“Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools,” as reported in the Post.
Posts Tagged ‘standards’
Common Education Standards for 46 States
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009Nation’s Report Card… On the right track?!?
Monday, May 4th, 2009In today’s Washington Post, Margaret Spellings mildly praised the progress created by NCLB. That “Student achievement results from the Nation’s Report Card published last week show that we are on the right track. Since enactment of the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, which called for all students to be on grade level in reading and math by 2014, students have been making progress in reading and math in elementary and middle school. Improvement has been greatest for African American and Hispanic students and those students who are lowest-achieving.” But, I will unforunately offer a different statistic and insight into our condition.
Mad Hatter Educator
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009For those of you that follow this blog, this topic of “madness” among educators is one that I’ve commented on frequently outside of this blog. Thus those that follow me in academia will know of this subject: The propensity of “mad” tendencies, aka insanity, among educators.
Obama puts spotlight on education…
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-na-obama-education25-2009feb25,0,2871040.story?track=rss
Los Angeles Times, by Frank James
“Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma,” Obama said. “And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.”
Here’s a difficult question… “Why?” Why might it be the case in the United States that we have 2 large issues with dropout rates at the secondary and collegiate levels?”
The Case Against Nationalized Standards: A Response to Randi Weingarten
Friday, February 20th, 2009Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/15/AR2009021501257.html
Author: Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT
“The countries that consistently outperform the United States on international assessments all have national standards, with core curriculum, assessments and time for professional development for teachers based on those standards… But there is little outrage over the uneven patchwork of academic standards for students in our 50 states and the District of Columbia. And the federal government has tacitly accepted this situation by giving a seal of approval…” She reneges on her affinity for nationalized control, stating…
“I am not talking about federal standards… nor am I proposing that state and local education authorities lose all say on curriculum. I certainly am not suggesting that teachers be forced to provide instruction in a scripted, lock-step manner, unable to tailor lessons or draw on their own expertise…. Education is a local issue, but there is a body of knowledge about what children should know and be able to do that should guide decisions about curriculum and testing.” Then she proposes only what already exists, stating…
“I propose that a broad-based group — made up of educators, elected officials, community leaders, and experts in pedagogy and particular content — come together to take the best academic standards and make them available as a national model. Teachers then would need the professional development, and the teaching and learning conditions, to make the standards more than mere words.”
Eliminating Age-based Grade Levels: The next great trend
Thursday, January 1st, 2009Source: The Denver Post 12/21/2008
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11280071
Educators and Administrators are watching intently how this next experiement upon learning methods will effect graduation rates and the meeting of standards. This experiment by the Adams 50 district will remove age-based, developmental-based, grade levels and exchanged them for academic, achievement-based levels. At first glance this could be a “small step, giant leap” scenario, the reality is that this could be nothing more than “rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship.” Why might I say this, well let’s examine how the old system was supposed to work.
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