Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 2-5-16 (2)

Obama Administration
Gives States Ways To
Cut Standardized Testing
Fox & Friends Black Chick Guest Calls Black Voters Slaves To Democrats And Political Dummies
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is offer- ing states and local school dis- tricts a lesson plan of sorts to cut the amount of time that stu- dents spend on those fill-in-the- bubble and other standardized tests.
The Education Department released guidance Tuesday to states and local school districts outlining different ways they can use existing federal money to reduce testing in the nation's public schools. It follows a call by President Barack Obama last October to cap standardized testing and complaints by teach- ers, parents and others that that too many hours are spent "teaching to the test."
In a letter to state school of- ficials, the department details how certain federal money can be used to cut tests. States and districts, for example, could use federal education dollars in- tended for the development of state assessments to instead conduct audits of their tests to see if they have redundant as- sessments or low-quality ones that could be eliminated.
States also could use federal dollars to develop strategies to improve the quality of current tests or decrease the time stu- dents spend taking them, the letter said.
The goal isn't to do away with standardized tests. President Obama, in October, said smart, strategic tests are needed to measure students' learning and
performance in school. But, he said, "we're going to work with states, school districts, teachers and parents to make sure that we're not obsessing about test- ing."
Students spend about 20 to 25 hours a school year taking standardized tests, according to a study last year of the nation's 66 largest school districts by the Council of the Great City Schools.
The 2002 No Child Left Be- hind education law ushered in a new era of testing in public schools. It required annual test- ing in reading and math in grades three to eight, and once in high school.
Those tests would still be re- quired under a new education law signed by the President late last year, but states now have more flexibility on how best to assess teachers, schools and stu- dents — with measures that consider other factors beyond the test scores.
While most morning news programs devoted much of their Monday coverage to Tuesday’s highly anticipated Iowa caucuses, Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” took some time to examine the impor- tance of the African American vote on this first day of Black History Month, only to blast Black voters for “slavish sup- port” of the Democratic Party.
Guest and conservative pundit Crystal Wright (a.k.a., GOPBlackChick) began by arguing that Don- ald Trump is the only Re- publican presidential candidate credibly suited to compete for the African Amer- ican vote, citing his plans for mass deportation as a boon to Blacks and applauding the bil- lionaire frontrunner for not “pander[ing]” to Black Lives Matter.
“He’s the only one really talking to Black voters in my
Crystal Wright was a guest on Fox News’ Fox & Friends Monday.
opinion on the Republican side,” Wright told co-hosts Steve Doocy and Anna Kooiman. “Let’s talk Democ- rats,” Kooiman later pivoted. “And you have a theory that they are essentially buying the African American vote. What do you mean?”
“Blacks have shown a slav- ish support for the Democrat party for over 50 years,” Wright replied. “Part of me wonders if the Republican Party should even bother ask- ing for the Black vote because Black Americans seem to like being political dummies.”
Hillary Clinton Claims Slim Victory In Iowa Caucus; Next Up New Hampshire
The Democrats are settling in for a marathon, not a coronation.
The Iowa Democratic Party called the cau- cuses for Clinton at 3:30 a.m. ET, while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were on char- tered flights to New Hampshire. She has been awarded 699.57 state delegate equivalents and Sanders has been awarded 695.49, according to a press release. Martin O’Malley, who dropped out last night, got 7.68.
“We still have outstanding results in one precinct (Des Moines—42), which is worth 2.28 state delegate equivalents,” said state chair- woman Andy McGuire.
It’s estimated 187,000 Republicans came out. The Democrats said they had 171,109
Hillary Clinton claimed Iowa over Ted Cruz (left) and Bernie Sanders (bottom, right). Next up New Hampshire.
participants.
The GOP now has a three-way contest: Cruz
vs. Trump vs. Rubio.
Ted Cruz Wins GOP Iowa Caucus
There’s been a lot of talk over the past several months that the Republican primary race was being run on two “lanes,” the establishment lane and the outsider lane.
The outsider lane would be taken by Donald Trump or Ted Cruz while the establishment lane would be taken by one of the more main- stream candidates like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or John Kasich. In recent weeks, the establishment had to choose between Trump or Cruz, because none of the others were catching on at all. This presented a terrible dilemma for the establishment since they cannot stand either one.
Tuesday night, Iowa showed that the two lanes divided neatly between the hard charging culture warrior, Cruz and the mainstream con- servative, Rubio just as everyone might have predicted. The culture warrior got the most votes, as they often do in Iowa, but the establish- ment favorite did very well too and did it with a
MARCO RUBIO, DONALD TRUMP AND TED CRUZ.
late surge.
Unfortunately for those two, it turns out
there’s actually a third lane: the Trump lane. He didn’t win it, as the polls had predicted, but he did come in second. So it looks like the GOP’s got a three man race on its hands. And it’s fair to guess it’s going to get very, very ugly as they go after each other with everything they’ve got.
White House News