PRINCIPLES WITH A PRICE TAG: Every junior at Seattle’s Nathan Hale High School skipped Smarter Balanced testing last week. Their boycott follows a resolution by teachers against the Common Core tests, and may jeopardize next year’s funding: US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warns that the government will have to intervene—which could mean withdrawing federal funds—if less than 95% of a district’s students participate in the standardized tests. This seems increasingly likely in Colorado, where the US Department of Education rejected a request to not punish districts for high rates of student opt-outs, after 47% of students didn’t participate in the first round of tests in Boulder. More from Chalkbeat.
