sh!t arne says

Ok, Arne, have you ever noticed that you have many words and phrases that you just LOVE to use ad nauseam. Given that you ARE our nation's Secretary of Education, I'd think you'd have a more developed vocabulary, but, like, whatever. Maybe those wildly expensive, high-tuition private schools aren't all that after all! (If I were your folks, I'd ask for a serious refund!) So here's one that really bugs me, and you use it in just about every speech you give:

"I feel a huge sense of urgency about this."

EVERY TIME you utter those words, Arne, I just start laughing! I'm NOT kidding!! Pinkie swear! Every time you talk about having a "sense of urgency", I think you're talking about needing to take a leak. And then I just start ROFL. And considering that you're kinda having a sense of seriousness about you, laughing during your message is probably not what you're going for, you know? But I just can't help it. 


So if you could retire that phrase, I would REALLY appreciate it. Totally! 


Oh, and BTW, you really should work on expanding your vocab. Your speeches are all sounding like the same old crap every time you speak. You're getting kinda boring with your message. You need to spice it up a bit. Or better yet, it would be so (I'll use some of your favorite words here) enormously, awesomely, absolutely, hugely, extraordinarily, and fundamentally COOL if you'd also start quoting some facts in your speeches, not those made up, kind of misinformationy things you like to say. OK? Could you do that, Arne? I mean I'm just sayin'....

more summer reading for arne

Hey, Arne. I'm just checking back to see if you put your laser-like focus on those articles I posted for you a while back. They were GREAT reads, weren't they? I'm certain you enjoyed them as much as I did. 

But I'm not sure you were reading for meaning because today, at your press conference with Governor Snyder.... (loving that you're on twitter!):

@arneduncanArne Duncan 

Just finished press conf w/MI Gov Snyder. I'm encouraged for Detroit schools, but important to give teachers & unions a voice in reform.

...well, I've gotta bone to pick with you. Teachers and unions have been talking!!!!! YOU JUST HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO LISTEN TO US!!!! (Sorry to scream at you, but sometimes, you just really piss me off! ...OK... ALL the time you piss me off!) I mean, really, how dense can you be? Do you not get that not only are the policies you continue to push, failed policies, but you're also really pissing off a lot of your boss's base? No matter how determined you are to change the reality by spinning misinformation ad nauseam, IT IS NOT WORKING!!

Sheesh! I just get so steamed up over the stupid sh!t you say. But I'm not giving up on you, Arne. Nope, that would be shirking my patriotic duty and letting my students (and those across the nation) down. So in a continued effort to enlighten you by giving you facts (you know, those things that aren't made up or pretend), I'm including in your summer reading list, some highly regarded books by some of the finest minds in public education today. And Arne, don't let the facts scare you; let them guide you. After reading, you might want to do a compare and contrast between what these books say and what your Blueprint is pushing.

So when you're on your vacay relaxing, pick up any of these great beach reads. When you're done you'll be a better man for it... and hopefully a better Secretary of Education.

And as we used to say, back in the day: Have a bitchin' summer! See ya next year! luv, tracey xoxo

The Death and Life of the Great American School System:

How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education
by Diane Ravitch 

Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality

by Gerald W. Bracey (RIP)

Catching Up or Leading the Way:

American Education in the Age of Globalization

by Yong Zhao

The Manufactured Crisis:

Myths,  Fraud, and the Attack on

America's Public Schools

by David D. Berliner ~ Bruce J. Biddle

why I'm marching on July 30th

The Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action is supported by teachers, students, parents and concerned citizens across the nation in support of public education. This is an authentic grassroots movement that supports:

• 

Equitable funding for all schools


• An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation


• Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies


• Curriculum developed for and by local school communities



I am standing up to the 'status quo' created by the policies of the Bush administration and NCLB, then supersized through the policies of the current administration and Race to the Top. 

I am standing up against the takeover of public education by corporate education deformers, Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Family, the Koch brothers and the DeVos family. The endgame is to turn taxpayer dollars over to billionaires and privatize public education.



I want my kids to have a rich, developmentally appropriate curricula. I want my kids to have committed, highly-qualified teachers in their classrooms, not a college graduate with 5 weeks of 'training'. I don't want my kids tested to death. I want my kids to become lifelong learners. I want the successes of ALL children to be celebrated, not just the children labeled 'proficient' on a standardized test. I want education policy put back in the hands of true educators, not politicians or billionaires.



That is why I am traveling across the country to participate in the Save Our Schools March. I'm marching for our kids because they need a voice. Please join me in Washington, DC on July 30th.

For information about the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, please click here.

frustrated educators aim to build grassroots movement

Written by Erik Robelen, for Education Week.  Read the original here.

“Thousands of educators, parent activists, and others are expected to convene in the heat and humidity of Washington next month for a march protesting the current thrust of education policy in the United States, especially the strong emphasis on test-based accountability. …

The four “guiding principles” for the march are: equitable funding for all public school communities; an end to high-stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation; curriculum developed for and by local school communities; and teacher, family, and community leadership in forming public education policies.”

education's four letter word

There is a new word in education that has rapidly dethroned a much used word in our modern vernacular: fuck. The beauty, of what is affectionally known as "the F word", is that users find it to be an extremely versatile word; hence its popularity. The F word can be used as a noun, verb, interjection, or adjective. Given that, it is not hard to see why the F word is used with such enthusiasm in so many circles. It's often just that go to word.


Recently, however, the F word has been replaced in education circles by a word which many find to be infinitely more vulgar: data.  With that adoption, many common phrases have now morphed using this new bon mot. Now, in staff rooms everywhere one may hear:

• Data you!
• Oh, data!
• What the data? or WTD?
• I don't give a data!
• You don't give a data!
• He doesn't give a data!
• She doesn't give a data!
• They don't give a data!
• Shut the data up!

Well, that's where we are today, creating new meanings and uses of common words. But data may not be on the throne for too long. In the future, it, too, may be replaced with other four letter words found to be vulgar in education circles: Arne, Rhee, and Bill.  We'll see.

breaking news: miracle baby born?

BREAKING NEWS: Baby born clutching completed scantron. Not sure if answers correct but answers spelled out f@ck bubble tests. Baby possible savant.

arne's summer reading list

Now that summer is upon us, I thought you might like some suggestions for some great beach reads. I get the feeling you're not a book kind of guy, so let me hook you up with some articles that you might enjoy:

• I know you just loves you some charter schools so here are some fun reads:
• http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/06/big-time-self-plagiarism-punked-web.html
• http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/06/big-time-self-plagiarism-part-2.html
• http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=3781
• http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-10-01/local/27076850_1_charter-schools-local-charter-success-academy
• http://gothamschools.org/2009/12/09/a-look-at-the-whys-and-hows-of-executive-pay-at-charter-schools/
• http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_CREDO.pdf
• http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/CREDO_Hoxby_Rebuttal.pdf
• Although not published in People Magazine, how about some articles on your girl, the cheating lying narcissistic irrepressible Michelle Rhee:
• http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/dc-schools/michelle-rhees-greatest-hits.html
• http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/09/why-michelle-rhees-education-brand-failed-in-dc/63014
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/12/AR2009121201276.html
• http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071107.shtml
• (OMFG! This is one of my FAVORITES! FYI, you might want to just download it on your iPod and listen while you're chillin') http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/13/VI2010081305444.html (OMFG! Does the girl have a sense of humor, or what???)
• http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-29/michelle-rhees-cheating-scandal-diane-ravitch-blasts-education-reform-star/
• And what about that merit pay?
• (From your alma mater!) http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/files/teacher%2Bincentives.pdf
• (It's OK to skip the mathy parts.) http://www.performanceincentives.org/data/files/pages/POINT%20REPORT_9.21.10.pdf
• And we can't forget the article from your pal, Johnny Alter, that touched the hearts of thousands of educators and inspired them to chime in:
• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-03/don-t-believe-critics-education-reform-works-jonathan-alter.html (Wow, Arne! You have such a way with words!)

Oh, and if you're just really not into reading this summer, here's a GREAT movie for you to watch. I mean if you LOVED Waiting for Superman, then this is the movie for you:

• http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/ (Just go to this website and order the DVD for FREE!! I mean, how great is THAT!)

Well, Arne, that's quite a bit 'o reading for you to put your laser-like focus on so I'll just stop here. But don't worry; I'll check in later this summer with some more suggestions. If you run out of reading before I get back with you, just email me, I'm happy to help out!

Later, dude!  :)

an acrostic poem

Rheeviled                          
Heretical                              
Education                          
Entrepreneur 

Dude's
Unqualified
Needs
Clues
A
Non-educator

Geeky
Annoying
Temperamental
Egotistical
Slimeball                             

sh!t arne says

Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day.

Arne Duncan

US Secretary of Education 

OMFG, RUFKM?  Seriously, dude, seriously! Arne, YOU are the one in denial. YOU are the one insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving YOU wrong every day! Fire yourself, Arne. Just fire yourself. You are highly unqualified for the position you hold and continue to be willfully ignorant. Your hubris is stunning. Secretary Duncan, you are an embarrassment to our public schools.

whack-a-teacher derailed

BREAKING NEWS: Whack-a-Teacher, slated to replace the popular Whack-a-Mole by the end of 2011, is already on a trajectory to obsolescence. Coming instead, to a game arcade near you, will be several new AMAZING Whack-A games: Whack-a-Duncan, Whack-a-Rhee, and Whack-a-Gates. Predicted to be HUGELY successful, these games are the start of a new gaming franchise, Whack-a-Corporate-Education-Deformer. This was the brainchild of a credentialed, highly-qualified, highly-effective, enormously pissed-off teacher on the Left Coast, Teacher Anon. When asked why she created this franchise, Ms. Anon stated that the recent gutting of public education budgets and the rampant amount of misinformation being blasted by the corporate ed deformers, inspired her to look at new ways to fund public education while at the same time having a little fun with its adversaries. Not only does she expect the new Whack-A games to be enjoyed by kids, she also expects a new demographic to join in the fun - public school employees and parents of over-tested children. "It'll be a lot cheaper than seeing a psychiatrist and taking anti-depressants to combat the stress we're all feeling," said Ms. Anon at a recent PTSA meeting. Production is in full swing and future games are already in the pipeline: Whack-a-Broad, Whack-a-Klein, Whack-a-Bloomie, Whack-a-Superman, Whack-a-Wendy (couldn't resist the alliterative quality), as well as several Whack-a-Governor games.

ALL profits from this Outside the Box venture will be used to fund struggling schools, prioritizing small class sizes and experienced intervention teachers as real reforms that work!