New York’s school districts must wait until the summer of 2019 to get an accurate assessment of the effectiveness of their ELA and math strategies.
Minimum qualifications for NY’s Commissioner of Education
The New York State Education Department has posted the job of Commissioner of Education. The stated qualifications are boilerplate and underwhelming. I suggest that NYSED’s HR department amend the posting to add the following.
Applicants for the position of Commissioner of Education must demonstrate
– The ability to inspire the state’s professional educators to extraordinary levels of performance.
– Evidence of having eliminated wasteful, bureaucratic burdens on school districts.
– A history of transparency as a leader.
Strategic planning specifically for a BOCES
Have state and federal mandates drained the energy and passion from your BOCES? Is morale low? It doesn’t have to be that way. Reenergize your BOCES. Retake your future. Reengage, recharge and reinvest your faculty, staff and community. Articulate a new mission, vision and core beliefs. Set strategic targets. Articulate priorities, allocate resources, plan and execute.
Diane Ravitch features Prism’s post on John King & the Common Core
Diane Ravitch has blogged about my recent post, John King, the Common Core and cognitive bias.
Nelson Mandela’s inspiring limestone quarry classroom
The tale of how Nelson Mandela — through persistence, ingenuity and guile — transformed a limestone rock quarry into “the University.”
John King, the Common Core and cognitive bias
It’s pretty clear that New York State Commission of Education John King is one of the nation’s top advocates for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. It’s also becoming increasingly apparent that he may be doing more to undermine the implementation of the Common Core than he is doing to support it. For […]
Data driven instruction
The Lockport City School District data driven instruction process flow chart is simple and clear.
State ed predicts sharp decline in ELA and Math pass rates
The New York State Education Department is predicting a sharp decline in ELA and Math pass rates.
School planning in the era of Race to the Top
With the adoption of Race to the Top, school districts across the country are being forced to change directions in mid-stream. Districts will thrive if they can overcome inertia without a substantial expense of resources, including wasted time, energy and budget. District leadership will need to adjust their current trajectory and redirect resources to a new set of priorities quickly and efficiently. Chenango Forks Central School District provides a model of planning dexterity that other school districts may want to emulate.
The Issues With High-stakes Testing and PARCC
As a result of Race to the Top, most states will soon administer even more high-stakes tests. For example, in the 2014-15 school year, 25 states, including New York, will begin administering PARCC assessments in grades 3-12 four times per year. At the same time, there is an inexorable push to connect teacher and administrator performance reviews, tenure decisions and pay to student performance. This post discusses four specific traps that I believe implementers of RTTT and the PARCC assessments will have to avoid if their reforms are to bear fruit.