The Case for Annual Testing

By: Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, Martin R. West, Matthew M. Chingos and Mark Dynarski

The new U.S. Congress is moving post haste to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). With Republicans in the majority in both houses and the relevant committees chaired by individuals with considerable legislative skills (Lamar Alexander in the Senate and John Kline in the House) the smart money is on Obama seeing a bill in this session.

The most recent incarnation of ESEA, signed into law in January of 2002 by President George W. Bush, is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB is the seventh reauthorization of ESEA since 1965, which means that Congress historically reworked this legislation roughly every five years. We’re now 13 years into NCLB, so reauthorization is long overdue. It is not just the long delay that argues for congressional action, but the extent to which the Obama administration has replaced the provisions of the bill with its own set of priorities implemented through Race to the Top and state waivers. Whatever one thinks of the appropriate federal role in education, there are surely strong reasons in our constitutional democracy to prefer that we get to where we are going through law rather than executive edict.

This is really a good article, well researched, thoughtful and I learned quit a bit from it. I've been so busy with awareness that Common Core has no testing requirements, I've been a little derelict with whether standardized testing should be out there. Not sure I'm qualified to press it one way or the other.

Anyway , if it caught your attention at all, it won't waste your time. 

The Words of a Senator

Teachers Are Disengaged from their Employment

This could be the answer to a question I've been trying to solve most of the day. According to a Gaulp Poll, Teachers are not engaged in their work, and even more, some are Actively disengaged.

• Just 30% of U.S. teachers are engaged in their work
• Actively disengaged teachers average twice as many absences

This article is the first in a series exploring employee engagement among U.S. teachers as measured by Gallup Daily tracking.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the U.S., K-12 schoolteachers who are "not engaged" or are "actively disengaged" at work miss an estimated 2.3 million more workdays than teachers who are "engaged" in their jobs.

James Milgram Says He Was the Only Evaluator for Math Can we get Some Primary Sources here?

All of these disclaimers and not a Primary Document among them. Both Stotsky, who is cheaper than a whore on the edge of a battle field with her opinions, and then this Professor James Milgram... who should probably go to jail. I mean this guy falsifies documentation, harrasses coleges, threatens people, and doesn't have a primary source for anything, and he's going around talking about Common Core like he's the only one with an opinion. He even says this!

"I was the only mathematician on the board of evaluation for Common Core."

That's what he said. Well, I happen to have a copy of that evaluation. Here's what I find in these pages.

K-12 Mandated Test Requirements The Testing Every (mis)Informer Blames Common Core For

What Tests are we Talking About?

NCLB and ESEA, as well as the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 in combination with local State exams results in a battery of tests for students these days.

No Child Left Behind requires that, each state must measure every child's progress in reading and math in each of grades 3 through 8 and at least once during grades 10 through 12.

(mis)Information ® Expert Dr. Stotsky Grossly Misinforms on Common Core

Refuting Dr. Sandra Stotsky  and those like her

The only true failure in the development and design of Common Core was the estimation of opposition, and the appreciation of a politician's lack of conscience and total disregard for loyalty. Because of this failure of estimation -- the preparation for opposition was wholly entrusted to a)the writing of a FAQ, and then b) adding to that a Myths and Facts page on the Common Core website. The creators unwisely believed that if people had questions about Common Core, they would go to the web site and discover the answers for themselves. This is laughable, and wholly naive of course.

People rarely do anything to educate themselves. This is a well known fact in marketing and it is a crucial cornerstone in propaganda.

For propaganda to be fully effective, it must be believed by those who hear it - or at least not fully discounted, and it must be made at a time where discovery of the information which could discredit the propagandic statements is either not available, or the listeners are deterred from investigation.