College and Career-Ready Standards for School Leaders

New studies show how a four-year degree greatly benefits even marginal students.

students do better when they stretch themselves and attend the most selective college that admits them, rather than “undermatching.”

By Alex Sczesnak, Algebra 1 Teacher, Math Department Chair, and UFT Chapter Leader at Metropolitan High School in the South Bronx* 

This has been a boon for teachers everywhere; most would agree that these standards are far more focused and coherent than anything we’ve implemented previously, leading to curricula that make math meaningful for students in ways that were not previously possible."

"we’ve made a lot of progress in the past few years, and we’ve got hurdles yet to clear, but in the meantime I would encourage patience on the part of all math teachers not yet won over by the high school standards. As we become increasingly adept at mastering the expectations of the Common Core, and as more and better curricular resources are made available, I expect that teachers, administrators, students, and parents alike will find that the CCLS are a significant improvement over the way math has been taught previously."  

With the oil and gas industry slowing down and laying off workers, it's easy to forget that Houston and Texas continue to suffer from a lack of qualified workers. Employers in other industries continue to compete for skilled workers and many jobs go unfilled. Part of the problem is that in addition to an underperforming public school system, the public university system is not producing enough graduates.

The Houston Chronicle (4/29, Tomlinson) reports that a new report argues that while Texas managed to grow its jobs during the recession, it also has “the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers” and a lack of skilled workers due to the following:

1. Low levels of college degree receipt
2. Low per-student funding
3. Poor SAT scores
4. High rates of low income families without college degrees 

U.S. middle-school students’ performance on social studies didn’t improve much between 2010 and 2014, federal test scores show.

The Wall Street Journal (4/29, Porter, Subscription Publication) reports that the National Assessment of Educational Progress has released its latest Federal test scores for middle and high school students’ performance in social studies, showing that the number of students scoring at or above proficiency in US history last year was 18%, an increase of one percent compared with 2010, while civics and geography scores were similarly lackluster. National Assessment Governing Board Chair Terry Mazany decried the flat-line results, but many teachers say Federal testing standards are to blame for relegating non-STEM subjects, plus reading, into a non-essential category.

        The AP (4/29, Hefling) reports that 2014’s test results “were similar to those four years ago when the assessments were last administered.” While 18 percent of students were at least proficient in US history, 27 percent were proficient or better in geography, and 23 percent performed well in civics. The tests were administered by the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. Also, the AP notes some trends in social studies education, which “is going digital” and increasingly involving computers.

        The Huffington Post (4/29, Resmovits) reports that America’s eighth graders set “a stubbornly low bar” in the tests, having scored “no better on average than in 2010,” although the scores were “slightly improved from 1994.” National Assessment Governing Board Deputy Executive Director Mary Crovo comments for the story, while Acting National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy Carr “said there is some reason for optimism about the history results,” particularly with respect to Hispanic students.

The ACT is mandated for all high school juniors in Colorado and can help determine college placement. But the benefit of having PARCC is students take the exam over multiple years and can begin remediation before they need it in college, said Rhonda Epper, chief student academic affairs officer for the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

“PARCC provides another avenue for students to demonstrate college readiness, and it can give feedback to students about where they are with respect to skills they need early in their high school career,” Epper said. “National awareness is growing that for students who begin in remedial courses the barriers to success are extremely high.”

It turns out that the stakes for this spring’s Common Core-aligned tests are not quite as high as they might seem. The Hechinger Report surveyed the District of Columbia and all 44 states* that have adopted the Common Core and will be administering a Common Core-aligned test this spring to find out how they plan …

[...] testing officials say the rollout this spring of new standardized tests taken by computer in U.S. public schools has been without major problems in much of the country. The new exams are expected to be harder in many states than the state assessments they replaced, but they've been billed as a more accurate testing of what students are actually learning. The new assessments developed by two groups of states are called Smarter Balanced and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colle

Graders of the PARCC Common Core tests use a rapid assembly-line scoring process from Pearson Inc. to easily grade a student answer per minute on many tests.

At some schools, they're more about college prep than college credit.

Colorado legislation would allow people to file lawsuits against schools if an act of violence occurred that could have been prevented.