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The See-Saw of Education: The Suprising Reasons Why Other Nations Outperform the US
What, you say? Yesterday it was push-pull and today it’s see-saw? What will it be tomorrow??? Tomorrow? Well, maybe I will use a phrase that Rob Horowitz and I used to bandy about: the churn. I am a big fan of Valerie Strauss’s blog in the Washington Post: The Answer Sheet. It doesn’t hurt that…
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Essential Reading for Arts Education–Unintended Consequences: High Stakes Can Result in Low Standards
Okay, fair enough, the article I am strongly recommending is not about arts education, per se. Or is it? Why don’t you give a good summer read to Linda Perlstein’s piece in the American Educator: Unintended Consequences: High Stakes Can Result in Low Standards. As an added bonus, you get a short piece by noted…
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A Moment of Clarity: Test Scores in New York State Are Recalibrated
Many of you have no doubt heard the great news over the past few years about rising ELA and math test scores in the New York City Public Schools. But wait, there was more: test scores were rising all across the state, no matter what the intervention. The New York State Department of Education has…
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Through a Prism: The Bending of K-12 Arts and Education
As much as people are disappointed with the way arts education is situated within the USDOE’s Blueprint for ESEA reauthorization, most people I know inside and outside the arts are pleased with the proposal to rethink AYP . For those who don’t get what I am talking about, click here for a quick and lively…
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Oh! The Tests You’ll Take–What Dr. Seuss Might Have Written Today
Perhaps, had Dr. Seuss been alive today, he might have written the counterpart to Oh! The Places You’ll Go and called it: Oh! The Tests You’ll Take. One of the things I like to do with this blog is to bring to your attention things you might have missed. Here’s one for ya: Tips for…
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Insult to Injury: State Reading Tests Can be Passed by Guessing
This little topic is a tough one. Think about it: according to number of different reports, the NY State ELA tests, which drives just so very much of the educational industrial complex, can be passed by guessing. When arts education is being pushed off the table, out of the school day, etc., look to how…