From Duncan's June 11, 2010 speech to the National PTA:

As I traveled the country during the last 18 months and visited some 35 states, I heard two consistent concerns about public schools from parents and teachers. First, they feared that schools were 'teaching to the test.' And second, they worried that the curriculum was narrowing, as school districts placed too much emphasis on boosting test scores on fill-in-the-bubble tests in math and English.

OK, so he heard that parents and teachers are unhappy with the over-emphasis on testing. So, what's he going to do about it? What's the ArneSpeak really mean?

Student and school performance should never be assessed solely by test scores but by a range of indicators, such as graduation rates, attendance, matriculation to college, and other measures.

To us, a “range of indicators” means multiple measures, and more specifically, multiple sources of evidence of various types.

But a “range of indicators” in ArneSpeak means what it meant when Arne was in Chicago and he created the “scorecard” approach to school evaluation. The “scorecard” continued to be based on annual standardized test scores, but included other “objective” data such as attendance and graduation rates, which can also be manipulated, and are also not reliable indicators in themselves of a high quality education (see, for example, Urban Prep “miracle”).

So, in ArneSpeak, there's no less emphasis on testing, just added emphasis on other things like attendance which then also become relatively meaningless, high-stakes data.

Next: ArneSpeak on the “growth” measure, bubble tests, and “real-time data”