Parent to schools chief: ‘You don’t understand schools’
This was* written by Helen Gym, a founder of Parents United for Public Education, a citywide parent group focused on school budgets and funding to improve achievement and accountability in the public schools. She is a former editor of The Notebook, an independent website about Philadelphia public schools. She is also a board member at Asian Americans United, a Chinatown-based community organization active in education, youth leadership, immigrant rights, and community development. She was named the Philadelphia Inquirer’s “Citizen of the Year” in 2007 for her work in education, im... more »
Education and the income gap: Darling-Hammond
This was *written by Stanford University Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who directs the Stanford University Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and was founding director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. A former president of the American Educational Research Association, Darling-Hammond focuses her research, teaching, and policy work on issues of school restructuring, teacher quality and educational equity*. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A moving film about the life of a school
Too many films about school insist on showing the teaching and learning enterprise at its worst. Students are portrayed as at best troubled and often just rotten, teachers are stupid or mean; parents are arrogant or absent. “Monsieur Lazhar” doesn’t, and that is only part of what distinguishes this moving, intelligent Canadian film, which opens in the Washington D.C. region on Friday. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Pearson and how 2012 standardized tests were designed
This w*as written by Fred Smith, a retired New York City Board of Education senior analyst who worked for the public school system in test research and development.* By Fred Smith The recent Pineapple and the Hare fiasco does more than identify a daft reading passage on New York State’s 8th grade English Language Arts test. Education Commissioner John King scrapped the selection and its six multiple-choice items, admitting they were “ambiguous,” when the questions became public last week. The episode opens the door to discussing how the 2012 exams were put together. Read full a...more »
Bank forgives loan of dead student after six years and online petition
A bank that had refused to forgive the loan of a student who died six years ago has finally decided to do so after an online petition by the student’s brother collected more than 75,000 signatures. A news release from Change.org, the Web site where the petition was posted several days ago, says that Cleveland-based KeyBank has informed the family of the late Christopher Bryski that it will forgive his loan and review policies about how to proceed in such cases. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
Principal says many questions flawed on state standardized tests
This is a letter that P.S. 321 Principal Elizabeth Phillips sent to John B. King Jr., the New York State education commissioner, about questions she has seen on this year’s standardized tests recently administered to students in various grades. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
How NOT to extend the school day
In poll after survey after study, teachers have said that planning time is very important to them. In the 2006 Metlife Survey of the American Teacher, one of the top factors that emerged as a significant predictor of a teacher’s satisfaction with his/her career was having enough time for planning and grading. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
A ‘simple fix’ for school curriculum (and it’s not Common Core)
This was *written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author.* By Marion Brady For more than 20 years, in language as strong as the editors of mainstream media will allow, I’ve been slamming the stupidities of the education “reforms” dreamed up by amateur educators in Congress, state legislatures, and corporate offices. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Deion Sanders and his charter school
Stuff you can’t make up: Deion Sanders, who has been cited for misdemeanor simple assault in connection with a domestic disturbance that resulted in the arrest of his estranged wife, is opening a public charter school in Texas. And at that school he wants to film a reality show about the way he coaches the football team. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
NY principals: A ‘wrecking ball’ of reform aimed at schools
This is an open letter that a group of New York principals sent this week to the New York State Board of Regents about school reform and the standardized testing regime. More than 1,400 New York State principals have signed a petition asking state education officials to rethink their reform agenda. You can read about that effort at www.newyorkprincipals.org and @nyprincipals on Twitter. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
The meaning of the ‘talking pineapple’ test question
This was* written by Kevin G. Welner, a professor of education policy and program evaluation in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and director of the National Education Policy Center. The center is housed at the university’s School of Education and sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third party reviews of think tank reports.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
National resolution against high-stakes tests released
A national resolution protesting high-stakes standardized testing was released Tuesday by a coalition of national education, civil rights and parents groups, as well as educators who are trying to build a broad-based movement against the Obama administration’s test-centric school reform program. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
‘Mr. President, public education in the U.S. is on the wrong track’
This is the text of an open letter written to President Obama by Mary Broderick, president of the Arlington, Va.,-based National School Boards Association, a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their member districts. The letter, sent earlier this month to the president, asks for a national dialogue about the direction of public education reform. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Standardized test security questioned
Tenth-graders in Florida took the state’s standardized test in reading on a staggered schedule because there weren’t enough computers available for them all to take it at the same time, raising concerns that security of test questions could be compromised, the Miami Herald reported. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Ed Dept seeks to bring test-based assessment to teacher prep programs
The Obama administration wants to expand the use of standardized test scores as an accountability tool from K-12 into higher education. The Education Department just tried — and failed — to persuade a group of negotiators to agree to regulations that would rate colleges of education in large part on how K-12 students being taught by their graduates perform on standardized tests. As part of this scheme, financial aid to students in these programs would not be based entirely on need but, rather, would also be linked to test scores. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [im... more »
Does Congress know reading is fundamental?
This *was written by Carol H. Rasco, president and chief executive officer for the non-profit * * Reading Is Fundamental, * * the nation’s largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization. * By Carol H. Rasco Currently there are 16 million children in our nation living in poverty, thehighest number in two decades, and in low-income neighborhoods, there is only one book for every 300 children. The most recently reported National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students in the United States continue to struggle with the most fundamental educational skill — re... more »
How zoning policies affect student achievement
This *was written by Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow at The Century Foundation. It first appeared on the foundation’s website. * By Richard D. Kahlenberg Americans value equal educational opportunity, but our system has always undercut that goal with housing, zoning, and school assignment policies that consign low-income students to high-poverty schools where they tend to perform worse. A fascinating new study by Jonathan Rothwell of the Brookings Institution outlines how zoning policies that limit opportunities for inexpensive housing in more affluent neighborhoods, and sc... more »
‘Talking pineapple’ question on standardized test baffles students
A question about a “talking pineapple” on a standardized reading test given to eighth-grade students in New York has sparked something of an uproar among students and adults who say it doesn’t make any sense. And because of all the fuss, now the state’s education commissioner says the question won’t be counted in students’ scores. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Education reform protests pick up steam
In Texas, New York, Illinois and other states, protests by parents and educators are getting louder against school reform that insists on using standardized test scores as the basis for evaluating students, educators and schools. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]