DEVELOPING ASSESSMENTS OF DEEPER LEARNING: New Report Examines Costs of Current Students Tests, Calls for Exams More Closely Aligned with College and a Career Article
April 08, 2013School districts and states must find affordable and feasible ways to improve student assessments so that they measure high-level skills and knowledge, a new report from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education finds.
TRANSFORMING ASSESSMENT: Gordon Commission Offers Recommendations for Fundamentally Reconceptualizing Purposes of Educational Assessments Article
April 08, 2013The Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education (the Gordon Commission) recently issued a public policy statement based on its two-plus years of work designed to “stimulate a productive national conversation about assessment and its relationship to teaching and learning.”
MIDDLE CLASS OR MIDDLE OF THE PACK?: New OECD Test Allows Individual U.S. High Schools to Compare Their Students to World’s Highest-Performing Nations Article
April 08, 2013A large percentage of American middle-class high schools have not kept pace with countries like Singapore, Finland, Korea, and Germany that have raised standards, invested in teachers, and lifted their overall performance, according to a new report from America Achieves.
Common Core State Standards
STATES’ PERSPECTIVES ON WAIVERS: New CEP Report Finds That States Appreciate Relief from NCLB, Express Concern About Long-Term Solutions Article
March 25, 2013States are optimistic that waivers will help ease some of the unrealistic requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and improve learning for all students, but they also have concerns.
Building on Common Core State Standards to Improve Learning for English Language Learners Article
March 11, 2013On February 26, the Alliance for Excellent Education conducted a webinar on the transition to Common Core State Standards and Next-Generation Science Standards and the opportunities and challenges for the growing number of English language learners (ELLs).
Common Core State Standards
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: In-State Coalition Building and Outreach Around the Common Core State Standards Article
February 25, 2013Achieve, in partnership with the Alliance for Excellent Education, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the James B. Hunt, Jr.
Alabama, Arizona, Common Core State Standards, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington
STATE OF THE STATES: Nation’s Governors Focus on Education as State of the State Addresses Begin Article
January 14, 2013Saying that improving education goes “hand-in-hand” with job creation, Delaware Governor Jack Markell (D) delivered the National Governors Association’s (NGA) first-ever “State of the States” address on January 9 in Washington, DC.
TEACHER ABSENCE AS A LEADING INDICATOR OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: No Substitute for Teacher’s Presence in Classroom, Report Finds Article
November 12, 2012Schools that serve high percentages of African American and Latino students are more likely to have teacher absences, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress.
TALKING ‘BOUT THE YOUNG FOLKS: Record Shares of Young Adults Have Finished Both High School and College Article
November 12, 2012In 2012, a record 33 percent of the nation’s twenty-five- to twenty-nine-year-olds completed at least a bachelor’s degree, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
RAISING THE BAR: More Kentucky Students Prepared for College and a Career, According to New Tests Pegged to Common Core State Standards Article
November 12, 2012More than 47 percent of Kentucky’s public high school students were prepared for college and/or a career in School Year (SY) 2011–12, based on results released on November 2 from the state’s new tests, which are tied to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).