Certain segments of the edu-sphere like to call those of us at Fordham silly (though, I'll admit, colorful) names, like "wing-nuts on crack ." These bloggers tend to represent teachers unions. (Yes, Fred, I'm talking about you.) So they might be struggling with the cognitive dissonance caused by American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten's testimony before Congress this morning, which quoted a recent Fordham study:
A report issued earlier this year by the Fordham Institute detailed the variability of NCLB's system of accountability, while also reinforcing the argument for common state standards. The Fordham report concluded that "Schools that make AYP in one state fail to make AYP in another. Those that are considered failures in one part of the country are deemed to be doing fine in another. Although schools are being told that they need to improve student achievement in order to make AYP under the law, the truth is that many would fare better if they were just allowed to move across state lines."
Perhaps Fordham is actually a well-respected education policy think tank? Or maybe Randi's gone to the dark side.
Darth Vader picture from Star Wars website
