Rhode Island House May Not Pass Moratorium on High-Stakes Test for Graduation
Just a couple of hours ago, I posted a story about the Rhode Island State Senate’s decision to impose a three-year moratorium on the use of a standardized test as a high school graduation test. The vote was 29-5. The test is called the. New England Comprehensive Assessment Program and bears the appropriate acronym (NECAP, pronounced “kneecap”). The test was not intended to be a graduation test; it
Rhode Island State Senate Aproves 3-Year Ban on High-Stakes Testing
Yielding to demands by students and educators, the Rhode Island State Senate voted a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing. The bill must still pass the Hpuse and win the Governor’s okay. The bigger problem is that the moratorium kicks the can down the road. If it is wrong to use a standardized test for high school graduation, it will still be wrong in three years.
Leonie Haimson: Six Charter School Myths
In her testimony to the New York City Council Education Committee, education activist Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters exploded several common myths about charter schools. First is the myth that they are public schools. They are not. They are private corporations with contracts to run schools, exempt from most state laws and from most state oversight. In court after court, the charters thems
Jeffrey Aaron Snyder: The Trouble with Grit
Other writers have criticized the concept of “grit” on grounds that it seems to suggest that poor kids are poor because they don’t try hard enough, and that this shifts the responsibility for poverty for the economic system to the individuals. So many privileged kids seem to float through life on a soft pillow that it is hard to credit their success in school or life to grit, since their families
Ted Mitchell, Leader in Privatization Movement, Confirmed as Undersecretary of Education
One of the nation’s leaders of the privatization movement, Ted Mitchell, has been confirmed by the. u.S. Senate as Undersecretary of Education, the second most powerful job in the U.S. Department of Education. Mitchell most recently was CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund, which collects millions from philanthropies and venture funds and invests the money in creating charter chains and for-profit
NYC: A Teacher Explains the Utter Uselessness of High-Stakes Testing
At a rally against high-stakes testing in New York City, high school teacher Rosie Frascella explains the uselessness of high-stakes tests. The students get no feedback about what they did well and where they need to improve. As their teacher, she learns nothing about how well or poorly they did and why. The tests are useless other than for data for bureaucrats nd for the bottom line at Pearson. T
North Carolina: A Legislator Expressing Contempt for Teachers
The following comment came from Bridget in North Carolina. That state has been taken over by an extremist legislature and governor who are intent on driving experienced teachers out of the state and replacing them with Teach for America or other low-wage workers. When Jim Hunt was Governor of the state, he raised teachers’ salaries to meet the national average. Today, NC teachers rank 46th in th
Will Bunch: They Will Never Catch the Real Culprits in Philadelphia
Authorities are closing in on educators who cheated on tests in Philadelphia. But columnists Will Bunch predicts they will never touch the real culprits, the people who designed the system of high-stakes testing. He favors punishing those who cheated, and he agrees tat cheating should never be tolerated. But the true malefactors of test cheating will walk away scot-free: “Let’s be clear: While t
Julian Vasquez Heilig: Uncovering Lies in Arne Duncan’s Graduation Rate Miracle Story
Julian Vasquez Heilig, a professor at the University of Texas, deconstructs another one of those miracle stories that turns out to be too good to be true. Secretary Arne Duncan is collecting high-fives for a solid leap upwards in the high-school graduation rate, but Heilig says that what he is reporting is manipulation of graduation rate data. Heilig uses Texas as an example. He shows how stat
5-14-14 LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH Diane Ravitch's blog #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Our Brilliant Students: Stop Bashing Our KidsI used to be one of those people who complained that the younger generation was not as smart as my generation. I met adolescents who had never heard of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” or some other piece of literature that I thought was central to our literary tradition. Or, I noticed