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Posts 1 - 17 of 17
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Monday, May 21, 2012 Education Ride 365: Standardizing A Paradox  "Paradoxically we are embracing standardized tests just when the economy is eliminating standardized jobs." -Robert Reich Posted at 8:46 PM (permalink)
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Thursday, April 28, 2011 Trends: Even Bob Dylan Is Probably Shocked By How Rapidly The Times They Are A-Changin'! In the manner of those beyond a certain age, I am fond of thinking about all the ways life is different now than it was just a few years ago! Many reading this can go back further than my recollection of sitting by our dial phone for hours waiting for that certain someone to call. (Just about the time you couldn't take putting off a bathroom run...the phone would ring when you were clear across the house!) Before voice mail, we relied on very unreliable micro-cassette recorders to (when it worked or another family member didn't tape over it) save voice messages for us. Before that, there was no choice but to wait by the phone for extended periods of time just to make sure one didn't miss "that" important call! Nowadays, many of us actually get nervous if we leave home without our cell phone! We are constantly "plugged in." What if something were to happen like you run out of gas or need to reach out to someone immediately?! The story below documents the trend of a dying art form from a near bygone era! The practice of writing and reading cursive is so pre-21st century that it has become perfectly cryptic to many of our young people. Most schools that are still teaching the art of writing in cursive have cut way back on its emphasis. Here are a couple of interesting quotes from the full article you can access from The New York Times by clicking the image below: ...."many districts now teach cursive only in third grade, with fewer lessons." “Schools today, we say we’re preparing our kids for the 21st century,” said Jacqueline DeChiaro, the principal of Van Schaick Elementary School in Cohoes, N.Y., who is debating whether to cut cursive. “Is cursive really a 21st-century skill?” With schools focused on preparing students for standardized tests, there is often not enough time to teach handwriting, educators said. “If you’re a school or a teacher, you can bet that if kids are being tested on it, that it’s going to receive a priority emphasis in your curriculum,” 
Posted at 10:22 AM (permalink)
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Friday, March 25, 2011 In The News: We Always Tell Young People Not To Watch Too Much TV...But Did That Cause Some To Score Lower On The SAT?!A few days ago I posted on a change in AP Testing that leaves the SAT as the only standardized exam that still scores differently between missed questions vs. questions left blank. SAT news making the rounds today is about one essay prompt on the latest administration...and the likelihood that some students may have had a greater advantage than others by virtue of their television viewing habits! "...few questions on the so-called Big Test appear to have provoked more anxious chatter — at least in this era of texting and online comment streams and discussion threads — than an essay prompt in some versions of the SAT administered last Saturday in which students were asked to opine on reality television. “This is one of those moments when I wish I actually watched TV,” (said) one test-taker."All of that said, it sounds like enough background information was provided that a competent writer at that age could tackle the prompt regardless of their TV watching experience. Nonetheless, the students are already nervous and ready to show their 'academic' best on the "Big Test." Perhaps it wasn't an appropriate prompt? Click the image below for the full story at The New York Times  Feel free to leave a comment below! Posted at 10:43 AM (permalink)
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010 In The News: Despite #1 International Ranking, China's Schools Need ReformAbout a month ago, the latest results were released for the international standardized testing effort known as the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. I blogged about it on December 7th ...and posted a follow-up on December 14th. Despite ranking first on this testing, however, Chinese educators are not at all satisfied. In fact, they acknowledge that this sort of testing plays to the strength of the Chinese educational system---->which may actually be so overemphasized that it is the weakness of the Chinese educational system. For more, see the article highlights below, or click on the link to see the entire story. So, in assessing how our students are doing against the rest of the world, are these measures more misleading than they are valuable? What good is the information if most all who are exposed to it will not understand the nuances---if even the general conclusions---to be drawn from the results? Do we want students like those from countries at the top of this list? Or, are we after a different sort of student (citizen)? What do we really want out of our schools? What are we willing to expect of our students and the adults who guide them? Highlights of the National Public Radio article are quoted below. Read or listen to the entire article on NPR here! "...Some educators are calling it "a Sputnik moment," like the launch of the Soviet satellite in 1957 that so shocked America. But the Chinese are not gloating about their success: They realize their educational system — which stresses memorization and largely ignores critical thinking — is in need of reform." "...All Chinese people, no matter poor or rich, they have very high expectations in education. That kind of culture pushes people to study and study and study. I think this is very important," Zhang says. "...The teacher teaches, the students repeat, and even the principal admits the feared final high school exam that gets you into college — known as the gaokao — is all simply about memorization and rote learning. That principal, Liu Jinghai, though he is proud of his students for testing well, says the West shouldn't worry about the PISA results. "Developed countries like the U.S. shouldn't be too surprised by these results. They're just one index, one measure that shows off the good points of Shanghai's and China's education system. But the results can't cover up our problems," he says. "Why don't Chinese students dare to think? Because we insist on telling them everything. We're not getting our kids to go and find things out for themselves," he says. "...As well as the limitations of the Chinese education system, Liu says, it was only students in Shanghai who took the PISA tests, and Shanghai has some of the best schools in China. "As long as the gaokao
scores are what get you, a student, into college — and those are the
scores that also rank the high schools — parents and principals and
teachers can't afford to really experiment with a kind of learning that
encourages independent thinking, and perhaps, learning from mistakes..." Posted at 2:36 PM (permalink)
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010 STAAR: Texas Assessment Conference PowerPointsEarlier today I posted "STAAR Trek"--- a PowerPoint from the general session of the Texas Assessment Conference. For more, any of seventeen other PowerPoints used during the conference may be downloaded from this helpful TEA web page!  What a resource! Check It Out! Pass It On! Posted at 6:00 PM (permalink)
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Pass It On Education Tools: STAAR Overview From The Texas Assessment ConferenceAs previous posts have discussed, Texas is adopting a new state assessment system called STAAR. One of EdClick's fantastic customers, Pilot Point ISD, has posted a PowerPoint (STAAR Trek) on their district website from the Texas Assessment Conference held November 30th-December 2nd in Austin.  When you click "To Slideshow" on the page, the view will change to one like that below and it will then present the slides:  Download the actual PowerPoint file here! Check It Out! Pass It On! Posted at 10:23 AM (permalink)
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Tuesday, December 14, 2010 In The News: How They Topped PISA RankingsI think this is a nice follow-up to the last post on high school stress. It also ties in nicely with previous posts of late on the PISA international rankings, as well as the more general discussion we've had in recent posts regarding just what it is we want from our schools and what demands are we willing to ask of people to achieve this. This is an unflattering analysis of how the city of Shanghai and the other "Confusion cultural circle" countries scored at the top of PISA rankings. It is detailed and includes two rather insightful blog posts from this author's readers and expert consultants. Read the entire post, "How Shanghai Topped PISA Rankings-- And Why It Is Not Big News In China."  Posted at 6:58 PM (permalink)
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010 In The News: International Student Assessment Results ReleasedMy posts have been pretty heavy on accountability and standards development of late. Now, for international developments. Today, The Department of Education at Ed.gov addressed the results of an international test administered every three years to 15-year old students in many countries. The number of countries participating (see the map at the bottom of this post) has grown each testing cycle. Other such international assessment administrations and/or comparisons are growing in prominence as well. Notice the ones mentioned at the bottom of the introduction to PISA. I intend to review a number of those here on this blog in the coming months. As we have come to anticipate, on such international measures the United States ranks a solid mediocre. On this one, typically between 22nd-24th in the world. Incidentally, my next post after this will be my first ever re-post. It was a November 11th post I titled: "Ranking American Schools Internationally." See what you think. Obviously, opinions (comments) are welcome! Below is the entire news release in the name of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  So, that led me to find out more about the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. To quote: PISA assesses the application of knowledge in reading, mathematics, and science literacy to problems within a real-life context (OECD 1999). PISA uses the term “literacy” in each subject area to denote its broad focus on the application of knowledge and skills. For example, when assessing reading, PISA assesses how well 15-year-old students can understand, use, and reflect on written text for a variety of purposes and settings. In science, PISA assesses how well students can apply scientific knowledge and skills to a range of different situations they may encounter in their lives. Likewise, in mathematics, PISA assesses how well students analyze, reason, and interpret mathematical problems in a variety of situations. Scores on the PISA scales represent skill levels along a continuum of literacy skills. PISA provides ranges of proficiency levels associated with scores that describe what a student can typically do at each level (OECD 2006). The assessment of 15-year-old students allows countries to compare outcomes of learning as students near the end of compulsory schooling. PISA’s goal is to answer the question “What knowledge and skills do students have at age 15?” In this way, PISA’s achievement scores represent a “yield” of learning at age 15, rather than a direct measure of attained curriculum knowledge at a particular grade level. Fifteen year-old students participating in PISA from the United States and other countries are drawn from a range of grade levels. Sixty-nine percent of the U.S. students were enrolled in grade 10, and another 20 percent were enrolled in grade 11 (table 2). In addition to participating in PISA, the United States has for many years conducted assessments of student achievement at a variety of grade levels and in a variety of subject areas through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). These studies differ from PISA in terms of their purpose and design (see appendix D). NAEP reports information on the achievement of U.S. students using nationally established benchmarks of performance (i.e., basic, proficient, and advanced), based on the collaborative input of a wide range of experts and participants from government, education, business, and public sectors in the United States. Furthermore, the information is used to monitor progress in achievement over time, specific to U.S. students. To provide a critical external perspective on the mathematics, science, and reading achievement of U.S. students, the United States participates in PISA as well as TIMSS and PIRLS. TIMSS provides the United States with information on the mathematics and science achievement of 4th- and 8th-grade U.S. students compared to students in other countries. PIRLS allows the United States to make international comparisons of the reading achievement of students in the fourth grade. TIMSS and PIRLS seek to measure students’ mastery of specific knowledge, skills, and concepts and are designed to broadly reflect curricula in the United States and other participating countries; in contrast, PISA does not focus explicitly on curricular outcomes but rather on the application of knowledge to problems in a real-life context. The above description of PISA is contained in this 72-page pdf document, as is the map below: Highlights From PISA 2009: Performance of U.S. 15-Year Old Students In Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy in an International Context. The complete results for the 2009 PISA (in six volumes) are available on the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development website here:  This map shows which countries participated in the 2009 PISA.  Posted at 1:48 PM (permalink)
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Monday, December 6, 2010 In The News: A First Look At The Common Core State StandardsThe ACT report, "A First Look At The Common Core and College and Career Readiness," that is the basis of the preceding post is quite good. It is a 16-page document worth reviewing. Here is the introduction:  P.S., as reported earlier, the number of states who have now adopted the standards is up to 43. Texas and Alaska are not expected to join the list. Posted at 2:29 PM (permalink)
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Monday, December 6, 2010 In The News: Common-Standards BarACT Inc. released a report today assessing student proficiency on skills and knowledge outlined in the new common-standards. Determination----> Most students fail to meet the mark.  Posted at 2:07 PM (permalink)
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Friday, December 3, 2010 STAAR: House Bill 3 Transition Plan"The Transition Plan for House Bill 3 contains a detailed description of the process the commissioner of education will use to develop and implement the provisions of House Bill 3 (81st Texas Legislature, 2009), as required by Section 68 of the bill. The transition plan has sections covering the development of the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™) program; the development of new performance ratings for Texas public schools; federal requirements for assessment and accountability; accreditation, sanctions and interventions; and financial accountability. Although HB 3 and this transition plan focus on assessment and accountability, two appendices include summaries of actions taken across other provisions of the bill. A Rulemaking Schedule summarizes State Board of Education and commissioner of education rulemaking required by HB 3. A Status of Implementation table summarizes the implementation status of the bill."  Download Complete House Bill 3 Transition Plan You can also see it broken down into easier to manage sections by clicking here! Posted at 10:01 AM (permalink)
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Thursday, November 18, 2010 STAAR: A New Assessment Model (for Texas) "The state assessments will continue to be based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the standards designed to prepare students to succeed in college and careers and to compete globally. However, consistent with a growing national consensus regarding the need to provide a more clearly articulated K–16 education program that focuses on fewer skills and addresses those skills in a deeper manner, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is implementing a new assessment model for the STAAR tests for elementary, middle, and high school. The majority of the new STAAR assessments will test content students studied that year, as opposed to testing content studied over multiple years. Doing so will strengthen the alignment between what is taught and what is tested for a given course of study.....for more click: STAAR: A New Assessment Model Quoted from TEA .pdf document available above and at TEA's STAAR Webpage. Posted at 11:13 AM (permalink)
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Education Funny: College Exams Can Be ToughI came across this years ago and it made me laugh! It would be tough to even begin to prepare our secondary students for this college assessment! HUMANITIES FINAL EXAM Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all 13 questions. 4 hour time limit. Begin immediately. 1. HISTORY Describe the history of the papacy from its origin to the present day, concentrating especially but not exclusively on its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific. 2. MEDICINE You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and & a bottle of scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until your work has been inspected. You have 15 minutes. 3. PUBLIC SPEAKING 2,500 riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek. 4. BIOLOGY Create life. Estimate the difference in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English parliamentary system. Prove your thesis. 5. MUSIC Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat. 6. PSYCHOLOGY Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Ramses II, Gregory of Nicea, Hammurabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate. 7. SOCIOLOGY Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory. 8. ECONOMICS Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: cubism, the Donatist controversy, the wave theory of light. Outline a method for preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all points of view possible. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question. 9. POLITICAL SCIENCE There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start WWIII. Report at length on its sociopolitical effects, if any. 10. EPISTEMLOGY Take a position for or against truth. Prove the validity of your position. 11. PHYSICS Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics and science. 12. PHILOSOPHY Sketch the development of human thought; estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought. 13. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE Describe in detail. Be objective and specific. ---------------- (I wish I knew who to credit for it. If you know, let me know!) Posted at 11:47 AM (permalink)
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010 STAAR: Goodbye TAKS, Hello STAARThis four page TEA document is "A Comparison of Assessment Attributes: Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) to State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR)" To download the pdf document click: Comparison of TAKS to STAAR This file is also available at TEA's STAAR Webpage. Posted at 7:47 AM (permalink)
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Monday, November 15, 2010 STAAR: Texas Education Agency Assessment Program WebpageThe Texas Education Agency has created an important webpage to disseminate information about the developing STAAR Assessment Program. The page already has important information and more will be added as the process unfolds. Click here for: TEA's STAAR Webpage  Posted at 6:41 PM (permalink)
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Sunday, November 14, 2010 Education Funny: The Age of Accountability! Posted at 10:11 AM (permalink)
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Thursday, November 11, 2010 STAAR: Texas Education Agency LetterDistributed by the Texas Education Agency October 15, 2010 TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED: SUBJECT: Resources for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) This letter provides school districts and charter schools with important information about the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), the new state assessment program that will replace the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) in spring 2012. For grades 3–8, the STAAR program will assess the same subjects and grades that are currently assessed on TAKS. At high school, however, grade-specific assessments will be replaced with a series of 12 end-of-course assessments: Algebra I, geometry, Algebra II, English I, English II, English III, biology, chemistry, physics, world geography, world history, and U.S. history. Attachment A provides an overview of the STAAR program. The Texas Education Agency with the assistance of Texas educators has developed a number of resources related to the STAAR program. These resources, which are available on a new STAAR webpage at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/, include the following:
In December 2010, a plan required by the Texas legislature will be posted to the Texas Education Agency’s website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/. This plan detailing the transition from TAKS to STAAR will include specific information about topics such as the STAAR test designs, the assessment requirements for graduation, the measurement of college readiness, standard setting, and plans for meeting the assessment needs of English language learners and students receiving special education services. Additional STAAR resources will be provided throughout this next year, including explanatory material similar to that found in the current TAKS Information Booklets. These resources will be made available on the STAAR webpage as they are finalized. If you have questions or need further clarification about this information, please contact the Student Assessment Division. Texas Education Agency Assessment Contact Information Department of Assessment, Accountability, and Data Quality, Criss Cloudt, Associate Commissioner Division of Student Assessment, Gloria Zyskowski, Deputy Associate Commissioner (512) 463-9536 studenta@tea.state.tx.us Posted at 3:39 PM (permalink)
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