A Little T & A

Testing:  At the ES website there is an online discussion going on all week about Elena Silva’s new paper (pdf) on assessments that capture a broader range of student skills.  You can participate.

Accountability:   My US News column this month is about accountability and the coming debate over that.  Punchline:  The hardest issues are not the technical ones but rather the political and cultural ones.

One Reply to “A Little T & A”

  1. Why do you think that the “accountability” measures are improving our children’s learning?

    Certainly, the NAEP has shown little/no growth over that time that NCLB has been in place and the gap between disadvantage and advantage kids remains stubbornly large.

    Even if you take the gaming of the system away from the schools/states regarding improvements and proficiency, this type of reform has still been a colossal failure. Kids really are not learning any more than they did 10-20 years ago. The learning gap is huge and with the path that our schools are on will not close any time soon.

    There are better ways to reform our nation’s schools. Certainly, top nations around the world have figured out how to both raise the achievement levels of all their students and close the learning gap at the same time. If we could make the SES contribution to student learning as low as Macao-China or Finland(~3%-9%), our disadvantaged students would be infinitely better than they are now. Why are you not shouting their solutions at the top of your lungs?

    What is so appealing about NCLB/accountability that garners your support to the exclusion of real reforms that have been proven to close the SES learning gap?

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