Yong Zhao On Arne Duncan Being "Stunned" About Cheating In Atlanta

What was Secretary Duncan’s true feeling about the cheating scandal in Atlanta?

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said he was “stunned” by the cheating scandal in Atlanta Public Schools revealed last week. Given that English is my second language and I wanted to make sure I do not misunderstand the Secretary’s feelings about one of the largest scandals in U.S. education, I went to dictionary.com and found the following definitions of “stun:”

1. to deprive of consciousness or strength by or as if by a blow, fall, etc.
2. to astonish; astound; amaze.
3. to shock; overwhelm

So what was Mr. Duncan’s feeling? In the spirit of test-based education, this makes a great item on the next standardized test for our children:

What was Secretary Duncan’s true feeling about cheating in Atlanta?

A. He was deprived of consciousness or strength
B. He was astonished, astounded, and amazed
C. He was shocked and overwhelmed
D. All of the above

Using my well-honed testing taking skill developed in China, I went at the task and eliminated “B” and “C” first because both contain the element of “surprise” in that he was surprised to find out there were such massive cheating going on in schools. This cannot be true or I refuse to believe it is true because as Secretary of Education, Mr. Duncan must have read the numerous reports of suspected and confirmed cheating incidents in the nation’s schools, including but not limited to places such as Boston, Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Chicago, where he served as its education chief.

Yong Zhao

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I have a few Facebook pages. Arrest The Pope is the largest at almost 7800. Then there is Miseducation Nation with about 700 "likes" I started last year when NBC decided to shut teachers out of their discussions on education reform.

Back in March of this year I started Students?First, a Facebook page to counter Michelle Rhee's influence at her Students First propaganda machine.

Remember me? I used to be on Facebook @ Students?First

 Well, my Students?First Facebook page is nowhere to be found. I can't find out why it's gone. I suppose regular people can "report" a page, but there was nothing nasty there, just facts about education.

But, given Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million investment in education, if Michelle Rhee asks you to take down a page, you do what you're told to stay in the good graces of the billionaire boys club.

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