From Guest Blogger Stephen Sawchuk As you may have read from my regular blog, Teacher Beat, I'm out in Los Angeles at the Council of Chief State School Officers' annual conference on student assessment. This year, eschewing a formal keynote panel, the organizers decided to do something different&m... Read Full Post >
Dear Deborah, Ah, data. A new study from the Center on Education Policy finds that state tests scores have been rising steadily since the passage of NCLB. But the report is based only on state tests, which are notoriously unreliable and even invalid because of the test-prepping that every district ... Read Full Post >
Dear Diane, Thanks for being there at the venerable old Julia Richman high school building last week, Diane. So many old friends, some new ones, and a nice net profit for FairTest—the little David facing the Harcourts, McGraws, ETS's, et al Goliaths that sponsored the event. Actually, Diane, ... Read Full Post >
At the Institute of Education Sciences' annual meeting, a study tries to puzzle out the most effective quizzing schedule for middle school students. Read Full Post >
A Washington Post reporter and photographer visit command central for scoring Virginia's portfolio tests in Fairfax County. The tests are used for ELLs and students with disabilities. Read Full Post >
Dear Deborah, I enjoyed seeing you honored as a hero of education by FairTest last week, which established an annual award named for you. If anyone had told me five years ago that I would be at that event, I would have thought them mad. This is what “Bridging Differences” has done for me, I sup... Read Full Post >
Dear Diane, You are right. We agree on the civil rights movement’s history. Schools were never the primary focus—but one of many interconnected ones. The connection between schooling and the economy interests me—but for different reasons than the usual PR-linkage (you’ll make mor... Read Full Post >
Dear Deborah, I was glad to read your comments on the faux-Education Equality Project (EEP), now headed by New York City’s Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the Reverend Al Sharpton, with the assistance of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The papers used to call Klein and Sharpton the odd coup... Read Full Post >
Dear Diane, It would have chilled Martin Luther King’s blood to see how the struggle for equality has been narrowed into a race for higher test scores in a society that abandoned Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” We are now one of the least equal and least mobile modem societies. Less raci... Read Full Post >
The novelist and critic Walter Kirn was a guest on Stephen Colbert's show last night, discussing his new book, "Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever." Kirn's book, according to the description I've read, is a memoir recounting his transition from rural Minnesota to Princeto... Read Full Post >
