The real problem with multiple-choice tests
- Q) What is one responsibility that modern Presidents have NOT described in the Constitution? (From the 2010 NAEP exam)
- a) Commanding the armed forces b) Proposing an annual budget to Congress c) Appointing Supreme Court justices d) Granting pardons
One of the biggest complaints about standardized tests is that the multiple-choice questions don’t measure deep thinking skills. Here’s a new look at the problems with multiple-choice questions, written by Terry Heick, curriculum director atTeachThought, an online platform that that explores innovation in education.
Heick is an educator, husband, and father of three who is interested in improved social capacity through the design of progressive learning forms. An excerpt of this post appeared on TeachThought, and a fuller version on Edutopia.
(The answer to the question above is B, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2010.)
By Terry Heick
The multiple-choice problem is becoming a bit of an issue.
While it has been derided by educators for decades as incapable of truly measuring
Rocketship charter schools revamping signature 'Learning Lab'
The Rocketship network of charter schools has made a name for itself in the world of school choice -- and attracted $2 million from the Obama administration to help it grow -- with its "blended learning" model that incorporates traditional classroom settings with a computer "Learning Lab" for students.
Read full article >>
The real problem with multiple-choice tests
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 hours ago
Q) What is one responsibility that modern Presidents have NOT described in the Constitution? (From the 2010 NAEP exam) a) Commanding the armed forces b) Proposing an annual budget to Congress c) Appointing Supreme Court justices d) Granting pardons Read full article >>
Rocketship charter schools revamping signature 'Learning Lab'
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 hours ago
The Rocketship network of charter schools has made a name for itself in the world of school choice -- and attracted $2 million from the Obama administration to help it grow -- with its "blended learning" model that incorporates traditional classroom settings with a computer "Learning Lab" for students. Read full article >>
California's Gov. Brown blasts state, federal education policy
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 17 hours ago
California Gov. Jerry Brown smacked state and federal education policy in his State of the State Address Thursday, calling for more local control of school issues and saying, "I would prefer to trust our teachers who are in the classroom each day, doing the real work lighting fires in young minds." Read full article >>
Texas House eliminates funding for standardized testing
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
The revolt against standardized testing in Texas has taken a new twist: The Texas House has put forth a draft 2014-15 budget that zeroes out all funding for statewide standardized assessment. By way of explanation, Speaker Joe Straus said, "To parents and educators concerned about excessive testing, the Texas House has heard you." Read full article >>
Caution urged on Common Core -- from a supporter
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
Even as schools across the country change curriculum and assessments to align with the new Common Core State Standards, there are plenty of people -- including Common Core supporters who think implementation is being rushed. Here is an open letter on this subject to the Illinois State Board of Education from Paul Horton, a history teacher at the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (where President Obama's daughters attended before moving to Washington D.C.), and state liaison to the Illinois Council for History Education. In this letter Horton said he refers to him... more »
Questions about newly named head of National Independent Schools Association
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
The choice of John Chubb, a vocal advocate of school choice who was part of Mitt Romney's campaign education advisory team, as president-elect of the National Association of Independent Schools has sparked some controversy in that part of the education world. Read full article >>
Teacher may lose job over students with mouths taped shut
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
Some of you may remember when school reformer and former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee addressed a group of new teachers back in 2010 and disclosed that when she was a young second-grade teacher at Baltimore's Harlem Park Elementary, her class-management skills were so bad that she taped the mouths of her students. (This was either before or after she smacked a bee that had landed on her desk and then swallowed it, also in an effort to get her students to pay attention.) That didn't have any effect on Rhee's career as celebrity school reformer, but a teacher in Ohio isn'... more »
Proposed Loudoun charter denied application extension
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
An effort by a group of Turkish immigrants to get more time to develop their application to open a charter school in Loudoun County -- which would be the first there and possibly in Northern Virginia -- was rejected by a 6-3 vote of the county's school board. The vote means that the board will decide on the controversial application in late February. Read full article >>
Mom pays for armed guard at child's school
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
And now, a privately funded deputy guarding elementary school kids. The mother of a young girl in Florida is paying $32 an hour for an armed deputy to guard her daughter's school, Old Kings Elementary, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Read full article >>
Popular study strategies called ineffective -- report
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
Researchers who evaluated 10 learning techniques believed to improve student achievement found that five of them -- including highlighting or underlining, are not very effective. The report, called "Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques," says that one reason that ineffective study habits form is because there is too much research for educators to evaluate to figure out how to advise their students. Published in the January issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, the report was written by John Dunlosky and Katherine A. Rawson of Kent State ... more »
D.C. public schools may drop U.S. government requirement
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
In the you-can't-make-up-this-stuff category: The public school system in the nation's capital may let high school students graduate without taking a high-school-level course in how their country's government works. Read full article >>
Where's the 'collective action' in Obama education policy?
Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
President Obama's second term now officially begins, and in his inaugural address he spoke about the need for "collective action" to solve America's problems. Here's an argument that his own education policies have violated that principle, with suggestions on what he can do to remedy that. This was written by Arthur H. Camins, director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Read full article >>
