'ROUNDING THE GLOBE'-10: What does STAND stand for? There are a host of journalistic sins. When it comes to its coverage of education policy, the Boston Globe has committed all of them: selective sourcing in news, exclusion of dissenting … [Read more...]
THE ‘ROUNDING THE GLOBE’ BLOG-8: Continuing Analysis of How The Globe Covers Ed Policy
'Rounding the Globe'- 8: Dropout Rates We Have Known This is submission from the "Better-Late-Than-Never" Dept. On March 14, 2010, the Boston Globe published a curious editorial, which followed up on a news story reporting a decline in the … [Read more...]
THE ‘ROUNDING THE GLOBE’ BLOG-7: Continuing Analysis of How the Globe Covers Ed Policy
BLOG #7: THE A PRIORI ARIA ABOUT 'STANDARDS' The blog concerns a Page One story in today's Boston Globe, entitled "State stands firm on school quality" (3/15). Written by James Vaznis who works the ed reform beat, the piece is one of many … [Read more...]
ROUNDING THE GLOBE 6: Does one right makes two wrongs?
She then went on to discuss the startling, new positions of education scholar Diane Ravitch, once an advocate and now a critic of testing, charters, standards, and school closings. Incredibly, the Globe has still not followed the lead of … [Read more...]
All we are saying is give paste a chance.
Yesterday, on the last weekday of the February break, I was in my classroom reading a 25-page standardized, multiple-choice test on poetry. All 8th graders at my school will spend two hours taking this test on Tuesday. Its … [Read more...]
Sciortino (and Patrick?) to soften MCAS
(Via Casey.) Back in the campaign, Kerry Healey warned that Patrick would back off of MCAS as a graduation requirement. Patrick said no, he supported it as a requirement, but he supported "teaching the whole child." I took this to mean … [Read more...]
My ideal MCAS
First, for giggles, let's remember what the acronym MCAS stands for -- Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. That's right. A two-hour exam administered in March or May is supposedly "Comprehensive" -- accurately summing … [Read more...]
Challenging the Department of Education on MCAS Success
Last week, the Department of Education released a report showing that more students than ever are earning their MCAS competency in only two attempts (release). While the numbers may be true, the assertion that this is indicative of … [Read more...]
Tom, what are you thinking?
I really don't get this at all: Tom Birmingham, of all people, wonders if Patrick is squishy on MCAS?"This was a policy discussion," he said of the breakfast, held at the Omni Parker House Hotel. "Four days before the election, or wherever … [Read more...]
Pushing the candidates on MCAS
My question to all three Democratic gubenatorial candidates (and their supporters) is this: What will you do to push back against the trend? Can we count on you to move towards minimizing the negative impacts of MCAS, and to help … [Read more...]