Reading a piece in Politico this morning by Caitlin Emma puts into focus a number of potential developments for the lucrative world of testing accountability in 2015. There is, of course, the Republican feint led by the ethically-challenged Lamar Alexander, who is trying to cut a deal with the ethically-challenged Rhonda Weingarten to get approval on a new ESEA reauthorization that would hasten the charter takeover.
Will Weingarten cut a deal to reduce the number of tests in exchange for support of Alexander's plan to kill Title I by passing the money down to his red state cronies to use for school privatization ventures? Alexander, Obama, and the rest of corporate Washington have no intention of ending high stakes testing at this point, so anything they have in mind as a compromise should be dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, the bloodsucking education industry is coming up with new "audit tools" to help states decide if they are testing too much, and the College Board has a full court press on to make the SAT the global high school achievement test. Everyone wants a piece of the action, per usual.
The big hope for 2015 rests with parents, students, school boards, and teachers (at least the teachers who don't waste their money on Lily's and Rhonda's corrupt corporate union fiefdoms). The OPT OUT movement has the potential to shut down high stakes testing in the United States of America.
No data, no game. So don't be tempted by the siren songs of the scumbags. Don't be tempted to cut deals. Parents want their schools back, and the teachers that matter want their profession back. And children want to learn, rather than test.
Don't think, however, that CorpEd is going away any time soon. The next big money making push come in the form of standardizing school courses, and for that they will need standardized end of course exams to arrive at grades. Remember grades? Those measures that are more reliable than SAT or ACT in predicting college success. Gates has already noticed, and his drones are working on a way to operationalize grade accountability nationwide that makes annual testing irrelevant.
Will Weingarten cut a deal to reduce the number of tests in exchange for support of Alexander's plan to kill Title I by passing the money down to his red state cronies to use for school privatization ventures? Alexander, Obama, and the rest of corporate Washington have no intention of ending high stakes testing at this point, so anything they have in mind as a compromise should be dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, the bloodsucking education industry is coming up with new "audit tools" to help states decide if they are testing too much, and the College Board has a full court press on to make the SAT the global high school achievement test. Everyone wants a piece of the action, per usual.
The big hope for 2015 rests with parents, students, school boards, and teachers (at least the teachers who don't waste their money on Lily's and Rhonda's corrupt corporate union fiefdoms). The OPT OUT movement has the potential to shut down high stakes testing in the United States of America.
No data, no game. So don't be tempted by the siren songs of the scumbags. Don't be tempted to cut deals. Parents want their schools back, and the teachers that matter want their profession back. And children want to learn, rather than test.
Don't think, however, that CorpEd is going away any time soon. The next big money making push come in the form of standardizing school courses, and for that they will need standardized end of course exams to arrive at grades. Remember grades? Those measures that are more reliable than SAT or ACT in predicting college success. Gates has already noticed, and his drones are working on a way to operationalize grade accountability nationwide that makes annual testing irrelevant.
No, please, nooooo. Not another Weingarten besides Randi.
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