By Thomas Ultican 5/26/2021
The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) signed an agreement on March 10 to substitute i-Ready diagnostic testing for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). The no cost agreement calls for the data to be given to Johns Hopkins University for comparative analysis with SBAC. Oakland teachers administering the program claim that the project is being financed by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.
An Oakland fourth grade math teacher who administered the test stated that the it appeared to be designed to insure that students missed at least 50% of the problems. She observed,
“1) Multi-step unit conversions in the context of a word problem”
“2) Definitions/examples of independent and dependent variables”
“3) Simplification of algebraic equations with two variables”
These skills all appear to be well beyond what should be expected of 9- and 10-years-old students.
i-Ready is a product of Curriculum Associates (CA) out of Billerica, Massachusetts. It was originally formed in 1969 to publish workbooks. Ron Waldron an equities manager at Berkshire Partners took the reins in 2008 and immediately converted it to an ed-tech company.
That was the same year that former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, launched CONTINUE READING: i-Ready, Johns Hopkins and Oakland Public Schools | tultican