Diane Ravitch just wrote about Georgia’s Governor Nathan Deal’s veto of opt-out legislation that passed the Georgia General Assembly. This immediately reminded me of Delaware Governor Jack Markell’s horrible veto of House Bill 50 in the summer of 2015. Say, State Rep. Earl Jaques, why the hell hasn’t the new opt out legislation, House Bill 60, been put on the agenda for the House Education Committee. You promised me it would be over two months ago. Guess it isn’t a priority for YOU so it won’t get on there. Being the Chair of the Delaware House Education Committee means allowing all education bills to be heard in committee.
Opt out is alive and well. I may not write about it as much, but it is still happening. New York continues to have terrific opt out numbers. It won’t be until July or so until we find out Delaware’s opt out numbers for this year. That is when the Delaware Dept. of Education releases all the Smarter Balanced information from this year.
Down in Georgia, Jeb Bush’s insane Foundation for Excellence in Education jumped on the veto bandwagon. Ravitch quoted the Atlanta Journal-Constituion:
“The proposal would have harmed students and teachers by denying access to measurements that track progress on standardized assessments,” the advocacy group, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said in a statement. “Maintaining a transparent and accountable measurement systems is critical to ensuring students are on track to succeed in college and beyond — and indicates how successful schools are in preparing students for the future.”
Hey Jeb, we don’t want progress on standardized assessments, we just want regular student progress. These flawed and meaningless tests don’t provide that. They feed the data whore beasts and waste a crapload of time in our schools. They stress kids out and the tests are used to label and shame teachers and schools. Enough already!
The Season Of Myths 