Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

5-13-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet:





Join me for live online chat at 1 p.m. Wednesday
I’ll be doing a live education chat on washingtonpost.com at 1 p.m. Wednesday. You can submit questions, comments, suggestions, jokes or whatever here, and tune in then or read the transcript later. Here transcripts of some of my previous online chats: here, here, here, and here.

The irony in new study that bashes popular teacher evaluation method
  They just keep on coming. Last month, a report was released by the American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, that smacked the “value-added method” (VAM) of evaluating teachers that has been embraced by school “reformers” in most states. And now, there’s new research that does […]


Is there anything all educated people should know anymore?
What should all educated people know and be able to do (if anything)? Is there an immutable list? Veteran teacher Peter Greene ponders this in the following post, a version of which appeared on his Curmudgucation blog,   By Peter Greene “Don’t you think there are things that every educated person should know?” I am asked […]

Academics call for pause in PISA tests
Here’s an open letter written by academics and school activists from around the world to Andreas Schleicher, director of the Program of International Student Assessment, known as PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in dozens of countries and individual education systems in math, reading and science every three years.  The letter expresses concerns about the impact PISA is […]


5-12-14 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: 4 high school senior pranks that went wildYou’d think that after more than a dozen years in school, high school seniors would know what will get them into trouble and what won’t, but apparently some don’t.  It’s senior prank season, and while some have been innocuous, others have led to arrests and suspensions, with one school seeing nearly 20 percent of the […]3 by Valerie Strau