Clik here to view.
Concerns about Online Assessment? Yes! It's CAT.
When I forwarded my desperate email to Diane Ravitch to my good friends and kind listeners, my friend, Christine, always so observant and such a careful reader, wondered what my concerns were with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Multiple Issues About Multiple-Choice Items
It's amazing how a late-night email to Diane Ravitchgrew into a charge for me. As I wrote before, my friend Christine asked me why I was upset about the use of the NWEA MAP , especially when it would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Abuse, Misuse, and Overuse of Standardized Tests
Fifty years ago American students and teachers were subjected to the administration of standardized assessments on a semi-regular basis. A portion of a school day was repurposed for the administration...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Data: A Love Story
I was recently engaged in a lively #edchat on Twitter, and one of my Tweeps asked if the term data means the same thing as the term information. This is the gist of my not-so-reverent response:Once...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where Is Our Outrage Over Non-Writing Writing Assessment?
When someone enters the teaching profession as an English language arts teacher, it is with eyes wide open. One of the biggest challenges these teachers face is learning to manage the paper load;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We Know Better (Part I): No Need for Competition!
Over the past few years or so, and with increasing frequency, international comparisons have been made about student achievement, and thus, the quality of schools, across the globe. The American...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We Know Better (Part II): No More Research!
Previously, I wrote about our failure to learn from the successes of other countries, namely Finland, and their educational reform efforts that now provide international models for success. Our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For
"What do we want the students we teach to be like as adults?"This question is at the base of the research conducted by Ron Ritchhart and Project Zero at Harvard University. The responses he has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shovel-Ready Bullet Points 101
In a recent Ed Week blog post, Nancy Flanagan urges her fellow teachers to speak up and offer their perspective on the Common Core. She encourages them to develop salient ideas, and then asks teachers,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Emotional Health at the Core of the Common Core
While the push for academic content standards continues at a constant rate and with a looming launch date, the social emotional health of our children must be at the forefront of this initiative in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Emotional Health Creates Readiness for the Core
When a new initiative is being introduced into a system, most of the efforts focus on planning, training, implementation, and evaluation. The Common Core, an initiative on a level never before seen in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Need for Recognition
Our efforts to improve public education have created a focus on results and a reliance on technology. We now use sophisticated ways to track learning; our students’ scores on national, state, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Emotional Health Is a Global Issue
A recent international summit on education established standards of educational equity, quality learning, and early childhood focus. Most notably, this consensus honored the cross cutting nature of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building Resilience
Our turbulent world offers challenging situations for all of us, most especially for our children. These complex life events, from divorce and death to violence and poverty, are negatively affecting...
View ArticleThe Importance of Trust
Before diving into any educational change initiative, a solid foundation must be in place. When thinking about building resilient schools, this foundation is no less essential, especially with regard...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Overriding Our Negative Instinct
Under a serious threat of danger, some of us call for vicious and immediate retaliation toward the source of the threat. Recently, we have seen this scenario at an international level. During difficult...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bullying: Who Is Most at Risk?
Once aware of our bullying problem in schools, the next question people often ask is "Who is most at risk?" The simple answer is that every young person everywhere is at risk of being a target of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching Empathy to Reduce Bullying
The concept of teaching empathy as a way to reduce bullying is gaining traction both in research and in practice, and there are several good reasons why we should be paying attention.What is empathy?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"Catching" Empathy
Mary Gordon, Founder and President of the Roots of Empathy organization, describes empathy as something contagious that spreads from one person to another. She says that empathy is caught, as opposed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For Parents: Developing Empathy in Your Children
Developing empathy is a powerful and simple way to reduce bullying and aggression in children. In addition to the research- and evidence-based approaches to empathy development available to educators,...
View Article
