The Answer Sheet: August 1, 2010 - August 7, 2010
Why you should be skeptical about standardized test scores
A Columbia University teacher writes about the problems with our faith our standardized test scores: "Yes, we 'just' need better tests. But creating better tests is very hard and very expensive. And in a system as vast and complex as ours, it’ll be tempting to continue using tests that can be graded quickly and that don’t look very different from the ones we now use. But without a radically different approach to standardized testing in this country, we are unlikely to get different results."
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 7, 2010; 11:13 AM ET |
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Comments (42)
Categories:
Guest Bloggers, Standardized Tests
| Tags:
in, obama and education, obama's education policies, rhe, rhee fires teachers, standardized test scores, using standardized tests for high stakes decisions
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Shark Week in the education world
It’s grisly, scary, and distorted. So is Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, but I’m referring to the education policy debate.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 6, 2010; 11:03 AM ET |
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Comments (11)
Categories:
Equity
| Tags:
Shark Week, al sharpton, civil rights framework, civil rights group, jump the shark, the answer sheet
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Principal: Not the change I had in mind
A principal writes: "I am still not over the sadness and anger I feel over what happened to my colleague, [principal] Joyce Irvine.... Parents are grateful for her leadership, she knows all of her students, she launched innovative programs, her teachers and her superintendent give her high marks, and even her U.S. senator has praised her work. And she has been fired."
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 6, 2010; 6:00 AM ET |
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Comments (8)
Categories:
Education Secretary Duncan, George Wood, Guest Bloggers, Race to the Top
| Tags:
George Wood, Joyce Irvine, Race to the top, education reform, principal fired, race to the top policies, school reform, vermont principal
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Accountability in DCPS: Details from teacher's IMPACT report
Aaron Pallas, an education and sociology professor and a statistician who critiqued DCPS's IMPACT teacher evaluation system last week, responds to critics of that post and looks at new data from a teacher's report as he argues that DCPS continues to publicly misrepresent IMPACT's evaluation methods.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 5, 2010; 6:00 AM ET |
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Comments (28)
Categories:
D.C. Schools, Guest Bloggers, Research, Standardized Tests, Teachers
| Tags:
IMPACT and d.c., d.c. teacher evaluations, d.c. teachers, dc schools and teachers, how to evaluate teachers, value added evaluations
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Ravitch: Mayoral control means zero accountability
Education historian Diane Ravitch writes about how mayoral control in New York City -- and other cities -- has hardly proven to be the panacea for urban ills that its advocates once contended.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 4, 2010; 6:00 AM ET |
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Comments (70)
Categories:
Diane Ravitch, Education Secretary Duncan, Guest Bloggers, National Standards, Race to the Top
| Tags:
bloomberg and schools, diane ravitch, klein and schools, mayoral control, new york city schools, new york city test scores, new york state test results, ny test scores
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Report: When/why progress in closing achievement gap stalled
Progress seen over several decades in narrowing the educational achievement gap between black and white students has remained stalled for 20 years, according to a new study that looks at the reasons why and says that reaching equality could take 50 to 100 years, according to a new report.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 3, 2010; 10:00 AM ET |
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Comments (37)
Categories:
Equity, Research
| Tags:
achievement gap, closing the achievement gap, ets, ets report, factors affecting the achievement gap
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Proficiency should mean college ready—and an acceptance letter
Robert Pondiscio writes about the damage done by the test proficiency bubble in New York: "Here’s the dirty little secret about proficiency. There’s not much upside in being honest."
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 3, 2010; 6:30 AM ET |
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Comments (13)
Categories:
Guest Bloggers, Standardized Tests
| Tags:
new york and proficient, new york test scores, proficiency and test scores
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Willingham: What’s missing from Common Core standards plan (Part 2)
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham asks: "If the educational system has so many interacting parts, how can we ever know whether a change we make to part of the system is useful?" Then he answers it, two ways.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 2, 2010; 11:00 AM ET |
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Comments (8)
Categories:
Daniel Willingham, Guest Bloggers, National Standards
| Tags:
Daniel Willingham, common core standards, national standards
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Ed policies ignore science on how/when kids learn
Early education expert Lisa Guernsey shows just how out of whack American public education is by looking at new science and social research.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 2, 2010; 6:00 AM ET |
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Comments (28)
Categories:
Early Childhood, Guest Bloggers, Reading, Research
| Tags:
Lisa Guernsey, New America Foundation, early childhood development and reading, early education, early education initiative, literacy development
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Common App for college admissions is live online today
The 2010-11 Common Application for colleges and universities is live online today, meaning that summer vacation is ending for thousands of rising high school seniors who are will now start seriously on their college admissions journey.
By
Valerie Strauss
| August 1, 2010; 10:53 AM ET |
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Comments (7)
Categories:
College Admissions
| Tags:
applying to college, college admissions, common app, common application, getting into college
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