"Schools should be places where kids learn to master the tests of life rather than being a life of tests." Mo Elias

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were the Secretary of Education? Most educators have woken up, thought about plowing through another day of accountability and test prep and screamed, "I would do things differently if I was Secretary Duncan!!!" Of course, we don't have the pressures of working directly with the President, policymakers, politicians and lobbyists. But still...we have great ideas! After all, we ACTUALLY work with children.

The reality is that year after year it seems as though a high quality education is getting further away from educators and in an effort to make education better, policymakers and politicians are really just making it worse. Somehow, they strongly believe that testing is the way to see if a child is learning and quite frankly, they're just streamlining education to one type of learner. But considering the fiscal cliff debacle is it really surprising that they can't think outside the box?

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