Friday, March 7, 2014

3-7-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:







It's Time for Congress to Investigate High Stakes Testing
More than 400 educators, citizens, bloggers, activists and parents met in Austin, Texas for the first Annual Network for Public Education Conference. The press release just doesn't seem to be getting much press.  Diane Ravitch was on the Ed Show last night on MSNBC. I suppose that's a start but the real story, Ed, is the call for investigative Congressional hearings on how high stake standardized

Let's do some critical thinking
Sent to the Denver Post, March 7.The Douglas County school superintendent says that students should not just "compare and contrast" but "create and evaluate" and engage in critical thinking ("Educators to state: Let's go above common core," March 6).Agreed. Let's start by evaluating whether we should have common core standards and tests at all. How many policy makers


David Coleman's New SAT: Still Racist, Still Classist
It should come as no surprise that the head of the College Board, David Coleman, has made the new SAT more in line with the Common Core.  One thing he can't change, even with efforts to provide some online tutorials to those who can't afford $5000 SAT prep courses, is the fact that students from poor backgrounds score lower than those with higher incomes.   It has always been the case, ever since

SAT Bad Press = SAT Reboot

Please consider a couple responses to the SAT 2016 reboot announcement, and then another piece on the cost of the Common Core. Put the pieces together:SAT Reboot 2016: "Nonsense It All Is" (P. L. Thomas)Changes To The SAT (The Onion, satire)Common Core Costs Too High, Failure Guaranteed
3-6-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Do we need the SAT?Sent to USA TodayNot mentioned in the discussion of changes in the SAT ("Sharpen those pencils: The SAT test is getting harder," March 6) is the question of whether we need SAT-type examinations. In two different studies, researchers from UC Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton reported that high school grades were a good predictor of college success, and th