Common Core Standards: Sky is not falling, but ground is shifting

All of the talk about Common Core and assessments misses many fundamental issues, including the central factor that standardized tests do not measure learning. They are truly worthless to help us determine whether or not kids have learned anything. I won’t argue this point with anyone who hasn’t studied the independent research, for the conclusions are very consistent. Only research conducted or financed by entities with much to gain financially from this vast move to “standardize” everything — supports use of standardized testing assessments.

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I appreciated this article and I appreciate this comment “now have to deal with longer, nonfiction reading passages, for example, and exhibit greater ‘technical fluency’ in their comprehension skills.”
Reading comprehension is the most fundamental skill we need and I mean all of us, every technician, doctor, lawyer and McDonald’s grill worker. One has to be able to read and understand what you are reading.
Perhaps now with the new common core standards focusing so much time on this skill, we will actually have more focus on reading comprehension in school instead of whatever political agendas are being shoved onto our children.
I just got wind of a new political agenda. Mary Lin Elementary teachers are now being forced to have two lessons a year teaching bi-racial history. That’s two days taken away from reading comprehension.
History is history. There is no bi-racial history. Our children should study READING, WRITING and ARITHMETIC in elementary school. We shouldn’t even study history nor social studies until the third grade, just as we did when I was a kid.
My children are in private school and they do just that. THey study reading, writing and arithmetic. No social studies and no science until they went to the third grade and they are far ahead of their public school peers.
We need to force the schools to allow the teachers to teach the fundamentals instead of forcing them to teach politics and then grading them on the fundamentals…
That’s not fair to anyone. Not for the teachers nor the students nor the tax paying citizens like me.

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Beverly-

You’ve beat it to death. We get it. Nothings gonna happen. All that stuff is way off topic. Give it a rest.Your ox was gored. We get that. ow move on.

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Baffling – seriously – to hear educators say that a test doesn’t measure learning. Don’t you all realize how idiotic that sounds? Given that you use tests every week to measure learning?

It does scare me sometimes to think that this thinking so permeates our eduacracy.

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Is everything in moderation?

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@dc, I share your bafflement. Perhaps the word “standardized” is the problem.

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dc
December 28th, 2012
8:28 am

Yes we give tests and use the results as PART of our overall assessment of a student’s achievement. That, along with portfolios of their work, projects, individual & team participation and other assessments are a much clearer picture of what a student has achieved. A single standardized (i.e. multiple choice, T/F) test is not a true reflection of achievement, only a predictor of future capabilities. Short answer questions, essays, oral reports, etc. are part of the arsenal we use over the course of a grading period to assess, something a standardized test does not and cannot do.

It does scare me sometimes that there are people who think a standardized test is the gold standard in assessment.

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I am an avid supporter of the Common Core Standards. As a military brat, I attended 11 different schools in my 12 years of public school. I know for a fact that I missed fundamental instruction at times, and that I duplicated fundamental instruction at other times because of all the differences in curriculum between states and school districts across the country. The common Core curriculum professes to standardize instruction schedules and requirements for all states. This would definitely be an advantage in the mobile society in which we live. The higher level of challenge, if it is truly higher, would also be an advantage. My question comes with the incessant testing in our schools today. There needs to be a way that schools could structure their testing to meet their particular make-up of students. The same test for every child in a school is not realistic. There is no way that you can give the same test to the learning deficient student and the highly gifted student. The tests need to be structured to different groups of students, just as the instructional calendar and technics need to be. We should not become “cookie-cutter” schools.

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@dc…”Baffling – seriously – to hear educators say that a test doesn’t measure learning.”

What if you went to the DMV to take the driving test and they required you to take the test in a semi truck or on a motorcycle? Would you consider that fair? What if you studied for the written portion and the test contained several questions regarding airline safety? Would you consider that fair?

Yes, teachers test every week. However, standardized tests do not always align with the standards. Remember the 7th grade social studies CRCT test mess a few years ago?

Are you familiar with Pineapple test question that popped up on the NY 8th grade tests?
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/talking-pineapple-question-state-exam-stumps-article-1.1064657

How sure are you that Common Core tests do not contain similar flaws?

The GA Physical Science EOCT had to be re-scored this past semester because a test item was thrown out. This is a test that has been in place since 2008 and they are still finding mistakes!

Now do you understand why teachers are hesitant to “embrace” standardized testing as the ultimate indicator of student learning?

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teacher&mom- While you are correct that test items may not always align with standards (which happens less and less frequently), it is far more common that teachers have not taught the standards they were supposed to, and then when the test assesses the students on those standards they are surprised by the items and can’t answer them. They never learned it.

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On the Beverly thing, I see her point and the validity in her point. Apparently the superintendent’s association that gave the award will not rescind it. Therefore in the long run, they lose legitimacy and standing.

Common Core: seems like “national standards” to me, basic stuff, and a big improvement for Georgia from that bad home-grown dirt weed they were making everybody smoke, the former “Georgia Standards.” I do not see the connection between “Common Core” and the “tell you how to teach” movement and “put these slogans on the wall” poison.

Pardon, I have not “read the article” and I’ve got to run out the door.

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“Kentucky, for example, pre-empted the drama months before scores were even available. Kentucky State Education Commissioner Terry Holliday delivered a consistent message that, as he predicted to Education Week, ’scores would drop because students taking K-PREP [the new Kentucky assessments] now have to deal with longer, nonfiction reading passages, for example, and exhibit greater ‘technical fluency’ in their comprehension skills.’

My conversations with principals in Kentucky confirm that the message penetrated local communities, and while the nation gasped at the first round of K-PREP results, the state itself steeled for the drop and maintained its focus on improving student performance.”
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In all due respect to principals, including most of my former outstanding principals, I have found that few educators (teachers, administrators, national and state educational leaders) grasp fully the fact that students will INVARIABLY function on differing functioning levels – at each grade level – because their intelligence, differing capabilities, and experiential backgrounds will always vary. Until that fact is acknowledged and addressed adequately systematically, some students will continue to fall behind others, and thereby will continue to fail, even with excellent Common Core Standards for each grade level established. Students will invariably learn at differing rates, because of the reasons given above. Educators must wake up to this fact – especially those in the power positions to effect positive change for all students.

EXAMPLE to illustrate this fact concretely from my post “Assessing Teachers and Students,” published on my personal blog, “Mary Elizabeth Sings,” February 25, 2012:
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“I recognize that the value-added-assessment formula measures not only the student’s progress for the current year, but it measures, also, the probability of the student’s progress based on how much that student had progressed for the past three to five years, on the average, for each year. Thus, if the student achieves less than that average amount of progress for his present year, his present teacher could be rated as a poor instructor. (Other factors, such as a principal’s evaluation through observation are, also, considered.)

However, here is the catch. I was taught, as a graduate student, that if a student is reading within two years of his grade level, that he will be able to function in the reading requirements for that grade level. This means that if a 7th grade student is reading on 5th grade level that he will be able to function in the material for the 7th grade, but if he is reading on 4th grade level or below, in 7th grade, then he will not be able to function on 7th grade material.

Now, in considering the variable of IQ score, Johnny has scored in the IQ range of 83 to 88 for several years. That means that he is probably below average in his innate potential. One could, then, reasonably expect Johnny to grow 7 months in a 12 month period. Let’s say Johnny is in 2nd grade and he is reading on grade level 1.5 which is sufficient for him to function in 2nd grade. Next, he enters 3rd grade and he is reading on 2.2 grade level, having grown 7 months in 2nd grade. Johnny should still be able to learn and grow in 3rd grade because he is not reading more than two years behind 3rd grade level. So, he grows another 7 months in 3rd grade, with good instruction, based on his potential.

Now, we have Johnny in 4th grade and he has advanced in his reading skills to 2.9 grade level, which is within the two year cut off point for being able to master the curriculum for 4th grade. Next year, Johnny is in 5th grade and, having advanced 7 months in a year, he is reading on 3.6 grade level, but he can still cope. The next year, in 6th grade, Johnny is only reading on 4.3 grade level which is barely sufficient for coping with 6th grade material. In 7th grade, Johnny is only reading on 5.0 grade level, and he just barely passes his classes, but he does pass to 8th grade. In 8th grade, he reading on 5.7 grade level. Each year, then, from 2nd grade to 8th grade, Johnny has made his maximum progress which was – based on his IQ potential – 7 months of growth for a year’s work.

Johnny has been promoted to 8th grade because he passed 7th grade curriculum, but he is only reading on 5.7 grade level in the 8th grade, or more than two years behind his grade level. Therefore, although his 8th grade teacher may be a good teacher, Johnny may not advance 7 months in the 8th grade, as before, because he will have been taught on his frustration level during his 8th grade year. Johnny’s teacher was not aware of his IQ scores, nor of his academic developmental history, which had shown how he finally reached an academic frustration point in his 8th grade school year. In fact, Johnny may even regress in his reading skills in 8th grade because he will have spent a year being taught on his frustration level. At the end of his 8th grade year, his reading level may only be 5.5 grade level. When he entered 8th grade, his reading level was 5.7 grade level. His teacher is surprised that she received a poor rating based on Johnny’s 2 months’ regression in his standardized test scores. After all, his previous years’ scores had shown that Johnny could be expected to advance at least 7 months in a year’s time. His teacher does not know why he regressed by 2 months since she had tried so hard to help him grow. Johnny does enter 9th grade, however, because he (barely) passed most of his classes even though he regressed in his standardized reading scores, but now he is only reading on grade level 5.5 in 9th grade, or 3 and 1/2 years behind grade level – a perfect candidate for drop-out status. If teachers had made wise and prudent use of Johnny’s IQ scores, as well as having spent time assessing his developmental history, they might have analyzed his unique needs more wisely, earlier, and they might have provided him with the remediation he needed, earlier, even though he was advancing ‘according to how he had advanced previously.’

If student data continues to be used to evaluate teachers, a factor of data so vital as a student’s IQ must also be weighed, along with his curriculum standardized pretest and posttest scores, if one is to assess – accurately – the effectiveness of a teacher’s instruction, as well as how to instruct, effectively, to each student’s needs.”
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Other factors besides IQ, as I have stated, are operative which will make necessary the continuous addressing of the variances in instructional levels of students within each grade level. The above example was only illustrative of IQ variances. Thus, I am linking another of my posts on my blog, entitled, “Mastery Learning,” (which I have previously linked here) especially for the perusal of Mel Riddle, and other educational leaders who are in positions to create schools which will address effectively the continuous (and variable) progress of students in grades k -12. Until this continuously occurring variability in students is acknowledged and addressed, students will continue to fail – irrespective of our good, though misguided, intentions to improve education. See link below.

http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/about-education-essay-1-mastery-learning/

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Someone said in a post to look to Kentucky for good things. There’s some guy in Kentucky who knows what’s up. (superintendent? state DOE?)

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I see it took six posts until one of the usual “dog whistlers” shows up.

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“… standardized tests do not measure learning. They are truly worthless to help us determine whether or not kids have learned anything.”

“War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength.” – Cindy heart Big Brother.

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Another viewpoint:

http://www.dailycensored.com/emergency-biscuits-and-the-bill-gates-common-core-imperative/

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This link http://fairtest.org/facts/whatwron.htm is the sort of thing that many people rely on when criticizing multiple-choice tests. It would be much more persuasive if these Fair Test Fact Sheets contained some citations to authority.

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This link http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/40990.html will no doubt be rejected because it appears on the CollegeBoard website.

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@redweather
Sounds like the person writing that always did terrible on standardized tests, but their teachers liked them. That article encourages subjective evaluations which any study shows are dramatically impacted by the measurer’s relation to the subject. If you like workplace performance evaluations, you would love this person’s suggestions for evaluating students.

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Are multiple choice tests perfect? No. But given the alternatives, they are an efficient way of administering assessments. We use them not only for assessing content knowledge in the classrooms, CRCT and EOCT, but also for larger scale tests like the ITBS, SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT and aptitude tests for entrance into the armed forces (some of these are norm-referenced and not standards referenced). This has been done since the 1940’s. Would it be more ideal to asses students using a long form written or even oral exam? Sure. But the costs and time involved (not to mention the lack of objectivity) are significantly higher. The new PARC tests that will be used for Common Core assessments will contain written portions (also called performance tasks)- so it seems test makers are at least trying to construct more balanced assessments that measure a student’s ability to process and manipulate information, not just memorize it. But it will take time to re-condition students to take standardized tests that are more rigorous.
I agree that the better way to measure what students have learned in the school year is to capture the differential (by using a pre-test at the beginning of the year and comparing this to the post-test at the end). However, I do not think the standardized tests at the end of the year are totally worthless. They do provide some valuable feedback and it doesn’t make sense to throw the baby out with the bath water by discounting their value and validity altogether. Most teachers know the limitations of the test scores and use them as best they can to try to reach students who need extra help and as an overall gauge of their students’ background knowledge. Students who do not meet the standards in gateway years (at my school at least) are given intensive remediation and then re-tested – at which time most of them pass. Some students will never meet the standards and that is what we have to accept as a statistical fact.

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common core
common cause
common cold

its all pointless until the real issues of corruption and bloat at the top are dealt with

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Testing Stifles Teaching. It requires a third party observer to judge the same learning curve that the Teacher and Student are creating. Thus a behavioral spectrum emerges and thus everyone is right and everyone is wrong, but at least all 100% try to sell their spam on blogdom. If you click on any of the links here you automatically are contributing to and causing the commercial spam cloud of stink that exists like some gas bubble that din’t get enough motherin’. I dont appreciate it and I know others dont neither nor. TestingRus? Let the students test the teachers for a couple semesters. Lets shake it up. Lets change the curriculum and produce uberkinters! They’ll know what to do with those tests. As a supporter of PTA projects all year long, I demand the resignation of every educator involved NASSP’s neglectfully-juvenile acts of truancy. They are a menace to any just resource allocation, and a scourge to civilization.

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Cindy Lutenbacher @ 10:19:

Again, I’d ask you to cite at least a couple of the “solid research studies” you’re referring to. Redweather has made the same request. I’m a bit skeptical of your claims, but if you can cite the studies we can examine them. Without you being able to cite at least a handful, we’d have to question whether you have really “studied the independent research” yourself. What journals were the studies published in? Were they peer reviewed? Who were the researchers? You’re going to have to support your argument better.

Assessment is a complex field, and you seem to be confusing different constructs. Measuring learning (growth) is a bit different from measuring knowledge, which is a bit different from measuring skills, and they can all be measured with different types of assessments. Your assertion that tests can’t measure learning appears to be too broad and too simplistic. How would you, someone who has studied the independent research, actually measure learning in a valid and reliable way?

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Cindy L …”All of the talk about Common Core and assessments misses many fundamental issues, including the central factor that standardized tests do not measure learning. They are truly worthless to help us determine whether or not kids have learned anything”
___________________________________________________________

Cindy ,……….Of course he won’t read it himself , but ,do you think you could write this to the president whose Secretary of Ed. seems to think Standards etc are all we need to improve education!!!…

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No amount of group work and “differentiated instruction” will compensate for students’ inability to read. Students in the earlier grades may be tested too much. But no one appears to be asking the right questions. What happens to these standardized test results?

Why does Dekalb even administer the IOWAs when it appears to ignore that data? And what, specifically, does Dekalb do with the CRCT data? I’ve asked and asked and asked what happens to that 20-50% of students lacking reading, social studies, science, or math proficiency. From what I’ve learned, nothing. They’re “passed along” and then the high school teachers are expected to “differentiate instruction” in classes with 35+ students.

And teachers will be evaluated according to student growth, but no one seems to be able to explain the following:
1. How are the benchmarks and SLOs valid tests? Who has vetted and standardized them?
2. If students are taught that assignments are only important when there is a grade attached to them (look at Dekalb’s cumbersome grading categories to see just how much this idea is promoted), then what is the incentive for a student to take a test far above his level (no one wants to talk about the lexile scores)? Has Dekalb examined the data to see how long students even spend taking these tests?
3. How are a district’s administrators evaluated? Dekalb’s touted curricula units are an embarrassment with little to nothing that is print-friendly, especially in the areas of “research-based strategies” and “differentiated instruction.”

And if standardized tests are a reality of college students’ lives- from the SAT to the ACT to the GRE to entrance exams and career tests- and students are purportedly preparing for college, then what should be done?

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I have not made any assumptions about you, I just wanted you to name a few names, which you have finally done. Much obliged.

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It continues to amaze me how many Georgia teachers are scared to death about the common core. Are the scared that it will expose even more how backward and off course the GA educational system is. I really think that they are.

If you do just a little bit of research, a few google hits. You find that 47 or so States are on board. These inclued the top State Mass. along with perinial winners like New York State. When you go deeper you will see that the High School evaluations are basically the New York State Regent Exams.

I was not ultra nerd in the class. In fact I underperformed my first two years in High School to be accepted as cool. My Junior year I had a “Welcome Back Kotter” type of History teacher, who got up and ran off on tangents, about the future magalopolsis’ of “BoWash”. Which sites in the country might be next cold war targets, this was 35 years ago. I ended up getting the highest grade on the New York State Regent’s exam in 1977, in History. The Regents exam is part multiple choice and part essay. What is the fear that the teachers actually will have to grade the essays.

The biggest thing that will be found that will not work with common core is this stupid one track, to graduation that Georgia has will not work. There must be multiple tracts at least by high school. One of those tracts must include a General Diploma with Vocational Education ( Carpentry, Auto Mechanic’s , Plumbing, Basic Machinest Skills, Welding, Culinary, Nurses Aide, Medical Transcription ) The High Schools can provide in the Votech school what the For -Profit midnight advertiserts, ripoff schools provide here for free. Graduation Rates will skyrocket to 90-95%. Change the Math and Science requirements to meet what is required for these Vo-tech jobs. These Jobs should be coordinated with the employeers and employers looking to come into the state.

Teams should even start to consider what are the career aptitutude of students in middle school. Private School already do this. Parents pay several thousand dollars more for their students at Woodward that need extra attention, and may not be college bound like siblings. All Students should rotate through 13 week trials in middle school. I remember 13 weeks of French and 13 week of German ( no spanish offered 40 years ago). My 12 year old often complains that so many kids in her Spanish class don’t want to be their, and disrupt the class, even the native speakers. Where she loves Spanish and is almost Fluent. The other offerings are French and Manderan Chinese, but their is no tryout. I tell her it is because their parents have picked it for them. My other daughter switched to French in 9th grade, Spanish wasn’t for her.)

Another thing that must change for this to be successful we must get rid of these wasteful mega districts. Please GA House and Senate, get rid of just a few little words in the constitution. We need to allow more local control. We need 1-2 high school with feeder school Districts. They work. They are the ones that have made the Common Core Successful in top states. We do not need middle layers of mid management, for Friends and Family, for Church Members, for Soriety Sisters of the Pink and Green. We do not need huge contracts going to the politically connected. Allow Sandy Springs to have a Riverwood -North Springs District. Allow Dunwoody to have a Dunwoody District. Allow Brookhaven and Chamblee to have a Chamblee and Crosskeys District. Allow Tucker to be Tucker. Why should Marietta, Decatur, Bremen City and Buford, be the only ones who get Districts who operate as they should. Counties should not be in the Operation of School Districts. Buckhead should have North Atlanta and its Feeders. Morningside and Inman Park should have Grady/Inman Park. We don’t need county job palaces.

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@redweather,
Sorry–I wasn’t responding to you about the “assumptions” piece. Another poster got me side-tracked with that one. I generally find your postings to be thoughtful and helpful.
I gave you some of my sources, but there’s so much more to be seen out there, and that’s what I’ve tried to encourage folks to do: go after the question for yourselves, dig deeply, and review independent research. Do so for many, many years.
We may still come up with different responses to these issues, and that’s what thoughtful discussion is for. Or so I hope.
I’m also sorry if it seems that I sometimes wait a long while to respond. I’m a single, working parent, so, like many of us on this blog, I come to it in snips and snatches.

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Sandy spring parent, with these new standards, your “Welcome back Kotter” style teacher would be shown the door. Teacher creativity is limited because of testing testing testing.
There should be a pre- test at start of year based on what will be taught during the year, then the same test is giving as a post- test at year’s end to measure potential educational growth.
I as a parent recognize that all standards can it be adequately covered in class during the 160-180 days of school in this state. not all can be done by educators, politicians,teachers, administrators.
Only if we could get parents willing to take these same pre/ post test, so that they cAn become more engaged.

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Eva Baker, “queen of psychometrics” at UCLA/CRESST, lays out her ideas on 21st Century assessments. Note the SHE INCLUDES BLOOM’S AFFECTIVE DOMAIN!

“Assessment Design for the 21st Century
Starts with key elements of performance—what and how students learn and what are a range of desirable attributes, accomplishments and skills
1. 21st Century Skills or cognitive demands
2. Content domain represented in an ontology
3. Blend skills and content together
4. Incorporate in tasks and tests”

“Three: Blending cognitive-ontology architecture”
•
“The ontology is an integrative frame for a database
• 21st Century Skills: problem-solving, reasoning, communication
• Knowledge: declarative/conceptual/procedural/factual for content and age ranges of choice
• Alternative formats and technical quality data
• Affective behaviors
• Alternative learning sequences, schemata
• Situations for learning & transfer
• Data accessed by separate or combined metatags”
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/overheads/OTHER_12/eva%20best%20japan1017V5.pdf

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“On the Beverly thing, I see her point and the validity in her point. Apparently the superintendent’s association that gave the award will not rescind it. Therefore in the long run, they lose legitimacy and standing”

Yet it apparently bothers educators more that I make a valid point about injustice than it does it actually occurred, and is still ongoing..

Know this then by your silence:

As teaching conditions continue to deteriorate, as you find yourselves increasingly burdened and decreasingly supported, know that you, by your unwillingness to address issues of integrity, are active co-creators in these conditions and as a logical, natural consequence, you are getting the teaching profession you richly and fully deserve

Come back five years from now and say “Oh teachers are being treated with better conditions and respect than they ever have” and I be the first to admit I was wrong.

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I couldn’t agree more with all of the comments made by Beverly Fraud. The lack of leadership at all levels in APE is astonishing.

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Amen to that bootney…and here’s a quote from Diane Ravitch on Common Core. But before that (so much for me not commenting on topic LOL}

Notice bootney no one could explain why, if the IOC rescinded Marion Jones’ medals, the Tour de France vacated Lance Armstrong’s 7 titles, the Pulitzer folks rescinded Janet Cooke’s award for fabricating the prize winning story, the GSSA shouldn’t be held to just as high a standard as those other organizations given that GSSA honored the Milli Vanlli of education?

No they will “ignore” the messenger and dismiss the messenger. Heck I guess absent any effective rebuttal I would to. Kinda like APS tried to do when they had no legitimate reason for the statistical anomalies in test scores? Hmm…

If you pay attention to the Common Core State Standards as required by the authors, (verbatim treatment, no menu-like choices, close reading), you will see that Mr. [David] Coleman and others expect all students to meet 1158 lteracy and ELA standards K-12 (that total includes parts a,b,c,,d, and so on for each standard).Kindergarten kids and their teachers have 64 “college and career ready (CCR) standards to meet.

A five year old has 64 “college and career” standards to meet? And yet you have those here who just go blithely along, accepting the Common Core like it’s the second coming of the Hale-Bopp comet. (Ohh, but this time it’s for real!)

Why does one get the feeling if Diane Ravitch was head of GSSA, she would definitely rescind the award?

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@ Beverly Fraud: I have been away from this blog the last couple of days. But, I see that you are continuing to hit the nail on the head, and educrats like Cindy seem to be inexplicably bothered that you are putting the obvious scandal right in their faces. Hmm. I agree with on this topic. Herb Garrett and his superintendents’ organization ought to take back the phony award given to Beverly Hall. It is a joke. Why aren’t the GSSA’s standard’s at least as high as the U. S. Olympics’s or Penn State’s? Lance Armstrong is stripped of his titles, but, no, GSSA continues to honor Beverly Hall who sat over the largest school cheating scandal in the U. S. History. I personally have encountered and know many, many educators who suffered much (by way of health and finances) from the totalitarian regime of the Hall Administration. It was an insufferable administration which rewarded those who went along with the program and apparently punished those who spoke out against corruption. The AJC is obviously conflicted here, though it did indeed shed much light on the corruption after much damage was already done. But, I still tip my hat to the AJC for finally coming out on the right side. Perhaps it will eventually do the same on this issue. At least, I hope that it will.

Pay no attention to the Cindys of the world. Perhaps your very perceptive and persistent posts simply dwarf the drones of her blathering about her so-called expertise on standardized testing. Or perhaps this isn’t her real name. She might even be Herb Garrett’s secretary. Ha!

Has Cindy and the other rather squeamish critics never learned to use the scrolling device on their computers? When I don’t want to read something, I simply scroll past it. I don’t waste any time trying to get the other poster from posting. This sounds like a backa$sword censorship…or perhaps a severe case of insecurities. Just scroll, Cindy, just scroll.

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Thank you Dr. T! “Inexplicably” is the word I would use as well. I know teachers and educators aren’t this way, but collectively it’s like they have a case of Stockholm Syndrome

You know…Paul Donsky did the original story back in 2001. Yes 2001. What if you and MACE had taken Cindy’s and the other bloggers” advice (namely “it happened long ago” and “give it a rest”) and just stopped talking about APS?

What if everybody had followed that advice? What would have happened most likely is Beverly Hall would have ridden off into the sunset, but the corporate culture of widespread, systemic cheating would have remained hidden

And if it had remained hidden, I imagine you’d have posters who to this day (if Hall had indeed pulled it off) who would say “She left years ago; give it a rest”

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@Beverly: You are right to question why GSSA won’t rescind the award.

My guess?

In education, fellow/former administrators have a very hard time holding other administrators accountable. I’ve been told several times that I have no understanding or appreciation of the difficulties of an administrator, therefore, I do not have the right to question their judgement. Ultimately the blame is ALWAYS passed on to the classroom teacher. Somehow, someway, the fault never lies with the leadership.

That attitude is why the professional organizations in this state will not admit the truth and formally criticize Beverly Hall for her actions. They refuse to admit they made a mistake. Deep down inside, they blame the teachers.

We can adopt Common Core, we can win Race to the Top grants, we can implement every single program under the sun….but until the state of Georgia is willing to truly empower teachers and insist on highly trained administrators, nothing will improve.

We desperately need better leadership.

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Mel Riddle claimed that Charter Schools are perpetuating narratives to tap public education funds. Public Education Funds. PEF (PEF is why Johnny can’t RIF.) But Johhny couldn’t RIF since WW2 ended. The new Common Core Standards (CCS) are not the issue. The issue is resource allocation. How would charter schools perpetuate resource-allocating narratives? They use social media like this public forum newspaper blog. So, the voters are fed personal dramas about real life resource-wresting vendettas. Episode 1: The protest sign ambush by the good Dr. T. The scurrying of the board members. Why the honorable Ericka can’t read a restraining order. All while “Not so Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen riffs in the background.

Hold on to sixteen as long as you can, my friends, like the good Dr T and the honorable Ericka. They both saw their duty and they done it. Lets give Beverly Hall’s award to them. So what if Snookie can’t read. She can tweet, and that’s all the RIF she needs.

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Teacher&Mom — I consider both tests valid. I didn’t prep for the ACT and I did well the very first time I took it and I never took it again. It was also a good indicator of how well I would perform in college. I went to collge on an academic scholarship, graduated, and became a good, tax-paying citizen and parent.
For those who prep and study for it, those results are valid as well. Those who prep and study for the test are performing exactly the way colleges need them to perform, meaning, colleges expect students to prepare before the exams.
So, both are valid measurements. They are meant to predict college readiness and they do that very well.

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@Beverly: You are right to question why GSSA won’t rescind the award.

Thank you @teacher and mom. Cinnnndeee…Annnnieeee, are you listening? Or scrolling past LOL

Vindication is nice…INDEED!

And Maureen must be thinking “God this is insufferable but in my ethics I can’t ban it, because no matter how insufferable, it has merit”

Then she gives thanks to God I’m not her neighbor LOL

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Amazing. We put so much emphasis on standards and standardized testing, but allow social promotion to flourish in the lower grades. High school teachers in rural and urban, inner city schools are starting to buckle under the strain. Many affected teachers have quickly learned that to avoid so many hours spent in RTI meetings, and endless documentation of fruitless endeavors, just find “creative” ways to “pass-em-all”. I wonder what the cut score will be on this school year’s Math EOCT . . . 40 or 50%? Even then, the average pass rate will probably be around 50%. Think about it, 50% of kids getting 50% of the problems worked correctly. What a charade.

It’s apparent to me that our policymakers and legislators are getting tired of seeing our state near the bottom on national SAT rankings. It’s equally obvious to me that what is keeping our state down at the bottom are the poor rural and inner-city schools. Nonetheless, education funds will be cut, and class sizes will still be large. I liken this approach to this: We have a sinking boat, but instead of fixing the hole in the hull, we’re given a large Dixie cup to get the water out.

If you’re going to raise the bar, stop lowering the floor.

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I’m having trouble with the auto-moderate of this site contraption. I put two links, one to Mel Riddile biography, and one to Washington Post article on same, and it throws the comment in auto-moderation. As a person posting, this is distracting and time consuming. Site participants should be fully informed of what actions put posts into moderation, for example, a work list (yes it exists) and what type of sites. It is difficult to make a post and include documentation. Checking back to see if a comment is removed from moderation is demeaning, particularly without being informed of the chess game of post that goes through or is moderated. Have I just wasted my time writing a post? Is operating under unknown conditions a requirement for participating in this forum? It seems to be the case.

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Here is my comment without the links to document information:

First question, who is Mel Riddile? Dude is a super player in the current politics, “national and international recognition from National Geographic magazine, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NASSP, and the International Baccalaureate of North America… As principal of both a Breakthrough High School and an ICLE Model School, Dr. Riddile is a recognized leader in efforts to reinvent America’s high schools. He has received White House and U.S. Department of Education recognition for this and was a member of the U.S. Secretary of Education’s High School Reform Task Force.”
_____________

This guy is no ordinary commentator, he is a super-surfer on the waves of power.
____________

The thing that makes me cringe about this article is that everything is voiced in “Georgia speak.” That was my initial reaction, question, how the “Common Core” gets subsumed as “The new Georgia Performance Standards, which incorporate the Common Core State Standards”

Wait a minute. Full stop. Why is Mr. Riddile using “local talk.” He is a propagandist / salesman extraordinaire. Anyway, one question is why can not Georgia just use “Common Core” in place of still claiming “Georgia Standards?” This is like politics happy-hour or something. Seems Mr. Riddile is a mastermind of building up the local / state fiefdom as political power to, in-turn, implement the wishes of the power interests than he represents.

Is it not a little queer, that Mr. Riddile, from Fairfax, Virginia, starts off this essay with, “questions on the minds of Georgia citizens these days” as if he has anything at all to do with the state of Georgia? The article is manipulative for sure and is a piece of neighbor-friendly propaganda.

Nice try, Mr. Riddile. It might be a lonely road, but there is one reader who sees that you are complimenting the state power while using them to deliver the directives from the groups you represent.

Dear Mr. Riddile, we still do not have eyeglasses for children, and in many schools we do not have textbooks or resource materials / consumables / work-books and such. They’re basically extinct and individual teachers are spending hours of their time assembling / creating lesson materials from the internet. Truly, I do not know what you stand for Mr. Riddile. It would be much more easy for everyone if you just made an outline of what you are implementing / who you stand for, what you are fronting. Many of us really do not need to sales job / marketing to go with it. it is not like we have any choice in anything. So, please, just make it clear what are the conditions you are dictating.

Redux: Political super player from Fairfax, Virginia (right next to Washington, DC) issues 517 word article and uses the word “Georgia” 8 times.

Sports connection: “former linebacker at the University of North Carolina”

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@Progressive Humanist
Anyone with a knowledge of the current “best practices” in the area of psychometrics and assessments is very familiar with the work of UCLA prof and co-director of CRESST, Eva Baker. You complain that Cindy L. quotes individuals who are not psychometric specialists, therefore their conclusions are invalid. I just quoted the specific plan laid out by Eva Baker, “queen of psychometrics”, for “21st Century assessments, INCLUDING MEASURING FOR THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN (attitudes, values, and beliefs). You have made NO COMMENT on this post. (December 28th, 2012
4:24 pm). Yet in the past, you claimed that you advised your students NOT to measure for this domain. DO YOU NOW AGREE WITH EVA BAKER’S plans for the countries new assessments? Please comment.

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oops! Should read “country’s”.

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My concern with these Common Core standards is that they focus on “longer, nonfiction reading passages, for example, and exhibit greater ‘technical fluency’ in their comprehension skills.” There is a much higher level learning than comprehension. At what point do we begin to test abstract reasoning and symbolism?

Furthermore, I am very concerned that the focus on technical knowledge will drain much needed funding from the humanities.

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Fairfax County, Virginia, median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2007-2011 $493,100; Homeownership rate, 2007-2011 71.0%

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Robin, as I’ve told you before, you’re not qualified for this type of discussion. You can’t Google your way to a PhD, although I know you’re trying. Maybe if you took off the tinfoil hat for a minute someone would take you seriously.

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@ Just a Teacher
You seem to be confused. You believe education is the goal. Documents indicate otherwise…..

http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/policy/coherence_v6.pdf

“Coherence: Key to Next Generation Assessment Success”

“AACC: Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center: A WestEd and CRESST partnership. aacompcenter.org
Copyright © 2010 The Regents of the University of California
The work reported herein was supported by WestEd, grant number 4956 s05-093, as administered by the U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positionsor policies of AACC, WestEd, or the U.S. Department of Education.
To cite from this report, please use the following as your APA reference:
Herman, J. L. (2010). Coherence: Key to Next Generation Assessment Success (AACC Report). Los Angeles, CA: University of California.”

“What can we do differently?
In a single word but with many steps, I suggest the word “coherence.” I believe that by making our assess- ments more coherent in both design and use, we can create assessment systems which will measure the right stuff in the right ways while better serving intended purposes, particularly the purpose of improving teaching and learning. The current Race to the Top Assessment Program (RTT) provides states a sizeable carrot—$350 million—to do just this, creating a next generation assessment system that reflects new Common Core State Standards and supports accountability and improvement at all levels of the educa- tional system: state, district, school, classroom.
The way forward to better assessment begins with the conception of assessment not as a single test but as a coherent system of measures. Coherent systems must be composed of valid measures of learning and be horizontally, developmentally, and vertically aligned to serve classroom, school, and district improvement.”

After reading this, compare with CRESST co-Director Eva Baker’s power point outline (post (December 28th, 2012 4:24 pm) on the same subject. Note the inclusion of MEASURING FOR AFFECTIVE DOMAIN.

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Principal at a school 3.6 miles from CIA headquarters! C’mon folks, you can’t make this stuff up!

Needless to say, neighborhood school has a different meaning there.

(no offense meant, Mr. Riddile)

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Let us not forget that Ronald Reagan did the “folksy grandpa” routine while he was removing the anti-trust laws that lead to the current consolidation of media. Mr. Riddile has written an essay sounding like he is your “Georgia neighbor.”

Repeating, Mr. Riddile, it would be easier for all of us if you just indicated your agenda without the folksy “Georgia speak.” It’s not like we have a choice in anything, or the will to resist. The will is already broken, the public mind is scattered. We are ready for the “normalisation” phase of your program. You can pass this message to your bosses. They don’t have anything to worry about in Georgia.

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Teachers, if you want to be as smart as Fred “trademark”/Private Citizen, take a few tips from Noam Chomsky, MIT linguist. He boils it down to 10. Here’s tip #1:

“1. The strategy of distraction
The primary element of social control is the strategy of distraction which is to divert public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites, by the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information. distraction strategy is also essential to prevent the public interest in the essential knowledge in the area of the science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics. “Maintaining public attention diverted away from the real social problems, captivated by matters of no real importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to think, back to farm and other animals (quote from text Silent Weapons for Quiet War ).”

Read the other 9 at http://parisis.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/noam-chomsky.pdf

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Man, you guys need to lighten up. Go to Applebees & get loaded, then call a cab.

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That was a lame picket in Macon, John trotter

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as I’ve said countless times before, if you really want to fix the problem, start with the corrupted top.
we have more than enough resources, if they ever actually got to us.

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@ beverly

if this was all we got for Tricoli nuking a single college and 282 careers/lives, its not likely we’ll get anything other than a lifetime achievement away for B Hall taking down an entire system

http://www.collegiannews.com/2012/05/aaups-regret-statement/

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@ Cindy

like you, I sometimes run into posters I’d rather not read. perhaps you’ll join in in requested an ignore feature?

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Chomsky? that jew hating clown?

Lord God, this topic has gone to hell

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Bootney, you tip your hand. I just retracted his association w/ the document because I could not verify it. The book, BEHOLD A PALE HORSE, is verified. It was included in the appendix. The author was a member of the military.

So, why would you make an unrelated statement like that? It had nothing to do with my post or the topic at hand. Hmmmm?

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@Bootney

Why have you not commented on my document links which DIRECTLY CONNECT Eva Baker, CRESST, UCLA, Affective Domain assessment, Assessments for the 21st century, Race to the Top funding for teacher and Common Core assessments, and TAX PAYER FUNDING IT ALL?

Is that not “ON TOPIC” enough for you? You must be working on your destractor strategy PhD as well.

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Truth, kind of in a mood today, eH?

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@ PC
Since you seem to know everything about everything, could you please tell me where Perdue Pharma gets its legal opium supply to produce its Oxycontin brand pain killer?

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where Perdue Pharma gets its legal opium supply to produce its Oxycontin brand pain killer?

Well, silly, it is not illegal for pharmaceutical research to get any number of things. I imagine they buy their supplies based on market. If I rephrase your question to be, “Where does opium come from,” here’s some good answers: Turkey, India, Tasmania. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=87555

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Hey truth, the soviet KGB guy Yuri Bezmenov who came to the USA said that 85% of intelligence agency work is doing opinion shaping, i.e. applied propaganda.

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@ PC
Thanks for proving my point with your continuous blather. Your o#p#i#Um links are dead. I posted a whole slew of good links on the topic, but the old filter or “sponsor” money put me in moderation. I guess this is a touchy subject. Your dodge of all my posts and questions is predictable. What test co. do you work for? Do you have stock in Perdue? Oh, I forgot…..it’s privately held. Headquarters are in Stamford Conn…..same town where Adam’s dad now lives. Hmmmmm.

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Truth, I’m having difficulty navigating what you’re saying. I’m not dodging anything from you. Why the burr in your saddle? It’s like you’ve gone on a rant of ridiculing. Well, do your thing, I guess. (?) You can certainly look up where does medical opium come from, if that is a real question from you. I can’t tell. My links are dead? Those aren’t my links and I’m not your paid researcher, I simply answered your question with a general pointer. ?Have you lost your mind? What, do you want me to find you an online order form and company address from distribution network Alibaba.com? Your question was “where” not from whom.

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You ask, I shall deliver! http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/academics/departments/political_science/opiumprod.html

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Look what happened in Georgia:
http://oxycontin.legalview.com/jury-verdicts/650000-patient-dies-of-overdose-and-psychiatrist-settles-death-claim/1046586/

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I wonder if they have more of these cases close to home in Connecticut?

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Hey truth, I recall the trade-show launch of the drug Bextra was done in Atlanta. Read it and weep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdecoxib

“Pharmacia & UpJohn Company, pled guilty to marketing four drugs including Bextra “with the intent to defraud or mislead.” Pharmacia & UpJohn admitted to criminal conduct in the promotion of Bextra, and agreed to pay the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter, $1.195 billion”

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“The OxyContin Generation” “2500 pre-teens/teens mis­us­ing an opi­oid for the first time every day” “relax­ation of state boards of med­i­cine in their view of “over­pre­scrib­ing” http://rmpc.bitnamiapp.com/wordpress/accidental-death/the-oxycontin-generation

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Why do the public and teacher-professionals accept excessive year-around testing?

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@PC
Good link about Oxycontin. Coming full circle to “on topic”, Purdue plans to market it to CHILDREN! How could a child taking this stuff go to a “drug free” zone? TEACHERS SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!

“Purdue Pharma claimed to have “solved the problem” by remanufacturing the OxyContin pills such that they were harder to crush and abuse, but DEA officials and health care professionals say that it hasn’t worked; there is still as large a market for the illegal uses of the drug as there is for its legitimate use.”

“That’s the scariest part of this whole thing. OxyContin, although it has its legitimate uses, is an opioid, and thus habit forming. Purdue Pharma has recently begun paying for dozens of clinical trials around the country to perform studies on the effects of OxyContin on children. They claim that this is being done out of their concern for the large number of children who suffer from chronic pain, or even headaches.

Critics of Purdue Pharma point out that the real reason for such pediatric trials may be twofold – first, to develop new markets to enable them to sell more of the drug, and second, to find an “end run” around the fact that their original patent on OxyContin will expire in April of 2013. ”
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/16526/1/The-Legal-Heroin-Promoted-by-Big-Pharma.html

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paulo977,December 28th, 2012
3:39 pm

“Mary E ….Do have a look at this…”

http://www.education.com/reference/article/cultural-deficit-model
========================================================

Paulo, thank you for sharing the link, above, with me which dismantles many stereotypical thoughts about poor and minority students’ (and their familes’) desire for quality education. I hope that others will take a few minutes to read your link, especially the last paragraph in the article. Here is a quote from the article:

“Because this model frames the problem as one of students and families, the remedies informed by deficit perspectives created to ameliorate student underachievement and failure often fail meaningfully to address problems within schools or society at large that combine to depress the performance of certain groups of students.”
—————————————————————————

Blessings to you and yours in the New Year, Paulo.

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True Blue, 11:13 pm

I am truly sorry that your reality is as you describe. Nevertheless, there are many “realities,” as Paulo’s link substantiates. In the course I my life, I have learned that nothing good generally comes from blaming. A better outlook, both toward one’s self and toward others, is to try to understand, to forgive, and/or to seek to improve as one is able, without judgment.

Since you addressed me, I wanted to respond to your post as positively as I could. I do not want to pursue an extended dialogue on this, however. I hope that you will understand. Best to you.

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Calving children with no thought of their future is the elephant in the room. No amount of sophisticated theoretical bs is going to improve our public schools. As long as our system supports and promotes promiscuous lifestyles, the schools will suffer.

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I say again – we would not need standardized testing if the grades given were truly reflective of material learned (mastery of subject, not “learning to think”). We could use regular grades, like we did in the sixties. But grade inflation is so rampant, not just from teachers, but from policies (no grade below 50), and administrators changing grades.

So if we test to new standards (common core) and the student fails, what do we do? Why, the same thing we always do, pass them along until they give up and quit school. Or keep them and give them a meaningless diploma at the end of 12 years. Employers know it means nothing, so they require a college diploma for any important jobs.

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Per my December 28th, 9:46 am post, I have tried to demonstrate how different students will take differing rates to master the same curriculum concepts.

That being true, perhaps educators should rethink having all students graduate from high school within a set 12 year time period. Some students may be able to master the required curriculum content, for a high school diploma, within 11 years, whereas other students may take 13 years, or longer, to master the same required content for the diploma. The important factor is that all students do graduate, with mastery of the required curriculum having been achieved.

If a given student is identified as needing to take longer than 12 years to master curriculum concepts to graduate, then perhaps that student would be better served by taking 3 academic courses in a given quarter (as well as 2 on-the-job training courses, or 2 remedial courses) instead of taking the standard 5 academic courses per quarter, every quarter. To master all of the academic curriculum requirements, that student might need, then, to take 13 years to graduate from high school, with true mastery of all of the curriculum content having been achieved. Better to extend the time to master all of the curriculum, than to force some students to drop out of school because the required rate in which they must master concepts is too rapidly set for them. As a result, these particular students are being taught on their frustration, not instructional, levels.

It is time for educators (and the public) to stop blaming the students, and find a more feasible educational model for them to meet with success throughout their years in school. Look to a continuous progress model, with mastery of concepts tailored for each student throughout the student’s tenure in school.

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I meant “Mary Elizabeth” and “teachers.”

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Paulo / Mary Elisabeth, the culture deficits model link is really good information. A#1. http://www.education.com/reference/article/cultural-deficit-model Definitely the right information from the right perspective. Thanks!!

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@ Private Citizen, 1:48 pm

You are most welcome. Paulo shared the information in the link. I merely confirmed its value.

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Tell me how many tons of rock are in a stockpile (cone-shaped) that is 100 feet across the base and has an angle of repose of 38 degrees (given the bulk density is 100 lbs/cu. ft.). If you have “learned to think”, you should be able to calculate this without having learned any facts about geometry or trigonometry. “Learning th think” will not tell you the formula for volume of a cone.

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@Mary Elizabeth
You might enjoy this encouraging story. Eboni defies the “culture deficit model” and gets accepted to Columbia University:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/normandy-high-senior-overcomes-hardships-to-land-slot-in-ivy/article_d6b9f853-73ad-57af-9d71-6635a9a8b76b.html?mode=story

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?hey truth, It is unlikely that Eboni got the entire administrative staff removed from her school because they didn’t throw a party for her to recognise her acceptance at Colombia.

Which brings to mind, that along with BF’s complaint about Beverly Hall getting a superintendent’s award after the largest organised cheating scandal in the United States, there has still been no closure or explanation on Mr. Davis’ use a “racist remove” to remove staff at a school. I find this unacceptable and a blight on Atlanta. The message is: If you are non-black, do not work for Atlanta Public Schools of any other school system in Georgia with majority black management because you are a target for harassment. As far as I am concerned, this is the current legacy of Mr. Errol Davis and he appears to have zero interest in altering it. If I was rich, I would commission a bronze statue of him with the inscription, “Racist Player – A Blight on Atlanta.” Oh, is that too harsh? I think someone needs to do a government open records request to get the documents or justification used for the force-removal of those staff.

Message to non-blacks looking to work at schools in Georgia – due to the example set by Mr. Errol Davis of flagrant use of power, do not work in Georgia schools. You risk worker harassment and rough treatment with no explanation from the highly compensated managers who practice this abuse and who have no checks and balances on their professional activities. Avoid.

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Taking the mechanical engineering Professional Engineer test http://felixwong.com/2007/04/mechanical-pe-exam/

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@mountain man, You have proved my point, although I have one quibble. Students don’t learn geometry so they can build houses, but it sure enough comes in handy. You are on much firmer ground when you contend that you have used your education in various ways. Ergo, you passed the test of learning how to think.

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“A guy who owns a store in Buckhead told me one time of when he was a little kid in the government schools, they had to do drills and crouch underneath their desks because “the Russians were coming.” I think it would be better today if big power stopped using marketing to try and “massage” everybody. Just do what you’re going to do. Get on with it.”

It was called a fallout drill. You’re obviously too young to remember the time when we expected a nuclear war. After WWI and WWII, most people expected III. I did fallout drills in my public elementary school. Sometimes you did fallout drills, sometimes fire drills (fallout-the radioactive material after the big blast).

It wasn’t any brainwashing experiment. You’re conspiracy theories require the government to actually be competent.

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@ Truth in Moderation, 2:21 am

“@Mary Elizabeth
You might enjoy this encouraging story. Eboni defies the “culture deficit model” and gets accepted to Columbia University. . .”
======================================================

I did thoroughly enjoy reading Eboni’s story, Truth in Moderation. Thank you very much for sharing Eboni’s inspiring story with me. Eboni is a young lady with many gifts who wants all of her talents to bloom, as well she should. I am very supportive of her efforts, and I am equally impressed with her qualities. Eboni was especially drawn to the maxim that “circumstances do not define your destiny.” Hers is a beautiful attitude, and there is much truth in that maxim, especially when one has an attitude as positive as is Eboni’s.

I, also, want to share a section of her story in which Eboni describes how her young mother exposed her to reading and language development, when she was a baby. I encourage all parents, or guardians, to read to their children early in their lives. This practice, alone, could help your children learn to read well in school. You are exposing your child, early, to the cadences of language in its written form, as well as exposing your child to many storylines, varied experiences, and interesting characters. You are aiding in developing your child’s ability to sustain concentration, and you are enhancing your child’s early language development, and imagination, by reading to your child with enthusiam and interest. The next step will, naturally, be that your child will want to read his, or her, own books. Start with easy to read “picture books” (with sequential plots) from public libraries, and then advance to picture books with some minimal word use under the pictures. Read the book first with your child, and later your child will be able to read those minmal words, by sight, for himself or herself. After that, begin to build your child’s knowledge of consonant names and then sounds (i.e. “b” sounds like “buh” and “d” sounds like “duh”) so that your child can work through sounding out unknown words in the context of the easy-to-read book’s plot development.) Note to interested readers: In my personal blog entitled, “Mary Elizabeh Sings,” one of my posts has been developed – in outline form – to teach parents and teachers “Word Attack Skills” (title of my post) in how to instruct their children and students in phonics and word attack skills from consonant and vowel sounds through syllabication and the meanings of prefixes, root words, and suffixes.

See below for the excerpt from Eboni’s story in which her mother reads to her as a baby:

“But when Eboni was a baby, Flurry (Eboni’s mother) began reading to her. She read through many of their moves, though it stopped when the family was in homeless shelters. She used letter-shaped refrigerator magnets to work on spelling.”
——————————————————————————————————

I want to share Cyndie’s story with you, Truth, as well as with other readers who may not have read Cyndie’s story, earlier. This is a true story of one of my previous teaching experiences, when an African-American junior in my high school Advanced Reading class approached me, late on one Friday afternoon, with her story. Cyndie’s story is not as dramatic, in impact, as Eboni’s story, but Cyndie “gave” her story to me that Friday afternoon, after school, with the understanding that I would continue to share her story with other students who are behind their peers in their reading skills. I will share it again, today, in behalf of Cyndie, for all of those students – and for all of their teachers and their parents who want to find ways to help their children and their students – who are behind others in their grade level in their reading skills. The good news is that these students can “catch up” to their grade level peers, and that they can eventually even optimize their own potential, as Cyndie did. Cyndie’s story will show the way.

http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/cyndies-story/

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redweather, yes, there are all kinds of ways to measure thinking, reasoning and logic. go look at sample questions for the LSAT law school entrance test, most of it is testing reasoning and logic. I recently emailed to me friend a link to YouTube video of forklift accidents. My friend immediately emailed back, “Yes, most people can not think in three dimensions.” I was impressed by his answer. A forklift moves on an x/y Cartesian plane on the ground (named after Rene DeCartes) but when you add the forks going up and down, that is the third axis. Sort of the difference of a circle and sphere or ball. Two dimensions to three. I have before thought the same of humanities study, using thee dimensions to look at a subject, one being time, one being location. The same applies to music and persons who write music scores with eight things going on. How does that work?

Tests are not my thing, but certainly higher order skills up to “olympiad” thinking level can be “tested” and there are techniques for same. Testing can be view as a fine art, like expensive champagne. Not sure what testing has to do with anything relevant as long as kids do not have eyeglasses and support materials and organization is as spotty and vacant as it is now.

Hey redweather, maybe you ought to have a look at the “MENSA” test. It is pretty popular for someone calling themselves smart. I knew on “Mensa” approved person who worked at CNN. This person didn’t seem too smart to me. They lived in a concrete bunker type apartment downtown and acted very cool. Meanwhile CNN was lying like nobody’s business, telling whole clothe lies repeating war propaganda. “Osama bin Laden has new golf clubs!” “Osama bin Laden has a new golf cart!” “Meanwhile, let’s blame him and then go bomb a different country, Iraq!” If industrial level lying and treating people that way. Well, let’s just say they must leave off morality and ethics from the “MENSA” test. Sample questions: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-01-04/entertainment/8902220824_1_typists-chickens-eggs

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““Mensa” approved person who worked at CNN. This person didn’t seem too smart to me. They lived in a concrete bunker type apartment downtown and acted very cool. Meanwhile CNN was lying like nobody’s business, telling whole clothe lies repeating war propaganda.”

Are you talking about Wolf Blitzer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QMQi-m63E

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hey Truth, after reading a page of CS Lewis, I sort of saw this author as a Mark Twain knock off. ha. I know he is well regarded by many. Allow me to dial up a story for you, I printed out the first part for one of my “advanced” students (differentiated instruction?). Well that went absolutely nowhere. Anyway, I think of this as an example of superb writing. Maybe it will interest you. There is a “moral to the story” as well, but it is perhaps a more sublime approach that what we are accustomed to over her in the land of marketing, required store “discount” cards, and computer morphed talking animal commercials made by graduates of trendy “art” schools. Here’s a teaspoon of the real elixir: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1237/1237-h/1237-h.htm

Note, there are other, perhaps better, more crisp translations into English, but this is easily accessible.

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Interestingly, Benjamin Bloom served as “educational advisor to the governments of India (1957) and Israel (1963-1968)”.
http://www.citejournal.org/articles/v7i4CP1_module1.swf
Perhaps that is why the technical school was trying to recover the “lost tools of learning,” yes?

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@ Truth. No-one cares about CS Lewis, either.

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Wow that hypocrite video is hilarious. What a bunch of voo-doo these actors are.

Synonyms
bewitch – enchant – witch – charm – spell

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“Thank you for telling me about Dorothy Sayers.”
@PC
Ummmm. YOU WERE THE ONE THAT POSTED THE LINK TO THE SCHOOL THAT HAD HER QUOTE AT THE TOP OF ITS PAGE.
I guess you post first, read later?????????????

I think your handlers need to get a new obstructionist. Do you make minimum wage?

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Dear Wacky Truth, I post a link to a paper about teaching logic. You’re the one who culled the Dorothy Sayers thing and expanded on it that she lectured CS Whazzit and JRR Tolkien. By the way, pretty much anyone I have know who reads/like CS Lewis and Tolkien seems to be hermetically sealed and it is like they read these works and are done. They have found “reading” and their “home base” and it ends at these two authors as if they have found heaven. Meanwhile, I think of them as bubble gum in the round glass bowl gum machine in the corner of the book store…

hey, flipping the coin, have you ever met an enthusiast for Madame Blavatsky? Now that’s a strange bunch, closed off in a different way.

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Truth, I request that you immediately stop posting information as satire of me, paragraphs of nonsense speak. Okay? Sound good? You’ve done it twice now, like a new hobby. This is a proper / formal request asking you to observe good boundaries. If you have an idea to express, please do so. If you have a dialogue response to a post, please say so. If you wish to recreationally spam me, please refrain from doing so.

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@ Truth, Jan. 1, 12:26 am.

Evidently, Maureen has diplomatically removed your two posts from yesterday afternoon and evening, one on the “STEM degrees” thread and one on this one, in which you supposedly “quoted” Private Citizen as posting in some gibberish-Latin. But I can testify that you did post them, for I read them and so I guess did PC. I thought at the time: “That’s not a very Christian thing to do.”

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Indeed.

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