Schools Matter: The NAEP Science Results: Inconsistent with American success in science: Are the Achievement Levels too high? And why ELLs scores are low.

Schools Matter: The NAEP Science Results: Inconsistent with American success in science: Are the Achievement Levels too high? And why ELLs scores are low.:

The NAEP Science Results: Inconsistent with American success in science: Are the Achievement Levels too high? And why ELLs scores are low.

by skrashen

State	African American	Hispanic	White	Overall
Texas	4th	6th	8th	29th
California	30th	42nd	43rd	49th
Florida	23rd	9th	34th	39th
Illinois	36th	32nd	33rd	43rd
New York	15th	41st	29th	38th

The NAEP Science Results: Inconsistent with American success in science: Are the Achievement Levels too high? And why ELLs scores are low.
Stephen Krashen

The NAEP Science grade 8 results have been announced, and, as usual, it has stimulated reports about how poorly our students have done, accompanied by pious pronouncements about the need to improve science education.

The problem, we are told, is that only 32% of the students scored at or above the “proficient” level and only 65% performed at or above the “basic” level. This sounds terrible. It has been argued, however, that the NAEP achievement levels are set much too high, giving the impression that our students are doing much worse than 

National Association of Charter School Authorizers Outed as ALEC Funder

by Jim Horn

NACSA is the most visible and well-heeled of the corporate charter front groups posing as a professional organization dedicated to quality and oversight of charter schools.  What they were, and are, is the corporate cadillac of lobbying and pressure charter privateers laser-focused on removing any barrier at the national, state, or local level to expanding school privatization via charter school.  

NACSA also gets millions from cash-starved states, who hand over part of their federal grant money to fund NACSA, where big chunks of the cash have been funneled to ALEC to buy 

Opt-Out Parent in NJ: . . . the "nice" strategy to me nowhere

by Jim Horn

Posted at Opt Out of the State Test:

Jean Schutt McTavishWe are in week 2 of the opt out for my 4th grader in NJ. We met with the Superintendent and the Board of Education last night. The Superintendent seemed embarrassed that he had threatened me with a report of truancy to the child welfare agency in NJ. He avoided me like the plague. My sister tag teamed with me, so she talked to him for a good hour. Everyone seemed to agree with our