AM News: Standardized Testing Becomes Great Divide in Educational Policy

Standardized testing becomes the great divide in schools policy LATimes: The growing use of standardized tests to assess students and teachers is sparking a push-back nationwide in what has become one of the greatest divides in educational policy. 

Student Database Backed By Gates Foundation Jazzes Tech Startups, Spooks Parents Reuters: In operation just three months, the database already holds files on millions of children identified by name, address and sometimes social security number. 

Teacher-Evaluation Plans Bedevil Waiver States EdWeek: More than six months after waiver recipients turned in their guidelines to the department, only 12 waiver states have gotten the green light for their evaluation systems.

Gifted Class Imbalance in NYC By the Numbers WSJ:  More than 70% of the students in the 110 gifted-and-talented programs across the city this school year are white or Asian, though they make up a third of the general elementary-school student population.  

National Attention and Cash in Los Angeles School Vote NYT: On Tuesday, voters in Los Angeles will go to the polls for a mayoral primary. But much of the attention will also be on the three races for the school board, a battle that involves the mayor, the teachers’ union and a host of advocates from across the country — including New York City’s billionaire mayor — who have poured millions of dollars into the races.

DC Public Schools negotiating with union to extend school day, year to boost teaching time WashingtonPostLocal:  Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson tells The Washington Examiner (http://bit.ly/VZbK4B ) that she’s working to create more flexibility in the teachers’ union contract to implement a longer school day and a longer school year. 

Comments

[Bruce]

Re: the standardized testing story in the LA Times: Superintendent Torlakson, the Texans, UTLA, and the teachers at Garfield High School are right: there is entirely too much testing going on in our schools, and mandating the use of test scores in teacher appraisals is a bad mistake. The superintendent would be well advised to remove the testing of second graders, but far more urgent for us as a nation is to repeal No Child Left Behind, which has not reduced the achievement gap, but has led to an obsession with testing that narrows both the taught curriculum and the cognitive, social, and emotional development of our children. Another natural consequence of this misguided policy should be the flight of families concerned about their children's futures from the state school system into private education, which unfortunately is less affordable for many today because of another set of misguided policies from the Bush administration.