The damage to teaching and learning caused by over-reliance on standardized tests is widely acknowledged. It includes narrowed curricula, teaching to the test, and one-size-fits-all instruction. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers a significant opportunity for states and districts to revamp their assessment systems. Unfortunately, few states plan to replace standardized tests with educationally […]
Educators in a school district that conducts well-designed formative assessments should be able to accurately predict how students will perform on midterms, finals and high-stakes exams. A growing number of experts and administrators insist that if a district excels at formative assessment, its students shouldn't have to sit through so many high-stakes tests. "We don't […]
Whirling fidget spinners invaded classrooms across the country this past spring, but with many schools banning them as a distraction, their future as a potential remedy for students with attention difficulties is in doubt. Classroom impact Teachers from districts including Mt. Pleasant City School District in Michigan and Catawba County Schools in North Carolina, were […]
In a classroom in New Hampshire, second-graders pull out iPads to film themselves discussing the characters of a book they are reading. Such video selfies increase students' understanding of the story's characters and how those characters resolve problems, says Amy Riley, who teaches at Stratham Memorial School in School Administrative Unit 16 in Exeter. "The […]
Allowing students to explore news articles that spark their curiosity can provide a bigger literacy boost than having them read nonfiction texts about random topics far removed from a youngster's interests. At Lancaster Middle School near Buffalo, New York, students read news articles to help write stories for a classroom magazine and to prepare for […]
In the latest round of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam, given to more than 500,000 15-year-olds in 72 nations, students in the U.S. once again scored in the middle of the pack—and below average in math—raising concerns and sending educators looking for answers. The search often turns to the top of the […]
Most educators are enrolling in online professional learning courses in part because they want to increase their knowledge, according to a report by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). The 2016 Vision K-20 Professional Learning (PL) survey sampled 705 education professionals, including teachers, principals, librarians and tech directors from pre-K through grade 12 and […]
Big high school football stadiums in Texas have come under scrutiny from local fiscal watchdogs, but pushback is just part of the story about sports facility finance—where expenditures and potential revenue sources have grown more complex and potentially lucrative. Critics say palatial athletic facilities prioritize sports over the classroom and waste taxpayer money. But supporters […]
Another group of states in 2015-16 deployed their own Common Core-aligned assessments, adding greater momentum to a national shift away from the PARCC and Smarter Balanced testing consortia. Who's still testing with PARCC and Smarter Balanced? Another group of states in 2015-16 deployed their own Common Core-aligned assessments, adding greater momentum to a national shift […]
As of April, 31 states have introduced 94 different student data privacy bills, according to the nonprofit Data Quality Campaign. The governors of New Hampshire, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia approved the first student data privacy laws of 2016, with each law focusing on data governance, transparency and leadership: New Hampshire's HB 301 establishes a […]
