Alabama: Politicians Win, Educators Lose
Larry Lee, a close follower of education politics in Alabama and former board member in Montgomery, writes here about an ill-informed decision by Governor Kay...
Category : NAEP
What You Need to Know About Standardized Testing
Valerie Strauss posted this article that I wrote on her Washington Post site “The Answer Sheet.” The tests now required by federal law are worthless....
Louisiana: Reading Scores in Early Grades Decline under Reformer John White
Louisiana has been firmly in the grip of “reformers” (i.e., believers in privatization, Teach for America, and high-stakes testing) for many years. The “reformers’” biggest...
Andrea Gabor: First Tasks for Secretary Cardona: Cancel Standardized Testing, Pursue Equity
Andrea Gabor has some good ideas about what the new Secretary of Education must do. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, will...
NAEP 2021 Has Been Canceled. State Tests Should Also Be Canceled.
The accountability hawks have decided that NAEP testing must be canceled this spring because of the pandemic, but the burdensome, useless, meaningless annual testing of...
What Does NAEP Really Tell Us?
James Harvey, executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable, regularly sends out news bulletins about education. His group might be thought of as the antithesis...
NAEP 12th Grade Scores: Unchanged Since 2005
Those of you who have followed this blog for many years know that I don’t put much stock in twelfth grade NAEP (National Assessment of...
Why Does the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Repeatedly Lie about Vouchers in Florida?
The Wall Street Journal editorial board has three core beliefs about education. 1. Public schools are horrible. 2. Teachers’ unions are evil. 3. Non-unionized charters...
NAEP Scores Drop in History, Civics: DeVos Blames Public Schools, Not NCLB, RTTT, ESSA, CCSS
The National Center for Education Statistics released NAEP scores in history and geography, which declined, and in civics, which were flat. Secretary of Education Betsy...
The Secret to Mississippi’s “Success” in Fourth-Grade Reading, Revealed by Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Many researchers were amazed to see that the state of Mississippi had a sharp growth in its fourth-grade reading scores. Fortunately, the far-right Thomas B....