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According to a New York Times analysis, New York City students have steadily improved their performance on statewide tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the public schools seven years ago.

Critics say the results are proof only that it is possible to “teach to the test.” What do the results mean? Are tests a good way to prepare students for future success?

Tests covering what students were expected to learn (guided by an agreed-upon curriculum) serve a useful purpose — to provide evidence of student effort, of student learning, of what teachers taught, and of what teachers may have failed to teach.

Need proof that adults search and evaluate better than youth? These charts show how students in middle school and high school compare to teachers and librarians. The assessment is the pretest from a course we call "Investigative Searching 20/10."

To date, 449 middle schoolers, 414 high schoolers and 28 adults have taken the 10-item pretest that measures the ability to find critical information and evaluate its credibility. There are several differences that really stand out.

Are these the results you would expect? Do you think they are artificially low or about right? That's hard to say without seeing the pretest. Without disclosing specific items (in case you want to take the test), the 10 items focus on skills that have been described in previous posts, requiring the application of appropriate techniques to find the author of articles, the name of the publisher, the date of publication, other instances of the content on the Internet and references to web pages.

Learn how to locate authentic digital primary sources in multiple formats to enhance your curriculum. Develop age appropriate learning activities that promote higher level questioning and critical thinking skills while adding excitement to student learning through engaging activities. The course is especially helpful for teachers of AP classes, teachers addressing state and national standards requiring the use of primary sources, and teachers working with National History Day activities. Materials fromTPS Direct, the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources professional development program, will be incorporated in the class.

In a pre-life-long Learning environment, the task of education was to teach all of us the knowledge and skills that we would need to know and to know how to do to become employed. After our schooling, we got a job, and kept that job for 35 years. We did some learning “on the job”, but not for the sake of a changing environment. It was for the sake of our job. It was considered part of the job.

what school requires students to do -- think abstractly -- is in fact not something our brains are designed to be good at or to enjoy

it is critical that the task be just difficult enough to hold our interest but not so difficult that we give up in frustration. When this balance is struck, it is actually pleasurable to focus the mind for long periods of time

Students are ready to understand knowledge but not create it. For most, that is enough. Attempting a great leap forward is likely to fail.

It's not ‘the tests.’ It's our unwillingness and/or inability to do something different, something better. It's not ‘the tests.’ It's us.

In my state, students don't take standardized tests until third grade, but test preparation was a major focus in K-2. Students did little but complete worksheet after worksheet in kindergarten. The block corner was gone, there was no snack time, the dress-up box was taken away, and recess was reduced to just a few minutes. My son and his classmates sat at their little tables and silently filled out worksheets for the majority of the day. Talking, laughing or getting out of your seat was frowned upon. In first grade, the timed math tests began. Shortly after students learned how to add and subtract, they were given daily math facts timed tests in order to "prepare" them for the ITBS math computation tests in third grade. Those lucky enough to pass the tests had their names posted on the winners wall in the classroom. Those who couldn't pass, were sent to the hallway to do flashcards with parent volunteers. In second grade, the timed oral reading tests began. Each week, all students were required to read aloud as fast as they could while they were timed with a stop watch. Those that could spit the words out quickly enough to meet the benchmark number were rewarded with free reading time. Those that were deemed too slow, were given practice pages to read aloud, over and over again. In third grade, they started timed writing tests. His classroom held a weekly contest to see who could write a paragraph the fastest using that week's vocabulary words. The vocabulary words were test prep for ITBS. The fastest child's paragraph was posted on the wall for all to admire. Kids learned very early on that faster meant smarter and that slower meant stupid. NCLB plays a part in the way school has been reduced to test preparation, but teachers chose to use all of these truly awful methods in the classroom. Teachers could have chosen different, more engaging, and more developmentally appropriate teaching methods, but they didn't.

Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances -- especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question -- as it does for certain narrowly defined classroom activities.

guide identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community’s current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials

code of best practices does not tell you the limits of fair use rights. Instead, it describes how those rights should apply in certain recurrent situations.