-
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
No Child Left Behind Renewal: Blinders on Education Policy
Two weeks ago, The Honorable Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) invited three allegedly independent education researchers to discuss possible revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently … Continue reading
Using middle schoolers for anti-testing advocacy?
Superintendent Mark D. LaRoach Vestal School District, New York Dear Superintendent LaRoach: I conduct research on the effects of standardized testing on student achievement. I have read over 3 thousand studies dating back a century and spanning over thirty countries. … 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, https://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
Leave a comment
Kamenetz, A. (2015). The Test: Why our schools are obsessed with standardized testing—but you don’t have to be. New York: Public Affairs. Book Review, by Richard P. Phelps
Perhaps it is because I avoid most tabloid journalism that I found journalist Anya Kamenetz’s loose cannon Introduction to The Test: Why our schools are obsessed with standardized testing—but you don’t have to be so jarring. In the space of … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged assessment, EWA, NPR, overtesting, schools, standardized testing
Leave a comment
Richard Innes’ Georgia testimony on Common Core
Testimony to Georgia House’s Federal Government’s Role in Education Study Committee Regarding: Common Core State Standards and Related Testing Issues Posted on August 21, 2014 by Richard Innes New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: “ Testimony to Georgia House’s Federal … Continue reading
Press Release: Study Finds Common Core Math Standards Will Reduce Enrollment in High-Level High School Math Courses, Dumb Down College STEM Curriculum Lower standards, alignment of SAT to Common Core likely to hurt low-income students the most
https://pioneerinstitute.org/download/study-finds-common-core-math-standards-will-reduce-enrollment-in-high-level-high-school-math-courses-dumb-down-college-stem-curriculum/ BOSTON – Common Core math standards (CCMS) end after just a partial Algebra II course. This weak Algebra II course will result in fewer high school students able to study higher-level math and science courses and an increase in … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Mathematics
Tagged common core, mathematics, Pioneer Institute
Leave a comment
Wayne Bishop’s Response to Ratner and Wu (Wall Street Journal)
Making Math Education Even Worse, by Marina Ratner, https://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
Posted in Common Core, Education policy, K-12, math, Mathematics, Wayne Bishop
Tagged common core, math standards
Leave a comment
PEER PRESSURE: Academic Incentives & Rewards for Secondary Students
PEER PRESSURE Academic Incentives & Rewards for Secondary Students Heartland Institute Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 2 July 2014 In their new book, Rewards: How to use rewards to help children learn—and why teachers don’t use them … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Will Fitzhugh
Leave a comment
Why do Americans stink at math?
New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: “Why do Americans stink at math. Some of the answer”, by Wayne Bishop. https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Essays/v10n2.htm
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Mathematics
Tagged Elizabeth Green, fuzzy math, international, math education, mathematics
Leave a comment
The Gauntlet: How think tanks and federally-funded centers misrepresent and suppress other education research
New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Essays/v10n1.htm The aggressive, career-strategic behavior of researchers in federally funded centers and think tanks creates many problems, including a loss of useful information and bad public policies based on skewed information. But, two adverse … Continue reading
Posted in Education policy, K-12, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment, Uncategorized
Tagged Brookings, censorship, Chingos, CRESST, GAO, Goertz, information suppression, NRC, research bias
Leave a comment
First episode in what will be sequel to Dewey/Finn
The first chapter of “Conversations on the Rifle Range” which will be the sequel to “Letters from John Dewey/Letters from Huck Finn” is now up at Out in Left Field.
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Mathematics, Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Letters from John Dewey/Letters from Huck Finn: A Look at Math Education from the Inside
Being a sometimes useful and always irreverent compendium of letters that examine math education in our public schools, addressed to anyone with the requisite curiosity to read them. “Few refuges exist from the multicolored tomes posing as math textbooks. No one … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Mathematics, Uncategorized
Leave a comment
MEDIA BLACKOUT
Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 8 February 2014 In the United States, our media are not allowed to report on or discuss exemplary student academic achievement at the high school level. For example, in the “Athens of America,” … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, K-12, Will Fitzhugh
Leave a comment
Brief sketch of the problem…
In the United States, we pay attention to and celebrate the work of HS athletes. We carefully ignore the exemplary academic work of diligent HS scholars–the results follow as you might expect—we get what we want. Will Fitzhugh ——————————— HIGH … Continue reading
On Writing
“First, we stopped demanding that students read anything very challenging in school, and then we stopped holding our teachers or students accountable for the quality of student writing.” On Writing National Center on Education and the Economy By Marc Tucker … Continue reading
Large-scale educational testing in Chile: Some thoughts
Recently in the auditorium of Universidad Finis Terrae, I argued that Chile’s Prueba de Selección Universitaria (PSU) cannot be “fixed” and should be scrapped. I do not, however, advocate the elimination of university entrance examinations but, rather, the creation of … Continue reading
Posted in College prep, Education policy, Richard P. Phelps, Testing/Assessment
Tagged Agencia de Calidad de la Educacion, assessment, Chile, fairness in testing, MIDE UC, OECD, predictive validity, Prueba de Selección Universitaria, PSU, SIMCE, standardized testing, Universidad Finis Terrae, university admission, World Bank
Leave a comment
Major Players
Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 3 September 2013 Who are the Most Important Players in U.S. education debates, and in our schools? Well, let’s see—there are EduPundits, legislators, governors, consultants, professional developers, publishers, the Department of Education, foundations, … Continue reading
Posted in Education policy, K-12, Will Fitzhugh
Comments Off on Major Players
GAO Could Do More
U.S. GAO Could Do More in Examining Educator Cheating on Tests The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a research agency of the U.S. Congress, continues its foray into the field of standardized testing. It started at least as far back … Continue reading
Try Trying
Educator testing scandals have lit up the news wires recently and some call the cheating unprecedented. It is not unprecedented; journalists simply paid little attention to the issue before now. To my mind, the most profound factoid revealed by the … 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