Education Week – Catherine Gewertz
“A group of state education chiefs has sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, urging him to resist a call for a moratorium on high-stakes uses of tests on the common standards.”(more)
Education News – John Jensen
“So apart from altering the nation’s political makeup, we face two immediate problems–one improving education and the other finding out how well we do it. Both matter. Though a school’s quality may be low, how we test may depress even that.”(more)
The Christian Science Monitor – Amanda Paulson
“Even before teachers have switched to new Common Core curriculum, new assessment tests are in the works. Teachers hope they’ll be better than the current fill-in-the-bubble ones.”(more)
Education News – Julia Lawrence
“…many states have already begun the process of putting Common Core into place with the completion date estimated to be the 2014 academic year…Some states are not waiting until then; New York and Kentucky have already administered CCS-compliant exams to their students. In New York, teachers, parents and students complained that the tests were poorly designed, covered material that had not been taught and frustrated children to the point of tears…New York intends to use the test results in decisions about student grade promotion, teacher job evaluations and school closings.”(more)
The New York Times – Javier C. Hernandez
“Warning that a new set of academic standards was on the verge of falling into the “dustbin of history,” the leader of a national teachers’ union called on Tuesday for school systems to postpone using new tests to evaluate teachers and promote students… Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said teachers needed at least a year to master a new curriculum and review test materials before schools should be held accountable for results.”(more)
Education Week – Erik Robelen
“More than half of American 12th graders lack proficiency in economics, according to new results from “the nation’s report card,” with no overall change in performance when compared with results from 2006, when the assessment was last administered.”(more)
China Daily – Xinhua
“After a decade of trials, independent admission exams held separately by some universities have demonstrated progress in China’s education reform. They are flexible and innovative, helping to prompt secondary education institutions to improve accordingly in order to foster independent thinking and analysis.”(more)
State Impact – Elle Moxley & Molly Bloom
“States have their own academic standards guiding what students are expected to know in each grade. The Common Core is a cooperative effort by state officials around the country to unify these standards — at least for math and English — in the states that decided to adopt them.”(more)
Education Week – Erik W. Robelen
“When STEM education is discussed in the K-12 sphere, it often seems like shorthand for mathematics and science, with perhaps a nod to technology and even less, if any, real attention to engineering. But recent developments signal that the “e” in STEM may be gaining a firmer foothold at the precollegiate level.”(more)
Education News – Julia Lawrence
“New research is showing that the key to keeping students focused on learning material while in the classroom could be frequent tests, according to Boston.com.”(more)
