(This guest blog was written by Scott Joftus, co-founder and president of Cross & Joftus, an education consulting firm based in Bethesda, MD. He can be reached at scott@edstrategies.net.) “People who drive faster than me are jerks. People who drive…
Category Archives: Assessments
Finnishing Off Reform 1.0
May 1, 2012 – 1:28 pm
If we think of education reform as beginning with the publication of “A Nation at Risk” in 1983, we can think of the current period as “Reform 1.0”. With the soon-to-be-implemented Common Core State Standards Initiative (and the “vast machinery”…
The Core of Good Teaching
April 12, 2012 – 9:55 am
The recent draft release of a Common Core exemplar lesson on The Gettysburg Address caused quite a kerfuffle. Proponents of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) approach view the lesson as a strong example of good teaching. It’s tightly…
In Praise of ‘Seat Time’
April 10, 2012 – 1:58 pm
“Seat time.” That’s the classic concept of education. Spend three, four or five hours a week in a classroom and get credit for knowledge of the subject. Of course, to get the credit, one has to “earn” a grade. Don’t…
An Inspector Calls
January 25, 2012 – 2:18 pm
Were he alive today, George Bernard Shaw might get more than a little enjoyment from contrasting the American approach to school improvement and that of our cousins across the pond. In “On Her Majesty’s School Inspection Service,” a new report…
Typin’ and Cryin’: Goodbye NCLB AYP
January 17, 2012 – 7:00 am
The first round of eleven NCLB waiver applicants will soon learn whether their submissions are good enough to earn the Department of Education’s (ED) stamp of approval. When that happens, we will lose something very important to our education system…
Book’em, Danno
January 12, 2012 – 2:27 pm
If Secretary Duncan went to Hawaii for Christmas vacation, I doubt anyone threw him a luau. The Department of Education has placed the Aloha state on “high risk” status because of its inability to make “adequate progress” toward meeting the…