FairTest, an organization that “advances quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools”, has prepared a report on confirmed incidences of schools cheating on standardized tests in recent years. The report includes discussion of multiple means through which schools Read more
Through the influence of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has provided money for many different educational studies in recent years, Bill Gates has become an influential name in education. It might be expected that Gates would support educational reforms more along the lines of the privatization-corporatization model as Read more
As the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) becomes an official 501(c)(3) to become more sustainable, they are also continuing to roll out preparation tools for their expected 2014-15 school year testing. PARCC and Smarter Balanced are the two education consortia charged with creating assessments to Read more
Kenneth R. Howe and David E. Means of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Education Policy Center have recently published a brief entitled “Democracy Left Behind: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education.” In this brief, Howe and Means describe the negative impact of No Read more
The teachers’ strike in Chicago has generated considerable interest in the use of test-based measures of teacher effectiveness in personnel decisions. For a clear discussion of the uses, value, and limitations of test-based measures check out the CADLER Conversation on the issue. The National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data Read more