Group items tagged

The Privatization Infatuation In 2007, the second year of our Think Tank Review Project (thinktankreview.org), we reviewed 18 think tank reports about education policy. Time after time, our reviewers identified analyses that led inexorably to a privatization prescription. Even reports that offered a reasonable analysis of the No Child Left Behind Act or the dropout problem suddenly and groundlessly identified as the key policy implication of their findings the need for vouchers or other forms of privatization. ... See the full article by clicking on the above link

The Common Core State Standards and accompanying K-12 assessments have recently sparked a fierce national backlash against testing. Sound educational testing and assessment are integral to good teaching and learning in classrooms and necessary for evaluating school performance and assuring quality in education. Rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I propose a more considered, "mend, not end" approach to testing, assessment, and accountability in America's schools, with validity at the forefront of the conversation.

Mending begins with understanding that most commercial standardized tests are designed to serve particular purposes well, for particular populations, and can support only particular decisions at best. To uphold validity principles in practice, it is worthwhile to ask: Are we using the test for the originally intended purpose, or for another purpose that taxes the tool beyond its technical limits? Multi-purposing a test indiscriminately is not a good idea from a validity standpoint, despite its efficiency.

So now let’s look at the latest PISA. It found that the most successful students are those who feel real “ownership” of their education. In all the best performing school systems, said Schleicher, “students feel they personally can make a difference in their own outcomes and that education will make a difference for their future.” The PISA research, said Schleicher, also shows that “students whose parents have high expectations for them tend to have more perseverance, greater intrinsic motivation to learn.” The highest performing PISA schools, he added, all have “ownership” cultures — a high degree of professional autonomy for teachers in the classrooms, where teachers get to participate in shaping standards and curriculum and have ample time for continuous professional development.

Below is my curated collection of videos for general Common Core info, as well as videos to teach the close reading, text complexity and informational texts standards