Several states are toying with the use of the SAT or ACT as a new graduation exam. Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, a variety of gradation readiness assessments. None of that turned out to be actually possible; test results were inconsistent and unreliable, and converting test scores to a value-added measure turned out to be a pipe dream. I spent 39 years as a high school English teacher, looking at how hot new reform policies affect the classroom. Some of the ideas here are speculative. That dream is dead. The standards are still a presence in education, but not the hot-button issue they once were. So while many states are looking to draw back from a high stakes test, the search for an alternative is a bit messy, depending on which state you live in. Some states, like Florida, are wringing their hands over the huge number of littles who are testing as "not ready" for kindergarten. The biggest crisis, the most major struggle in education right now, may well be the education of the Pre-K through grade 3 crowd. Senior Contributing Writer Catherine Gewertz surveys this changing college admissions landscape. The argument is that third grade reading skills are correlated with later success, but there is little evidence that retention does any good. There’s agreement that we have a dysfunctional standardized-testing system in the United States, Associate Editor Stephen Sawchuk writes. But in some local districts, the cost of school choice programs has created major financial crises. Her insights are accompanied by one teacher’s advice for navigating underserved students through the college application process. But all 10 of them here have one thing in common: They share a sense of urgency. And read an account from a disaffected educator on how he built a coalition of his own. The issue deserves to be on the front burner of education policy discussion, and the Democratic primary has brought some attention to it, but time will tell if we have the will to really work on it. Public schools are bad; charter schools are worse. Many teachers may have lost faith in the system, says Andrew Ujifusa, but they haven’t lost hope. The original Common Core dream was that every student in every school in every city in every state would be studying essentially the same things at roughly the same time. Read more. Read more. Related to this, but much less discussed, is the parallel staffing system set up to feed and advocate for the parallel school system. Parent/Community Member, Close Learning Gaps to Keep Students on Track, Telling a Story through Science Curriculum, Addressing your students’ needs holistically, How to Accelerate Reading Gains in as Few as 10 Weeks, Trauma Informed Schools During COVID-19 Infographic, Building Academic and Social-Emotional Skills Through Play, Remote Learning Checklist: Actionable tips for forward-thinking educators, Transitioning to Remote Learning and Progress Monitoring: How One District Connected Home and School During COVID-19, CARES Act Funding for Special Education—What You Need to Know, 6935 Arlington Road, Bethesda MD 20814 Federal lawmakers must act swiftly to address key learning losses students are facing because of pandemic disruption. Sawchuk’s musing on the alternatives to annual tests is accompanied by an argument for more rigorous classroom assignments by a teacher-practice expert. In the meantime, teachers and parents have complained about the amount of time spent prepping for the Big Standardized Test. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Backwards scaffolding works poorly if one disregards the developmental stages of the youngest students, and that has been a criticism of Common Core all along. Staff Writer Benjamin Herold explores the innovation trap. Read more. For years, the Common Core Standards were the hot button issue. Education reform advocates leaned hard on the notion that test results could be used to make staffing and salary decisions for teachers, or even evaluate college teacher programs. Here's hoping that we do a better job of addressing it over the next year. Read more. © 2020 Forbes Media LLC. To scaffold that, you figure that they can add five pounds to their load in each preceding year of school--the end result is telling 5-year-olds to bench press forty pounds. "We don't have time for recess," many administrators have declared. Teacher - High School Other states have promised to stamp them out, but it remains to be seen if they can really accomplish the task. Let us know what you think, and what big ideas matter to your classroom, school, or district. And while a few places have addressed the problem successfully, mostly the education system is stumped. 1-800-445-8250 (Customer Service), By clicking "Register" you are agreeing to the, ERS Practical Tools for District Transformation, Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, Superintendent - Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS), Providence Public Schools, Providence, Rhode Island, Indian Prairie School District 204, Naperville, Illinois, Seminole County Public Schools, Sanford, Florida, Hamilton County Department of Education, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Want to know what educators really think about innovation? Read more. District Superintendent, Deputy/Asst. It also attempts to steer national reformin areas such as teaching, curriculum, assessment and the use of evidence. State Government Personnel Education Research/Analysis You can read about last year’s ideas here. School is boring. District Personnel - Other (Admin., Specialist, etc.) School Policy. It has been years since we first started saying the kindergarten is the new first grade, but we haven't fully reckoned with the implications of that shift. Imagine that your goal was to have students bench press a hundred pounds at graduation. A mentoring initiative brought girls back to class in Tanzania amid the coronavirus pandemic, and may be a model for elsewhere in the world. His essay includes a perspective from a researcher on dismantling elite bilingualism. School-based Personnel - Other (Admin., Specialist, etc.) The Assistant Editor unpacks this year’s outbreak of teacher activism. This centres on increased funding (A$307.7 billion in total school recurrent funding from 2018 to 2029). Depending on the form it takes, it may appear under a variety of other names (performance based learning, competency based education, etc) and drenched in a thick sauce of marketing jargon. Her analysis is accompanied by an essay from the president of the American Educational Research Association on what is perpetuating education inequality. "We've got to get them ready for that fourth grade test now!" Read the pros and cons of these controversial school policies. Trying to run multiple parallel school systems with the money previously used for just one system is taking a toll on American education. Much of the discussion of standards is still held in plain sight, under the phrase "college and career ready." Experts say if schools focus only on speed of reopening, they won’t be able to stay open. Charter growth has actually stalled, though Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is more partial to voucher style reforms. Glenn C. Savage, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy and Sociology of Education, University of Western Australia The Coalition’s approach to schooling policy since the 2016 election has primarily focused on its Quality Schools agenda. Ramped up kindergarten has several causes. One was the backwards scaffolding of the Common Core. Is there a next "big thing" that could shift the K-12 experience or conversation? Library Personnel/Media Specialist Read more. You may opt-out by.