Category Archives: Common Core

Close all USED-funded research centers: Evaluation of existing regulations: My two bits

My comments below in response to the USED request for comments on existing USED regulations. To submit your own, follow the instructions at:  https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=ED-2017-OS-0074-0001 MEMORANDUM To:  Hilary Malawer, Assistant General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education … Continue reading

Posted in Censorship, Common Core, Education policy, Education Reform, Ethics, information suppression, K-12, OECD, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment | Tagged | 2 Comments

“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 , , , , | Leave a comment

A New Core

The Concord Review December 2, 2016 Dinosaur scholars like Mark Bauerlein argue that the decline in the humanities in our universities is caused by their retreat from their own best works—literature departments no longer celebrate great literature, history departments no … Continue reading

Posted in Common Core, Education Reform, Higher Education, Humanities, Will Fitzhugh | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Yes, President Trump can do something about Common Core

For starters, he can shut down the federal funding of organizations that have supplied the misinformation that begat and continues to propagandize Common Core. While the Gates Foundation gets the most attention, government-funded entities play their part. For example, our … Continue reading

Posted in Common Core, Education policy, K-12, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

More Common Core salespersons’ salaries

In a previous post, I summarized recent Form 990s—the financial reporting documents required of large US non-profits by the Internal Revenue Service—filed by three organizations. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Alliance for Excellent Education, and the National Center on … Continue reading

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Does Common Core add up for California’s math students?*

As this public school year begins, districts across California are reporting student performance on new exams based on California’s adaptation of the controversial Common Core federal standards. Students and parents have good reason to be anxious about the newly released … Continue reading

Posted in Common Core, Education Fraud, Education policy, Education Reform, K-12, Testing/Assessment, Wayne Bishop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in College prep, Common Core, Education journalism, Education policy, Education Reform, K-12, research ethics, Richard Innes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘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

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Some Common Core Salespersons’ Salaries: DC Edu-Blob-ulants

Linked are copies of Form 990s for Marc Tucker’s National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE), Checker Finn’s Fordham Foundation and Fordham Institute, and Bob Wise’s Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE). Each pays himself and at least one other … Continue reading

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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

Posted in Censorship, College prep, Common Core, Education journalism, Ethics, information suppression, K-12, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Education Writers Association casts its narrowing gaze on Boston, May 1-3

The Education Writers Association casts its narrowing gaze on Boston, May 1-3 Billions have been spent, and continue to be spent, promoting the Common Core Standards and their associated consortium tests, PARCC and SBAC. Nonetheless, the “Initiative” has been stopped … Continue reading

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PEISCH SAYS REPEALING COMMON CORE WOULD BE “HUGE MISTAKE”

It seems that some Massachusetts representatives don’t think that parents, teachers, and administrators should be allowed to vote on a secret ballot whether they want to keep Common Core’s inferior standards or return to the state’s superior standards junked by … Continue reading

Posted in Common Core, Education policy, Education Reform, Ethics, K-12, Mathematics, Reading & Writing, Sandra Stotsky, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 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 , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Fordham report predictable, conflicted

On November 17, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will decide the fate of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and the Partnership for Assessment of College Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) in the Bay State. … Continue reading

Posted in Common Core, Education policy, Education Reform, Mathematics, Reading & Writing, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Common Core’s Language Arts

It is often said that scientific writing is dull and boring to read. Writers choose words carefully; mean for them to be interpreted precisely and, so, employ vocabulary that may be precise, but is often obscure. Judgmental terms—particularly the many … Continue reading

Posted in Common Core, Education policy, Education Reform, Ethics, K-12, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in College prep, Common Core, Education policy, K-12, math, Mathematics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Selling ‘Performance’ Assessments with Inaccurate Pictures from Kentucky

By Richard Innes, new in the Nonpartisan Education Review. See more at: http://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Articles/v11n1.htm#sthash.mGQ6Mqbh.dpuf

Posted in Common Core, Education policy, K-12, research ethics, Richard Innes, Testing/Assessment | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wayne Bishop’s Response to Ratner and Wu (Wall Street Journal)

Making Math Education Even Worse, by Marina Ratner, http://online.wsj.com/articles/marina-ratner-making-math-education-even-worse-1407283282 ———————————————— Dear Hung-Hsi, It pains me to write but in spite of all of your precollegiate mathematics education knowledge and contributions, Prof. Ratner got it right and you “missed the boat” … Continue reading

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