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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
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
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
Nine districts submit waiver for relief from NCLB
A collaborative of nine California school districts is submitting today a first-of-its-kind waiver seeking relief from the harshest sanctions of the No Child Left Behind law. The proposal would commit the participating districts to a new accountability system, focusing on student achievement but deemphasizing standardized test scores. The existing requirements and penalties would remain in effect for all of the other districts in the state. If U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan consents, the districts in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Equity issues, Evaluations, Featured, No Child Left Behind, Reporting & Analysis, Teachers, Tests & Assessments, U.S. Education Policy
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
LAUSD’s Deasy, union spar over teacher evaluation measures
A high-profile teacher evaluation agreement was but days old Friday when Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy and the district’s teachers union expressed sharp disagreement over a contentious provision. United Teachers Los Angeles accused Deasy of breaking a binding agreement by requiring that “data-driven” measures of student achievement be given a “weight limited to 30 percent” of a teacher’s final evaluation. Deasy referred to the figure in guidelines he issued to principals on how to conduct … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluation, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Unions, Tests & Assessments
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
Legislature to consider suspending state tests ahead of Common Core
To give districts breathing room to prepare for complex tests on the Common Core standards and to free up money to do so, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is recommending the suspension after this year of most state standardized tests not mandated by the federal government. He made the recommendations in a lengthy report (download top item) released Tuesday. If adopted by the Legislature, the report’s dozen recommendations would represent the most sweeping changes … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Standardized tests, Tests & Assessments
Many math students are flailing, repeating courses without success
A big reason California students are pushed to take higher math in high school is to see that they satisfy the admission requirements to a state four-year university. And yet 68 percent of students who haven’t passed one of the required courses, Algebra II, by the end of 11th grade don’t even enroll in math as seniors, giving up on the possibility of applying to a UC or CSU school. That puzzling statistic is among the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Research, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, Tests & Assessments
D.C. cheating issue calls test-driven incentives into question
April 21st, 2013 | 15 Comments | By Charles Taylor Kerchner / commentary
The smoke surrounding allegations of test score cheating in the Washington, D.C., public schools burst into flame last week. In a 4,300-word blog post, titled Michelle Rhee’s Reign of Error, the veteran educational journalist John Merrow linked the former schools chancellor with documents that suggest that she knew about widespread cheating on standardized tests and looked the other way. Merrow drew parallels between Washington and Atlanta, where former superintendent Beverly Hall and 34 others have been … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Tests & Assessments