The Spellings Report: Actions And Reactions

Since so much of what we do in the classroom nowadays is mandated by the good folks in Washington, we've learned that it pays to keep a close eye on the comings and goings of those who lurk inhabit the office suites over at The House of Spellings.

Last week, we reported the serious allegation that several states were exploiting a loophole in the No Child Left Behind Act in order to avoid reporting the test scores of "statistically insignificant" groups that were mostly minority, and mostly lower scoring.

The story created quite a buzz in the EduSphere, here, here, here, here, and here.

All the hub-bub also attracted the interest of U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who, going into hyper damage-control mode, will be looking into the matter.

Key quote from the Secretary: "We ought to be doing more about that."

More of the Q and A right here.

Thankfully, it seems as though for once she didn't use her signature expression: "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it."

In other Department of Education news, Secretary Spellings is announcing that this is "Volunteer Week." Spellings says, "Volunteers are the glue that holds our public education system together."

I can't help but wonder if that means the federal government may consider legislation that would reimburse volunteers who are forced to pay out of pocket for their fingerprinting, background checks, and health exams.

But nowadays it seems to me that the federal government doesn't seem to do much of anything unless somebody bribes gives major-league money to one or more political action committees. ------------------------------Contributions for this week's edition of The Carnival Of Education are due tonight. Get submission info here; see our latest education-related entries over there.