Opting out of testing is like opting out of our personal and collective responsibility as parents. As a mother, I want to know how my own kids are doing but, arguably more importantly, we all need to know how all kids are doing. We would not even be aware of the seismic gaps between white… Continue reading Why I Would Never Opt My Kids Out of Tests
It turns out that one of Amazon’s considerations in deciding where to build it’s second headquarters—or HQ2— is the average SAT (or ACT) score of students in the cities on their list of potential options. Not only does it figure into their calculation of what the local talent pool will look like in the coming… Continue reading Hey Alexa, Do Test Scores Matter? Duh, Of Course They Do
Tonight was the Rhode Island Governor’s State of the State Address. Gina Raimondo is beginning the final year of her first term and her address was predictable in that it had some stellar moments and well deserved applause lines as well as some glaring omissions. But I am already indebted to my Governor because her… Continue reading My New BowFlex, The State of the Littlest State, and the Best T-Shirt I’ve Ever Bought
Third grade reading scores are a very big deal because they are accepted as the most predictive indicator of whether a student will finish high school. Hey Rhode Island, our 3rd grade reading results should be a very loud wake up call. Despite some significant improvements since 2015, our results were flat between last year… Continue reading 3rd Grade Reading Tells Us a Lot About Who Is Likely To Finish High School
PARCC data is in and while the overall news isn’t good, there are some bright spots for sure including huge gains at some schools and far more students taking the SAT now that it’s free. Big shout out to all the schools that posted significant gains and/or are members of the elite club that Dan… Continue reading 2017 PARCC Results in RI: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Rhode Island is making a big change in how it assesses students that will bring us in line with Massachusetts in grades 3-8 and reduce testing time by 50 percent at the high school level. PARCC will no longer be the test we administer in Rhode Island so while the teaching standards will remain the… Continue reading Rhode Island is Getting Smarter (and More Like Mass)
It’s test time and as you can see from the enthusiasm and love in this video, all the grown ups who see you every day at school believe in you. Be confident. Stand proud. Do your best. And Rock the PARCC! You got this.
As another charter battle heats up in Little Rhody, the usual status quo protectors are talking about everything except what matters most: student outcomes and parent demand. And when it comes to Achievement First, the charter school looking to expand, it’s impossible to deny that they’ve earned the privilege of doing so. They’ve proven the… Continue reading Student Outcomes and Parent Satisfaction Must be Front and Center in Debate over AF
It’s no secret that principals are pretty stoked when students who transfer into their schools have a history of high scores on required annual tests. School leaders feel great pressure to perform in the public eye and having a few more kids to bump those numbers up is certainly a welcome surprise. It’s usually light… Continue reading Stop Failing the Kids Helping You Most With Their Rosy Test Scores
When ESSA, The Every Student Succeeds Act, passed and the president signed it, we knew it would happen: States would take the flexibility now afforded to them under federal statute to backslide on accountability. But—maybe naively—I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, before the rule-making around ESSA’s accountability provisions have even been finalized. We’re… Continue reading Little Rhody Runs From the Truth and Eliminates Annual Testing after Grade 9
