Thursday, June 30, 2011

hangin' out with arne ~ one blogger's experience

Recently, a friend from the tweetosphere posted this blog. I found it to be an interesting discourse!

When I checked into the tweetosphere this morning, I was thrilled to see my bud, Arne Duncan, tweeting his little (literally) brain out. In case you don't know, he's at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, ready to spread more of his incredible bullshit wisdom to any sucker ivy leaguer interested parties willing to listen. Well, I was so excited to see him on twitter that I thought I'd just jump in and join him. I mean, who would I rather get into an early morning convo with than Diane Ravitch Stephen Krashen Susan Ohanian Arne Duncan? So, I started tweeting away in response to his tweets (I, like, so can't believe I was tweeting with Arne Duncan!) I'm gonna keep those tweets forever and I thought it might be nice to share them with you. BTW: You may notice that Arne's not that good about answering questions, etc., but hey, it was early in the AM.




Arne Duncan 
High performing countries invest in education differently than we do


outside the box
 Yeah, like not investing in high-stakes testing and test prep or having a narrow curricula. And how about small class sizes?


Arne Duncan 
We're not giving enough resources to the kids in the communities that need the most help 


outside the box
 That's b/c U R giving all of R money away 2 consultants, test makers & textbook companies, none of which increase achievement.


Arne Duncan 
Thanks to  we've seen more reform in the last two years than in the last decade.


outside the box
 Yeah but those reforms suck. Proven failures. Fire yourself Arne. You're bad for our kids.


outside the box
 Real Reform vs Faux Reform 


Arne Duncan 
We all need to take on the status quo -- mayors, governors, unions, school board members 


outside the box
 Arne you and your buds are the biggest defenders of the status quo.


outside the box
BTW  Bill Gates is a computer guy. He doesnt know sh!t about education. Seriously! Y R U letting him call the shots?


Arne Duncan 
Folks who say poverty is destiny--that's one of the biggest challenges we face in education reform today 


outside the box
 Cut the crap, Arne. Who has said that? Srsly!


Arne Duncan 
Part of why high other countries are outpacing us is because they are recruiting the top 1/3 of college graduates into teaching 


outside the box
 Arne, how does poverty affect student achievement? BTW: 21%+ of our kids live in poverty.


Arne Duncan 
We need to pay teachers more 


outside the box
 How about : "I need to respect teachers more." That "I" means you, Arne


Arne Duncan 
We should pay great teachers $150,000 a year 


outside the box
 How do you define 'great teacher'?


Arne Duncan 
We need to have a high bar, high standards, recruit great teachers and principals, and give districts more flexibility 


outside the box
 Re: high bar, high standards... You need to start with the Secretary of Education position first. Major fail currently.


Arne Duncan 
Anyone who thinks that great teaching doesn't matter devalues the profession 


outside the box
 Oh, and re: "devalues the profession". You don't wanna go there, Arne, because re: valuing the profession - U R Far Below Basic


Arne Duncan 
Do unions have to change, absolutely. So do school boards, principals, and we as a department 


outside the box
 Does the Secretary of Ed need to change? Oh yeah!!! Got facts?


Arne Duncan 
Where we have courageous unions, we need to celebrate and reward that. 


outside the box
 Yep because courageous unions would have stood up to u and your deformer pals instead of rolling over 4 a place at the table!


Arne Duncan 
Or goal is pretty simple, we want to lead the world in college graduates by 2020 


outside the box


Arne Duncan 
The countries that out-educate us today will out- compete us tomorrow 


outside the box
 Really? Then I am so scared of Finland. /eyeroll/


outside the box
 BTW: Education is NOT a competition!


Arne Duncan 
When you see high performing schools they're not teaching to the test everyday. The test scores take care of themselves 


outside the box
 That's right. Only schools w/ poor black & brown children are teaching to the test all day every day.


Arne Duncan 
When students drop out of school they're condemned to poverty and social failure 


outside the box
 Would u stay in school when all that's valued is a test score & yours sucks? When all u do is ELA & math test prep


Arne Duncan 
We're investing $350 million to come up with the next generation of assessments, we need to move beyond filling in bubbles 


outside the box
 Sorry Arne but that just shows what a dolt u r. We don't need more tests!!! We need equitable & full funding 4 r schools!


Arne Duncan 
We want to expand access to early childhood education, but access to quality 


outside the box
 Hey, there's a good idea! ...as long as you don't test them 2 death.


Arne Duncan 
Reforms in IL are a model for the country 


outside the box
 RUFKM?

And on that note, our tweetversation was over. /sigh/ I wonder if he'll be tweeting tomorrow morning.