This morning Joe Palca, the NPR science reporter, interviewed a U of Florida plant biologist about growing more tastier tomatoes. The biologist, Harvey Klee, noted that tomato growers were rewarded for size of their tomatoes and yield of their crops. “Flavor is irrelevant,” he said. You see size and yield are easily measured and counted, [...]
Testing —
Category Archives: Testing
Final Bracey report takes to task push for “high-quality schools,” mayoral control of schools, & higher standards
Just received an email from the Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder announcing the 2009 edition of the Bracey report:
BOULDER, Colo. and TEMPE, Ariz. (November 9, 2009) — The 2009 edition of the annual “Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education” offers a sober assessment of [...]
“Too many standards, too little time” writes a teacher with
40 years of experience. In a blog by ContraCosta Times education reporter, the teacher, Steven Weinberg writes:
Having written previously about ways education has improved in the 40 years since I began teaching, I would like to address one change that I do not believe has been beneficial: the attempt to make “content standards” the basis [...]
Gerald W. Bracey, defender of public education…
This afternoon I returned home from a work session. Had some more forms to fill out and return to Vandy. Then I turned to my email that had accumulated since this morning. Read the notice from the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado that Jerry Bracey died Tuesday night in [...]
Frank Smith’s Learners’ Manifesto
The irritating, provocative Frank Smith included the manifesto on Page 62 of his book, Insult to Intelligence. It struck me as relevant when I first read it and I’ve had a copy posted on my bulletin boards ever since. It is not perfect and there are a couple of points with which I quibble. Nonetheless, [...]
“HIV/AIDS Vaccine To Begin Phase I Human Trials”: From yesterday’s slashdot discussions
An anonymous reader writes “An HIV/AIDS vaccine developed in Ontario has [0]applied for Phase 1 human trials. Safety and immunogenicity studies of the vaccine, dubbed SAV001-H, have already been completed on animals. Phase 1 human trials will check the safety of the vaccine on HIV positive volunteers. Phase 2 will then test immunogenicity.”
from the soon-enough-mandatory-like-gardasil [...]
Teacher’s “Cheat Sheet” for classroom questioning
Just added this as a tool in our products page of the website. Useful for discussion leaders and group facilitators as well as classroom teachers and instructors. Has question starters in each of the domains of Bloom and Rick Stiggins’ achievement targets. Useful in stretching students and participants from core knowledge to synthesis and evaluation. [...]
States have to provide data to get rest of stimulus $ for schools
Second phase of funding for public schools from the stimulus bill comes at a price for state governors, according a story in today’s New York Times. Education secretary, Arne Duncan, says to get the money governors have to provide him with a set of data that includes:
Student math and reading scores on local tests, as [...]
The achievement gap: A look with a Southern view
Two researchers from the University of Georgia with a sociology bent make a case for recognizing the prevalency of the South when examining the White-Black achievement gap. They lay out their brief in the article, “Why study the US South? The nexus of race and place in investigating Black student achievement” in the Jan-Feb 2009 [...]
Three one-pagers for teachers and trainers on assessment and achievement
I’ve just added to our Product section three one-page articles on achievement targets, assessment methods, and aligning the appropriate methods for each target. These largely come from material in Rick Stiggins’ textbook, Student Centered Classroom Assessment.
I think, and as I said in the achievement targets intro, learning occurs simultaneously across a number of dimensions. For [...]