Clik here to view.
Promises, ineptitude and overreach
Race to the Top was a loser, writes Rick Hess on the fifth anniversary of the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion education competition. RTTT has become “a monument to paper promises, bureaucratic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How hard are Core math problems?
Math teachers in Maryland analyzed a Core-aligned fourth-grade math performance task from PARCC, reports Liana Heitin on Ed Week. Several were surprised at how much it required. Teachers listed what...
View ArticleNo profit left behind
Pearson, the British publishing behemoth, sells billions of dollars of textbooks, tests, software and online courses in North America, reports Politico‘s Stephanie Simon in No profit left behind....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Will new tests live up to the hype?
Muslim Alkurdi, 18, of Albuquerque High School, joins hundreds of classmates, as students staged a walkout to protest a new exams. AP Photo/Russell Contreras In 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne...
View ArticleAtlanta cheaters will do hard time
Former Atlanta educators convicted in the cheating scandal will spend years in prison. Judge Jerry Baxter gave longer sentences than the prosecution requested to defendants who refused to plead guilty...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In the real world, you can’t opt out of tests
Brooke Haycock hated her urban high school — when she bothered to attend. She filled in the test bubbles “in poetic form,” ABABC. Then she dropped out. “That’s when the tests got real,” she writes in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who grades Core essays? Not all are teachers
Essay graders are trained to be consistent like McDonald’s workers. New Core-aligned tests rely on fewer multiple-choice questions and more writing, notes the New York Times. For example, elementary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tests are getting tougher
Tests are getting tougher, according to a new federal report, writes Mikhail Zinshteyn on The Educated Reporter. Common Core adopters Kentucky, New York and North Carolina joined Texas, which rejected...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Atlanta’s cheated students wait for help
When former Atlanta administrators and teachers were convicted in a districtwide cheating conspiracy, prosecutors promised to help their students by offering tutoring, GED classes or job training. But,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To save the Core, states dump Core tests
Most Common Core states are sticking with the controversial standards, but writing their own tests, report Ashley Jochim and Patrick McGuinn in Education Next. Since 2010, 38 states have dropped out of...
View Article