* Education Secretary Arne Duncan was in Chicago yesterday…

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan arrived at a South Side elementary school Thursday morning for an event — but his driver took a wrong turn down a dead-end alley, and Duncan was forced to walk half a block to the school amid protesters who’d been waiting for him to complain about standardized testing.

About 50 parents and children stood outside Ariel Community Academy so they could deliver their message to him about their opposition to the PARCC test. They chased his black SUV when it turned short of the school into an alley.

Heh.

* But then he was asked about the State Board of Education’s threat to withhold all of Chicago’s state school aid if it refused to implement the PARCC test…

Why is his U.S. Department of Education forcing a controversial standardized test — one many parents don’t want and that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has argued is “not ready” for prime time — down the throats Chicago Public Schools?

“I’m not,” Duncan said. “The state works it out without Chicago. . . . That’s the state’s decision.”

But isn’t the mandate being dictated by the federal government? Isn’t that what’s behind the threat to withhold $1 billion in funding that forced Chicago’s hand?

“No. You’re wrong. . . . You’re making stuff up. You don’t have your facts straight,” Duncan said.

* From a letter written by an Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Education to the the State Board of Education inquiring about its options in dealing with Chicago’s refusal…

Dear Superintendent Koch:

This letter is in response to your November 25, 2014 letter to Secretary Arne Duncan, regarding various inquiries that have arisen in Illinois about the requirements for State assessments under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) and, concomitantly, ESEA flexibility. Your letter was referred to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and I am pleased to respond on behalf of Secretary Duncan. […]

Below, I have responded to each of the questions for which you have asked ED to confirm the Illinois State Board of Education’s ( ISBE’s) interpretation of certain provisions of Section 1111(b)(3), providing the statutory and regulatory citations, as applicable, and noting any differences between the statutory and regulatory requirements of the ESEA and ESEA flexibility.

1. Please confirm that, under the ESEA, a local educational agency (LEA) is not allowed to “take a year off” from assessing students.

The ISBE’s interpretation is correct. […]

2. Please confirm that it would be inconsistent with ESEA requirements for a State to offer “a menu of assessments” from which local school districts could select to administer to students.

The ISBE’s interpretation is correct.

Emphasis added.