Arne asked a pathetic question. He got way more responses than he expected. [View all]

[madfloridian]

I bet he wishes he had phrased his words differently.

From the Washington Post:

Arne Duncan asks ‘what if?’ Here’s the response.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan tweeted this to his followers on Dec. 30:

What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing those opps to all their students?

— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) December 30, 2014

What followed on Twitter in reaction to that tweet was probably not what he had hoped to see. Critics sent some of their own “what if” thoughts to Duncan #whatif. Here’s a sampling:

#Whatif teachers were respected rather than disparaged by this country’s wealthy and elite — Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 31, 2014

#WhatIf the public realized that our @usedgov has plenty of money to properly fund schools but they choose to channel $ to corps instead? — TeacherReality (@TeacherReality) December 31, 2014

... #WhatIf Every family & student boycotted @arneduncan ‘s high-stakes testing & we moved to a well-rounded education w/ authentic assessment. — Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) December 31, 2014

Here's my own #what if:

As teacher was told to start teaching where the child is and take him as far as he can go. #whatif we did that now? @arneduncan #education

And another one or two from that #whatif twitter page:

Erin Rafferty Warner ‏@Teachercat2 13m13 minutes ago

#whatif all the proud "rotten apples" rose up and fired @arneduncan? @BadassTeachersA @DianeRavitch

ProgTeacherCat! and 5 others retweeted
TeacherReality ‏@TeacherReality Dec 31

#WhatIf the American public finally realized that Duncan's #edreform is a complete fraud full of moving cut scores, subpar tests, curriculum
0 replies 28 retweets 13 favorites

What if Arne Duncan and President Obama read the Politico article saying the Republicans may slash the number of federally required tests.

“We are actively exploring the question of whether the federal mandate on annual tests is warranted,” one GOP aide said. The goal is to give states more flexibility in how they track student progress, report those results to the public and hold schools accountable for all kids.

A bipartisan bill gaining momentum among lawmakers would give states grants to audit their testing regimes — and weed out unnecessary exams.

“Annual statewide assessments are critical to ensuring that all students are held to the same high standards and parents, teachers and communities have the information they need about how their children are doing every year,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said when the bill was introduced. “However, in many places, the amount of testing that is redundant or simply not helpful for instruction has become a real problem.”

While Duncan supports that bill, he and President Barack Obama oppose ending the annual testing requirements in NCLB, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002. They argue that the yearly tests are vital for assessing student progress and holding schools accountable for making sure every child advances.

What if Arne admitted that the reason for all the overtesting is his own policy.

What if we were finally honest about the harm being done to public schools by corporations determined to get richer.