3/6/2014 – Standoff Over Testing:

3/6/2014 – Standoff Over Testing

March 6, 2014 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Open Education Didn’t Fail … Community Schools Work … Switching Schools Hurts Kids … States Cut Education Despite More Students … Flunking Kids Adds To Discipline Woes

TOP STORY

Options In The Standoff Over Test-Based Education Policy

By Jeff Bryant

“What we have is a standoff over testing as the chief means to determine the fate of the nation’s schools, its teachers, and indeed the well being of the vast majority of American school children. As in every standoff, someone eventually has to give … The dissenting crowd is providing some possible answers: slow-downs or moratoriums, Congressional hearings, something more valid. But “More of the same” isn’t one of the options.”
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NEWS AND VIEWS

Why We Think 1970s Open Education Failed, And Considering What The Truth Really Is…

SpEd Change

Special Education expert Ira Socol writes, “Whereas in 1960 US classrooms … were generally a one-size-fits-all environment … by the late 1970s many, many students were experiencing something quite different … Open education, the open classroom and the schools-without-walls, succeeded … In terms of expanding opportunity, no period can touch the years between 1965 and 1985, the high water mark of alternative education and humanistic educational theories. The mixture of changed pedagogies, racial integration, and aggressive anti-poverty efforts … altered, fundamentally, the achievement gap.”
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Research Review Gives Thumbs Up To Community Schools Approach

Education Week

“A study … concludes that research and theory support the concept of community schools that seek to boost academic performance by offering mentoring, counseling, healthcare, and other wraparound services that extend well beyond the classroom … The report contains both a review of past research and an original analysis suggesting that myriad school, home, and student-related factors influence academic achievement … The review also found that that wraparound interventions were cost-effective, with returns on investments ranging from $4 to $15 saved for every $1 spent.”
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Switching Schools Frequently Linked With Mental Health Problems In Kids (STUDY)

The Huffington Post

A new study found, ” Kids who frequently change schools are more likely to hear voices, have delusions and experience other symptoms linked with psychosis in adolescence … Children who switched schools more than three times were 60% more likely to have such symptoms at age 12, compared with kids who made fewer school moves up to this age … It’s possible that the feeling of being an outsider is so stressful that it primes the brain for future mental illness.”
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States That Spend The Least On Students Set To Grow The Most

Education Writers Association

“New projections on student enrollment from the federal government hint at the financial pressure many states will face as their student populations rise … The states expected to grow the most also are among those that spend the least per student … While states in the Northeast tend to spend more per pupil, student populations in that region are set to stay flat … The Southwest and Southern states expected to grow the most will have to ramp up spending on students just to keep per-pupil spending flat.”
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Duke Study: Discipline Problems Increase When Students Repeat A Grade

Raleigh News & Observer

“A new study by researchers at Duke University documented a ripple effect of behavioral problems in middle schools where higher numbers of students repeated a grade … In schools with high numbers of students who repeated a grade, there were more suspensions, substance abuse problems, fights and classroom disruptions. Researchers say the study indicates the decision to hold students back can have negative consequences for their classmates … Educators tend to focus on how individual students fare when they are held back. Just as important may be the question of how that decision affects other children … Critics of social promotion have advocated holding struggling students back … The downside is trouble with behavior.”
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