The Answer Sheet: national standards


Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/21/2011

Testing the Common Core Standards
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran of the standardized testing industry sets out to discover whether the Common Core Standards are "revolutionary" or whether they look a lot like standards states already have. Here's his report.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/21/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  academic benchmarks, common core standards, common standards, content standards, national standards, standardized testing, standardized testing industry, state standards, testing industry, todd farley, todd s. farley

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 08/20/2010

Where’s the rigor in U.S. schools?
By Valerie Strauss
The release of new ACT results shows that much of what U.S. schools offer is “rigorous” in name only.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 08/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  a nation at risk, academic rigor, common standards, curriculum and schools, hechinger report, justin snider, national standards, standards and curriculum

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 08/16/2010

Willingham: Can reformers control their own reforms?
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, looking at Paul Peterson's book "Saving Schools," writes about education reformers and the problem they have historically encountered in keeping control of the reforms they launch. How this pattern will affect the Common Core standards is a big question, he says.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 08/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  common core standards, daniel willingham, national standards, paul peterson, paul peterson's book, saving schools, school reform

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 08/02/2010

Willingham: What’s missing from Common Core standards plan (Part 2)
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham asks: "If the educational system has so many interacting parts, how can we ever know whether a change we make to part of the system is useful?" Then he answers it, two ways.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 08/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Daniel Willingham, common core standards, national standards

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 07/26/2010

Willingham: What’s missing from national standards plan (Part 1)
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham analyzes whether the Common Core standards for math and English language arts are likely to improve schooling over the next decade.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 07/26/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  analysis and common core standareds, common core standards, criticism and common core standards, daniel willingham, national standards, no child left behind and legacy, what's missing from common core standards

Posted at 07:25 AM ET, 07/21/2010

Primer for ed reformers (or, it’s the curriculum, stupid!)
By Valerie Strauss
A curriculum expert says school reformers are ignoring this truth: "I say the familiar “core curriculum” in use in America’s schools and colleges is a problem-plagued, dysfunctional,19th Century relic that fits the 21st Century about as well as the first Model T Ford fits into I-75 traffic." And here's how to fix it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  07:25 AM ET, 07/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  changing the curriculum, common core standards, curriculum reform, how to design curriculum, how to reform a school, marion brady, national standards, primer for reforms, race to the top, school reform, the answer sheet

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 06/07/2010

Will new standards mean better-educated kids? -- Willingham
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham looks at the final version of the Common Core standards for math and English Language Arts and analyzes their likely impact on learning over the next decade. Will students be better educated? From a quick read the standards look pretty good, but most would agree that high-quality standards are necessary but not sufficient for positive impact.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 06/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Common Core standards, Daniel Willingham, content standards, national standards

Posted at 08:45 AM ET, 05/12/2010

Goodlad: How to help our schools -- Part 3
By Valerie Strauss
Influential educator John Goodlad completes a three-part series on how to fix our schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:45 AM ET, 05/12/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  John Goodlad, John Goodlad, John Goodlad | Tags:  Guest Bloggers, John Goodlad, NCLB, National Standards, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top | Tags: John Goodlad, goodlad and a place called school, goodlad on school reform, guest bloggers, john goodlad and school reform, no child left behind and goodlad, race to the top, school reform

Posted at 09:15 AM ET, 04/30/2010

Are ed reformers ignoring American values?
By Valerie Strauss
By Marion Brady. Perhaps most curious of all is the present education reform effort’s disregard for deep-seated American values. With the possible exception of Australia, no other country matches America in professed admiration for the non-standard person....Why, then, is there near-universal enthusiasm for national standards?

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:15 AM ET, 04/30/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  Common Core Standards, Marion Brady, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, american values, guest bloggers, national standards, national standards and american values, schools and american values

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 03/10/2010

The problem(s) with the Common Core standards
By Valerie Strauss
Wanting kids around the country to know the same important skills and concepts makes sense. But there are problems with the national Common Core Standards in math and English that are being released today

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 03/10/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  National Standards | Tags:  Common Core standards, national standards

Posted at 07:30 AM ET, 09/28/2009

Willingham: Reading Is Not a Skill--And Why This Is a Problem for the Draft National Standards
By Valerie Strauss
A draft of voluntary national standards for reading was just released, and at first glance the 18 standards sound quite sensible: students should be able to determine what a text says, make inferences from it, discern the most important ideas, and so forth. Many of the standards boil down to this notion: "The student will be able to comprehend the text.” For the others, comprehension is a prerequisite. The problem is that teachers and administrators are likely to read those 18 standards and to try to teach to them. But reading comprehension is not a “skill” that can be taught directly.

By Valerie Strauss  |  07:30 AM ET, 09/28/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Daniel Willingham, National Standards, Reading

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/22/2009

CHECKING IT OUT: The Push for National Standards--and Why You Should Care
By Valerie Strauss
The new release of a draft of national standards for math and language arts brings into sharp focus an effort to reform public education--based on the notion that all Americans should have the same basic foundation of knowledge and skills. The impetus behind national standards is understandable, but the bottom line is that Americans don't all have the same educational needs.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 09/22/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  National Standards, National Standards | Tags:  content standards, education secretary arne duncan, national standards, no child left behind, school reform