"Here is a new video from EDUCAUSE with four experts and me addressing the question, "Why is measuring learning difficult?" Some good reflections on learning analytics, data, MOOCs, testing, pyschometrics, and more. I think the video has a nice balance of humility and optimism. Learning is much more complex than we can ever really pin down, but that doesn't mean that we can conduct meaningful assessments that lets students and mentors identify their learning experiences as, as Gardner Campbell says, find new doorways forward. "

Abstract The purpose of this study was to describe the barriers and challenges school leaders face as they implement a standards-based grading (SBG) system.  The researchers used a multiple case study methodology to investigate how key school leaders described their implementation journey at three schools that differed in size, demographics, and location.  Purposeful sampling was used to identify key administrators at three different schools who were in the process of implementing a SBG system.  Data were collected primarily via semi-structured interviews.  In the analysis, researchers used three phases: horizontalization, thematizing, and textural-structural synthesis.  Each of the three schools had very different implementation stories.  Barriers in the process included: student information and grading systems, parents/community members, the tradition of grading and fear of the unknown, and the implementation dip.  This study suggests that implementation of SBG must be purposeful and well communicated.  That is, in order to enhance the likelihood of success, an intentional plan with a reasonable timeline, ongoing professional development and collaboration, and effective two-way communication about the purpose of grading is needed.  Also maintaining A-through-F final grades-even as they simultaneously implement more progressive assessment and reporting strategies-is often seen as a necessary concession.  Finally, the authors explicate SBG's relationship to competency-based education and professional learning communities (PLCs).

Valley Public Radio article about Performance Based Grading

Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom.

France in 2000 year (XXI century). Future school. From a postcard by Villemard, 1910. Last week, I attended the De Lange Conference held at Rice University every other year, this time on "Teaching in the University of Tomorrow." The future-oriented theme had both intrigued me, and left me a little skeptical.

Commentary "But what does the evidence say?" It was an unusually hot spring day on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and I was visiting a class of 8th graders who had organized themselves into book clubs. The club meetings that day overflowed into the hallway outside the classroom.

For consideration when rethinking academic excellence dinner, end of year assemblies etc.