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Steve Ransom

The 10 Worst Mistakes of First-Time Job Hunters - Finance and Accounting Jobs News and ... - 0 views

www.fins.com/...akes-of-First-Time-Job-Hunters

jobs employment advice PLN networking college students highered

shared by Steve Ransom on 20 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 20 Oct 11
     
    Some salient and relevant advice for 21st century learners! "I would have actually networked." "I would have gotten more involved in career-relevant extracurricular activities.""I would have focused more on becoming 'professional.'""I would have kept better track of my achievements.""I would have focused more on developing relevant skills."
Steve Ransom

Testing in kindergarten: whatever happened to story time? | Ben Joravsky on Politics | ... - 0 views

m.chicagoreader.com/...Content

kindergarten testing standardizedtesting

shared by Steve Ransom on 29 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • When all is said and done, kindergarteners will have spent up to 60 days of class time—or a third of the school year—taking various standardized tests. And you wonder why so many wealthy people send their children to private schools.
  • to hold teachers accountable for how much their students learn—or at least how well they score on standardized tests, which is not always the same thing. But the idea is that high-scoring "good" teachers will keep their jobs and low-scoring "bad" teachers will be fired, presumably to be replaced by the thousands of "good" teachers eager to come to Illinois to give more tests.
  • "Most of the kids just look at me," says another kindergarten teacher who asked not to be identified. "They're five. They don't what a 'main character' means."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • means one-on-one testing.
  • Presumably, by the end of the year the child will know enough to say the bug feels anxious. At which point the teacher will get to keep his or her job, for at least another year.
  • that student's file her delightfully original take is marked: "Wrong!"
  • Here's the twist. All teachers record the answers. Think about this, folks: teachers get to grade their own accountability tests. Damn, if they had this for students back in the day, I might have passed chemistry.
Steve Ransom

eSchool News » On ed tech, we're asking the wrong question » Print - 0 views

www.eschoolnews.com/...print

education technology change critique poverty equity funding obstacles vision leadership sustainability

shared by Steve Ransom on 18 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Does the use of textbooks lead to better student achievement [2]? Somebody should do the research. Schools nationwide are spending billions of dollars each year on textbooks, with no clear evidence they improve test scores—and stakeholders deserve some answers.
  • That anyone would be OK with the notion that schools haven’t changed much since the days when factory jobs were prevalent speaks volumes about how our society values education and its children.
  • Still, the Times story is correct in noting the scarcity of scientifically valid evidence that proves technology’s pedagogical value without a doubt.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • But I would argue that’s the point: You can’t separate the technology from the rest of the learning process, because they are inextricably bound.
  • But technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For technology to have an impact on student achievement, schools also need sound teaching, strong leadership, fidelity of use, and a supportive culture, among other things.
  • In other words, technology can’t improve student outcomes by itself. Instead, it’s one of several elements that must work together in harmony, like a complex dance, to elicit results. Should it come as a surprise that test scores haven’t risen markedly in Kyrene, when the Times reported the district has had to cut several teaching positions in recent years? Who knows how much the district has invested in professional development, or tech support?
  • But the Times got it wrong with regard to the central question it invited readers to consider. Instead of examining whether technology is worth schools’ investment, the newspaper should have focused on two other, more relevant questions: Why are so many districts that invest in technology still failing to see success? And, what are the conditions that best lead to ed-tech success?
  • Funding constraints have been exacerbated by an ever-multiplying series of challenges, such as growing populations of ESL and special-needs students and the creeping effects of poverty on school district operations.
  • Problems such as poverty have always existed, but what hasn’t is the idea that schools should be responsible for educating every child, regardless of his or her circumstances. As a society, we’ve made this promise as part of No Child Left Behind, but we haven’t backed it up with the funding that is needed to make good on this promise—preferring instead what we think are quick solutions, such as merit pay for teachers … or technology in classrooms.
  • The real question isn’t how to improve public education, he says—it’s: Do we really want to? And that’s a question we’ve been avoiding as a society, because the answer might require a level of commitment we’re not prepared to make.
  • In the wealthiest country in the world, it would be nice to think that school districts like Kyrene shouldn’t have to choose between technology and teachers. It would be nice to think they could afford both.
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