Arne says parents to blame for test stress. Threatens fed intervention if Opt Outs continue.

[chervilant]

60. The bigotry you decry

is built into the standardized tests most teachers despise. And, I remember my assistant principal making a snarky, racist comment about "those students" not being able to learn math--she meant the Latino children who comprised the majority of our student body! In her mind, Latino children were "judged incapable of learning."

And, yes, tests are used quite effectively by teachers to assess the progress of their students. Teachers are best able to assess their students using tests they've created to reflect what they've covered and what their students should have learned.

I cannot speak to your personal experiences with public schools. I know that racism and poverty are key reasons why public education fails a significant number of our younglings. Copious amounts of research point to both these variables as important determinants of students' "achievements." Arne "I Play Basketball" Duncan has access to this research, yet he chooses to vilify teachers and make us solely responsible for the failure of public education. Much easier to hand the public an easy target, rather than addressing the fundamental challenges presented by poverty.