The Answer Sheet: Content Standards


Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/21/2011

Testing the Common Core Standards
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran of the standardized testing industry sets out to discover whether the Common Core Standards are "revolutionary" or whether they look a lot like standards states already have. Here's his report.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/21/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  academic benchmarks, common core standards, common standards, content standards, national standards, standardized testing, standardized testing industry, state standards, testing industry, todd farley, todd s. farley

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010

What Americans really think about public schools
By Valerie Strauss
In an era of unrelenting bashing of public education by “experts,” a new poll shows that most Americans actually like their neighborhood public schools -- though they don’t seem to like public schools in general -- and they have trust in teachers. And the Obama administration’s education agenda gets mixed reviews in the 2010 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research, Research | Tags:  content standards, failing schools, gallup poll, kappan magazine, obama and education, obama and school reform, pdk poll, phi delta kappa, public schools, school funding, standardized tests, teacher quality, teachers and pay, teachers and respect, what americans think about education

Posted at 12:00 PM ET, 06/07/2010

Will new standards mean better-educated kids? -- Willingham
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham looks at the final version of the Common Core standards for math and English Language Arts and analyzes their likely impact on learning over the next decade. Will students be better educated? From a quick read the standards look pretty good, but most would agree that high-quality standards are necessary but not sufficient for positive impact.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:00 PM ET, 06/07/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Common Core standards, Daniel Willingham, content standards, national standards

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/06/2010

Harvard study gives Race to Top winners bad grades on academic standards
By Valerie Strauss
One of the two states chosen by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a winner in the first round of the $4 billion Race to the Top competition has academic standards that earned the grade of ‘F’ in a new study by Harvard University researchers, while the other state got a ‘C minus.’

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan, Education Secretary Duncan | Tags:  Education Next, NAEP, National Assessment of Educational Progress, No Child Left Behind, Paul Peterson, Race to the Top, academic standards, education next, grading the states, state assessments, state content standards, state standards

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 10/05/2009

Willingham: What Should Students Be Required to Read?
By Valerie Strauss
What should students be required to read? ... It is not controversial to specify desirable knowledge in other subjects. In science, for example, we expect that students will acquire certain skills-- methods of scientific analysis--but we also believe that there is a body of scientific knowledge that students will learn. The same is true of history and mathematics. What makes literature different? Why don’t standards specify what students ought to read?

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 10/05/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Content Standards, Daniel Willingham, Literature, Reading

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/22/2009

CHECKING IT OUT: The Push for National Standards--and Why You Should Care
By Valerie Strauss
The new release of a draft of national standards for math and language arts brings into sharp focus an effort to reform public education--based on the notion that all Americans should have the same basic foundation of knowledge and skills. The impetus behind national standards is understandable, but the bottom line is that Americans don't all have the same educational needs.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 09/22/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  National Standards, National Standards | Tags:  content standards, education secretary arne duncan, national standards, no child left behind, school reform