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Category Archives: K-12
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
‘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
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
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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
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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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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
Wayne Bishop’s observations on the Aspen Ideas Festival session, “Is Math Important?”
Editors’ Note: David Leonhardt is Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on economic issues, and majored in applied mathematics as an undergraduate at Yale. Mr. Leonhardt chaired the panel, “Deep Dive: … Continue reading
Posted in Education Fraud, K-12, math, Mathematics, Wayne Bishop
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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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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
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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
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
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
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, 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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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
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