Archive
component:when.measuring-success
What Sort of Research Should We Be Doing on Blended Learning?
A foundation advisor asked, “Is there a smart approach donors might take with blended learning research?” Following are seven areas that could use some attention.
States Report Challenges in Their Race to the Top
Last week, the Department of Education released reports for 12 Race to the Top grantees, detailing their progress (or lack thereof) on transforming education at the local level. The reports highlight the second-year work and accomplishments and challenges of implementing new information systems and the required tougher evaluation systems and related collective bargaining agreements.
Part 1: To Personalize Learning, First Personalize Teaching
The irony is hardly lost on anyone when at education-related professional conferences educators sit in the audience as experts lecture them about how to teach as a guide-on-the-side rather than a sage-on-the stage. A “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” moment that often has even the lecturer chuckling.
Answers For & Lessons From Critics of Competency-Based Learning
I'm trying to square two things that happened last week. The Nellie Mae Foundation issued a great report called Making Mastery Work: A Close Up View of Competency Education (MMW), a visit to 11 cool schools. The other event was a Facebook dialog with unschoolers that think competency-based schemes are more testing in a fancy package.
Pacific Metrics Acquires Prize-Winning Automated Scoring Software
Pacific Metrics announced this week that it has acquired the prize-winning Automated Student Assessment Prize (ASAP), which means that states will now have access to a new era of automated scoring that will in turn improve student writing outcomes.
Better Online Schools & Learning Options
Virtual schools and online courses work better for some kids than others. Some of variance is provider based; some of it is student based. In most cases, there is not very good data on students or providers. A new report explained, "Most state accountability and data systems can't easily provide the information about individual student growth on mastery outcomes that is necessary to produce the ans
Better Learning Online
Learning online is rapidly becoming part of every student's day whether it's a game on a smart phone, a workstation in a classroom, or an online course with a teacher at a distance. As full and part-time online learning becomes more ubiquitous, critics have become more vocal. Reports have criticized mixed results on traditional measures. State leaders press for effectiveness and efficiency.
Playing the Teacher Evaluation Game – A Race to Nowhere
For the past two years, the Department of Education, state departments of education and education foundations have proffered “teacher effectiveness” initiatives focused on evaluation systems, but none has truly moved the needle when it comes to closing the student achievement gap. Are evaluation systems the answer to poor academic achievement in the classroom?
10 Must-Haves to Lift Us from the Grading Quagmire
Converting existing schools to a competency-based environment can be a monumental challenge. At the top of the list of controversial items is grading—the old A-F system imprinted in our brains. There are 10 edtech advances that will help make the competency-based environments easier to manage.
Review: Philip Howard on Fixing Education
Philip Howard is a lawyer, author of Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America. In a recent Atlantic piece, Howard pitched a five part bureaucracy busting platform. We appreciate the effort, but it's got a lot of holes in it.