Happy National Open Education Week! All week long, hundreds of contributors and participants from at least 50 different countries are hosting events and sharing ways to embrace open educational resources (OER) – a movement that has been enriching teaching and learning on a global scale. This annual awareness campaign first began in 2012 and has…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education
College Readiness: What’s Missing from Exams, the Common Core, and Other Teaching Practices
Are public school seniors ready for college? According to the past decade of research, most of them aren’t there yet. In 2014, the college admissions test was overhauled by the College Board, in an effort to respond to the harsh criticisms of the SAT. Only, the average scores of the Class of 2015 showed a…
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The Future of Assessments: 4 Valuable Lessons for Educators
The global education market, particularly in higher education, is experiencing a rising need for formative assessment technologies and services. In a research report by Technavio, there are three emerging trends in assessment through social media platforms, cloud-based assessment platforms, and analytical apps. For K-12 and higher ed, this means the world of testing and assessments…
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First Look at How States Will Get ESSA Off the Ground
The Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) is finally ready to be implemented in schools across the country, after the past couple of years spent reaching out to educators and creating detailed plans on how to handle effective hiring of teachers, school ratings, education quality, and accountability. 17 states and the District of Columbia are expected…
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4 Big Problems Created By the Standardized Testing Craze
The Obama administration confirmed what many have been saying for years: U.S. public school students are taking too many standardized tests. This came after a two-year movement to revolt against standardized tests around the country, which is still growing among students, parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and others. Starting in February 2015, more than a dozen…
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Few Educators Are Prepared to Teach the Common Core
Even as states first began implementing the Common Core standards, educators knew that it would take several years to fully understand the new guidelines and be able to shift instruction in the new direction. It’s no major feat bringing together parents, teachers, district leaders, policymakers, and communities to work together to make the Common Core…
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ESSA in 2017: A Challenging Road Ahead for States and School Districts
2016 was a busy year, as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) first got off the ground. Contrary to its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) from the Bush era, ESSA was an unprecedented step forward in reforming public education, handing over control over education standards to the states. The new law focuses…
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How to Move the Conversation from Grades to Learning
“We need to shift the focus from grades to learning.” This is a big statement to make, full of complex notions and far-reaching ideals. We live in a world where test scores determine the end goal for most schools and universities, making it close to impossible for us to imagine an alternative, but despite our…
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No Child Left Behind: From Standardization to Personalization
Facilitating a move away from grades and towards better learning is no easy feat. Educators are attempting to make the ambitious move through the use of technology, forming innovative movements that focus on accelerating student learning, and exposing the flaws of standardized testing. Rooted in the efforts of such teachers are the technology providers focused…
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The Problem with Grades and Subjectivity in Education
Can you remember the last grade you received? How much of an influence did it have on your life today? What does a grade tell us about ourselves? Experts on the subject claim little to nothing. Yet with an age-old system rooted in state exams and test scores, this is a hard pill to swallow….
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