Education News
School Leaders: Don't Let Your Teachers Lose Heart
John J. Gumperz, Linguist of Cultural Interchange, Dies at 91
The Choice Blog: Acceptance Rates, Apparently, Are Poor Predictors of Getting In
Why Common Core tests won't be what Arne Duncan promised
On Sept. 2, 2010, Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave a speech called "Beyond The Bubble Tests: The Next Generation of Assessments." Duncan was referring to standardized tests that were just then starting to be created to align with the Common Core State Standards. These tests, being developed by two multi-state consortia with $360 million in federal funds, promised to go beyond the familiar multiple-choice standardized tests that have been foisted on students for more than a decade with increasingly high stakes attached to the scores.
How to arm our schools
How do schools best protect children? The national debate is now centered around whether armed guards should be added to more schools, but here's a different view, from Jean Fay, a special education para educator in a first-grade classroom at Crocker Farm Elementary in Amherst, Massachusetts. She grew up in Newtown, Connecticut, the site of the killings of 20 students and six teachers in December, and her mother is a retired support professional who worked in Newtown schools.
Pittsburgh teen bitterly lashes out at colleges that rejected her
You didn’t get into your dream school. Or maybe you were waitlisted, and you know there’s little hope you will ever actually enroll. Or maybe your financial aid package was less than expected, and you can’t afford to attend that dream school. Or maybe you got into several colleges, and you just don’t know what to do with your life.
Read full article >>The Choice Blog: April College Checklist for Juniors
MIT dean weighs in on admissions theories
Many people have a theory about admissions to ultra-selective colleges.
They think: You have to have stratospheric SAT or ACT scores. You have to be the class valedictorian. You have to take 15 Advanced Placement courses and pass all the tests with top marks. You also have to be an all-state athlete or musician, preferably both, and volunteer in 20 ways to help the disadvantaged.
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