Most parents requesting to opt out would be shook up and intimidated if they received the following letter and form. It likely would affect their judgment to the point they wouldn’t check facts for themselves. In this case, the parents let the school know their child was not to take the state assessment. The school […]
High School in Seattle says “No!” to the Common Core SBAC Assessments
In January last year, we reported about teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle taking a stand and refusing to administer the MAP test. Now, a year later, another high school in Seattle is taking a stand against the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium assessments. Yesterday afternoon the Nathan Hale Senate (functions as Building Leadership Team) […]
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Does It Add Up or Down? Part 3
Standards for Mathematical Practice The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Table of Contents includes two types of standards. First listed are Standards for Mathematical Practice. Second listed are Standards for Mathematical Content. Before we explore the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP), let’s make a distinction between the SMP and Content standards. The SMP are […]
An Early Look at Smarter Balanced Assessments
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium just released a practice test to give administrators, teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders an early look at a test that will be implemented in partner states in the 2014/2015 school year. You can read up on it here to see the technology requirements. You can go here to enter […]
SBAC Assessments Sneak Through Republican-Led Iowa House
I wrote back in January that there would have to be a statutory change in Iowa before the Iowa Department of Education could implement the assessments from the Smarter Balanced Assessments Consortium. Well that took one step forward last night when it was approved on a voice vote no less in the Iowa House. It […]
SBAC Assessments Will Require Statutory Change In Iowa
Iowa jumped on the Common Core State Standards in 2010. They joined the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The Iowa Department of Education can’t mandate assessments. Statutorily they are legally allowed to align the Iowa standards with other “accepted” standards. Iowa Code 256.7 subsection 26b says: Continue the inclusive process begun during the initial development of […]
S.C. State Senator Mike Fair Warns About Common Core Testing
South Carolina State Senator Mike Fair (R-Greenville) wrote an op/ed for The State where he warned that South Carolina could regret their new student testing scheme via the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) that accompanies the state’s adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards. He writes: We belong to a consortium of states […]
Breaking News: Utah State Board of Education Votes to Pull Out of SBAC
The Utah State Board of Education’s meeting today had common core testing on the agenda. Sources tell me that the Board has voted to pull out of their testing consortium – the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). SBAC had received Race to the Top funding in order to provide assessments based on the Common Core […]
SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium Awards Common Core Architecture Contract to Measured Progress
SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium Awards Common Core Architecture Contract to Measured Progress November 21, 2011 Measured Progress
New Standards, Familiar Problems
The following op-ed is the John Locke Foundation’s Daily Journal for Friday, October 28, 2011: If you thought the federal No Child Left Behind law was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. Next year, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction will introduce new curriculum standards for all public school students. This will include Common Core […]