CURMUDGUCATION:
Cloudy with a Chance of Data
Cloudy with a Chance of Data
There are so many reasons to be opposed to the business of mining and crunching data. We like to rail about how the data miners are oppressive and Big Brothery and overreaching. But there's another point worth making about our Data Overlords:Data miners are not very good at their job.My first wife and I divorced about twenty years ago. We have both since remarried and moved multiple times. And yet
Who Puts the Scary in Pearson? Meet Knewton.
Behind the data generating-and-collecting behemoth that is Pearson is a company called Knewton. And here's a video from the November 2012 Education Datapallooza (a name that I did NOT make up, but was officially given the event by the Dept of Education, because they are so hip. I believe they also listen to the rap music). In just under ten minutes, Jose Ferreira, Knewton CEO, delivers the clear
YESTERDAY
In Praise of Non-Standardization
It is hard for me to argue with fans of national standards, because we hold fundamentally different values.I'm opposed to CCSS, but unlike many other CCSS opponents, I'm opposed to any national standards at all. But it's hard to have that conversation because it comes down to this not-very-helpful exchange:Standards fan: But if we had national standards, everyone would be on the same page. The sys
You Don't Know
Testy stuff experts could discuss all of the following in scholarly type terms, and God bless them for that. But let me try to explain in more ordinary English why standardized tests must fail, have failed, will always fail. There's one simple truth that the masters of test-driven accountability must wrestle with, and yet fail to even acknowledge:It is not possible to know what is in another perso
MAR 20
Pearson's Vision for the World
Mercedes Schneider recently directed the blogosphere's attention to a Pearson paper from February of 2014, "Impacts of the Digital Ocean on Education." If you're wondering just what Pearson (and by extension, the various government bodies that they own) envisions for our collective future, this document sheds plenty of light.There are 44 pages, and I'm not going to address them all at on
MAR 19
No Good Metrics??!!
The Ed Week account of a snippy meeting between Randi Weingarten, Dennis van Roekel, and the CCSSO included one quote that came roaring out at me.Melody Schopp, South Dakota Ed Secretary, was bemoaning the lack of press coverage for positive CCSS success stories. Mike Cohen, from Achieve (the accountable-to-nobody organization that helped birth, groom and market CCSS) chimed in that too much of th
Duncan Checks in with Race Results
The US DOE released reports Wednesday, March 19, to update us on how well the Race to the Top winners are doing (because in US education, we only want some states to be winners). The full collection of reports is here, but Arne wanted to let everyone know about his four superstars in Top Racing.This year is the final year for implementing RTTT, and at this point we might expect to see some payoff
Inauthentic Assessment
One more factor that highlights how artificial and inauthentic the current testing regimen has become is the proliferation of rules for proctors.Faced with the spreading realization of just how invalid the tests are, testmakers and state officials have issued a truckload of proctor leash laws.Some rules are no-brainers. "Don't erase wrong answers and replace them with the correct ones" (
MAR 18
Who Is Diane Ravitch?
At Reclaiming Public Education 101 (my website for ed reform neophytes), I'm trying to create and collect materials to answer some of the questions newby ed reform students might have. I'm not a fan of cults of personality-- any time I'm in a group that drops its mission to sing a hymn of praise to its leaders, I get itchy. But I also know that many folks who are not fully involved--yet-- in the i
MAR 17
Another Style of CCSS Profiteering
Common Core profiteers are becoming wise to the ways of the interwebs.There at the top of my search results was a paid ad-- in large letters "Blame Common Core" with the link to the blamecommoncore.com website and the single line of copy "What's wrong with Common Core? Is it as bad as you have heard?"Interesting point #1. My google search terms were "common core standards.
MAR 16
Uncle Arne Wants You-- Again!!
Arne just announced an exciting new program to create teacher leaders to help promote the Ugly Mess O'Reform backed by the USDOE these days.Actually, it's the same ugly mess that they've been promoting all along, but someone in the Messaging Office has sent out the memo that we have to call it something else. So these days only Bill Gates has the nerve to say the words "Common Core." For
Another Standards Anniversary
I stumbled upon a government website that has a few things to say in support of the move to develop standards.It opens by pointing out that in airplane piloting and Olympic athletes, we want people who have been trained to the highest standards. Ditto with students. When we do not hold all students to high academic standards, the result can be low achievement and the tragedy of children leaving sc
MAR 15
Who Loves the Core?
The architects and salesmen of Common Core have tried repeatedly to marginalize CCSS opponents.Last summer, the narrative, pushed hard by Arne Duncan and picked up by many press outlets, was that the opposition to CCSS was a handful of Tea Party tin hat crazies. But as opposition to the core has spread, Coronistas have scrambled to find a characterization of their foes that would stick and resonat
Feed the Dog
On Saturdays I am sometimes have a chance to check in with #satchat, a Saturday twitter conversation about education. If you are a denizen of the twitterverse, I recommend you check it out. Today this question was posed by moderator Peter DeWitt: In an era of accountability, how can we be change agents for student learning?My answer is that we have to feed the dogs of accountability with one hand