AU Blogspot

                  Thanks to clspeace for permission to use this Photo. 

Megan Bowen is an Ashworth High School English Instructor.  You can read some of Megan’s blog posts by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.  As someone who is always thinking of new and dynamic ways to engage her students, it’s no surprise that Megan has begun hosting classroom discussions on the Ashworth Student Forum.  As an English major myself, I’ve personally enjoyed participating in these interactive discussions and have been very impressed by the insightul perspectives students have offered on their latest reading assignments. 

If you’re an Ashworth High School student or a parent of such a student, we encourage you to participate in one of Megan’s classroom discussions.  Our new student forum provides a terrific environment for students, parents, and faculty to interact—so be sure to join our Forum community today if you haven’t already. 

Megan and I hope to see you on the Forum soon!

Here are the links:

Ashworth University Student Forum

Megan’s Bowen Classroom Discussions

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University 

Making students accountable for test scores works well on a bumper sticker and it allows many politicians to look good by saying that they will not tolerate failure. But it represents a hollow promise. Far from improving education, high- stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality, and from equity.
- Sen. Paul Wellstone (1944-2002)

Standardized testing is quite the hot topic, to say the least. I remember spending pretty much the entire semester of Tests & Measures in college debating the validity of standardized tests.

A lot of educational institutions are being accused of “teaching to the test”. If you have to teach to a test, then obviously the test isn’t really testing what it should be, right?

Standardized tests are used for different purposes. We won’t get into the political purposes right now, but we all know that those exist. In elementary, middle, and high schools, they are used to make sure that students are performing at an appropriate level, and they are used to place students in appropriate courses at the appropriate level. These tests should be testing grade-level knowledge, reasoning and problem solving ability, writing skills, etc. A well constructed test does just that – it tests whether or not the test taker has certain knowledge and skills and can apply that knowledge and those skills.

Special thanks to SideLong for permission to use this photo.

I have seen student records where a student is earning decent grades in math courses like Algebra and Geometry, but then they are unable to pass a state exit exam in math. What is the problem here? Is it that the students are not actually learning the material? Are grades being “given” to students? I find it impossible to believe that a student can earn a B in Algebra I and Geometry and then fail a math exit exam that most likely only skims the surface of basic Algebra and Geometry. Is the test bad or are the courses bad?

The only thing I really have to go on to answer that question is that the tests are standardized while the courses are not. We see students across counties and states performing at or above level in their high school courses and then failing exit exams. What are these tests actually testing? I’m not saying the courses themselves are perfect, I doubt they are. Improvements on these courses that are being made are based on how students are performing on these tests though, and that is a little scary. Courses should be designed so that the student learns and understands the material, and the tests should be designed to make sure they have done just that.

If we are teaching to tests, especially bad tests, we are really failing our students.

Nicole Burris
Associate Registrar
Ashworth University

 
              Thanks to juanjoseixas for permission to use this Photo.

With the public school system failing, one wonders whether the federally mandated emphasis on pass/fail standardized testing (reactive) rather than ian investment in the comprehensive reform of our educational models (proactive) is anything more than a political “red herring.”  The following video features an influential educator by the name of Ken Robinson.  Mr. Robinson eloquently discusses the creativity crisis that our schools are suffering from and proposes possible alternatives to policies that undermine student creativity rather than provide an environment conducive to its’ development.  At Ashworth University High School, we take great pride in our ability to customize our program studies to meet the diverse learning styles of our students.  We’d love to hear from our home school parents out there.  Please share your perspectives in the comments section of this post.  We’ll talk again soon.

Ryan Rode
Ashworth University

             Thanks to Mary Helen for permission to use this Photo.

Reading and math scores of urban students are improving, especially in math, according to a NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) study of 11 cities. Low-income students do significantly better on the federal test in some cities than others, notes Kevin Carey on The Quick and the Ed. (more…)

I conducted the following podcast interview with Susan Patrick.  Susan is President and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL).  Susan states, 

“Our biggest barrier is our memory of what schools look like. Those of us running the schools have a very strong memory of ‘this is how a school looks, this is how it works.’ And the system itself is designed to be very resistant to change. But the innovation and the change is going to come very naturally to our students, and if we are going to keep our students in school–which we have to–…we’re going to have to make these jumps and these adaptations. And the thing is, if we don’t make them, students will simply go around us. We really need to strengthen our public institutions by being open to new ways of doing things and having them adapt to the School 2.0 model…. I don’t think those of us in the U.S. understand how stuck we are in the status quo, and how precarious the situation is for our kids to be successful in the new global economy.”

Click here to listen to this fascinating interview.

         Thanks to Anthony Goto for permission to use this Photo.

Steve Hargadon
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Steve Hargadon is one of the most respected education technology consultants in the education field. Steve’s website, Classroom 2.0, his blog, and his multimedia site, EdTechLive—represent three of the best resources anyone interested in the future of education can find on the web.  Steve has been nothing but open and helpful since we first contacted him.  We’re honored to have this opportunity to share the perspectives of Steve Hargadon with the Ashworth University community.  Thanks Steve!

Science is a low priority in California elementary schools. Pupils in 80 percent of California’s elementary classrooms spend less than an hour a week learning science, and 16 percent spend no time on it at all, University of California-Berkeley researchers said Wednesday.

In contrast, a national study in 2000 found an average of 125 minutes of science instruction in elementary classrooms.

Though fifth graders have been tested in science since 2004, 41 percent of California elementary teachers don’t feel prepared to teach the subject.

             Thanks to hideyoshi7 for permission to use this Photo.

Elementary science tends to be taught on a hit-or-miss basis with a project here or there but no coherence. I don’t think this is new. In pre-NCLB days in California, my daughter learned the parts of a flower (third grade) and, um, some songs about being nice to the environment. There was no serious science curriculum till eighth grade.

A high-tech friend of mine volunteered at a low-income, high-minority school, also pre-NCLB. The fifth-grade teacher said that she didn’t teach science because she didn’t like it and the kids weren’t smart enough to do it. But she let him try, while she did other things. He found the kids bright and eager to learn. But, as far as he could tell, nobody had taught them science ever.

Joanne Jacobs
Author of “Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea, and the Charter School That Beat the Odds.”
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Joanne Jacobs’ solution-based perspectives on education reform have earned her a reputation as one of the most trusted education bloggers on the web.  We’re honored to have Joanne as a member of our AU contributing bloggers’ network.  For more insights into Joanne’s life and work, please visit her highly informative website here and check out her acclaimed book linked above.  Thanks Joanne!

Hundreds of schools have failed to make adequate progress for five years in a row under No Child Left Behind. So what happens next? Not much, reports the New York Times. In theory, schools that haven’t improved on their own are supposed to be changed by “firing teachers and principals, shutting schools and turning them over to a private firm, a charter operator or the state itself, or a major overhaul in governance.”

                  Thanks to Tremain Calm for permission to Photo.

Yet so far, education experts say they are unaware of a single state that has taken over a failing school in response to the law. Instead, most allow school districts to seek other ways to improve.. . . “They’re so busy fighting No Child Left Behind,” said Mary Johnson, president of Parent U-Turn, a civic group. “If they would use some of that energy to implement the law, we would go farther.”

State education officials don’t really know how to improve very bad schools.  New York City, Los Angeles and other districts are breaking up some large, chronically low-performing schools into smaller schools. That seems to be the solution du jour.

Joanne Jacobs
Author of “Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea, and the Charter School That Beat the Odds.”
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Joanne Jacobs’ solution-based perspectives on education reform have earned her a reputation as one of the most trusted education bloggers on the web.  We’re honored to have Joanne as a member of our AU contributing bloggers’ network.  For more insights into Joanne’s life and work, please visit her highly informative website here and check out her acclaimed book linked above.  Thanks Joanne!

Scrap No Child Left Behind, wrote candidate Bill Richardson in USA Today.

At Quick and the Ed, Kevin Carey wonders why Richardson didn’t apply his education ideas to his home state of New Mexico to lift its rock-bottom test scores.

On the GOP side, candidate Fred Thompson, running as a local-control man, says the feds should provide string-free education funding to states, if they give “objective” tests to students.

“No Child Left Behind — good concept, I’m all for testing _ but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test — you can’t really tell that everybody’s doing that well. And it’s not objective,” Thompson said.

It’s objective. The problem is that state already have the flexibility to make their tests easy to pass. With more flexibility, pass rates will approach 100 percent.

He said his message to states would be, “We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don’t work out right.”

What ramifications? Every kid will be above average.

Carey is unimpressed with the candidates’ clarity of thought.  For more on the politics of NCLB II, go here and here. 

Andrew Ferguson laments the “big-government conservatism” of NCLB, while Ken DeRosa thinks George Miller should stop whining. 

Joanne Jacobs
Author of “Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea, and the Charter School That Beat the Odds.”
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Joanne Jacobs’ solution-based perspectives on education reform have earned her a reputation as one of the most trusted education bloggers on the web.  We’re honored to have Joanne as a member of our AU contributing bloggers’ network.  For more insights into Joanne’s life and work, please visit her highly informative website here and check out her acclaimed book linked above.  Thanks Joanne!


            Thanks to City Pages for permission to use this Photo.