Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

1-29-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:







So, Will Florida Use Tony Bennett’s Tests?
Maybe. Jeff Solochek reports that Tony Bennett’s new employer ACT Aspire has launched a website to get Florida to bite on their tests: With negotiations to become Florida’s test provider getting under way, ACT Aspire has taken the unusual step of launching a website to explain its benefits to Floridians. ACT Aspire is one of five companies hoping win the state’s lucrative contract for new standard

Common Core Tests “Jargon-Ridden Demagoguery” From “Testing Hacks and Their Rich Supporters”
So says history professor Terrance Moore in a two-part piece on Common Core tests that appeared in influential conservative website Townhall.com. Here’s the whole paragraph which Moore wrote after unraveling a few Common Core test close-read text questions: So what have we learned through this examination? The first lesson is that all the promises of “college and career readiness” are empty slogan


What It’s Like For States Not Burdened by Common Core

Florida wisely dropped the legislature’s bad idea to require Algebra II last year only to have its education commissioner tweak Common Core by putting in Calculus standards, a math domain two levels above the course the state bagged the year before. Only in a state where education policy is dominated by a former governor’s foundations and the political might of the Chamber of Commerce would such a


1-28-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida
Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education: Florida Republican Lawmakers Devotion to STEM Conflicts With Their School Choice ObsessionThe nation’s supposed need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) professionals drives much republican education policymaking in Florida. Governor Rick Scott turned a