In a growing story, the ACT, Inc. has told the Herald-Leader that it will now outlaw use of calculators augmented with algebra software on the COMPASS college-readiness test. This provides further evidence of an assertion from Northern Kentucky University professor Steve Newman that the use of such calculators was inflating student scores. The new move…
Add the Chicago teachers union to the teachers’ union in New York State and the president of the National Education Association who are now calling foul on Common Core State Standards as implemented. A few of the things that irk teachers in President Obama’s home town include: • The purpose of education is to educate…
One criticism leveled by opponents of the Teach for America (TFA) program is that many TFA teachers quit after their initial, two-year commitment has expired. Well, that’s apparently not so in Floyd County’s public schools. The Floyd County Times reports that all the TFA teachers in that school system are staying on. It’s great news…
I’ve been slowly collecting examples of how Kentucky’s Unbridled Learning school accountability program may not be getting the message right. Some of the early indications are found in the Bluegrass Institute’s “Blacks Still Falling Through Gaps, the 2012 Update,” where I point to several schools that got Unbridled Learning’s top award of “School of Distinction”…
The US Department of Education is spending well over $300 million on two competing test programs to assess student performance against the Common Core State Standards. One of those testing programs is being developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). The other one is from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and…
Could inflate Kentucky’s College and Career Ready rates Taking a responsible action, the Kentucky Department of Education has determined that the use of smart calculators on the COMPASS test from the ACT, Inc., could inflate scores and has now outlawed use of those calculators for testing. The findings could impact the state’s reported College and…
The Indianapolis Star reports on a new, massive student database program being created in Indiana and how the benefits could be overshadowed by data privacy concerns. After reading the law passed in March to create this giant database, Indiana University law professor Fred H. Cate, director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at the…
Huge states’ rights fight looming? Fred Hess at the American Enterprise Institute reports: Showing the taste for power that has led Sen. Lamar Alexander to accuse him of thinking he runs a national school board, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today yanked Washington State’s “waiver” from the No Child Left Behind Act. In his letter,…
In the latest Kentucky public school example of kids-are-just-a-bounty mentality, the Pulaski County Public Schools just ended a long-standing student transfer agreement with the better performing Science Hill Independent School District. A quick look at the latest EXPLORE test results shows why Pulaski County was losing students – Science Hill is definitely doing a better…
The “Rob Peter to Pay Paul” education decisions in Kentucky’s new state budget are already generating fallout. Aside from cutting funding for higher education to provide more money to K to 12 schools (go figure), the new state budget mandates raises for teachers without fully funding all districts to provide those increases. As a consequence…