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November 17, 2011

Myths About National Standards: Myth #1

Being half Greek and long a admirer of Classical Antiquity, I do have a soft spot in my heart for mythology. When it comes to public policy, myths have far less utility, as perhaps the myths about the fate of modern-day Greece...
American Citizenship, Education
November 12, 2011

Does Mass. Exclude Low-Achievers from National Education Tests?

Last week, in reporting the national test results on how our public schools are doing, I noted that while It is wonderful that Massachusetts has maintained its lead nationally, … [o]ur students are no longer improving at the rate they were and...
American Citizenship, Education
November 10, 2011

What will adoption of national standards cost Massachusetts schools?

It’s always struck me as odd that with all the talk about federal money coming from the federal Race to the Top effort to support state implementation of national standards (the so-called Common Core), no one has done a solid cost estimate...
Education
November 4, 2011

Massachusetts: Flatlined on national tests?

EdWeek‘s Erik Robelen is reporting on the just released national test data. He notes that they show that 4th and 8th graders have inched up in mathematics, but the results are more mixed in reading, with 4th grade scores flat compared with...
Education
October 30, 2011

Halloween, Headless Horsemen and Literature in our Schools

The Headless Horseman, painting by John Quidor. In this season of ghosts and goblins, it seems only appropriate to think about the stories that for many generations served to frame our imagination of what Halloween should look like. For generations, schoolchildren of...
Education
October 20, 2011

Inspector Clouseau-style accountability

I noted two weeks ago that recent MCAS data don’t tell a pretty story on urban achievement gaps. Since 2007, the Commonwealth’s performance on national (so-called NAEP) assessments is not so great, flatlining for almost every subject and grade tested. (Note: Stay...
Education
October 6, 2011

Steve Jobs on education in America

Tip of the hat to Whitney Tilson for passing around excerpts from an interview Steve Jobs gave in 1995, during which he talked extensively about his view on education and what should be done to fix it. SJ: I’m a very big...
Education
October 6, 2011

Life Lessons From Steve Jobs

In a blog post entitled Bill Gates doesn’t like the liberal arts, Steve Jobs does, I noted that unlike Gates’ view that higher education spending should be a lot less about liberal arts and much more focused on job-producing disciplines, Steve Jobs...
Education
October 4, 2011

Is student achievement in Massachusetts falling flat?

The short answer that will come in this and blog posts in the next days is, in important ways, yes. So why the image of a big churn? Let’s start with the immediate news of this past year’s MCAS data and what...
Education
October 2, 2011

Dumb and Dumber - Proposed Bill

You can agree or disagree on most bills in the State House. The merits of casino gambling bill? Is it a third-world job creation strategy or an opportunity we are missing? The upcoming pension reform? Reasonable incremental improvements or a half-fix after...