So tonight's repeats are the inoffensive (at least by comparison) Jake Gyllenhaal from 9/17 and the execrable Arne Duncan from the same date. The reason I'm so down on Arne is, like Michelle Rhee and most advocates of privatized education and standardized testing he's nothing but a greedy lying cheat.
Here's a story from a recent Washington Post-
D.C. officials’ choice allowed math tests to show gain
By Emma Brown, Washington Post
Published: September 21
The four-point gains D.C. public school students achieved citywide on the most recent annual math and reading tests were acclaimed as historic, as more evidence that the city’s approach to improving schools is working.
But the math gains officials reported were the result of a quiet decision to score the tests in a way that yielded higher scores even though D.C. students got far fewer math questions correct than in the year before.
The decision was made after D.C. teachers recommended a new grading scale — which would have held students to higher standards on tougher math tests — and after officials reviewed projections that the new scale would result in a significant decline in math proficiency rates.
...
Officials at the District’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) — the agency responsible for administering exams for the city’s traditional public and public charter schools — said they decided not to adopt the teacher-recommended grading scale because it was important to continue comparing student performance consistently from year to year.
The OSSE made an unwritten commitment years ago to maintain that trend line as a way to judge progress and the effectiveness of reform efforts, said Jeffrey Noel, who oversees testing at the agency. Adopting a new grading scale for the city’s test program — known as the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, or D.C. CAS — would have made such comparisons complicated or impossible, disrupting teacher evaluations, charter school rankings and other accountability systems, he said.
...
D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who chairs the Education Committee and who has sparred with Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) over education policy, said his staff has been crunching test data in an effort to understand the OSSE’s scoring decision and its impact. Catania has scheduled a roundtable with administration officials on the matter for Thursday.
“I am concerned about the possible manipulation of D.C. CAS results by OSSE and the lack of transparency in the process,” Catania said in a statement. “OSSE’s explanation raises more questions than it answers.”
...
Some teachers have puzzled over unusual patterns in the test data, especially steep year-to-year drops in the points students needed to be rated as proficient. Fifth-graders needed 42 points to be proficient in math in 2012, for example, and only 34 points in 2013, according to OSSE.
The good news is that tonight also includes
Wrongnado, one of the funniest things I've seen Jon do in a while and which I embedded
here and
here.
The link to Stephen's episode is here.
It's been a pretty busy weekend-
The Stars Hollow Gazette/DocuDharma Digest
Friday 9/20
* On This Day In History September 20 by: TheMomCat
* The Congressional Game of Chicken: Debt Ceiling, Default, Crash the Global Economy by: TheMomCat
* Punting the Pundits by: TheMomCat
* Defining Journalism and Who Is a Journalist by: TheMomCat
* The Cost of Doing Business Duex by: ek hornbeck
* What We Really Should be Yellin About When it Comes to Who Runs the Fed by: priceman
* Friday Night at the Movies by: ek hornbeck
Saturday 9/21
* On This Day In History September 21 by: TheMomCat
* How Safe Is the US Water Supply by: TheMomCat
* Punting the Pundits by: TheMomCat
* Health and Fitness News by: TheMomCat
* Random Japan by: mishima
* Autumal Equinox 2013 by: TheMomCat
* Saturday Night Movie by: ek hornbeck
Sunday 9/22
* Punting the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition by: TheMomCat
* Formula One 2013: Singapore by: ek hornbeck
* Three Things On The Internet by: TheMomCat
* On This Day In History September 22 by: TheMomCat
* Daziger Bridge by: ek hornbeck
* Rant of the Week: Stephen Colbert, The Word: The Guilted Age by: TheMomCat
* Sunday Movie Showcase by: ek hornbeck
Monday 9/23
* On This Day In History September 23 by: TheMomCat
* Anti-Capitalist Meetup: The Personal, the Political, and the Poverty of Children by Le Gauchiste by: Anti-Capitalist Meetup
* Punting the Pundits by: TheMomCat
* Sunday Train: Rapid Rail and Pedal to the Metal Climate Change Policy (pt 2) by: BruceMcF
* The Pursuit of Ivy by: ek hornbeck
The Stars Hollow Gazette
Friday 9/20
* Late Night Karaoke by: mishima
* Muse in the Morning by: Robyn
* On This Day In History September 20 by: TheMomCat
* Be Careful What You Ask For by: TheMomCat
* Cartnoon by: ek hornbeck
* A Plea From a Trauma Surgeon: Put My Trauma Center Out of Business by: TheMomCat
* Exceptional by: ek hornbeck
* Again and Again by: Robyn
* Friday Night at the Movies by: ek hornbeck
* Random Japan by: mishima
Saturday 9/21
* Late Night Karaoke by: mishima
* On This Day In History September 21 by: TheMomCat
* The Cost of Doing Business Duex by: ek hornbeck
* Cartnoon by: ek hornbeck
* Health and Fitness News by: TheMomCat
* Autumal Equinox 2013 by: TheMomCat
* Saturday Night Movie by: ek hornbeck
Sunday 9/22
* Late Night Karaoke by: mishima
* On This Day In History September 22 by: TheMomCat
* Three Things On The Internet by: TheMomCat
* The Pursuit of Ivy by: ek hornbeck
* Cartnoon by: ek hornbeck
* Same old, same old by: ek hornbeck
* Sunday Movie Showcase by: ek hornbeck
Monday 9/23
* Late Night Karaoke by: mishima
* Muse in the Morning by: Robyn
* On This Day In History September 23 by: TheMomCat
* Anti-Capitalist Meetup: The Personal, the Political, and the Poverty of Children by Le Gauchiste by: Anti-Capitalist Meetup
* Cartnoon by: ek hornbeck
* Bill Maher: The US: world's policeman or schoolyard bully? by: TheMomCat
* "I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities" by: ek hornbeck
DocuDharma
Oh, and The Colbert Report beat The Daily Show for the 2013 Emmy in Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series.