Student surveys for children as young as 5 years old may help rate teachers

By Sarah Butrymowicz, Published: May 13

Kindergartners in Georgia — many of whom don’t yet read — could soon play an important role in deciding which teachers get raises or get fired. Under a new pilot program, 5-year-olds will be guided through a survey that includes such statements as “My teacher knows a lot about what he or she teaches” and “My…

The following is drawn from elements presented at a Regional Literacy Conference for educators.  I started by reading The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth.  Based on the work of Leo Tolstoy, Muth’s brilliant picture book tells the story of a young boy trying to be the best person he can be.  In it the boy asks:

When is the best time to do things?

Who is the most important one?

What is the right thing…

Maria Trucios - a repeat winner!  Congratulations Maria (but we will now put in place the Maria Rule - no previous winners can qualify!)

Maria correctly guessed the school above was Little Rock Central High School, scene of early Civil Rights…

Over the last several weeks, in light of all the standardized testing taking place in the state of New York, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the ideas of assessment and testing and how important they are in the world of public education. In New York State we have reached a point where our children are sitting for at least 6 days of standardized testing in grades 3, 4 and 5 in the areas of English Language Arts and Mathematics. As if that weren't enough, the results from these tests…

Value added – why its use makes me angry (OR: a good idea gone bad, again, in education)

06SundayMay 2012

The Left Wing of the Possible

I was fortunate and honored to be asked to speak at a recent conference for The Software Information Industry Association (SIIA). They are all wonderful people in a group that represents a major portion of education software developers and manufacturers. I had some great discussions with some very smart and driven education-minded, business people. As I stated in my last post, many of these people have come from the ranks of educators. My big take away from this conference however, was not…

Grade the Work, Not the Behavior

"You can't give a student a zero for cheating. You have to…

Sowing Failure, Reaping Success: What Failure Can Teach

Maria Trucios

Maria correctly identified the photo below as the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo - June 15, 1991 in the Phillipines.

Congratulations Maria!

Elizabeth Phillips: Teachers Need to Be Supported

Ángel Franco/The New York Times-- Elizabeth Phillips at P.S. 321.