The Race to the Top applications turned in yesterday offer an interesting preview of what might be in store as states move toward adopting common standards and common assessments aligned to those standards. (You might remember that they have a better shot at getting RTT money if they promise to do t... Read Full Post >
Dear Diane, Deciding how to measure achievement depends on first defining it. The equating of "performance" and "achievement" with whatever the ELA and math tests tell us puts us in rather an awkward position—and I include in that my colleagues and friends in the AFT and NEA. Randi Weingarte... Read Full Post >
Arkansas finds that 58 high schools gave inflated grades to 20 percent or more of their students. Read Full Post >
Dear Deborah, I am sure you were as surprised as I was to read the headlines in the newspapers saying that Randi Weingarten proposed that teachers should be evaluated by their students' test scores. This is a contentious issue. In New York, at Randi's urging, the state legislature passed a law prev... Read Full Post >
Another input hearing on the Education Department's Race to the Top Assessment competition explores intriguing questions of how to manage the tangle of state procurement rules to produce a collaborative and innovative testing system. Read Full Post >
Dear Diane, Thanks you for that deft summary on charters! Once we forget the public purposes of education, it's easier and easier to forget about the defects of the marketplace as a way to address the common good. One of the concerns raised about the schools I founded was that such schools bred se... Read Full Post >
Experts advise leaders from the U.S. Department of Education on how to shape the $350 million Race to the Top assessment competition. Read Full Post >
Pennsylvania's journey to high school graduation tests sparks questions about how a state can best measure the success of its high schools. Read Full Post >
A coalition of educators, scholars and civil rights groups argues for a new generation of assessments as the reauthorization of the ESEA looms. Read Full Post >
The Education Department schedules a second round of public meetings to help shape its $350 million competition to design common assessments. Read Full Post >
