MORE ARTICLES

Stay Connected!

Receive the latest updates in your inbox.

LATEST ARTICLES

Why soft skills are pernicious

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by Jim Stergios

Way back in February 2009, we criticized a report issued by the 21st century skills task force report produced by an ad hoc committee established by the chair of the board of education. The report pushed for a move away from the state’s focus on rigorous content-based academic standards and objective tests toward soft skills and portfolio assessments. We criticized the report on many fronts, including its focus on skills rather than content, lack of familiarity with existing state standards, lack of facility with empirical evidence, and on and on. One of the key criticisms we had was that the report wanted to focus this effort on underperforming districts. Hold that thought. The Board of Education has never voted to […]

Time for nailbiting

/1 Comment/in , , /by

Massachusetts has submitted its Race to the Top application and the feds have their scales out, weighing all of the documents, included MA’s 900+ pager. So you’d think that a visit from the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the Hub of the Universe would be newsworthy, right? Hmm. The USED website noted that Secretary Duncan to speak at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Askwith Forum. 2:30-4:00 p.m. at the Askwith Lecture Hall, Longfellow Hall, Harvard Graduate School of Education. 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138. Limited space for press. Calls into USED provided no information and rather asked things like – who are you? why do you want to know? Not an auspicious start. Everybody tightlipped. You […]

Murphy Beats Grossman!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

See, I told you so, someone needed to join Steve Grossman in the Treasurer’s race. Right there in today’s Suffolk poll at Question 19, Murphy leads Grossman in the race. OK, its only 15% to 13% but still… early momentum?

Where's Martha?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Its not easy being the Attorney General. You step on too many local officials and you end up like Scott Harshbarger — you might get nominated but everyone sits on their hands when you need them to work for you. Martha Coakley seemed to have solved that problem through her office’s seeming disinterest in public corruption of high-ranking public officials. During a period that has seen an unprecedented level of indictments and investigations, the US Attorney’s office has done almost all of the heavy lifting. Now, the Amy Bishop case has captured the headlines and raised serious questions about who among the major players — then-DA no-Congressman Delahunt, Braintree Police, and State Police — was delinquent in their duties. The […]

On Finn and Linn

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Checker Finn has a great blog at the Flypaper, which notes the “heavier and heavier burdens” of the common standards project of the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). I disagree with Checker when he notes that we haven’t seen drafts (we have seen several early drafts) and that we can’t see where this is going. The process is really opaque, and given the criticism CCSSI has received on this point without any action to fix it, any reasonable person would conclude that (1) the team is not up to the job or (2) it’s on purpose. Neither answer is satisfactory. In addition, we don’t have a real sense as to how the common […]