Articles Archive

  • Our friend from Arizona, Mike Martin,  posted the following on EDDRA2. a listserv we are part of.  It was in response to an article in the Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet.  Here, Mike takes on the kind of teacher evaluation proposed and being piloted in Washington State.  What is your verdict?  We post it here with Mike’s permission.   I call to the stand Professor James Popham, an expert on testing who noted that test construction requires that for a question to be valid it must be answered by only about half of the students.   Me: Professor Popham, would you please tell the court what you stated in a March 1999 Educational Leadership article:   Professor Popham: “Thus, the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge, and/or skills, the less likely it is that there...

    Value-added teacher evaluation goes on trial

    Posted on February 6, 2012 | 3 Comments
    Our friend from Arizona, Mike Martin,  posted the following on EDDRA2. a listserv we are part of.  It was in response to an article in the Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet.  Here, Mike takes on the kind of teacher evaluation proposed and being piloted in Washington State.  What is your verdict?  We post it here with Mike’s permission.   I call to the stand Professor James Popham, an expert on testing who noted that test construction requires that for a question to be valid it must be answered by only about half of the students.   Me: Professor Popham, would you please tell the court what you stated in a March 1999 Educational Leadership article:   Professor Popham: “Thus, the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge, and/or skills, the less likely it is that there...

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  • Karl F. Kuhn, author of the Conceptual Mathematics program and the series of articles about standardized testing which has been featured here examines the concept of multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner.  Excerpts from this article: Recent research has led to a recognition that should have been obvious all along, that intelligence is not a single concept, but that there are many types of intelligence within the human mind. This recognition has been termed “Multiple Intelligences.” …America places inconsistent emphasis on the intelligences. In school, language and math are the two most emphasized intelligences, but interpersonal and kinesthetic tend to be unsupported, even opposed. …It is best not to reduce any multidimensional, complex system, such as intelligence, to a single number. Go to this link to read the complete article: http://conceptualmath.org/philo/assessment.html   Go to this link for the series of...

    IQ vs. Multiple Intelligences and Assessment

    Posted on January 29, 2012 | No Comments
    Karl F. Kuhn, author of the Conceptual Mathematics program and the series of articles about standardized testing which has been featured here examines the concept of multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner.  Excerpts from this article: Recent research has led to a recognition that should have been obvious all along, that intelligence is not a single concept, but that there are many types of intelligence within the human mind. This recognition has been termed “Multiple Intelligences.” …America places inconsistent emphasis on the intelligences. In school, language and math are the two most emphasized intelligences, but interpersonal and kinesthetic tend to be unsupported, even opposed. …It is best not to reduce any multidimensional, complex system, such as intelligence, to a single number. Go to this link to read the complete article: http://conceptualmath.org/philo/assessment.html   Go to this link for the series of...

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  • The following is excerpted from an article by Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit organization created to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers.   “Education “reformers” have a common playbook. First, assert without evidence that regular public schools are “failing” and that large numbers of regular (unionized) public school teachers are incompetent. Provide no documentation for this claim other than that the test score gap between minority and white children remains large. Then propose so-called reforms to address the unproven problem — charter schools to escape teacher unionization and the mechanistic use of student scores on low-quality and corrupted tests to identify teachers who should be fired.”   Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-facts-that-school-reformers-ignore/2012/01/23/gIQABWQRMQ_blog.html  

    The facts that school reformers ignore

    Posted on January 25, 2012 | No Comments
    The following is excerpted from an article by Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit organization created to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers.   “Education “reformers” have a common playbook. First, assert without evidence that regular public schools are “failing” and that large numbers of regular (unionized) public school teachers are incompetent. Provide no documentation for this claim other than that the test score gap between minority and white children remains large. Then propose so-called reforms to address the unproven problem — charter schools to escape teacher unionization and the mechanistic use of student scores on low-quality and corrupted tests to identify teachers who should be fired.”   Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-facts-that-school-reformers-ignore/2012/01/23/gIQABWQRMQ_blog.html  

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  • Parents, you may not have noticed during your teacher conferences, school concerts, or encounters at the supermarket, but America’s teachers have about had it with the pressures of their jobs and the lack of respect they are getting from legislators, the media, corporate leaders, and even you.  I manage several Facebook accounts on public education and thought you might be interested in some comments on just one thread over a span of a couple of hours.  They are representative of what I am seeing every day from across the U.S.  I should mention that the people who post on this site are the fighters.  They are the ones not willing to let the mandated standardized tests dominate their teaching.  They still see children as individuals, each with special needs, and they are trying to prepare them for the real world,...

    Teacher Morale at Low Ebb

    Posted on January 20, 2012 | 1 Comment
    Parents, you may not have noticed during your teacher conferences, school concerts, or encounters at the supermarket, but America’s teachers have about had it with the pressures of their jobs and the lack of respect they are getting from legislators, the media, corporate leaders, and even you.  I manage several Facebook accounts on public education and thought you might be interested in some comments on just one thread over a span of a couple of hours.  They are representative of what I am seeing every day from across the U.S.  I should mention that the people who post on this site are the fighters.  They are the ones not willing to let the mandated standardized tests dominate their teaching.  They still see children as individuals, each with special needs, and they are trying to prepare them for the real world,...

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  • We recently received a poignant article by a Facebook friend from Fordham University.  We are reprinting it here with permission of the author. If You Want to Know the Human Impact of The Current Recession, Ask America’s Teachers Mark Naison Fordham University One of the things I’ve discovered in recent years is that when it comes to education policy, the last people asked for input are America’s teachers. We have a President who holds an” education summit” that includes the nation’s top business leaders and foundation heads, but no teachers; we have billionaires lobbying to privatize education and break teachers unions; we have an organization that purports to work for educational equity that encourages its recruits to leave teaching after two years because they can influence policy more by moving into other, more prestigious careers, rather than spending a lifetime...

    Ask America’s Teachers

    Posted on January 12, 2012 | No Comments
    We recently received a poignant article by a Facebook friend from Fordham University.  We are reprinting it here with permission of the author. If You Want to Know the Human Impact of The Current Recession, Ask America’s Teachers Mark Naison Fordham University One of the things I’ve discovered in recent years is that when it comes to education policy, the last people asked for input are America’s teachers. We have a President who holds an” education summit” that includes the nation’s top business leaders and foundation heads, but no teachers; we have billionaires lobbying to privatize education and break teachers unions; we have an organization that purports to work for educational equity that encourages its recruits to leave teaching after two years because they can influence policy more by moving into other, more prestigious careers, rather than spending a lifetime...

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  • Excerpts from this article: Over the last few years America has invested a great amount of talk into the low quality of education. Most of this talk focuses on teachers. Teacher accountability programs have been mandated by NCLB and created in almost every state. However, as we shall review below, most of the major decisions affecting the quality of education are not made by teachers. …Education is primarily top-down. Politicians and administrators make the decisions about the methods, the curriculum, and the goals. They give teachers mandates. Teachers are frequently not permitted to draw on their training and experience to contribute to the decisions about curriculum, methods, or student needs. …This top-down approach is plagued by fads and constant reform. …NCLB and other reforms place increasing pressure on educators to teach all students the same material – regardless of the...

    Can We Be Confident In Standardized Test Results? – Part 9

    Posted on January 4, 2012 | 1 Comment
    Excerpts from this article: Over the last few years America has invested a great amount of talk into the low quality of education. Most of this talk focuses on teachers. Teacher accountability programs have been mandated by NCLB and created in almost every state. However, as we shall review below, most of the major decisions affecting the quality of education are not made by teachers. …Education is primarily top-down. Politicians and administrators make the decisions about the methods, the curriculum, and the goals. They give teachers mandates. Teachers are frequently not permitted to draw on their training and experience to contribute to the decisions about curriculum, methods, or student needs. …This top-down approach is plagued by fads and constant reform. …NCLB and other reforms place increasing pressure on educators to teach all students the same material – regardless of the...

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  • Excerpts from this article: …Schools pay much lip service to student-centered education lately.  However, actions taken by schools and school administrators frequently run contrary to actually supporting student-centered learning.  So, to raise awareness of student-centered education, we provide the assessments of schools and classrooms below.  …Student-centered learning does have risks, but so do the alternatives.  We do not have enough resources to be fully aware of each student’s individual optimums, or to teach each student according to his individual optimum.  Demanding perfect student-centered approaches from teachers will overwhelm them with more work than they can possibly do. …when schools demand curriculum-centered or test-centered learning, teaching tends to focus on the lowest cognitive levels. Students tend to get treated as tests-scores and academic rank, not as individuals. Students tend to gain knowledge without gaining understanding.

    Can We Be Confident In Standardized Test Results? – Part 8

    Posted on December 19, 2011 | No Comments
    Excerpts from this article: …Schools pay much lip service to student-centered education lately.  However, actions taken by schools and school administrators frequently run contrary to actually supporting student-centered learning.  So, to raise awareness of student-centered education, we provide the assessments of schools and classrooms below.  …Student-centered learning does have risks, but so do the alternatives.  We do not have enough resources to be fully aware of each student’s individual optimums, or to teach each student according to his individual optimum.  Demanding perfect student-centered approaches from teachers will overwhelm them with more work than they can possibly do. …when schools demand curriculum-centered or test-centered learning, teaching tends to focus on the lowest cognitive levels. Students tend to get treated as tests-scores and academic rank, not as individuals. Students tend to gain knowledge without gaining understanding.

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  • This opinion piece was submitted by Ray Porter.  Porter is an I.B. student currently attending Kennewick High School.  He attended Amistad Elementary in the K.O.G. Program, and went to Park Middle School.  You can see Porter in KeHS Drumline, Jazz Band and Windensemble; around town, in the Tri-City Herald and at nearly every board meeting. See note below.   With regard to Middle School Advanced Courses (Highly Capable Programs) Policy 2166:   2166-P Instruction Highly Capable Programs In accordance with the philosophy to develop the special abilities of each student, the district shall offer appropriate instructional programs to meet the needs of highlycapable students of school age. The framework for such programs shall encompass, but not be limited to, the following objectives: 1. Expansion of academic attainments and intellectual skills. 2. Stimulation of intellectual curiosity, independence and responsibility. 3. Development of a...

    Revisions Needed to English Courses in Kennewick Middle Schools

    Posted on December 16, 2011 | No Comments
    This opinion piece was submitted by Ray Porter.  Porter is an I.B. student currently attending Kennewick High School.  He attended Amistad Elementary in the K.O.G. Program, and went to Park Middle School.  You can see Porter in KeHS Drumline, Jazz Band and Windensemble; around town, in the Tri-City Herald and at nearly every board meeting. See note below.   With regard to Middle School Advanced Courses (Highly Capable Programs) Policy 2166:   2166-P Instruction Highly Capable Programs In accordance with the philosophy to develop the special abilities of each student, the district shall offer appropriate instructional programs to meet the needs of highlycapable students of school age. The framework for such programs shall encompass, but not be limited to, the following objectives: 1. Expansion of academic attainments and intellectual skills. 2. Stimulation of intellectual curiosity, independence and responsibility. 3. Development of a...

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