Group items tagged

While schools across the country continue to balance budgets and consider different methods to make their students college-bound, Oregon representatives may have come up with their own solution to get students ready for the future. In an attempt to increase Oregonians' employment options, the Oregon House of Representatives recently passed a bill that requires high school students to demonstrate a clear path for future education or job opportunities before they can graduate.

"When I hired engineers and people on the creative side, I never looked at their grades," he said, referring to the teams he built at Atari and beyond. "I interviewed them strictly on their hobbies, and if they did not have a hobby in technology I wouldn't hire them…. Kids, when they make, are actually preparing themselves better for the jobs they'll have in the future than [they are by] getting straight A's."

When incorporated into classroom practice, the formative assessment process provides information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are still happening. The process serves as practice for the student and a check for understanding during the learning process. The formative assessment process guides teachers in making decisions about future instruction. Here are a few examples that may be used in the classroom during the formative assessment process to collect evidence of student learning.

NCTM has committed itself to equity, with many of us working toward a new generation of mathematics-savvy citizens and STEM professionals representing our diverse population. We need to take stock of the record and take action from the state house to the classroom, so that our vision becomes reality and our hopes for our students are realized. Philip "Uri" Treisman is professor of mathematics and of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the Charles A. Dana Center. He is a senior adviser to the Aspen Institute's Urban Superintendents' Network and recently served on the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992 for his work on nurturing minority student achievement in college mathematics and 2006 Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation of Harvard University for his outstanding contributions to mathematics. In all his work, Treisman advocates for equity and excellence in education for all children. Philip Uri Treisman Charles A. Dana Center, University of Texas at Austin

We need librarians more than we ever did.