WEEKEND QUOTABLES: Duncan wants more NCLB testing madness

NCLB Redux: Duncan wants more and more testing. 

Arne Duncan...said Monday that testing U.S. schoolchildren annually in math and reading is critical for measuring their educational progress, setting the stage for what is likely to be a contentious Capitol Hill debate on the federal role in education.

 "That means all students need to take annual, statewide assessments that are aligned with their teacher's classroom instruction in reading and math in grades 3-8, and once in high school." -- Star-Tribune

Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust

" Kids who are not tested end up not counting." -- ABC News

Lily Eskelsen Garcia

NEA Pres. Lily Eskelsen García

If he truly wants to build a legacy, Obama ought to drop the testing mandate and lead “us out of the dry, awful desert of No Child Left Untested”. -- Politico

Conservative think-tanker Michael Petrilli

 “We don’t really give a damn what the administration thinks. Congress is driving this train.” -- Politco

 Photographer/Author Teju Cole 

Witch burnings, heresy trials, and the untiring work of the Inquisition shaped Europe, and these ideas extended into American history as well and took on American modes, from the breaking of slaves to the censuring of critics of Operation Iraqi Freedom. -- New Yorker

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Natasha Korecki

A new progressive movement that’s swept through New York; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Jersey City, New Jersey; Oregon; and Seattle has arrived in Chicago. -- Sun-Times

Amisha Patel, executive director of Grassroots Illinois Action

“We’re building ward committees with everyday people who are wanting to take back their city from elected officials who don’t care about them. The city election coming up is an opportunity to really bring the kind of change you saw in New York City. That same kind of frustration is really high here in Chicago.” -- Sun-Times

Incoming NEA Pres. Lily Eskelsen García 

“We must measure what matters and put students’ needs at the center of the system once again. We can no longer allow politicians who have never stepped into a classroom define what it means to teach and learn.” -- MSNBC

Biden at Netroots Nation

V.P. Joe Biden

 Describing the American middle class as "the glue that has enabled us to be the most stable political and stable social system in the world", Biden raised the spectre of civil unrest, warning: "When that begins to fray, much more will fray than the loss of economic opportunity." -- The Guardian

James Fallows tweets

"When strategic message becomes ‘They’re forcing us to kill children,’ strategy is in trouble. As US learned [in Vietnam]."  -- Greg Mitchell, Pressing Issues