Video: Kids with severe disabilities taking mandatory standardized test
This video shows children with profound disabilities taking a standardized test called the Florida Alternate Assessment as required by the state but opposed by many of their teachers and parents. And below is a letter from the principal of another school serving students with similar disabilities explaining why forcing these youngsters to take the test […]
Why NYC mayor is getting unfairly bashed over charter schools
The level of discourse over New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision not to allow several charter schools to co-locate in the buildings of traditional public schools has reached a hysterical pitch. He is, if you listen to his many critics, a bad man who doesn’t care about minority children. Really? Let’s look at […]
Why the Common Core flunks on civic education
Do the Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts promote authentic civic learning? This article in The Atlantic magazine says yes. The following post says “no.” It was written by Nicole Mirra, a former classroom teacher and an education researcher at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her main interest is infusing […]
D.C. school system’s gaping achievement gaps — in seven graphs
In his 2014 State of the District speech, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray talked Tuesday night about the “significant progress” that the D.C. Public Schools systems have made in recent years — progress that is measured by (of course) standardized test scores. For seven years D.C. schools have been undergoing standardized test-based reforms, first under former […]
3-10-14 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: Why the Obama administration should drop its college rating planThe Obama administration is developing a system to rate colleges and universities by 2015 that will be based on a yet-to-be-determined set of criteria that could include data points such as average tuition and how much graduates earn. Part of the system involves getting congressional approval (which isn’t likely) to