Learning Archive

  • I have spent a little time today looking at the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) over the past several years. The NAEP is often referred to as the gold standard in testing and provides a longitudinal, consistent database of student achievement. Meanwhile, through the No Child Left Behind Act, the public has been sold on the idea that a regimen of high-stakes tests accompanied with punitive measures directed at teachers and schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress on these tests will produce growth in achievement and will close the so-called achievement gap. We are now more than 10 years into the experiment on our children and the results are coming in. Here is what my investigation of Washington State NAEP trends found. In the period from the mid-90s to 2003, about when NCLB kicked...

    High-Stakes Testing: Learning Improvement Tool or Corporate Boondoggle?

    Posted on April 29, 2012 | No Comments
    I have spent a little time today looking at the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) over the past several years. The NAEP is often referred to as the gold standard in testing and provides a longitudinal, consistent database of student achievement. Meanwhile, through the No Child Left Behind Act, the public has been sold on the idea that a regimen of high-stakes tests accompanied with punitive measures directed at teachers and schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress on these tests will produce growth in achievement and will close the so-called achievement gap. We are now more than 10 years into the experiment on our children and the results are coming in. Here is what my investigation of Washington State NAEP trends found. In the period from the mid-90s to 2003, about when NCLB kicked...

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  • KSD Citizens has been concerned with an over emphasis on testing since our inauguration.

    High Stakes Tests Bad for Learning

    Posted on March 11, 2012 | No Comments
    KSD Citizens has been concerned with an over emphasis on testing since our inauguration.

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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 relationship between class size and learning. Excerpts from this article: …Teachers have long suggested that the addition of a few more students has a big impact on manageability. This can be understood when we realize that teachers are managing the interactions between students not just individual students. …So how many interactions must a teacher manage to have a successful classroom? This graph shows how student interactions increase with class size. …The challenges to managing a classroom increase rapidly as the population increases. Class size has a major impact on the potential learning for the students. Go to this link to read the complete article: http://conceptualmath.org/philo/classize.html Go to this link for the series of articles about MAP...

    Effects of Class Size on Learning

    Posted on March 9, 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 relationship between class size and learning. Excerpts from this article: …Teachers have long suggested that the addition of a few more students has a big impact on manageability. This can be understood when we realize that teachers are managing the interactions between students not just individual students. …So how many interactions must a teacher manage to have a successful classroom? This graph shows how student interactions increase with class size. …The challenges to managing a classroom increase rapidly as the population increases. Class size has a major impact on the potential learning for the students. Go to this link to read the complete article: http://conceptualmath.org/philo/classize.html Go to this link for the series of articles about MAP...

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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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  •  Excerpts from this article:  …Failure to use the correct assessment method, focus, or reporting method will lead to ineffective or counterproductive decisions.  …Rarely is delayed learning the result of failure to learn prerequisite skills. Delayed learning typically results from nonacademic issues, depression, poor eyesight or hearing, lack of study skills, not being familiar with the language or culture of the test, etc. …State Educational Agencies – Can you demonstrate to concerned citizens that your mandated standardized tests serve their intended purpose? Can you verify that the tests both accurately and precisely provide useful data? …Teachers -  Have you been trained to understand the limits to accuracy and precision for the standardized tests you are required to use? Have you observed a mismatch between the test scores and your students’ real performance? …Parents – Your child will be required to take many...

    Can We Be Confident In Standardized Test Results? – Part 6

    Posted on November 24, 2011 | No Comments
     Excerpts from this article:  …Failure to use the correct assessment method, focus, or reporting method will lead to ineffective or counterproductive decisions.  …Rarely is delayed learning the result of failure to learn prerequisite skills. Delayed learning typically results from nonacademic issues, depression, poor eyesight or hearing, lack of study skills, not being familiar with the language or culture of the test, etc. …State Educational Agencies – Can you demonstrate to concerned citizens that your mandated standardized tests serve their intended purpose? Can you verify that the tests both accurately and precisely provide useful data? …Teachers -  Have you been trained to understand the limits to accuracy and precision for the standardized tests you are required to use? Have you observed a mismatch between the test scores and your students’ real performance? …Parents – Your child will be required to take many...

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  • We should be paying attention to this kind of information instead of  teaching to the MAP test: Dear Edutopia Friend, Improving education takes more than dedicated individuals (though we need them too!). It takes a movement of educators, parents, and innovators coming together to share new ideas. That’s why I encourage you to download our Classroom Resource Guide on brain-based learning. I hope you’ll find the Guide useful and that it will spark your own creativity. Just by downloading the Guide, you’re working as part of the movement to improve education. Here are three ways you can stay connected and spread the word. Share the knowledge! Do you know other educators, parents, or administrators who could benefit from this Guide? Tell them how they can access this classroom-tested and practical Guide through Facebook or Twitter. Alternately, you can just send this...

    Six Tips for Brain-Based Learning from Edutopia

    Posted on November 19, 2011 | 2 Comments
    We should be paying attention to this kind of information instead of  teaching to the MAP test: Dear Edutopia Friend, Improving education takes more than dedicated individuals (though we need them too!). It takes a movement of educators, parents, and innovators coming together to share new ideas. That’s why I encourage you to download our Classroom Resource Guide on brain-based learning. I hope you’ll find the Guide useful and that it will spark your own creativity. Just by downloading the Guide, you’re working as part of the movement to improve education. Here are three ways you can stay connected and spread the word. Share the knowledge! Do you know other educators, parents, or administrators who could benefit from this Guide? Tell them how they can access this classroom-tested and practical Guide through Facebook or Twitter. Alternately, you can just send this...

    Continue Reading...

  • I am often asked why I am so opposed to the drill-and-test curriculum that has been foisted on the public schools by corporatists and legislators over the past couple of decades in the name of accountability.  There are many reasons, of course, but I will focus on what I consider the core issue here.  The big issue for me is that the so-called reform efforts pay no attention to what is known about the brain and how we learn.  As you read the following article, think about what research supports and the instruction that is actually going on in schools today.  Then answer the question: What do you want for your children?

    Cognition-Based Principles of Learning

    Posted on September 6, 2011 | 4 Comments
    I am often asked why I am so opposed to the drill-and-test curriculum that has been foisted on the public schools by corporatists and legislators over the past couple of decades in the name of accountability.  There are many reasons, of course, but I will focus on what I consider the core issue here.  The big issue for me is that the so-called reform efforts pay no attention to what is known about the brain and how we learn.  As you read the following article, think about what research supports and the instruction that is actually going on in schools today.  Then answer the question: What do you want for your children?

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  • Introduction Recent advancements in brain research, cognitive psychology and other cognitive sciences have created a new climate for understanding intelligence and learning. Theories of cognitive modifiability, multiple intelligences, and constructivism emphasize the uniqueness of each brain and its ability to grow connections throughout one’s lifetime. The people who support the model currently in vogue, standards-based learning, are oblivious to this momentous research and base their programs on a prescribed set of outcomes that all students are expected to master, in sequence, by a particular time. Of course schools have historically been designed to teach specific learning thought to be of value to society. These included information, skills and processes that became both more specific and abstract as the students grew older. Interest, aptitude and parent prodding were among the forces that moved individual students along particular paths as they advanced...

    Ideas for Real Reform

    Posted on January 6, 2011 | 1 Comment
    Introduction Recent advancements in brain research, cognitive psychology and other cognitive sciences have created a new climate for understanding intelligence and learning. Theories of cognitive modifiability, multiple intelligences, and constructivism emphasize the uniqueness of each brain and its ability to grow connections throughout one’s lifetime. The people who support the model currently in vogue, standards-based learning, are oblivious to this momentous research and base their programs on a prescribed set of outcomes that all students are expected to master, in sequence, by a particular time. Of course schools have historically been designed to teach specific learning thought to be of value to society. These included information, skills and processes that became both more specific and abstract as the students grew older. Interest, aptitude and parent prodding were among the forces that moved individual students along particular paths as they advanced...

    Continue Reading...

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