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Recent Posts
- Comments on Zearn’s “Myth of the Math Kid” 15/08/2024
- Texas School Districts Violated a Law Intended to Add Transparency to Local Elections 29/04/2024
- The Malfunction of US Education Policy: Elite Misinformation, Disinformation and Selfishness [book review] 07/09/2023
- The Malfunction of US Education Policy: Elite Misinformation, Disinformation and Selfishness [book review] 04/08/2023
- Mississippi: Progress Commanding Attention or Outright Miracle? 18/07/2023
- The High Price of the Education Writers Association’s News 28/03/2023
- The Malfunction of US Education Policy: Elite Misinformation, Disinformation, and Selfishness 25/03/2023
Comments
- Bryan on Comments on Zearn’s “Myth of the Math Kid”
- Betty Peters on Reading Before Writing
- a on Stanford Professor Jo Boaler’s Math Revolution and War Against Algebra 2
- Samuel Adams Richardson, Sr. on Cheating in the Classroom: We all have a choice
Authors
Category Archives: College prep
Do We Still Need Public Schools?
Sandra Stotsky, April 2022 Do we still want a chief policy maker in in the Department of Education with little classroom teaching experience beyond grade 5 who has never administered a middle or high school? No particular ethnicity or race … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Curriculum & Instruction, Education Reform, K-12, math, reading, Sandra Stotsky
Tagged charter schools, private schools, school choice
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Rate Busters
Will FitzhughThe Concord Review1 September 2021 Back in the day, when Union contracts specified the number of widgets each worker was expected to produce during a shift, that number was called “the rate.” Anyone who produced more than that number … Continue reading
Rare Books
There is a general consensus among EduPundits that teacher quality is more important than student academic work in producing student academic achievement. That is mistaken. There is a general consensus among Social Studies educators that High School students are incapable … Continue reading
The Hechinger Report on college admission testing
Like most education-focused news outlets, the Hechinger Report claims that it “provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting.” Yet, somehow, it usually ends up dishing the same old formulaic propaganda supportive of education insiders. Their October 9 story, “Questioning their fairness, a … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education journalism, Higher Education, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged ACT, college admission, SAT
1 Comment
Mathematics and Science Courses Required or Recommended for Admission into Engineering and Engineering Technology Programs at Massachusetts Institutions of Higher Education (2003)
https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Resources/MassMathEngReqs.htm This survey of the high school mathematics and science requirements for admission to the 11 colleges of engineering in Massachusetts in 2003 provides interesting facts in Tables 3 and 4. It is no longer clear if the required coursework … Continue reading
There’s A Deeper Systemic Problem in the College Admissions Scandal No One Is Talking About
Posted in College prep, Education Fraud, Ethics, Testing/Assessment
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Common Core Collaborators: Six Organizational Portraits
New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Articles/CommonCoreCollaborators.htm Phelps, R. P. (2018). Common Core Collaborators: Six Organizational Portraits. Nonpartisan Education Review/Articles, 14(3–7). – The Organization Named Achieve: Cradle of Common Core Cronyism – The Council of Chief State School Officers and … Continue reading
Posted in Censorship, College prep, Common Core, Curriculum & Instruction, Education journalism, Education policy, Education Reform, Higher Education, information suppression, K-12, partisanship, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged Achieve, Bellwether, CCSSO, College Board, Collegeboard, Fordham, NGA
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Fewer Students Learning Arithmetic and Algebra
by Jerome Dancis This summer, I obtained the college remediation data for my state of Maryland. Well just 2014, the latest available. So BCC i.e. before Common Core became the state tests in Maryland. Does anyone know of similar data … Continue reading
Cognitive Science and the Common Core
New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: Cognitive Science and the Common Core Mathematics Standards by Eric A. Nelson Abstract Between 1995 and 2010, most U.S. states adopted K–12 math standards which discouraged memorization of math facts and procedures. Since 2010, … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Common Core, Education policy, Eric A. Nelson, ESSA, K-12, Mathematics
Tagged Eric A. Nelson
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“Organizationally orchestrated propaganda” at ETS
With the testing opt-out movement growing in popularity in 2016, Common Core’s profiteers began to worry. Lower participation enough and the entire enterprise could be threatened: with meaningless aggregate scores; compromised test statistics vital to quality control; and a strong … Continue reading
Posted in Censorship, College prep, Common Core, Education policy, Ethics, information suppression, Richard P. Phelps
Tagged ETS, opt out, opting out, Randy Bennett, testing
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John Hopkins flawed report on Kentucky
It looks like a recent, very problematic report from Johns Hopkins University, “For All Kids, How Kentucky is Closing the High School Graduation Gap for Low-Income Students,” is likely to get pushed well beyond the Bluegrass State’s borders. The publishers … Continue reading
‘One size fits all’ national tests not deeper or more rigorous
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/one-size-fits-all-national-tests-not-deeper-or-more-rigorous/ Some say that now is a wonderful time to be a psychometrician — a testing and measurement professional. There are jobs aplenty, with high pay and great benefits. Work is available in the private sector at test development firms; … Continue reading
Censorship at Education Next
In response to their recent misleading articles about a fall 2015 Mathematica report that claims to (but does not) find predictive validity for the PARCC test with Massachusetts college students, I wrote the text below and submitted it to EdNext … Continue reading
Fordham Institute’s pretend research
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a report, Evaluating the Content and Quality of Next Generation Assessments,[i] ostensibly an evaluative comparison of four testing programs, the Common Core-derived SBAC and PARCC, ACT’s Aspire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ MCAS.[ii] … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Common Core, Education policy, Education Reform, Ethics, K-12, Mathematics, Reading & Writing, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment, Uncategorized
Tagged CCSSO, CRESST, evaluation, Fordham Institute, Gates Foundation, guidelines, HumRRO, protocols, review, rigor, SCOPE, standards, Student Achievement Partners, testing
3 Comments
How the USED has managed to get it wrong, again
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/02/03/dad-my-state-now-requires-11th-graders-to-take-the-sat-not-my-daughter/ An interesting dilemma. Common Core’s writers planned for a grade 11 test that would tell us whether or not students were college and career ready. Parents and state legislators don’t know who sets the cut score, what test items … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Common Core, Education policy, ESSA, K-12, Reading & Writing, Sandra Stotsky, Testing/Assessment
Tagged ACT, college admission, common core, ESEA, ESSA, federal government, PARCC, SAT, SBAC
1 Comment
Trickle Down Academic Elitism
When [mid-20th century] I was in a private school in Northern California, I won a “gold” medal for first place in a track meet of the Private School Conference of Northern California for the high jump [5’6”]—which I thought was … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education Fraud, Education policy, K-12, Testing/Assessment, Will Fitzhugh
Tagged awards, elitism, recognition, standards
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David Coleman in Charge
Wayne Bishop recently made me aware of the unfortunately completely one-sided discussion of US mathematics education at the recent Aspen Ideas Festival. David Leonhardt is Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting … Continue reading
Jay Mathews: pt 1 of 3 pt Review of Caleb Rossiter ‘s new book: “Aint Nobody Be Learnin’ Nothin’: The Fraud and the Fix for High Poverty Schools”
Mayor, Council Members, State Board of Education Members, This is assigned reading. It’s time to take off the rose colored glasses and stop the routine affirmations of “I support education reform” without looking past the polished press releases. Please stop … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education Fraud, Education policy, Education Reform, Erich Martel, Ethics, K-12
Tagged DC, DCPS, education, fraud, grades, Martel, Mathews, Rossiter, schools, social promotion
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Robert T. Oliphant, 1924-2014
Robert T. Oliphant 1924-2014 Bob Oliphant passed away in June, 2014. He was one of the most optimistic and generous people I’ve ever met, and one of my best friends. That despite the fact that we never met face-to-face—a typical … Continue reading
Overtesting or Overcounting?
Commenting on the Center for American Progress’s (CAP’s) report, Testing Overload in America’s Schools, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2014/10/16/99073/testing-overload-in-americas-schools/ …and the Education Writers’ Association coverage of it, http://www.ewa.org/blog-ed-beat/how-much-time-do-students-spend-taking-tests … Some testing opponents have always said there is overtesting, no matter how much there has … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged Center for, overtesting, standardized, testing
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