** “For years now, federal education policy has largely ignored the issue of poverty, with too many school reformers arguing that citing the effects of living in poverty as a big obstacle to achievement in schools is ‘an excuse.’ Schools, they say, can overcome poverty, and further, students living in poverty in other countries do well on tests, don’t they? Well, the U.S. poverty rate is higher–and has been for many years–than in any industrialized country that participates in international tests, and people who are poor in America stay that way longer than anywhere else in the industrialized world research shows.” ~ Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
** “…Policy makers and pundits often get worked up about our mediocre performances on international standardized tests. But the reality is that there are vast variations between our students, who are divided by geography and socio-economic class in ways quite unlike children in countries such as Japan or Finland. If schools are still, in a sense, factories, then Massachusetts districts get much better raw material to work with than Texas districts. Suburbs get a leg up on cities. And their results often reflect it. Trying to capture our vast range of educational outcomes in a single ranking misses those nuances.” ~ Jordon Weissman, The Atlantic
** “We are alarmed at the negative impact of excessive school testing mandates, including your administration’s own initiatives, on children’s love of reading and literature. Recent policy changes by your administration have not lowered the stakes. On the contrary, requirements to evaluate teachers on student test scores impose more standardized exams and crowd out exploration. …” ~ from a letter by 120 children’s authors & illustrators to Obama
** “Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, admits that a federal law of the land prohibits the federal government from interfering with or dictating public school curriculum. But Obama used carrot-and-stick tactics to bribe or threaten a majority of states to adopt Common Core, and Duncan pretends it is OK for the feds to require states to be aligned with federally approved Common Core standards and Common Core tests, which will effectively dictate school curriculum. Obama has repeatedly taken away from other branches of government powers that are specifically granted in the U.S. Constitution.” ~ Phyllis Schafly