Tag Archives: Testing; test scores

A Brief Overview of New Mexico Common Core State Standards (NMCCSS)

Recent articles have called Common Core (CC) into question for a variety of reasons. Many of them seem either politically motivated, nonsense posturing, or both.

  • A few states have tested under CC and found test scores went down from No Child Left Behind NCLB – testing standards under NCLB were gutted a few years ago by allowing states to ‘set their own’ standards if NCLB seemed embarrassingly tough.
  •  ‘CC test scores going down’ is the problem and reveals the ‘experimental’ therefore untrustworthy nature of CC – so, kids performing below grade level, dropping out, and requiring much remediation for higher education are not, and have not been, the problem since even before NCLB passed in 2002?
  • Local standards varied greatly and didn’t seem to be getting the job done anyway – one recent editorial by a U.S. Representative stated a) ‘all these new programs’ were confusing and wasteful, b) government imposed standards was a bad idea, and what was needed were c) ‘voluntary’ standards … really? Voluntary standards? One wonders if the person owned or used a dictionary, besides, NCLB becoming a ‘voluntary standard’ caused big problems.

Anyway, clicking on the image below will take you to a 16-slide Prezi presentation. You can change slides by clicking the right-left arrows at the page bottom; after the first click you can change slides by pressing the left-right keyboard arrows.

New Mexico Common Core State Standards Prezi

Factory Model for Education No Longer Working

Factory Model for Education No Longer Working

Here’s a quick summary of the article. This won’t be surprising if you’ve been reading on the subject, but it is a worthwhile reminder.

  • Industry has been implementing new technologies for 30-40 years
  • Education continues using systems created in the 1900s
  • Teaching the same subjects in the same way at the same pace to a roomful of children
  • In the 1900s, 17% knowledge workers were needed; today it’s 60%
  • Simply techno-cramming is not effective and not efficient without personalizing for individual learning,
  • Utah and Florida performance-based contracting examples are worth looking at:

Read the full article here.

Considering Competency-Based Education

Considering Competency-Based Education

Quick summary:

Integrated student-centered year-round education is the way to go.

Shift emphasis from student endurance  to  student competence.

Shift matriculation from units of time  to  units of learning.

Shift matriculation from birthdays  to  demonstrations of competence.

Read the full article here.

Employers increasingly emphasizing ‘soft skills’

A recent Associated Press article by Paul Wiseman says that top employers want college graduates with skills that don’t show up on school transcripts. I am hearing the same thing from local small and medium businesses about high school and community college graduates. So it’s across the board national and local.

Good potential employees have acquired the necessary knowledge and/or technical skills; exceptional potential employees also have ‘soft skills.’

So, just what are these ‘soft skills?’

  • works well in a team environment – gets along with co-workers
  • can write and speak with clarity and be understood – articulates ideas
  • adapts quickly to changes in technology and business conditions – solves problems on the fly – thinks on their feet
  • can interact with colleagues from different cultures and countries

And that’s the disconnect between what can be taught in a classroom and tested for to show progress for students, teachers, principles, school systems to state agencies and legislators – and what can’t be easily classroom taught or tested that employers are looking and needing to hire.

Solution: above my pay grade, but I can see and appreciate the problem.

What is the best predictor of success in a person’s life?

What’s the best predictor of success in a person’s life?

Dr. Angela Duckworth says it’s “Grit” in this June 2013 video/TED Talk, 

You should watch it.

TED Talks Education  Angela Duckworth: What Is Grit?

 

Common Core State Standards kerfuffle?

In the last few weeks and days, I’ve come across a number of articles expressing pro’s and con’s  about Common Core State Standards (CCSS), with critics mounting a flurry of attacks and proponents working hard to shore up support. One pretty good overview article is Common Core Under Fire: How Strong Is Support for New State Standards? You can get as many details as you want by clicking on various links.

My Prezi presentation on New Mexico’s use of CCSS gives a pretty good overview of what they are, what their intent is, and how they are planned to be used in New Mexico.

The Common Core evolved from a 2009-2010 drive by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to delineate world-class skills students should possess. The standards, created with funding from, among others, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, set detailed goals, such as first graders should understand place values in math and eighth graders should know the Pythagorean Theorem.

“We brought the best minds in the country together to create international benchmarks that, once mastered, would make our students more competitive, globally,” said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. He said his group has no plans to create national science standards.

Here is a brief summary of some of the pro and con positions:

Pro

  • A Kentucky fifth grade teacher said, “These standards take students much deeper into the subjects and force them to do more critical thinking,”
  • No Child Left Behind allowed states to create their own unique standards; which could give them the appearance of higher “scores”
  • A 2010 Fordham Institute study found CCSS Common Core to be “a great improvement with regard to rigor and cohesiveness”
  • CCSS do not dictate curriculum (e.g., textbooks and reading lists) or prescribe methods of instruction  
  • Education technology providers have already been designing products based on CCSS

Con

  • This is a federal intrusion into states rights via Race-To-The-Top via financial incentive
  • 5 states worry  CCSS establishes a de facto “national curriculum” (Utah, South Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Alabama)
  • Implementation may require more time than planned or allowed
  • Republican National Committee decided at their March 2013 approved a resolution condemning CCSS
  • Can standards-based education also be individualized?
  • Seeing children as education industry profit centers may be problematic

So, what do YOU say?

What is school for? (Seth Godin video)

Click What is school for?  to go to the video

An engaging discussion of what the future of education wants to be

… and how

… and why.