Afternoon Announcements: August 1, 2012

It’s Wednesday, and we’re in the zone here at High School Soup. No time for idle chatter or pithy remarks. As they say, “Just the facts, ma’am.”

From The Washington Post, embattled Florida education commissioner Gerard Robinson has resigned from his position. The resignation comes arguably in large part because of the state’s accountability system based off of standardized tests. Confusion over the system, and mistakes about schools’ grades, have generated uproar in the Sunshine State.

Education Week reports on a study from the National Bureau of Economic research that says the effect of incentivizing students differs depending on when the students are given their reward. The article notes, “the rewards worked much better if they were given to students before the test, not after.”

“A nonpartisan group of scientists and mathematicians says New Mexico’s new A-F school grading system is too complex for most people to understand, including principals and superintendents,” according to The Albuquerque Journal via Education Week. If principals and superintendents cannot understand the grading system, what do we think the odds are that parents are comprehending it?

The New York Times offers up this article on YouTube videos and how they can serve as introductions to college. The authors note, “We’ve looked at several ways colleges and universities are using YouTube to reach prospective students. Here are some ways those students could use the videos to strengthen their college search.”

Coming on the heels of the Senator Tom Harkin’s critical report of for-profit education, The Sacramento Bee reports that California will “eliminate or reduce awards to 14,500 students, most of them enrolled in for-profit colleges.”

See you tomorrow for more announcements and some Stats That Stick!