It’s the best and worst time to teach
It is the best of times — and the worst of times — to be a teacher, writes Justin Reich on Education Week‘s EdTech Researcher. In his seventh-grade U.S. History class, students had a textbook and a...
View ArticleFair to good or good to great?
Finland boasts “low poverty, high achievement, and virtually no standardized tests,” writes writes Kathleen Porter-Magee on Education Gadfly. Should reformers abandon standards and accountability in...
View ArticleCore math adds coherence, rigor, focus
Common Core’s new math standards “have the potential to improve average student achievement” by adding focus, rigor and coherence, predict William H. Schmidt and Nathan A. Burroughs in the new...
View ArticleAfter 30 years, still at risk?
Thirty years ago, the Nation At Risk report warned that “a rising tide of mediocrity” -- low educational standards — “threatens our very future as a nation and a people.” High schools pushed students...
View ArticleAFT poll: Teachers unprepared for new standards
Most public school teachers say they’re not prepared to teach math and reading to the new Common Core standards, according to a survey by the American Federation of Teachers. While 75 percent of...
View ArticleCommon Core pushback
Fox News looks at the federal push for Common Core standards and the pushback in some states. Nine states that adopted Common Core are having second thoughts, reports the Washington Post. Some states...
View ArticleAdvocates call for ‘supports-based reform’
Instead of “top-down standards” and “punitive high-stakes testing,” we need “supports-based reform,” according to the Education Declaration to Rebuild America. Public schools are turning into...
View ArticleThinking deeply about … um … what?
Students will read more short informational texts under the new Common Core Standards and have less time for complete books — fiction or nonfiction — writes Will Fitzhugh, editor of the Concord Review....
View ArticleHow to defend Common Core Standards
Common Core Standards are under attack in a growing number of states and could “stall” over the next four or five years, writes Rick Hess. Defenders must get off the same old talking points and address...
View Article‘Proficient’ B students may not be college ready
To qualify for the California State University system, students need a B average or better in college-prep courses. Yet more than 60 percent of new students require remedial courses in English, math or...
View Article‘Proficiency’ means little in some states
States define “proficiency” very differently, write Paul Peterson and Peter Kaplan in Education Next. Massachusetts, Tennessee and Missouri have the highest expectations, while Alabama and Georgia...
View ArticleIs it English? Or social studies?
Mark Bauerlein helped develop the Common Core standards in English. Now he fears the critics are right to say “high-quality fiction, poetry, theater and other imaginative texts” will be crowded out by...
View ArticleCommon tests lose support
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia are moving forward on Common Core Standards, but support for common testing is eroding, reports StateImpact. Georgia will use its own exam, instead of the...
View ArticleOutside experts, exhausted educators
Schools are deluged with consultants promising to explain Common Core standards, writes Peter DeWitt, an elementary school principal, in Ed Week. Greg, who now teaches in Australia, suggests schools...
View ArticleOn tougher test, NY scores plunge
Reading and math scores dropped sharply in New York because the new Common Core-aligned tests are much harder. In New York City, 26 percent of students in third through eighth grade passed the state...
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Teaching the Common Core
Tonight on PBS, Learning Matters looks at how teaching has changed to meet Common Core standards in two eighth-grade classrooms. Tomorrow night Part 2 will look at testing the Common Core.
View Article‘Common Core’ test market gets crowded
The Common Core testing market is getting crowded, reports Education Week. College Board is aligning four testing programs to the new standards, adding “yet another player to the list of companies...
View ArticleParents back teachers, reforms
Parents believe teachers are doing a good job, but they also strongly support teacher-quality reforms, according to a new Joyce Foundation survey on parents’ attitudes on the quality of education....
View ArticleParents: Set goals, measure, fix
Parents strongly support standards, assessment and evaluation writes Suzanne Tacheny Kuback in an e-mail discussion on Mike Petrilli’s “problem with proficiency” post. She describes parent focus groups...
View ArticleFordham; New science standards earn a C
Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and South Carolina earn A- grades in Fordham’s rating of science standards. The Next Generation Science Standards get a so-so C. The NGSS fall short of excellence in...
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