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PDF report on performance of foster youth in K-12 education in California. Long (116 pages). From the PND description of the report... California public school students in foster care tend to underperform their peers on standardized tests and comprise a distinct at-risk subgroup, a study by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd finds. Based on an analysis of statewide data from the 2009-10 school year, the report, The Invisible Achievement Gap, Part 1 (116 pages, PDF), found that only 29 percent of California foster care students in grades 2 through 11 scored at "proficient" or "advanced" levels on the state standards test in English, compared with 40 percent of students of low socioeconomic status and 53 percent of all students in the state. Similar achievement gaps were found in mathematics, with 37 percent of foster care students in grades 2 through 7 testing at "proficient" or above, compared with 50 percent among low-SES students and 60 percent statewide; and between 12 and 13 percent testing at proficient or above in high school Algebra I and II, well below the 23 percent and 32 percent among low-SES students and statewide. Youth in foster care, who have the lowest rates of participation in California's statewide testing program, also are more likely to be African American, to be classified with a disability, to change schools during the academic year, and to be enrolled in the lowest-performing schools. Funded by the Stuart Foundation, the report also found that students in foster care have a single-year dropout rate of 8 percent - nearly three times the statewide rate of 3 percent and well above the 3 percent to 5 percent rate among other at-risk groups. In 2009-10, students in foster care also had the lowest high school graduation rate among at-risk groups, 58 percent, compared with 79 percent of low-SES students and 84 percent of all students in the state. "These findings help all of us understand that we have a long way to go

The U.S. plans to implement a universal standardized testing program, where all the states will have the same standards for success. To date some states that may have failing students in math and science could be passing if they lived in another state. Improving the school system nationwide is a goal for the program, hoping that equality in testing standards will create a group of students who all meeting the same requirements.

The Harlem Success Academny takes its students on field trips that aim to help students do better on standardized tests by taking them on fields trips to introduce them to subject matter that will be on the test, such as a farm.

e objective of this study was to test whether information presented on slides during presentations is retained at the expense of information presented only orally, and to investigate part of the conditions under which this effect occurs, and how it can be avoided. Such an effect could be expected and explained either as a kind of redundancy effect due to excessive cognitive load caused by simultaneous presentation of oral and written information, or as a consequence of dysfunctional allocation of attention at the expense of oral information occurring in learners with a high subjective importance of slides. The hypothesized effect and these potential explanations were tested in an experimental study. In courses about literature search and access, 209 university students received a presentation accompanied either by no slides or by regular or concise PowerPoint slides. The retention of information presented orally and of information presented orally and on slides was measured separately in each condition and standardized for comparability. Cognitive load and subjective importance of slides were also measured. The results indicate a "speech suppression effect" of regular slides at the expense of oral information (within and across conditions), which cannot be explained by cognitive overload but rather by dysfunctional allocation of attention, and can be avoided by concise slides. It is concluded that theoretical approaches should account for the allocation of attention below the threshold of cognitive overload and its role for learning, and that a culture of presentations with concise slides should be established.

This is an article about including English Language Learners in statewide standardized tests. It focuses on the areas of assessment, reporting and accountability.

I find this look at music and arts to be particularly intersting - especially in light of the fact that many schools are cutting back on these subjects so that they can concentrate on subjects that are tested with standardized scores.

Connecticut school is going back to the basics with their math instruction. They are going online to provide lessons for their students and THROWING OUT the textbook. Its just what we discussed in a prior reading about the girl getting up in the middle of the night to do algebra on the computer. I find it interesting that their approach to getting back to the foundations of math has already improved student retention of material and better standardized test scores. Could this be a trend for more courses to come??

Exemplars offers easily differentiated, classroom-tested, standard's based assessment and instruction materials. Educators worldwide are using Exemplars.

I see that students can get merit-based pay measured on data other than standardized test scores... Just sayin' is all....

There are many lists going around about what the next decade will bring in K-12 education, especially focusing on those things that will become obsolete. Well, I decided to create my own list of 5 things that should be obsolete in K-12 education by 2020.