Confusion about the cognitive utility of test-prep
Late one Wednesday night in late July, I became entangled in an interesting Twitter thread about testing. It began with Jennifer Borgioli’s tweet: https://twitter.com/DataDiva/status/360208829687926784 … which she followed up with https://twitter.com/DataDiva/status/360210628901744640 NSVF’s Benjamin Riley approved at least of the first: +1 RT @DataDiva: If test is worthy of students, how is teaching to the test […]
On Ravitch, Reign of Error
Bottom line: Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error captures the bulk of concerns that critics voice about the current wave of American school reform. The primary audience includes teachers, and others who hold views similar to Ravitch’s. It also is useful as a quick reference guide to the arguments by reform critics, as most of the […]
Call for Papers: The comparative and international history of school accountability and testing
The current set of debates within national education systems includes significant discussion and enactment of school accountability mechanisms. While there is considerable variation among countries, the internationalization of test-based accountability is a significant and recent phenomenon. That broader pattern of accountability has a history that overlaps with both the history of testing and the broader […]
The wrong moves for faculty
At the start of the academic year, it has now become almost de rigeur to write blog entries/listicles to students about how to communicate with faculty. This comes out of painful experience by those who have had critical emails from students diverted to spam because students used spammish subject lines such as “Hey!” or “Critical […]
General-education courses and barriers to entry
A few days ago I made a number of suggestions for state higher education policy, the first of which was for state legislators to pay the costs of general-education courses that students currently pay in tuition and fees, at least at community colleges. This morning, Matt Reed writes that he is concerned about two consequences […]