A letter from a 12 year old

Recently Sandra's been focusing on a couple children being forced to take standardized tests under the NCLB law and state regulations designed to enforce the law. The two children have complicated medical issues and were forced to take the tests, by the bureaucracy, in total disregard of medical opinion.

I have my own (legal) ideas about how to deal bureaucrats who'd intentionally harm a child to enforce poorly thought out regulation. I also have an opinion of NCLB and the proposed Obama/Gates/Bush Education Reform insanity...;best left for another time..

Getting back to where I belong..

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Meet  Anthony Herrea, the 12 year old at the center of one South Carolina family's objection to mandated standardized.  He wrote this, I suspect he had some help with the typing.  He wanted to tell people what's going on, and thank everyone for the support he and his family have been receiving from Sandra and others.  

First of all I thank you for all you have done for me. The PASS test was horrible. They forced me to do the test and my blood went to 344. I never ate anything either so it was not my fault. I'm so grateful you are helping me out. I really am happy that something is being done. I have been hit by kids, made fun of, and embarrassed. My diabetes bag was called a purse, and once a kid took off his shoe and threw it at my head. Before I was taking a medicine that made me sleepy, so what happened? My teacher jerked me up by my arm and I had to stand in a corner, she then gave a kid that hates me a squirt gun. If I fell asleep I would be shot with it. I cried myself to sleep standing up. All my school life has been a living nightmare that was made for me. My mom put me in SCVCS so I'd be safe. I wasn't even safe there. This test is wrong for everyone not even LIKE me! No one should take this test! Why do they so called "need you to take it"? What is this for? Nothing! Zero! Again, thank you so much! Thank you God for everyone who is supporting me. Thank you again.

Anthony Herrera

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In defense of the other kids-- that's what kids do, right or wrong it's instinctive for them to pick on another kid they perceive to be different..It's the job of parents, teachers, police officers or any other reasonably responsible adult who happens to be nearby to intervene.

 WTF did this teacher do? She handed another kid a squirt gun and told him to use it on a child that already has difficulty coping.  What kind of sense does that make?   Add that teacher to the list of bureaucrats I mentioned before.  A teacher is at least supposed to have enough common sense and good judgement not to single out a child for special treatment..  It sounds like this one singled out one to be disciplined and another to administer the punishment...


The system that forces children like Anthony to be tested is No Child Left Behind..  Nice title, sounds harmless, but it's not... Each state had to create mandatory tests and testing procedures for all students, then the states sent the law to the local level to be applied..  Each level of government added something to the law..  By the time it left Washington, no one cared that the law would become almost universally hated, by the time it got to Anthony, no one cared what it might do to a child's health..  Teachers no longer teach the subject, or to students interests and capabilities, they teach to the "TEST"  It's gotten to the point school calender years are defined by the "TEST".


That's bullshit, 


Tell you Representative in DC not to vote against reaffirming NCLB and bury it once and for all..  Tell them to put Obama's Educational Reform Proposals someplace where "the Sun don't Shine"



Constitutionally and Traditionally education is a local matter.  Tell your legislature to inform Washington they can shove their DC Bribe money and the crap that comes attached to it.. Next time your Governor, State Senator, or State House Representative tells you about how much money they got from DC for ___________ (fill in the blank). Ask what they sold DC in exchange for it.  As Rich Swier a Florida Blogger put it recently about the Florida Legislature " They sold our children's souls for 63 dollars apiece."


On a local level, odds are you can get the local School Board Member's email addresses in a matter of minutes. 

If you're a blogger, you know what to do; Anthony's Mom needs the help. 

For more information, you'll find it here and here. 


.

South Carolina Parents Challenge Standardized Testing

Update


If those of you who read this yesterday thought a South Carolina's School Dristrict's treatment of Sharon Johnson and Gretchen Herrera's sons was ridiculous might want to change your opinion to criminal, last night we received an update from Mrs Johnson..


 To update our case (Johnson family), our OCR complaint was accepted, an attorney was assigned, and now an investigation has begun. We also had to file a retaliation claim against the school district because they contacted my son's doctor in an attempt to have the doctor withdraw the medical opinion that my son was mentally unable to test.

To answer a question above, we could not keep my son home for the two weeks of testing for several reasons. His doctor advised us that to keep him out of his self-contained classroom for 2 weeks was not in his best interest. Also, the SC Dept of Education advised me that such absences would be unlawful and that if a student refused to test, there could be disciplinary action. And then if we did keep him home anyway, that would do nothing to help the next child who was forced to take the test against the wishes of his parents and doctor.Though my son's circumstances were unique, the problems with high-stakes testing and the "teaching to the test" philosophy affect all public school students.

The comment above Sharon Johnson's referring to was a reader comment on Sandra's Grumpy Educators.

Mrs Johnson's statement, if verifiable, means the School District made an attempt to either second guess the doctors medical opinion.. something way above the pay grade of most bureaucrats, or was trying to get the doctor to assist them in altering evidence in the case. .. 

At least in my opinion

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Does the governments obsession with standardized testing give them the right to endanger the heath of students with conditions that will adversely affect the students health.?


South Carolina says yes because Federal Law Mandates the Tests Regardless..


This is a scenario that will likely worsen if  Obama's Race to the Top agenda is enacted.. and the Federal Government gains even more control over education.

********************************

Via 

Sandra in Brevard
Grumpyeducators
@GrumpyEducators




In a U.S. Supreme Court determination, Troxel v. Granville, the justices relied on the 14th Amendment: 

(a) The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause has a substantive component that “provides heightened protection against government interference with certain fundamental rights and liberty interests,” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720, including parents’ fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children, see, e.g., Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651. Pp. 5—8.

South Carolina appears to have ignored this fact with regard to two cases where parents requested their children not participate in standardized testing.

Gretchen Herrera's son has a complicated medical condition, which is exacerbated by testing regimes. His medical team recommended he not be tested as it puts his health at risk. The request was denied, Mrs. Herrera allowed testing, and after the first day of testing, his health was negatively impacted. If a parent had neglected the health and well-being of their child, they'd find themselves in court with the government stepping in to protect the child. In this case, the government is endangering the child and ignoring the parent. Grumpy Educators reported her situation here. She has taken her request all the way to Washington D.C., and her battle continues this year.

Sharon Johnson's son has a complicated medical condition, and was treated in "an outpatient day treatment to stabilize children with severe emotional and/or behavioral problems. Among other criteria, admitted children must have demonstrated behavior serious enough to jeopardize the safety of others." Upon completion of treatment, he enrolled in public school and slated for standardized testing. In spite of a written medical recommendation that "he was mentally unable to be tested", South Carolina insists if a child can attend school, the child can be tested.

Ms. Johnson believes it is discriminatory to "require mentally unable students to take the exam when physically unable students are exempt, and she's filed a federal Office of Civil Rights complaint to that end." Her case is in process. Read more here.

District officials said this was not a question of fairness to disabled students, but rather following state and federal laws. The school district attorney put it this way: 

"It's about measuring the school and district performance," Emerson said. "That's the way the standards are applied."

In the 1925 U.S. Supreme Court decision Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the finding included:

The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right and the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.

Is the State endangering the health and well-being of these students by ignoring medical recommendations?

NUT Report: Funding for pre-school testing announced

With the debt-ceiling debate raging and the urgency to cut spending, the rationale and priority for a new Race to the Top pre-school standardized assessment initiative go unexplained. States will compete for $500 million in funds to develop tests that are intended to measure "academic performance but also children’s social, emotional, physical and artistic readiness for kindergarten." This assessment is intended to assist Kindergarten teachers in preparing targeted learning opportunities and are not to be used for any rewards or punishments for students, teachers, or schools.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/race-to-the-top-standardized-testing-for-preschoolers/2011/07/05/gIQAU4Wi0H_blog.html">Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post noted that in 2003 when President Bush suggested giving all children in Head Start programs a standardized test, reaction seemed different:

Critics howled. Early childhood development experts said preschoolers are too young to be evaluated by standardized tests in part because they don’t have sufficient ability to comprehend assessment cues. The plan was shelved.

A recent article in http://www.thenation.com/blog/161828/risks-and-potential-rewards-pre-k-testing">The Nation notes concerns about this initiative.

The kindergarten-entry assessments are “probably the most radical part of the [Race to the Top early learning] program,” acknowledges Sara Mead, a pre-K expert and senior associate partner at Bellweather Education Partners, a nonprofit Washington, DC, consulting firm. “It would drive a big shift towards much more measurement of early learning program outcomes, which parts of the early-childhood education community have traditionally opposed.… But these are not intended to be assessments to determine whether or not an individual child is ‘ready’ for kindergarten, and they never have high stakes for kids, in terms of denying them entry into kindergarten.”

Laura Bornfreund, a policy analyst at the New America Foundation’s Early Learning Initiative, has written that pre-K assessment remains controversial:

Concerns over inappropriate assessments of young children are rampant, so it bears repeating that appropriate kindergarten readiness assessments are not “tests” in the way adults might think of them. They do not require children to sit down with a bubble sheet and number-two pencil. Often they are based on teachers’ observations of children’s drawings or playtime interactions. For many literacy assessments teachers conduct them by sitting down with students, one by one, to ask them questions about sounds and letters or to point to pictures. The idea is to create a low-pressure experience. But there are still many questions in the research community about how to ensure that assessments are administered in ways that are sensitive to a child’s age and stage of development.

Pop Quiz

1) What is the problem this new assessment will solve?
2) Will the data collected become part of the State Longitudinal Database Systems?
3) Will the data be made available to other agencies and researchers without parental consent in accordance with the proposed regulatory changes to Family Education Rights and Protection Act?

Answers:
1) No one knows, but it's expensive.
2) No one knows, change is hard.
3) No one knows, we have to do something.

I am not an educator, not a policy wonk, nor a pre-K expert, but I am taxpayer and a NUT - No Unnecessary Testing. Peanuts anyone?

Posted for Sandra and Grumpy

Diane Ravitch Keeps It Simple: No Desired Results From NCLB

Posted for

   Sandra in Brevard





Ravitch describes briefly, clearly, and concisely what is wrong with the federal mandates of NCLB in a way that non-educators can understand.



Ravitch is scheduled to appear in the following debates on education reform.

JUNE 29-30 Diane to Discuss/Debate with Founder of Teach for America, Wendy Kopp (to be aired on C-Span)

JULY 29-30 SAVE OUR SCHOOLS MARCH RALLY w/M DAMON ON 7/30;

AUG 18 Diane to debate Michelle Rhee on Achievement Gap on Martha's Vineyard - set up by Harvard Inst of African Amer Studies. (To be aired on C-Span)

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NUT Report: Kentucky Parents Organizing

Posted For

Sandra In Brevard

Over 300 Fayette, Kentucky parents have formed FayetteABC as what they see as a "moral obligation and responsibility" to express their concerns over excessive testing and its impact on education.

Fayette Advocates for Balance in the Classroom™ (FayetteABC™) was founded by Erik and Cheryl Myrup and other Fayette County Public School parents concerned that test-driven instruction could compromise the quality of education in our public schools. No FayetteABC founding members have ever been employees of Fayette County Public Schools.

The group has a website and are circulating a petition circulating asking that their views be seriously considered by the local school board. The petition reads as follows:

We are concerned that our schools have become too focused on standardized testing at the expense of Kentucky's broader educational goals, which include preparing students for future employment and adult life. Please keep this concern in mind as you choose a new superintendent and pursue your own goals as a board.

We urge you to take a balanced approach to meeting educational goals. This approach should be informed by data from mandated standardized tests, but should focus squarely on ensuring that students have access to rigorous, relevant, rich instruction.

What are some signs of a system that is out of balance?

Students spend too much time taking standardized tests and practicing skills in a testing format.

• Teachers report less time for teaching students to apply concepts, solve problems, and think critically and creatively.
• Teachers and principals are under more pressure to raise scores on standardized tests than they are to use teaching methods likely to promote deep understanding and love of learning; teachers committed to such methods may be frustrated and demoralized.
• Standardized test achievement is considered the goal of learning.
• Subjects not tested for state and federal accountability systems receive inadequate attention.

Superintendents, board members, and school personnel may all be feeling more pressure to demonstrate success on standardized tests than to monitor the unintended consequences of a test-driven system. That is why we are making our concerns known. We acknowledge and thank the many Fayette County teachers, administrators, and board members who work hard every day to ensure that our children do have rigorous, engaging, and varied learning opportunities beyond what is necessary for success on standardized tests. We realize that these efforts are not always recognized publicly, but they are preparing our children to be successful in life.

We believe that all of us truly want what is best for our children, and we expect our elected officials and our next superintendent to have the courage and the vision necessary to take a balanced approach.

Kentucky parents serve as one more example of the increasing number of parents nationwide who are expressing these concerns. While mainstream media under reports or ignores and while policy makers remain tone deaf, parents continue to step forward as a moral obligation and responsibility.

I am a NUT and stand with the parents.

NUT = No Unnecessary Tests

Student Data Collection: Purpose, Costs, Risks?

Grumpy Note:  Never Before in the history of the United States has the Federal Government felt it was entited to collect the kind of person information the Dept of Education says it must have to educate America's children.  The DoED seees no reason it shouldn't be allowed to share the information with other Governments Agencies..  You are not supposed to worry because department assures us the information will never be used improperly (Hitler & Stalin said that too) or compromised by unathorized personal.. (this from the folks that gave us Wiki Leaks)

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 Posted for

Sandra in Brevard





Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something different. The current policies are different, but are they better, more effective, and more efficient?

According to the President's Blueprint, the state longitudinal data base initiative will provide the targeted accountability to raise achievement by ensuring students are making progress and by linking student achievement to teacher performance. The recent proposed FERPA regulations requires additional safeguards for the collection, release, an safeguarding of student data. The fiscal impact on State and local-levels is not mentioned.



Four reasons the public should have deep concerns about the development and proposed regulations and the collection of data from birth to college on every student in the nation:

April 20, 2011, SONY CEO apologizes for major security breach.
Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer apologized for "inconvenience and concern" caused by the security breach that compromised personal data from more than 100 million online gaming accounts.

May 17, 2011, Data Breech Infects Massachusetts Unemployment Office.
An estimated 225,000 Massachusetts residents could become fraud victims as a result of a computer data breach in the state unemployment system.

May 27, 2011, Data Breech at Security Firm Linked to Attack on Lockheed.
Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest military contractor, has battled disruptions in its computer networks this week that might be tied to a hacking attack on a vendor that supplies coded security tokens to millions of users, security officials said on Friday.

June 2, 2011, Google Mail Attack Blamed on China.
Suspected Chinese hackers tried to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including those of senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists, the Internet company said.

June 3, 2011, Hackers Attack another Sony network.
Hackers broke into Sony Corp’s computer networks and accessed the information of more than 1 million customers to show the vulnerability of the electronic giant’s systems, the latest of several security breaches undermining confidence in the company.

NUT Report: Decades of test-based incentive programs do not yield expected results

Posted for  Sandra in Brevard

Grumpy Educators reported on a study conducted by the National Research Council here. The widget with the full text remains available on the right side of the screen. Last week, another study was published. The National Research Council released the results of a study examining the decades of implementing high-stakes standardized testing and concludes the practice has not achieved the expected impact on student achievement.

Isn't it time to ask why the persistence in continuing to pour time, money, and effort into test-centric policies?

This study was sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

To read the entire report on this study, select the widget on the right at the top.

The following press release describes the study and its findings:

WASHINGTON — Despite being used for several decades, test-based incentives have not consistently generated positive effects on student achievement, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report examines evidence on incentive programs, which impose sanctions or offer rewards for students, teachers, or schools on the basis of students' test performance. Federal and state governments have increasingly relied on incentives in recent decades as a way to raise accountability in public education and in the hope of driving improvements in achievement.

School-level incentives -- like those of No Child Left Behind -- produce some of the larger effects among the programs studied, but the gains are concentrated in elementary grade mathematics and are small in comparison with the improvements the nation hopes to achieve, the report says. Evidence also suggests that high school exit exam programs, as currently implemented in many states, decrease the rate of high school graduation without increasing student achievement.

Policymakers should support the development and evaluation of promising new models that use test-based incentives in more sophisticated ways as one aspect of a richer accountability and improvement process, said the committee that wrote the report.
Incentives' Effects on Student Achievement

Attaching incentives to test scores can encourage teachers to focus narrowly on the material tested -- in other words, to "teach to the test" -- the report says. As a result, students' knowledge of the part of the subject matter that appears on the test may increase while their understanding of the untested portion may stay the same or even decrease, and the test scores may give an inflated picture of what students actually know with respect to the full range of content standards.

To control for any score inflation caused by teaching to the test, it is important to evaluate the effects of incentive programs not by looking at changes in the test scores tied to the incentives, but by looking at students' scores on "low stakes" tests -- such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress -- that are not linked to incentives and are therefore less likely to be inflated, the report says.

When evaluated using low-stakes tests, the overall effects on achievement tend to be small and are effectively zero for a number of incentives programs, the committee concluded. Even when evaluated using the tests attached to the incentives, a number of programs show only small effects.

Some incentives hold teachers or students accountable, while others affect whole schools. School-level incentives like those used in No Child Left Behind produce some of the larger achievement gains, the report says, but even these have an effect size of only around .08 standard deviations – the equivalent of moving a student currently performing at the 50th percentile to the 53rd percentile. For comparison, raising student performance in the U.S. to the level of the highest-performing nations would require a gain equivalent to a student climbing from the 50th to the 84th percentile. The committee noted, however, that although a .08 effect size is small, few other education interventions have shown greater gains.
Effects of High School Exit Exams

The study also examined evidence on the effects of high school exit exams, which are currently used by 25 states and typically involve tests in multiple subjects, all of which students must pass in order to graduate. This research suggests that such exams decrease the rate of high school graduation without improvements in student achievement as measured by low-stakes tests.

Broader Measures of Performance Needed

It is unreasonable to implement incentives tied to tests on a narrow range of content and then criticize teachers for narrowing their instruction to match the tests, said the committee. When incentives are used, the performance measures need to be broad enough to align with desired student outcomes. This means not only expanding the range of content covered by tests but also considering other student outcomes beyond a single test.

Policymakers and researchers should design and evaluate alternate approaches using test-based incentives, the committee said. Among the approaches proposed during current policy debates are those that would deny tenure to teachers whose students fail to meet a minimal level of test performance. Another proposal is to use the narrow information from tests to trigger a more intensive school evaluation that would consider a broader range of information and then provide support to help schools improve. The modest and variable benefits shown by incentive programs so far, however, means that all use of incentives should be rigorously evaluated to determine what works and what does not, said the committee.

In addition, it is important that research on and development of new incentive-based approaches does not displace investment in the development of other aspects of the education system – such as improvements in curricula and instructional methods -- that are important complements to the incentives themselves, the report cautions.

###

The study was sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. For more information, visit

http://national-academies.org.

A committee roster follows.

NUT Report: Parents Head to D.C. in July

Grumpy note:  I'm reposting this because I think it's important..  and it was originally posted during Googles recent Blogger meltdown... Meaning I don't kow how many prople had a chance to see it...


Posted for

Sandra in Brevard

Save Our Schools (SOS) was covered in the Washington Post by Valerie Strauss:

Rita Solnet is a Florida businesswoman, parent and education activist. She is a co-founder of the nonprofit Parents Across America.

Why, as a parent, are you involved with the SOS March?

As a business owner and as a 15 year volunteer in the school system, I’ve had a front row seat and witnessed our public education system in decline. I attribute it to NCLB’s fixation on high stakes tests and the obsession with privatizing public education. NCLB has robbed all children of a solid curriculum inclusive of arts, music, literature, language, PE, history along with reading, math and sciences in favor of drills and prep for mindless bubble tests. I’m angry.

Education cannot be treated as a corporate business. It is that simple. Children’s minds are not commodities to be bought, sold, and exchanged. I frankly don’t see policy makers or many legislators grasping the totality of this destruction. With those I’ve met, most have little knowledge of what is truly happening inside classrooms.

As a result of making decisions in a vacuum, they are not making the best possible decisions. In fact, they are illogical decisions.

The past two years I’ve witnessed multi billion dollar testing & technology companies being the sole beneficiaries of policy makers’ decisions — not our children. And I see children as collateral damage in a control struggle, it seems, with unions and political parties.

They must take this conflict into a conference room to devise workable contracts to resolve that situation. They must stop meddling in the classroom with desperate, ill-fated attempts to fix those issues.

As a parent, I’ve concluded that if we don’t step up and take action to ensure we are heard, who else will do so?

I am also a co-founder of Parents Across America. Our motto is: Our children. Our schools. Our voices must be heard. I believe this with all my heart.

What do you think this SOS March will accomplish?

This rally and March will accomplish a few goals.

1) It will open up a candid and genuine dialogue once and for all. No longer can a news network air a week of one-sided perspective.

2) It will send a message to Congress that NCLB must end as it stands today. It failed our children miserably for 9 years. It devastated public education unintentionally but undeniably.

3) It will heighten the awareness that this goes beyond “disgruntled teachers.” Participation of parents and business men and women will demonstrate this goes beyond the worn out rhetoric that this is merely a union issue or a band of whiny teachers. These are real issues facing millions of voters. We are fed up.
4) It will help to raise a red flag on reckless spending of federal education dollars on ill-fated reforms which all research shows have proven to fail.

SANDRA IN BREVARD SUPPORTS THE EVENT AND WISHES SHE COULD ATTEND.

I AM A NUT.

Where Real Reform Must Start

Sandra found this interesting video and posted it first on Grumpy Educators..

Warning... this is a fast moving moving video



From Ken Robinson's Website
There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can't find them. Why not?

Why is it essential to promote creativity

What's the problem?

What can be done about it

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Education Reform: I am a NUT

If you question education reform efforts, the replies from legislators and educrats are often the same:

I don't know.

We'll fix it later.

It's going to be expensive.

We have a crisis.

We can't compete
 
 
 If you persist in questions, you get these responses:

You prefer the status quo.

You are a skeptic.

You believe in conspiracies.

You are an enemy of education reform.

I declare to the world that I am a NUT and a follower of the NUT principles of Stephen Krashen. The No Unnecessary Testing (NUT) principle, first proposed in 2008, avoids the $4.5 billion investment in new standards and testing. It cuts back testing rather than adding more.

"Every minute testing and doing "test preparation" (activities to boost scores on tests that do not involve genuine learning) is stolen from students' lives, in addition to costing money that we cannot afford these days."

There are already indications from those charged with publishing tests that they do not have sufficient funds, time, or resources to meet the expectations.

NUT should be a movement.


Posted for Sandra in Brevard
Read all of Sandra's Blogs on Eduction Reform at Grumpy Educators

**********Grumpy Note**********

Happened to see this tweet yesterday on another website, someone likes Sandra's idea, the link goes back to Grumpy Educators

Stages of teacher reaction to Common Core Standards: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression. . . Let's skip "Acceptance" & move to RESISTANCE 6 hours ago


Do something positive. Become a NUT. Start a NUT group.
http://grumpythings.blogspot.com/2011/04/education-reform-i-am-nut.html

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Education Reform: The cookie jar is empty

Posted For

Sandra in Brevard









In a Washington Post opinion piece, Mr. Marion Brady proposes a way to reduce the federal budget this way:

FACT: We’re told that governments at all levels—federal, state, and local—are worse than broke, and that the services they provide, including education, must be cut.

FACT: There’s one multi-billion dollar cost of educating that’s not scheduled to be cut—high-stakes, standardized testing. In fact, Arne Duncan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, says that the number of such tests is going to significantly increase.

PROPOSAL: Given present unwillingness to fully fund education, all 50 states should immediately cancel their contracts with testing companies. What teachers did for at least a century and a half before corporate interests and politicians took over education policy they can do again, at least for the duration of the present economic emergency.

Additionally, should state governments follow Mr. Brady's suggestion, the federal budget will be positively affected. Given the recent concerns expressed regarding the progress of the non-public entity producing national assessments, clearly the facts of time, money, and project scope to meet goals that exceed capability have not been adequately addressed. Under these conditions, why should that project continue?

**********Grumpy Note**********

Were're not only broke, today Standard and Poors downgraded America's Debt Rating from a Stable Outlook to a Negitive Outlook.  When they made the move they said that even the Republican Plans would not solve America's debt problem.  At a Federal Level School Reform is being funded with borrowed money, and a lot of it. 

In Florida, minutes before the State Legislature passed SB 736, Florida's Education Reform Bill promoters admitted they didn't have the money and didn't have a clue how to get it

Then they passed law anyway

Stocks Tumble on U.S. Debt News; CAT Sinks

Read all of Sandra's Blogs at Grumpy Educators

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