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Common Core test is on track, State Board told
Four states have encountered serious glitches and system meltdowns over the past several weeks as they have moved their own state assessments online. But the head of the state-led consortium creating the Common Core tests for California and two dozen other states expressed confidence Wednesday that his organization is working closely with states and taking precautions to avoid significant problems. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is one of two state consortiums – the other is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Standardized tests, Technology, Tests & Assessments, Twenty-first Century Learning
California looks to Ontario schools’ reformer for guidance
Michael Fullan may be coming soon to a school district near you. The man credited with transforming the Canadian province of Ontario into one of the world’s most effective school systems is ready to help California do the same. Fullan, though, would lead the state in a sharply different direction from the forced march that federal officials … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Featured, International Comparisons, No Child Left Behind, Program innovation, Race to the Top, Reporting & Analysis, Research, Standardized tests, Systemic Change, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Unions, Teachers, Turning around failing schools
Duncan admits flaws in current standardized testing
SAN FRANCISCO – Secretary of Education Arne Duncan acknowledged serious flaws in the standardized tests that currently drive American schools, telling an audience of education researchers on Tuesday that the tests are an inadequate gauge of student and teacher performance. Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Duncan criticized “high-stakes testing where children’s lives or teachers’ careers are based on one test,” but he said that abandoning standardized testing was not the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Reporting & Analysis, Standardized tests, Tests & Assessments, U.S. Education Policy
Math framework for Common Core ready for your critique
A draft of the California math curriculum framework went online Wednesday for public comments and suggestions. While weighing in at 1,200 pages, the document is actually a readable grade-by-grade manual that puts meat on the bare-bones Common Core standards that the state adopted in 2010. It explains the rationale for key standards and puts them in context of what students will learn, while providing guidance on how they should be taught. Interspersed are numerous sample … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, Standards
U.S. middle-class students beaten on international test
Middle-class students are lagging far behind their peers in other countries, adding a new perspective to beliefs that low-income students are most in need of better educational opportunities, according to a new study. America Achieves, a nonprofit aimed at improving education and career opportunities for students, reviewed the 2009 science and math results on the Program for International Student Assessment, known as the PISA exam. Analysts divided students into four socio-economic levels and found that U.S. students in the second highest quarter were outperformed by students in similar income levels in 15 other countries in science and 24 countries in math. “Many assume that poverty in America is pulling down the overall U.S. scores, but when you divide each nation into socio-economic quarters, you can see that even America’s middle class students are … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, International Comparisons, Poverty, Quick Hits, Standardized tests, Tests, Tests & Assessments, Twenty-first Century Learning, Workforce preparation
Credentialing commission head says California teachers lead way in stress levels
Against the backdrop of a national survey showing half of teachers experiencing “great stress” on the job, the head of California’s teacher credentialing commission says that stress levels among the state’s teachers are likely to be even higher. “I would think California would be at the forefront of this group (of stressed-out teachers) and teachers’ stress levels here even higher,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of Education at Stanford University’s School of Education and chair of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: College and Career Preparation, Common Core standards, Featured, Preparation, Reporting & Analysis, Standardized tests, Standards, Teachers, Tests, Tests & Assessments, Twenty-first Century Learning
API penalties for not offering 8th grade Algebra to be dropped
An education committee recommended Tuesday that the state stop docking the test scores of districts that don’t offer Algebra I in 8th grade. The recommendation by the Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee would reverse a decade-old practice and could go to the State Board of Education as early as next month. The Advisory Committee is charged with suggesting changes to the state’s school accountability system, the Academic Performance Index or API. It will soon be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, Tests & Assessments
Districts to seek NCLB waiver whether or not they’re invited
A collaborative of California school districts known as the California Office to Reform Education, or CORE, plans to move forward with its application for a waiver from the most severe provisions of No Child Left Behind by the end of the month, the next deadline for states to apply. CORE intends to proceed with or without Gov. Jerry Brown’s blessing or U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s invitation. “We believe we will have a compelling application, given … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Jerry Brown, No Child Left Behind, Reporting & Analysis, Standardized tests, Standards, U.S. Education Policy
It’s final: State Board shifts policy on eighth grade Algebra
The State Board of Education ended a decade-long controversial policy of pushing eighth graders to take Algebra I when members voted unanimously Wednesday to strip California’s Algebra I standards from the state’s eighth grade math standards. Those standards will now mirror the national Common Core standards, which do not include Algebra I for eighth graders. The State Board will create curriculum options to accelerate math-taking in middle school and high school and to leave it up … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, STEM
Fostering thinking requires relinquishing control
February 12th, 2013 | 2 Comments | By Merrill Vargo / commentary
As someone who has spent my entire career working on school reform, I wince at headlines like “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools.” But UC Berkeley professor of public policy David Kirp got it right in his recent New York Times op ed when he said “To succeed, students must become thinkers, not just test-takers.” What most readers of the Times probably didn’t understand is that creating schools in which student thinking is a priority will require … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Common Core standards, English learners, Featured, No Child Left Behind, Standardized tests, Systemic Change, Teachers