Once again, I am dumbfounded by an action taken by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan — he has approved an NCLB waiver request by eight California School Districts, the first time this has been done for a non-state entity.
You can read all about it at two excellent posts at Education Week:
U.S. Department of Education Grants California Districts’ CORE Waiver
California Districts Receive Special Waiver From No Child Left Behind
He gave this approval despite opposition from teachers unions in every one of the CORE districts, including in the one where I teach. You can read more about that opposition at my previous post, Nine California Districts (Including Ours) Seek Waiver From NCLB — Duncan Should Turn It Down.
And since the waiver requires that teachers agree to an evaluation system that includes student test scores, and it’s extremely unlikely that this agreement is going to happen in most — if not all — of those districts, I have to wonder: What is the point? What is the political game that is being played?
Here are my tweets after hearing about the waiver earlier today:
But teachers in CORE districts don't Rt“@PoliticsK12: .@askgeorge really likes the CORE waiver decision: http://t.co/AtWsKAP9yt”
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) August 6, 2013
Why should Duncan care that the teachers unions in every CORE district opposed the waiver? What do we know, anyway? @PoliticsK12
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) August 6, 2013
Here are a few of my previous posts on other major mistakes by Secretary Duncan:
Another Red Herring From Arne Duncan?
Arne Duncan Blows It…Again
Why I Think Arne Duncan Has Just Made His Biggest Mistake
The game is “make teachers look bad”. Teachers won’t agree to evaluation based on test scores because it makes no sense, so once again politicians can make teachers out to be “The Bad Guy”. I’m so sick of this.