Bush Official Rules Out U.S. School Testing Standard

It's no surprise that the NEA opposes a national test that would allow us to better judge how well students, teachers and schools are doing because maintaining the fiction that all is well -- and, to the extent it isn't, the solution to all problems is to spend more money on more teachers -- is very much in their interest.  But it's disappointing that the Bush Administration is siding with them -- how ironic that Ted Kennedy is the bold one here!

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is due to become chairman of the Education Committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January, is pursuing a plan that would establish ``voluntary national benchmarks'' and then help states meet them, spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said.

The administration's position is backed by one of its most ardent critics on education policy, the National Education Association, the largest U.S. teacher union. The 3.2 million- member NEA doesn't support a single national test standard, at least until other educational improvements are funded at the state level, union President Reg Weaver said.

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Bush Official Rules Out U.S. School Testing Standard

By Paul Basken

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSrBZ1LjXUG0&refer=home

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration has no intention of backing a single nationwide testing standard when it works with Congress to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law, a top Education Department official said today.

David Dunn, the department's chief of staff and acting undersecretary, ruled out the idea one day after it was endorsed by the Council of the Great City Schools, representing 66 of the nation's largest urban school districts.

``It's appropriate for the states to be setting standards, it's appropriate for the states to be setting proficiency levels, and I don't see the administration moving any other direction,'' Dunn said in an interview.

Dunn earlier today told a Capitol Hill forum on the No Child law that it was ``possible'' the administration could accept national standards as part of its negotiations with the new Democratic-led Congress. Dunn, in the subsequent interview, said he made the comment in jest.

Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, said yesterday that leaders of the nation's largest school districts have concluded that the current system of letting each state develop its own tests and academic standards is producing poor academic results.

Casserly was part of a panel organized by the National Center for Education Statistics, a politically independent branch of the Education Department, to issue an analysis of science tests scores from 10 of the nation's biggest cities. The analysis found all 10 cities scored at or below U.S. averages.

`Local Control President'

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is due to become chairman of the Education Committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January, is pursuing a plan that would establish ``voluntary national benchmarks'' and then help states meet them, spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said.

The administration's position is backed by one of its most ardent critics on education policy, the National Education Association, the largest U.S. teacher union. The 3.2 million- member NEA doesn't support a single national test standard, at least until other educational improvements are funded at the state level, union President Reg Weaver said.

``It's premature, and I don't think it would do what people think that it would do,'' Weaver said today in an interview.

Dunn said in the interview that accepting such ideas during next year's expected congressional reauthorization of the No Child law ``would represent a major shift in policy direction'' for the Bush administration.

``We're still working on a lot of things, and we've not finalized any of our reauthorization proposals,'' he said. ``But the president's been very clear, that he is a local control president.''