by David Safier Tom Horne said this to the folks at the Yuma Sun: "Arizona spends $6,000 per pupil but if that were increased to the national average of $8,000 per pupil, I believe we'd be among the top states in the country in test scores because of our emphasis on academic rigor." Be still … Read more
by David Safier The NY Times has a good article about Vail putting wi-fi on a school bus. . . . school officials mounted a mobile Internet router to bus No. 92’s sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. The students call it the Internet Bus, and what began as a high-tech experiment has … Read more
by David Safier Big standardized testing scandal in Georgia. About 200 of the state's 1800 schools are being investigated for tampering with state standardized tests. Experts said it could become one of the largest cheating scandals in the era of widespread standardized testing. The problems were initially uncovered in an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, … Read more
by David Safier I've written 4 posts on the Floridation of Arizona Education (listed and linked at the end of the post). I can only conclude: "The Florida Educational Miracle" is way over-hyped, courtesy of hype-meister Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute. It's quite possible the package of reforms have improved students' achievement levels, though … Read more
by David Safier Ed Sec Arne Duncan wants more reliance on educational data but doesn't want teachers to teach to the test? Public schools in the United States need to try to spark creative thinking in children and move away from curriculums that just teach to standardized tests, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told nearly … Read more