Principals slam 2014 NY Common Core tests as badly designed

Effective Writing Instruction 

(Originally titled “What Writing Is and Isn’t”)

“Let’s keep this in perspective,” says writer Jeff Anderson in an article in Educational Leadership. “The Common Core State Standards are a guiding document. Educators must look beyond the artificial boundaries assumed in such a document and dive into pedagogy, process, content knowledge, and research that reveals best practice in teaching…

What Teaching Is All About

In this evocative Boston Globe Magazine article, novelist Steve Almond remembers the precise moment when he felt literature come alive: his ninth-grade English teacher picked up a copy of The Catcher in the Rye and read the first chapter to the class. “Nearly every person I know has some version of this story,” says Almond: “The moment when a teacher changes the course of your life. A good teacher, after all,…

Robert E. Slavin

Director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University

Support Your Local Principal

April 2014

Dear_______________________

As you are profoundly aware, there has been much controversy surrounding not only the Common Core Learning Standards, but more specifically the testing of students in grades three through eight.    As an elementary principal I have had many conversations with parents regarding their concerns about testing.  I have also had many meetings with teachers who express their concerns about when the test is…

LAST week, the New York State Legislature struck a deal ensuring that …

How The College Admissions Process Works

Small Actions That Can Cut the Pyramid of Prejudice Down to Size

In this powerful Kappan article, David Light Shields (Saint Louis Community College) describes comments that are heard almost every day in schools:

• “Boys will be boys.”
• “That’s so gay!”
• “It figures that he’s good at math – he’s Asian.”
• “He throws like a girl.”
• “Oh,…

Vocational School vs. Traditional Universities: Environmental Differences

By: Kate Gredley

When choosing how to further your education, there are a lot of things to consider. Options abound for prospective students, between traditional universities, online programs, and trade schools. If you know you want face-to-face education and are trying to decide between a vocational school and a 4-year degree, here are some environmental aspects you’ll…