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Is EdTrust Behind High-Stakes Testing During This Pandemic?

February 25, 2021 By Nancy Bailey 9 Comments

Post Views: 120

High-stakes standardized testing. Why now? Why again? Why ever? Was The Education Trust (EdTrust) involved in the decision? Who is EdTrust, and why would President Biden listen to them?

EdTrust is a pro-school-reform group that carries clout, and they’ve been vocal about schools reopening during the pandemic.

John B. King, Jr., who was education secretary after Arne Duncan for a short time, is now the President and CEO of EdTrust. King was involved with charter schools and became the New York Education Commissioner before becoming education secretary in the Obama administration.

King has been on TV numerous times stating how schools should run during the pandemic. The EdTrust is often cited in the mainstream media, including during the pandemic, like this USA Today report. Reopening schools has been expensive. Making up for student learning losses may be worse.

It’s rare to find one of their headlines referring to public schools in a positive light. Here’s a subheading example: Michigan schools are failing special needs students. But we can fix it.

EdTrust has a long list of corporate sponsors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They lean heavily towards charter schools and promote themselves as school experts.

President Biden promised teachers an end to high-stakes standardized testing during the campaign. This move to test students during the pandemic may become a turning point in his thus far good relationship with teachers.

President Biden chose Dr. Miguel Cardona as education secretary, a real teacher, and education administrator. He also chose well-qualified Cindy Marten to be the undersecretary of education. But before either Cardona or Marten could get confirmed and their names chiseled on their office doors, we learn high-takes standardized testing will go on during the pandemic.

Here’s the letter stating the testing protocol. The assistant secretary of education announced this decision, and his name is Ian Rosenblum. He came from EdTrust, New York.

Ian Rosenblum is no teacher. Although his grandma and mom were teachers (where have we heard that before), he has a degree in government. EdTrust is no friend to public schools. Why is Rosenblum the assistant secretary of education in the Biden administration?

EdTrust lobbied heavily for testing.  Here’s their letter to Dr. Cardona. 

Here’s a highlight.

. . . we urge you to refrain from issuing waivers to states that would allow them to bypass student assessment requirements for the 2020-21 school year and instead ask that you call on all states to administer summative statewide assessments.

High-stakes standardized testing at this time is an insult to the teachers more than capable of informally assessing and evaluating student progress, as qualified teachers do. Teachers actually work with students. They have been teaching remotely, in-person and in-class, and online by hybrid.

The same people who claim school buildings should reopen due to the mental anguish students feel from the pandemic are the same folks calling for high-stakes standardized testing. The last thing children need at this time is a standardized test.

They’re the same armchair corporate school reformers who have damaged public schools throughout the years, using high-stakes standardized tests, who want to end these schools and the teaching profession.

Many wanted to believe that President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden were refreshingly different when it came to the old education reforms. Here’s the list of the education appointments in the new Biden administration. If EdTrust is running the show, then it looks unfortunately like Race to the Top 2 is where the nation is headed.

Here’s the list of those wanting the tests.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: covid-19, high-stakes testing, The Biden Administration, The Education Trust

Comments

  1. Nancy Flanagan says

    February 25, 2021 at 1:36 pm

    Education Trust is part of that accountability infrastructure that has built up over the past four years. Combined with the fact that annual testing in grades 3-8 is still the law, and will not go away forever unless the law itself is changed, waivers or no waivers, I’d say the ED is sending out mixed messages. I certainly wasn’t surprised to see that the Deputy who will be the target of all teachers’ wrath was an EdTrust alum. They may have done this to keep his confirmation out of jeopardy.

    We could see this as a window for making permanent beneficial changes to a ESSA / NCLB, one chunk at a time.

    Reply
    • Nancy Bailey says

      February 25, 2021 at 1:50 pm

      I worry about the backers. And why would an EdTrust alum have such a position?

      DeVos, despite her awful agenda, at least provided testing waivers to the states. It seems like the pandemic calls for additional waivers.

      I can’t see anything good coming from this testing. If students do well, tech will take credit, if they do poorly teachers will be blamed.

      But I hope you’re right, Nancy, and I always value your ideas. Thanks!

      Reply
  2. LisaM says

    February 25, 2021 at 3:31 pm

    This is the biggest reason that I think that the Dept of Ed needs to be abolished. DeVos should have done it when she had the chance. The few departments that are necessary, could be absorbed by other gov’t departments doing the same type of work. Until the lobbyists are forced out, the problem will persist. Get rid of the department and you solve a very big problem for a whole lot of people.

    Reply
    • Nancy Bailey says

      February 25, 2021 at 3:42 pm

      State departments and local school districts are not always run well either. Would you get rid of them too? The U.S. DOE can be helpful and runs some serious programs like Title I and IDEA. All federal, state and local ed. departments need to keep a check on each other and work to help public schools run efficiently and fairly. The problem with schools right now involves undemocratic outside interference.

      Reply
      • Ethan Menaker says

        February 25, 2021 at 11:07 pm

        Anyone think there’s a chance Cardona could override this? Why are they even letting a non-Senate confirmed Deputy Assistant Secretary (performing the duties of Assistant Secretary) make the decision and not the Acting Secretary Phil Rosenfelt or why don’t they hold off on decisions till Cardona is confirmed?

        Reply
        • Nancy Bailey says

          February 26, 2021 at 4:35 pm

          Good questions. Thanks, Ethan.

          Reply
    • Sue Goncarovs says

      February 28, 2021 at 11:31 am

      Decentralization may be an easy answer but it doesn’t work for federal protections attacked most recently like special needs and civil rights. Lobbyists for the oil companies need to be forced out, and holdovers Dixiecrats need to as well. The Department needs to function without a privatization agenda so that it exists to promote public education, not as a gentrification tool.

      Reply
      • Nancy Bailey says

        February 28, 2021 at 11:35 am

        Well said! Thank you, Sue.

        Reply
  3. Nancy Bailey says

    February 27, 2021 at 9:04 am

    My thanks to Diane Ravitch.

    https://dianeravitch.net/2021/02/26/nancy-bailey-is-edtrust-behind-the-renewal-of-standardized-testing/

    Reply

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SPED Teacher, Author, PhD Ed. Leadership, Blogging for Kids, and Democratic Public Schools that should belong to all of us.

Nancy E. Bailey
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lauranbowmanLaura Bowman@lauranbowman·
14h

Cherry-picking data to undermine schools 90% of us send our kids to & privatize for profit. Way to further demoralize an already beaten-down workforce & push for EVEN MORE standardized testing & data collection. Nothing new & exciting. Sounds so very dreary/ punitive/out-of-touch https://twitter.com/roanoketimes/status/1527313907034910721

The Roanoke Times@roanoketimes

Virginia's K-12 school performance is backsliding due to reduced expectations for students and schools and a lack of transparency, resulting in widening achievement gaps, according to a critical new assessment from Virginia's superintendent of publi… https://roanoke.com/news/state-and-regional/youngkin-administration-report-finds-alarming-trends-in-virginias-k-12-performance/article_2e6f32bb-878b-5d05-b900-9b6ce2b41860.html?utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

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cherkiesCheri Kiesecker@cherkies·
17h

Interesting. Wonder how the USDOE Office of Edtech will incorporate FTC's new COPPA policy statement. "Students must be able to do their schoolwork without surveillance by companies"
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/05/ftc-crack-down-companies-illegally-surveil-children-learning-online https://twitter.com/EdScoop_news/status/1527373549198946327

EdScoop News@EdScoop_news

The Office of EdTech is updating its national edtech plan, the strategy document outlining how technology is used in U.S. education @OfficeofEdTech https://edscoop.com/national-edtech-plan-2022-refresh/

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plthomasEdDPaul Thomas@plthomasEdD·
23h

Media and Political Misreading of Reading (Again): NYC Edition http://radicalscholarship.com/2022/05/19/media-and-political-misreading-of-reading-again-nyc-edition/

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NancyEBailey1Nancy E. Bailey@NancyEBailey1·
18 May

@PennBat I worry that many students with disabilities will miss out on inclusion classes with their non-disabled peers with vouchers. The best they will find are segregated charters or private schools that only focus on the disability.

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PennBatPA BATs R Pro Charter Reform@PennBat·
18 May

1. You lost
2. Where are the Special Ed students supposed to go when all the public schools are gone and voucher schools won't accept them?

"School Choice" isn't for ALL kids. Anyone who says it is, is full of 💩 https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1513571301155348481

Corey A. DeAngelis@DeAngelisCorey

@RepKrajewski the money doesn't belong to the government schools.

education funding is meant for educating children, not for protecting a particular institution.

we should fund students, not systems.

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