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- Equitable Grading 04/09/2025
- Comparing states by only looking at overall NAEP average scores can provide incomplete analysis of performance 07/08/2025
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Category Archives: Education policy
Interesting review of Arne Duncan’s book, by fellow Chicagoan Bill Ayers
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1X8WUX1KNXQ3B/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1501173065 Arne Doesn’t Learn customer review, by Dr. William C. Ayers If you pick up Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work hoping to learn something about, well, unsurprisingly I suppose, about “how schools work,” you’ll be sorely disappointed. There’s no policy … Continue reading
Missouri’s Show-Me Institute: Where Liberty (and Censorship?) Come First
Last year, in response to one of their blog posts, I submitted a comment to the think tank/advocacy group, the Show-Me Institute, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. I describe what I did, why, and what happened in a Nonpartisan Education … Continue reading
Letter to NPR’s Ari Shapiro and producers of their “individualized learning” podcast
From: Erich Martel Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2018 To: ‘mediarelations@npr.org’ Dear Ari Shapiro and Individualized Learning (and Project Based Learning) Podcast Producers, I want to make three points re “Individualized Learning” and all claims pertaining to education: 1) Always look … Continue reading
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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Nation’s Report Card: Common Core delivering education stagnation
https://ivn.us/2018/04/11/nations-report-card-common-core-delivering-education-stagnation/ …at the Independent Voter Network website, https://IVN.us
Posted in Common Core, Education Fraud, Education policy, Education Reform, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged NAEP
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There are Only Two Sides to US Education Policy (Thanks to the Parties)
https://ivn.us/2018/04/03/two-sides-us-education-policy-thanks-parties/ …at the Independent Voter Network website, https://IVN.us
Posted in Censorship, Education policy, information suppression, K-12, partisanship, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps
Tagged Democrats, Republicans
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New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: Who watches the watchmen? Transparency might guard the integrity of the tests given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress
Who watches the watchmen? Transparency might guard the integrity of the tests given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress by Sandra Stotsky https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Essays/v14n2.htm
What I learned at the ResearchED (US) Media Panel
For those still unfamiliar with it, ResearchED is “a grass-roots, teacher led organisation” founded in the UK whose mission is to “raise research literacy, bring people together, promote collaboration, increase awareness, promote research, and explore what works.” It has also … Continue reading
New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: Dan Koretz’s Big Con
The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better, by Daniel Koretz [book review] Reviewed by Richard P. Phelps https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Reviews/v13n1.htm
Surprise! SBAC and CRESST stonewall public records request for their financial records
Say what you will about Achieve, PARCC, Fordham, CCSSO, and NGA— some of the organizations responsible for promoting the Common Core Initiative on us all. But, their financial records are publicly available. Not so for some other organizations responsible for … Continue reading
Posted in Censorship, Common Core, Education policy, Ethics, information suppression, K-12, research ethics, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged CRESST, SBAC, UCLA
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The Gates Effect: Common Core Has Powerful Ally Keeping Unpopular Program Alive
https://ivn.us/2017/09/06/common-core-has-powerful-ally-keeping-unpopular-program-alive/ …at the Independent Voter Network website, https://IVN.US .
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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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
“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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Significance of PISA math results
A new round of two international comparisons of student mathematics performance came out recently and there was a lot of interest because the reports were almost simultaneous, TIMSS[1] in late November 2016 and PISA[2] just a week later. They are … Continue reading
Posted in Education journalism, Education policy, Education Reform, information suppression, K-12, Mathematics, OECD, Testing/Assessment, Uncategorized, Wayne Bishop
Tagged Finland, OECD, PISA, TIMSS
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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
Among the Constructivists
The online journal Aeon posted (6 October, 2016) The Examined Life, by John Taylor, director of Learning, Teaching and Innovation at Cranleigh boarding school in Surrey (U.K.). https://aeon.co/essays/can-school-today-teach-anything-more-than-how-to-pass-exams Taylor advocates “independent learning” in describing his “ideal classroom”: “The atmosphere in … Continue reading
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
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
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
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