With Black History Month nearly complete, it’s appropriate to examine our progress on narrowing the black-white achievement gap in America.  After considering scores from 2003 and 2011, there is both good and bad news to report.

To get a sense of the United States’ progress in this area over the last decade, I took 4th and 8th grade, reading and mathematics scorContinue Reading »

We know from research that a student’s reading score can be better predicted by family environment than by schooling. The 2010 study “Children’s Access to Print Related Materials and Education-Related Outcomes” commissioned by Reading is Fundamental concluded that greater access to books and other print materials in the home correlated with increases in a child’s reading performancContinue Reading »

Despite several pleas not to, the Indiana State Board of Education voted to change teacher licensing rules, easing credential requirements for both superintendents and teachers. (News and Tribune)

Careful interpretations. Kevin Drum warns that media coverage of yesterday’s NAEP vocabulary scores is “wrong on so many levels.” (Mother Jones)

For data nerds. An interactive map with kContinue Reading »

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) which are designed to give the United States a uniform metric of academic standards. As we move from No Child Left Behind’s focus on testing and achievement to the CCSS era of rigorous curriculum uniformity, the question arises: Does demanding high standards hurt struggling students?Continue Reading »

Silly question—it might seem. How could someone be expected to teach piano if they do not know how to play themselves? Yet that is what the public schools are about to ask of teachers more generally. In two years, most public schools will administer new student assessments in reading and math, pegged to the higher academic standards of the Common Core. Although performance standards—how high a Continue Reading »

Repairing the pipeline. This paper looks at the gaps in college-going rates among California students versus their minority peers. Education Sector analysts have also outlined how California schools can better prepare (all) students for postsecondary success in this report. (Education Trust-West)

Ill-informed complacency. Recent upticks in the NAEP science assessment scores have begun a Continue Reading »

How do you like them now? Learning Matters checks in on Shelbyville, Ind., which six years ago was pictured on the cover of TIME magazine next to the headline “Dropout Nation.” Nowadays, the community is boasting a 90 percent graduation rate. (h/t This Week in Education) (PBS NewsHour)

Oopsie. The vice dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania reportedly Continue Reading »

Brookings scholar Tom Loveless is a clear-eyed empiricist who digs deep into test score data and often emerges with surprising findings. A few years back, for example, he looked at individual-student NAEP data to learn that there was no correlation whatsoever between a state’s math score on NAEP and the percentage of students enrolled in advanced classes.

But sContinue Reading »

Can you measure creativity in the classroom? A few states, including Massachusetts, California, and Oklahoma, are trying to find a way. (Education Week)

Bring out the crystal balls. Kindergarten officials in China were offering palm-reading assessments for toddlers to predict their intelligence levels (for a hefty price), but federal officials quashed that practice last week. (h/t JoanneContinue Reading »

On the surface, today’s release of the 2011 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) NAEP results reveal more of the same: math scores, in general, are up across 18 of the largest urban districts since 2009, but reading scores are flat. The data include 3 new districts, Albuquerque, Dallas, and Hillsborough County (Tampa, FL). However, there are some interesting findings within the latest TUDA reContinue Reading »