Posted on 09/02/2010 1:55:51 PM PDT by reaganaut1
The Department of Education on Thursday awarded $330 million to two groups of states to design new standardized tests to replace the end-of-year reading and math exams used over the past decade to measure achievement under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The new tests, which are to be aligned with the common academic standards that nearly 40 states have adopted in recent months, are to be ready for the 2014-15 school year, the department said.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the new tests would be of higher quality than the exams most states use now, which he has criticized as narrowly focused “bubble tests.” The two groups are made up of 44 states, 12 of which belong to both. Each group promised to design tests that would be administered by computer, and would include not just multiple choice questions but also what designers called performance tasks.
One group has 25 states and the District of Columbia and is led by Florida; it includes several other large states, including California, Illinois and New York. Known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, the group was awarded $170 million.
“The partnership’s assessments, both end-of-year and through-course, will include challenging performance tasks and innovative, computer-enhanced items that elicit complex demonstrations of learning,” the group said in its application to the Education Department.
The department said in a statement that the partnership’s assessments would “test students’ ability to read complex text, complete research projects, excel at classroom speaking and listening assignments, and work with digital media.”
The other group has 31 states and is led by Washington; it includes other Western states like Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah, as well as some in the East, like Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
NCLB has failed to substantially diminish the achievement gap, as have all previous effforts. I think these achievement gaps largely results from IQ gaps and will not go away. The next step of the desperate and dishonest educationists will be to redefine academic achievement so that all groups score the same. Then they can require employers to accept worthless academic credentials at face value or face "disparate impact" lawsuits.
Two and Two before.
Improvement in education will not happen until the teacher unions are broken.
In fact, unions in general now account for the many disastrous economic and educational policies in America.
Public schools remain a disaster.
Independent schools, parochial schools, private schools, charter schools and home learning are the best alternatives.
Under Dem and NEA leadership, Maine has gone from having a respectable educational system to, I believe, the bottom of the barrel. Maybe DC is worse.
What used to e done in junior high YEARS ago is now done in HIGH SCHOOL. It's dumbing kids down. The standards are LOW.
It is an end run around the State's right to CONTROL their own education. It is a federal take over of your state standards. I recall Obama saying, it doesn't make sense to move from one state to another and have different standards. He will change this through his “Race to the Top”. It's really a Race to the Bottom with the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT usurping STATE STANDARDS that YOU as a voter should be controlling.
“The beatings will continue until you stop doing better than others.”
Bringing EVERYONE DOWN and level the playing field through FEDERAL CONTROL of your State's standards.
What we used to do in Junior High (middle school), they don't do till HIGH SCHOOL. It's ridiculous! It's also a touchy feeley agenda with NO knowledge. They want them using calculators in kindergarten. No kidding. It's that bad. You must go with their government agenda or you don't get the money.
Maybe it is about time schools en masse take on the federal government for its abuse of power and control.
“It’s also a touchy feeley agenda with NO knowledge.”
It’s process-driven, not results-driven, and the teacher education programs will say as much.
Bravo! I have been saying this for years. Along with having to simply throw a grenade (not literally) into the whole public school apparatus and start over.
Children get a voucher that can be used at any (ANY) school. It can be used to help with homeschooling as well. It could be used for online schooling if that is the choice, and once you open up the system the innovation and different choices and opportunities for education with appear.
I also envision having a nationwide test once a year to zero in on those schools that are failing their students, so that we could remove funding from them.
How's that?
Yes, you stated it better. It's playing with their minds. It's all about PROCESS and NOT RESULTS. Most kids are taught to achieve, which means RESULTS. Now they don't care about that. It's hardly motivating to care when it's PROCESS they care more about. It's a joke.
Results don't matter - especially when it is GROUP THINK WORK. What matters most to them is, is everyone GETTING ALONG. It destroys the INDIVIDUAL and destroys SELF confidence and makes you DEPENDENT on the GROUP. If you have a non performer in the group, kids have to HIDE their IGNORING of the kid and get the job done. Kids have to be POLITICAL and let the non performer believer they are doing something but in reality, kids that CARE get stuck with the work. So non performers have the APPROVAL of the "teacher" as he/she shoves off the responsibility of MOTIVATING kids onto other KIDS. It's also LESS WORK to grade GROUP PROJECTS. It's becoming more and more subjective and motivated kids are getting screwed and they know it.
Welcome collaborative learning - the step child of cooperative learning that didn't work.
You are echoing Ayn Rand’s comments on education from the 1960s. I mean that as a compliment.
Ayn Rand had somethings right, however when it came to morality she was nothing to get excited about. Her whole world revolved around money. I have nothing in common with Ayn Rand and if we happen to agree on something it is simply a coincidence and nothing more. Coming from Russia, it is a shame she couldn’t shake off her atheism and lead a happy life instead of a the life she lead.
After they are schooled in GROUP THINK and PROCESS oriented rather than RESULTS oriented, what EMPLOYER will WANT THAT? They won't. Employers are RESULTS oriented and it's more INDIVIDUAL oriented. For example a company wanting a consultant is not going to hire a TEAM of consultants when ONE should be enough.
Hopefully some business will stay in the U.S.. If Obama isn't stopped, they won't. Asia will continue to eat our lunch.
I feel bad for the kids who really are getting shortchanged. Many of them don’t have the necessary basic skills - after 12 years of public school!
to urban children having children and speaking only black slang at home, english IS a second language...
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