Archives for April 23, 2012

A 6th grader tells us kids need more time to eat in school. 10-15 minutes for lunch isn't enough. Do your kids report being rushed for time to eat at school? Interestingly, the 6th grader draws a connection between the youth obesity epidemic and a…

Arts education fosters creativity & the arts spur economic growth. For an example of the latter, look at Broadway & Hollywood. The arts matter, California! And you won't get arts education from a bubble test. Put it back in the schools for…

Organizations & individuals! Sign this resolution or get your school board/district/office of ed to endorse, & make standardized tests the low-stakes, diagnostic tool they were used as before NCLB's passage.National Resolution on High-Stak…

Michael Hiltzik revives a core principle of the UC Master Plan of the 1960s: a free UC college education to in-state students who qualify. Could we have had the Earl Warrens (Supreme Court Justice) or Maxine Hong Kingstons (National Humanities medal wi…

A wonderful Earth Day story: at a Los Angeles city school, a garden of native plants situated where concrete had been drew bugs, birds, butterflies…and children who found science they could study there so engaging science test scores have been on the…

Robo-graders as good as human standardized essay test graders, claims a recent study. (Who paid for the study?) Yet tests done by an independent skeptic show the robo-grader can be easily gamed with random, incorrect facts and wordy writing. A great e…