Alfie Kohn is a widely published critic of competition, rewards, and other standard K-12 educational practices (such as homework prior to age 15). His latest book is Feel-Bad Education and Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011).

by Alfie Kohn / Huffington Post Education Section / 23 May 2011

The results of an opinion poll will vary — and not by a little — as a function of how the questions are phrased. “Do you favor special preferences for minorities in the form of affirmative action?” will attract many fewer favorable responses than “Do you favor efforts to help minorities get ahead in order to make up for past discrimination?” And then, of course, there are “push polls,” which only pretend to sample people’s views while attempting to influence them: “Would you be more or less likely to vote for Congressman McDoodle if you knew he was a practicing Satanist?”

I find myself thinking about how much more — and less — there is to polling than meets the eye whenever I come across one of those surveys that school administrators like to distribute to parents. I have to assume these are not intended as the equivalent of push polls, that there’s a sincere desire to be responsive to the community and an honest pride in being able to cite “data” to judge the effectiveness, or at least the popularity, of school policies. (Data good.)

To read more…

Image Source: Alfie Kohn website

In this article, University of Pennsylvania education professor Katharine Beals details where assessments commonly go wrong (e.g., assessing what has not been taught) and what can be done to ensure they go right. Beals is the author of Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World: Strategies for Helping Bright, Quirky, Socially Awkward Children to Thrive at Home and at School and writes the blog Out in Left Field.

Assessing K-12 Assessments

by Katharine Beals / Education News opinion / 25 May 2011

As the 2010-2011 school year enters its final marking period, as states wrap up their No Child Left Behind tests, and as colleges and selective high schools send out their admissions decisions, ‘tis the season of K12 assessments. They come in all shapes and sizes and measure all kinds of things…For all the assessing that assessments do, how often are they themselves assessed? Where do we even begin?…should this assessment be graded, and, if so, how? How many points should the student lose? What other consequences or follow-up measures should ensue as a result of the student’s mistake?

…One way to address these last questions is to step back and consider K12 assessments in general. Whether the assessment tool is a test, a homework assignment, or an in-class activity, what purposes does it serve?

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by James Gee (ASU) / Huffington Post / 23 May 2011

There is a lot of talk today about “digital natives” and “digital brains.” Some people use the phrase “digital literacy” for skills with digital tools. The word may be more appropriate than many people know.

Traditional literacy (reading and writing) has and still does come in two grades. One grade leads to working class jobs, once a good thing when there were unions and benefits, but now not such a good thing when it means low pay and no benefits, usually in service work. The other grade leads to more meaningful work and more financial success. What distinguishes these grades of literacy? The premium grade involves mastery of so-called “academic language,” the forms of language used in research, empirical reasoning and logical argumentation. Now, I am well aware that nearly everyone hates “academic language” (things like “Hornworms exhibit a significant amount of variation,” rather than “Hornworms sure vary a lot in how well they grow”), but when they are in good jobs, they are there because they got through their high school chemistry book and argued and debated their way out of a good college.

Does digital literacy come in two grades, as well? Are there ways with digital media (as there are ways with words) that lead to quite different results, despite the fact that everyone is participating and using digital media? I believe there are. Further, I believe that the premium grade involves mastery of “specialist/technical language,” the forms of language used in specialist communities devoted to technological skills and reasoning. Such language is linguistically fully akin to “academic language”; indeed, it’s a variety of it.

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Image Source: publisher (Palgrave Macmillan)

In the most recent Atlantic Monthly online magazine, Joel Klein, outgoing Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education discusses the obstacles to school reform he encountered on the job. He’s not optimistic about the current state of affairs or its prospects for dramatic reform, writing that America’s students are “stuck in a ditch” while the “rest of the world is moving ahead,” and yet we have little sense of “national urgency.” The solution? Not possible unless there is a “major re-alignment of political forces.” Only then can we “rebuild our entire K–12 system on a platform of accountability; attract more top-flight recruits into teaching; and use technology very differently to improve instruction” — the difficult but necessary work of school reform.

The Failure of American Schools

by Joel Klein / Atlantic Monthly online magazine / June 2011

Three years ago, in a New York Times article detailing her bid to become head of the American Federation of Teachers union, Randi Weingarten boasted that despite my calls for “radical reform” to New York City’s school system, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and I had achieved only “incremental” change. It seemed like a strange thing to crow about, but she did have something of a point. New York over the past nine years has experienced what Robert Schwartz, the academic dean of Harvard’s education school, has described as “the most dramatic and thoughtful set of large-scale reforms going on anywhere in the country,” resulting in gains such as a nearly 20-point jump in graduation rates. But the city’s school system is still not remotely where it needs to be. [...] That story holds more than true for the country at large.

To read more…

Image Source: Wikipedia entry on Joel Klein

Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using the Tools of Social Media

by Trip Gabriel / New York Times / 12 May 2011

Wasn’t it just the other day that teachers confiscated cellphones and principals warned about oversharing on MySpace?

Now, Erin Olson, an English teacher in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, is among a small but growing cadre of educators trying to exploit Twitter-like technology to enhance classroom discussion. Last Friday, as some of her 11th graders read aloud from a poem called “To the Lady,” which ponders why bystanders do not intervene to stop injustice, others kept up a running commentary on their laptops.

To read more…

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Through the Next Generation Learning Challenges, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has championed learning technologies as well as common core standards in order to update education for the 21st century. Now, the Foundation has made a significant gift to the Pearson Foundation to fund its development of teaching and learning tools for common core standards, including both free and commercial curriculum modules in math and language arts across grades. The commercial modules are expected to be offered by the Pearson publishing company, which operates the non-profit Pearson Foundation. The blend of open source and proprietary educational materials is certain to have its critics, but such a model also promises continued funding for development and support, i.e., financial sustainability.

Foundations Creating Online Common-Standards Coursework

by Catherine Gewertz / EdWeek / 27 Apri 2011

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Pearson Foundation announced today that they’re working together to craft complete, online curricula for the common standards in math and English/language arts for elementary, middle, and most of high school.

The Pearson Foundation’s work is being supported by a $3 million grant from the Gates Foundation. It’s part of a $20 million suite of Gates grants that are aimed at developing a range of teaching-and-learning tools for the common standards. They capitalize on new technologies such as gaming and social networking.

To read more…

Image Source: Pearson Education logo

Starting on April 29th, Mind/Shift’s My Education series (7 parts to date) has focused on the success of Rocketship Education, a three-charter school cluster founded in 2007 in San Jose, California.  Rocketship Education has gained attention for its innovative methods and high-performing students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (91% at its flagship school qualify for free or reduced price lunch).

Rocketship Education focuses on college-preparedness from kindergarten onward, offers a tightly scheduled day of sequenced learning, and incorporates learning technologies that emphasize formative assessment to track student progress closely and regularly.  The goal is to empower students through individualized learning and to improve their performance through data-driven instruction.

The segment on formative assessment (Part V) provides a valuable entrance into Rocketship’s philosophy.

Focus on Assessments Fuels Rocketship’s Goals by Tina Barseghian / 5 May 2011

Test scores are very important to Rocketship Education, a cluster of three charter schools in San Jose, California.

One of Rocketship’s biggest points of pride is the high API score at its flagship school, Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary in San Jose, where 91% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Rocketship scored 925, the same as the average of Palo Alto School District, a much more affluent community nearby.

But that’s not the only score the network focuses on. Rocketship assesses students every eight weeks to make sure they’re on track.

To read more…

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