ACTE Creates Outline for "Career Ready"
The Association for Career and Technical Education released a paper today that delineates their ideas on what students need to be career ready.
Flipping Florida: The New Employment Bargain
The only thing at stake is the future of American. Two big dramas involving teachers and testing are at play in education. My last post discussed the $350m federal grant program that is likely to lock in another decade of bubble sheet tests rather than a forward leaning framework open to the flood of keystroke data telling us more than we ever knew about achievement, motivation, and learning modality.
More Widgets, Fewer #2 Pencils
With last week's launch of the $350m federal grant program last week, National Journal is hosting a conversation about student assessment. Here's my contribution.
Why Great Teachers Matter to Low Income Students
"Consider the recent national math scores of fourth- and eighth-graders, which show startling differences among results for low-income African American students in different cities. In Boston, Charlotte, New York and Houston, these fourth-graders scored 20 to 30 points higher than students in the same socioeconomic group in Detroit, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and the District of Columbia. Boston fourth-graders outscored those in Detroit by 33 points. Ten points approximates one year’s worth of learning on these national tests, which means that by fourth grade, poor African American children in Detroit are already three grades behind their peers in Boston."
JD Hoye Taking NAF to Next Level
Sandy Weill can be very persuasive.  About three years ago, a consultant enjoying a Bay Area lifestyle found the former Citi CEO’s pitch good enough to convince her to commute to New York City every week. Sandy formed National Academies Foundation in 1984 (when I was still working in…
Cristo Rey: Keeping Urban Catholic Education Vibrant
Out of financial desperation, Father Foley created a corporate sponsored work-study program at this Little Village Catholic high school on Chicago’s westside. Soon student work was helping to pay the bills. And then something surprising occurred to students, teachers, parents, and Father Foley—the work-studies were often the most important experience…
Making Data Matter
Interesting day at the EdWeek Leader’s Forum on Making Data Matter.  Dan Katzir, Broad, did a great job kicking off the event with lessons learned over 10 years.  Amiee Guidera did a great job outlining the Data Quality Campaign agenda. It was disappointing only 6% of the participants responded…
i3 Reviews
Had five conversations about i3 in the last 24 hours: Three focused on applicant eligibility. There is a very high bar for applicants. Read this section carefully. It requires a very strong track record of student achievement with a couple exceptions for nonprofits producing results leading to achievement. Don’t apply…
Harlem Success
Harlem Success Academy runs the best elementary schools I’ve visited with the most: reading; students in 4th grade read at least 25 leveled books per month. science: students get hands on science every day starting in Kindergarten well equipped classrooms: teachers use every square inch of floor and wall…
Book of Work
Had an encouraging conversation at College Board this morning about the potential for a new AP assessment system that would allow several testing times each year (eventually many times or anytime) and reduced reliance on the end of course assessment but considering a ‘book of work’ during the course taking…