Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: How (Not) To Grade Schools + GA: Ed Consultant Slams Takeover Amendment
How (Not) To Grade Schools
7by Peter Greene / 1h
Bellwether Education Partners is a right-tilted thinky tank from the same basic neighborhood as the Fordham Institute. Chad Aldeman is one of their big guns, and this month he's out with Grading Schools: How States Should Define “School Quality” Under the Every Student Succeeds Act. It's a pretty thing with thirty-two pages of thoughts about how to implement school accountability under ESSA, and I
YESTERDAY
GA: Ed Consultant Slams Takeover Amendment
13by Peter Greene / 1d
In Georgia, reformsters are pushing hard for Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment that would institute a state-level takeover district, modeled after the pioneering Achievement School District in Tennessee. Dr. David K. Lerch is a Georgia resident and ran his own educational consulting firm for over three decades. He has worked all over the country, writing grants and overseeing programs (e.g.
CA: Is the Fox Guarding the Henhouse?
9by Peter Greene / 1d
The Los Angeles Unified School District put away their charter rubber stamp, and it has touched off a wave of hand wringing and baloney shoveling. Earlier this month, the LAUSD board pulled the plug on five charters. Three of them were Magnolia schools, part of the Gulen charter web of schools allegedly tied to the reclusive cleric who is also an exiled political leader from Turkey allegedly tied
OCT 27
Reflect now. Now!! NOW!!!
76by Peter Greene / 2d
One of the fully screwed-up features of modern standardized assessments is the time frame. A standardized test is the only place where students are told, "Starting from scratch, read this, reflect on it, answer questions about it, and do it all in the next fifteen minutes." We accept the accelerated time line as a normal feature of assessment, but why? Never ever in a college course was a student
The Death of Testing Fantasies
90by Peter Greene / 2d
It is one of the least surprising research findings ever, confirmed now by at least two studies-- students would do better on the Big Standardized Test if they actually cared about the results. One of the great fantasies of the testocrats is their belief that the Big Standardized Tests provide useful data. That fantasy is predicated on another fantasy-- that students actually try to do their best
OCT 26
More Bogus Research from Rocketship
18by Peter Greene / 3d
When you need some "research" to pump up your ad copy, what better than to just hire it yourself. In fact, why not hire the guys who have been pumping it out reliably for you for years. Rocketship Academy is patting itself on the back over a new "research" report that it commissioned from good, old SRI International , a group that just happens to be heavily invested in technology-based education.
OCT 25
Rot and The Yearbook Biz
17by Peter Greene / 3d
Being a yearbook photographer was one of the great joys of my high school career, so I naturally gravitated toward yearbook advising as a teacher. I've been at it for about sixteen years, and I've watched the business change. Some of the changes are not what folks might have predicted. Technology has been about to destroy yearbooks for years, but there has always been a problem with that-- when I
OCT 24
Familiar Miracles and Ed Tech
17by Peter Greene / 5d
I started typing this a few thousand feet in the air somewhere over Illinois. I worked all day the day before to get things ready to go, got up well before dawn, drove myself to Pittsburgh, where I boarded the first of two planes that will transport my to Seattle for the next several days. Now, after spending many days on the other side of the country, I am finishing up this post thousands of feet
NY: Commissioner Struggles with Teacher Shortage
56by Peter Greene / 5d
Maryellen Elia was brought in to the Empire State to help clean up the mess that former education honcho John King left behind. Her results have been mixed. She invested a lot of energy in defending the Big Standardized Test, even issuing a handy propaganda kit to help push down those opt out numbers. It didn't work. Last Friday, Elia talked to the NYS Association of Teacher Educators and the NY A
OCT 23
ICYMI: Reading in the Seattle Dew (10/23)
7by Peter Greene / 6d
I'm far from home, but there's still plenty to read on the interwebs. Our Stupid Questions Teacher Tom with a striking twist on the old "no such thing as a dumb question" shtick. How Joy Became the New Grit Jennifer Berkshire gives us a