-
Recent Posts
- Visual Models, Procedural Fluency, and Multiple Strategies:A Cognitive Critique of Common Core Elementary Mathematics 28/06/2026
- He Was Fired for Sexually Harassing Students. California Allowed Him to Keep Teaching Anyway 12/05/2026
- Comments on Hung-Hsi Wu’s “What is school mathematics?” 12/04/2026
- On Common Core and Educational Testing 24/11/2025
- Equitable Grading 04/09/2025
- Comparing states by only looking at overall NAEP average scores can provide incomplete analysis of performance 07/08/2025
- What does NAEP say about the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project? 07/08/2025
Comments
- anonymous on Math Anxiety
- Noah on Comments on Zearn’s “Myth of the Math Kid”
- David D. Baskerville on Breaking the Spell of Math Reformists
- Albert B. Franklin on About Us / Comments
Authors
Category Archives: Education policy
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
101 Terms for Denigrating Others’ Research
In scholarly terms, a review of the literature or literature review is a summation of the previous research conducted on a particular topic. With a dismissive literature review, a researcher assures the public that no one has yet studied a … 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
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
Posted in Common Core, Education policy, Education Reform, Ethics, research ethics
Tagged Achieve, Alliance for Excellent Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bob Wise, CCSSO, Checker Finn, common core, education reporting, Fordham Institute, Marc Tucker, Mike Petrilli, NCEE, NGA, SBAC, Thomas B. Fordham
1 Comment
Hard Work by Students
In my ten years of HS teaching I saw good (hard-working, interested in learning) students do well with good teachers, and ALSO do pretty well with poor teachers… I saw poor (not working, not interested in learning) students do poorly … Continue reading
The Education Writers Association casts its narrowing gaze on Boston, May 1-3
https://pioneerinstitute.org/featured/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 in its tracks largely by a loose coalition of unpaid grassroots … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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
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
Leave a comment
Starting school already behind
Underprivileged students start first grade already two grade levels behind more privileged students. The obvious solution to this discrepancy is to give the underprivileged kids more time, as in another year at the beginning of primary school. That would appear … Continue reading
Posted in Education policy, K-12, Richard P. Phelps
3 Comments
What Led to the “Massachusetts Education Miracle”?
Most governors, state commissioners of education, state boards of education, and Chambers of Commerce seem to have an unshakable confidence in Common Core’s standards as the silver bullet that will make all K-12 students college and career ready. This confidence … Continue reading
Tom Oakland, 1939-2015
Thomas D. Oakland, 1939-2015 Tom Oakland epitomized the gentleman scholar. He was a world-renowned expert in educational assessment and evaluation–one of the best. He was also a tireless supporter of the Nonpartisan Education Review, from its beginning until his untimely … Continue reading
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
Selling ‘Performance’ Assessments with Inaccurate Pictures from Kentucky
By Richard Innes, new in the Nonpartisan Education Review. See more at: https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Articles/v11n1.htm#sthash.mGQ6Mqbh.dpuf
Beware of Test Scores Masquerading as Data
A semi-taboo area of insufficient discussion is the reliability of the test score data from the statewide, nationwide, and international standard tests; for example, our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), but not nearly just the NAEP test scores. You … Continue reading
Agustin Tristan
American Psychological Association
Brain Health Alliance Virtual Institute (BHAVI)
Catherine & Katharine
Critically Speaking
Education Consumers Foundation
Facilitated Communication Blog
Fulcrum, The
Groupe International de Recherches et expertises en Ingénierie des Evaluations en Formation
Independent Voter Network
Institute for Objective Policy Assessment
James G Martin Center for Academic Renewal
Learning Scientists
National Association of Scholars
Nonpartisan Education Review
Represent Us
Retraction Watch
U.S. Metric Association