ON SCHOOL DISCIPLINE, WE CAN DO BETTER

from Steve Peha's 

Dan Willingham has a great review of a new report on improving school discipline. Listen to this: “The report starts with two grim facts. First, present practices are…

Robert Slavin on Reading by Third Grade - Or Else

Since the performance measures (standardized) do not provide the information useful for improving performance, let's not try to make it so.  If we focus on those measures that do inform us about what students know and are able to do, and follow the paths that they lead, then results on standardized measures should follow.  If we continue to focus on the standardized results as meaningful, then we have to be clear about what they mean.…

 When Whole Word modulated into Whole Language (both being variations on look-say as a matter of fact), there was a great rush to add bells and whistles, lipstick and accessories.

 One of these bells and whistles was called literacy-rich environment. And the theory was that if you surrounded children with thousands of books, they would learn to read more quickly.

This simply is not true. We could all sit in a library in China…

In Kiwi magazine, I read about a great way to share books and promote literacy in your hometown.  Little Free Library is a way to recycle your old books and even read some new ones.  You can order a waterproof structure, or better yet, build your own out of repurposed materials, and place books inside. Neighbors come and borrow books and even leave some of their own books.  If you're really ambitious, leave a notebook and pen in the structure for people to write their responses to…

 Bet you didn't know that 1 million homeschoolers use Saxon Math textbooks.

 When people can choose what they want, they choose Saxon Math. 

Eighteen years after he died, John Saxon is still a powerful force in American education. I think he will get much bigger.

The public is so disgusted with Reform Math and Common Core. They want stuff that…

A Draft Bill of Research Rights for Educators

By Daniel Willingham

Real Clear Education

RCEd Commentary

When I talk to educators about research, their most common complaint (by a long shot) is that they are asked to implement new…

COMPUTERIZED ESSAY GRADING NOT MAKING THE GRADE

Computerized essay grading has come a long way. But not far enough. As someone who has been certified in essay scoring, who has personally scored more than 50,000 essays, and who has run large scale scoring sessions for districts, I agree. Here’s an article evaluating the state of the art: “In closing his interview, Mr. Perelman offered what he called Perelman's conjecture: ‘People's belief in…