Five Myths About the Common Core State Standards

Writing for the Harvard Education Letter, Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman explores five myths about the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by forty-five states and the District of Columbia.

To hear more from Rothman on the common standards, register for the book release party the Alliance is hosting for him on October 18 in Washington, DC. Alternatively, you can order a copy of his new book, Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education, at http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/146/SomethingInCommon.

Rothman's five myths about the Common Core State Standards appear below:

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Across The Pond: Assessing Deeper Learning In Ireland And At Home

For the past year and a half the Alliance for Excellent Education has worked, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to develop and support policies to enhance deeper learning—to ensure that students graduate from high school with deep understanding of core content, as well as the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, work well with peers, and be self-directed as learners. So it was with great interest that I accepted an invitation to attend a conference in Ireland, where educators are concerned about the same thing. Read Entire Post

Stats That Stick: July 20, 2011

As many as four out of five community college students in the United States want to transfer to a four-year institution so they can obtain a bachelor’s degree, according to a College Board report. But many transfer students have taken classes that make the advising process complicated.

According to a new U.S. Department of Commerce study, growth in science, technology, engineering, and math fields (STEM) jobs over the past ten years was three times greater than other occupations and STEM workers earned 26 percent more than their non-STEM counterparts.

Countries in which schools frequently hold back or kick out students with low academic performance tend to have weaker, more expensive, and more socially inequitable education systems overall, according to a new analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). While fewer than 3 percent of students in 13 countries—including Japan, Norway, and the United Kingdom—reported ever repeating a grade, more than 25 percent of students repeated at least once in France, Spain, Brazil, and a dozen others studied. The United States reported more than one in ten students repeating a grade, higher than the OECD average, while the top-performing countries, Finland and Korea, do not allow grade retention. (Education Week)

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Afternoon Announcements: July 7, 2011

Writing for Education Week's K-12 blog, Alyson Klein notes that Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, is less than thrilled with the response from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to his request for more information about the department's plan to give states leeway on parts of the No Child Left Behind Act in exchange for signing onto a package of reforms-to-be-named-later. Summarizing Duncan's response, she writes, "If you expected the department to provide Kline & Co. with a thorough, detailed explanation of the waiver proposal, you'll be sorely disappointed. "

In another post from earlier this afternoon, Klein (the reporter) writes that Kline (the congressman) gave a preview of the House Education and the Workforce's funding flexibility bill today on former Education Secretary Bill Bennett's radio show, Morning in America. And he said that the bill won't be introduced with bipartisan support. More details on the bill are expected to come out this afternoon. You can listen to audio from Chairman Kline's radio appearance at http://edworkforce.house.gov/Audio/.

Now that your speakers are warmed up, you can also listen to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talk to NPR about No Child Left Behind, the plan aimed to improve failing public schools; as well as the Dream Act, which would create a path to citizenship for some undocumented youth.

More links below the jump.

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Morning Announcements: June 22, 2011

After months of feuding and failed negotiations, lawmakers and governors in several states remain deadlocked on how to close budget shortfalls and pay for education and other services, according to Education Week.

According to the New York Times, of the 70 New York City high schools that earned an "A" under the education department's school assessment system and have at least one-third of graduates attending a City University of New York college, 46 posted remediation rates above 50%.

In his blog “School of Thought” Andy Rotherman asks, “Is it finally the beginning of the end for No Child Left Behind?”

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Report Round-Up

A Time for Deeper Learning: Preparing Students for a Changing World from the Alliance for Excellent Education. This policy brief argues that deeper learning provides students with the deep content knowledge they need to succeed after high school and the critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills that today’s jobs demand.

What’s It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. This report finds that different undergraduate majors result in very different earnings. At the low end, median earnings for Counseling Psychology majors are $29,000, while Petroleum Engineering majors see median earnings of $120,000.

Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible and SIG-Awarded Schools by the Institute of Education Sciences. This paper finds that nationally, 74 percent of the more than 1,200 schools that receive school improvement grants are undertaking what many view as the most flexible of the four Education Department models – transformation.

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Morning Announcements: April 20, 2011

The Palm Beach County school district says it'll need more time, money to switch to digital textbooks, the Palm Beach Post News reports.

Catherine Gewertz of Education Week covers a U.S. Department of Education hearing convened last week to inform the two assessment consortia, SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium and Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, as they design tests for the new common standards in mathematics and English/language arts that have been adopted by all but six states, using $360 million in federal Race to the Top money.

The Free Times (Columbia, SC) and the Journal Times (Racine, WI) cover the Alliance’s report on the economic benefits of improving high school graduation rates.

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Morning Announcements: March 16, 2011

The Atlanta Journal Constitution discusses how to grow and retain the very best teachers, citing a newly released report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. 

The New York Times writes about a new report calling for United States to raise teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more.

An independent task force is urging the body overseeing national-board certification to consider standardized-test scores, alongside other measures of student-learning growth, among the sources of evidence used to award teachers the prestigious advanced credential, Education Week reports.

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3 Webinars This Week: Striving Readers, College and Career Readiness & Through-Course Assessments

From Striving to Struggling: The Proposed Elimination of Striving Readers and the Need to Reverse Course
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Congress has passed a short-term measure to prevent the federal government from shutting down, and the House of Representatives has passed proposed funding levels for the remainder of the year. The House-passed proposal would eliminate funding for Striving Readers in 2010 and 2011, while the short-term measure that has been signed into law eliminates the program in 2011. Tomorrow, the Alliance will host a webinar that will provide an update on the budget negotiations taking place on Capitol Hill and how they will affect funding for the new comprehensive Striving Readers program. Alliance Vice President of Federal Advocacy Phillip Lovell will be joined by Don Deshler from the University of Kansas' Center for Research on Learning and Cindy Parker with the Kentucky Department of Education to discuss the new Striving Readers Comprehensive Program, the research behind it, and the importance of comprehensive literacy plans in preparing students for college and careers. Register and submit questions for the webinar.

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Morning Announcements: March 7, 2011

A group of leaders in education, business, and government issued a call this week to devise shared curriculum guidelines for the new common standards. See stories in the New York Times and Education Week. On a related note, Catherine Gewertz at Education Week writes about states transition from their current accountability tests to the assessments being designed for the common standards. And Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee Conference of NAACP Branches, and Tomeka Hart, president and CEO of the Memphis Urban League, write a joint op-ed in the Jackson Sun in support of common standards.

Michael Winerip of the New York Times writes, “Evaluating New York Teachers, Perhaps the Numbers do Lie.”

USA Today does a cover story titled, “When test scores seem too good to be believe”

On the Answer Sheet blog, Valerie Strauss borrows from Whole Child blog and posts responses from teachers responding to the question: “What was one thing you wished you’d known when you started teaching?”

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