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Recent Posts
- 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
- Reading performance in the US is a serious problem 07/08/2025
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- 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
- Bryan on Comments on Zearn’s “Myth of the Math Kid”
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Category Archives: K-12
News Flash! AL’s Senate Pro Tem, who has previously stopped all anti-CC bills, filed an anti-CC bill today
http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/alison/searchableinstruments/2019RS/bills/SB119.htm?fbclid=IwAR1PKg4sFJhE3A1QxjyAJDPTQm6V2HTJ306VURV2jm-17KGp7lR7MBBxFNo The AL Senate has 35 members; 27 sponsored it.
Links to articles on standards-based grading
Competency based ed which is the method that will come as an outgrowth of SBG. What is measured will improve. So this from Peter Greene applies. https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/11/can-competency-based-education-be.html?m=1
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
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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My letter to Bill Gates on how to prepare students for algebra
May 17, 2018 Dear Mr. Gates, You recently wrote, “Math is one area where we want to generate stronger evidence about what works. What would it take, for example, to get all kids to mastery of Algebra I?” I believe … Continue reading
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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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
Fewer Students Learning Arithmetic and Algebra
by Jerome Dancis This summer, I obtained the college remediation data for my state of Maryland. Well just 2014, the latest available. So BCC i.e. before Common Core became the state tests in Maryland. Does anyone know of similar data … Continue reading
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
Students Last
Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 6 April 2017 The great social psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan wrote that the principal problem with communication is that we think we express meaning to others, when in fact we evoke it. That is, what … Continue reading
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
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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