nation on the road to a national curriculum.

http://www.ediswatching.org/2012/02/february-a-month-to-remember-or-forget-in-national-k-12-standards-debate/ Last spring I told you about a growing movement to oppose the Common Core standards and accompanying assessments, as well as the momentum toward a national curriculum. Well, a recent spate of evidence suggests that the Common Core cause has fallen...