Common Core

February 16, 2018

Op-ed: Copernicus Inspires Us To Seek Out A Challenging Education

[av_image src=’https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Copernicus-1.jpg’ attachment=’22833′ attachment_size=’entry_without_sidebar’ align=’center’ styling=” hover=” link=” target=” caption=” font_size=” appearance=” overlay_opacity=’0.4′ overlay_color=’#000000′ overlay_text_color=’#ffffff’ copyright=” animation=’no-animation’ av_uid=’av-jy671ry6′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-jy672es9′ admin_preview_bg=”] Op-ed: Copernicus Inspires Us To Seek Out A Challenging Education February 16, 2018by Jamie Gass...
December 12, 2017

Study: Updated Massachusetts K-12 Standards Are Worse in English, Still Mediocre in Math

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-desktop-hide=” av-medium-hide=” av-small-hide=” av-mini-hide=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=”] Check out news coverage: “Report warns of falling test scores” (Salem News, Newburyport Daily News, Gloucester Times); Bloomberg Bay State; Accuracy in Academia; The Lowell Sun; The Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise;...
January 3, 2017

Op-ed: Will DeVos avoid the Beltway education trap?

By Jim Stergios and Charles Chieppo Read this op-ed online at USA Today. Education nominee could improve on past secretaries by backing state and local innovation. Every administration since President George H.W. Bush’s has pinned its hopes of transforming American K-12 education on several...
October 12, 2016

Study Finds Common Core Incompatible With Catholic Education

Singular focus on workforce development conflicts with Catholic schools’ academic, spiritual and moral mission BOSTON – The workforce-preparation focus of the K-12 English and math standards known as Common Core puts them at odds with Catholic education, and the standards should not...
May 9, 2016

Op-ed: Poetry teaches more than rhyme

Originally posted beginning on Apr. 23, 2016 in The MetroWest Daily News, The Milford Daily News, The Brockton Enterprise, and on Diane Ravitch’s Blog. “[T]he best words in the best order,” is how Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who authored the lyric sea ballad...
April 28, 2016

The Education Writers Association casts its narrowing gaze on Boston, May 1-3

Many billions have been spent, and continue to be spent, promoting the Common Core Standards and their associated consortium tests, PARCC and SBAC. Nonetheless, the “Initiative” has been stopped in its tracks largely by a loose coalition of unpaid grassroots activists. That...
February 16, 2016

Fordham’s PARCC v. MCAS Report Falls Short

Guest post by Richard P. Phelps The Fordham Institute has long been at work on a study of the relative quality of tests produced by the two Common Core-aligned and federally funded consortia (PARCC and SBAC), ACT (Aspire), and the Commonwealth of...
December 17, 2015

West Virginia, Massachusetts and why the End Common Core ballot is going forward

When it comes to the “confidence game” that has been played around the country to advance Common Core standards, there are few places where connivance was more on display than in West Virginia.  As noted in a post in March of 2012,...
November 12, 2015

Pioneer Statement on Next-Generation MCAS Announcement

We applaud the Baker administration for proposing that Massachusetts retain its academic independence and testing autonomy, but the Commonwealth should reject any further participation in the PARCC consortium. MCAS has served Massachusetts very well for nearly two decades. The test and the...
November 11, 2015

Fordham report predictable, conflicted

Guest Post by Richard P. Phelps On November 17, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will decide the fate of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and the Partnership for Assessment of College Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)...