Friday Open Thread
From Ed Week, a report on international tests (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and how the US fared.
Florida came up a big winner on PIRLS, in terms of average scores (more on that in a bit). On TIMSS, Massachusetts, mirroring its strong performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, did very well in both science and math, compared with the United States and other high-performing countries and education systems. However, the good news largely evaporates when you look at the percentages of students that scored "advanced," "high," "intermediate," or "low" on the tests, the formal benchmark names for performance levels. In terms of the share of students scoring at the top level, or advanced, other high-performing countries leave many U.S. states eating dust.
Also, of interest, a report on digital education and devices used by children from Ed Week.
The Federal Trade Commission has approved revised rules that spell out the types of information that cannot be collected from children without their parents' permission, an action meant to address privacy concerns in the constantly evolving era of smartphones, tablets, social media, and apps.
The new policies, announced Wednesday, seek to close loopholes that the agency says too often allow websites and online services to gather information improperly from students and turn it over to third parties for advertising purposes.
One significant change clarifies that the types of "personal information" that can't be culled without parents' approval include geolocation information, photos, and videos.
What's on your mind?
(Also, I had mentioned a possible meeting about BEX IV and what parents believe would work best/has the most support. Is there any interest in such a meeting before school starts?)
Florida came up a big winner on PIRLS, in terms of average scores (more on that in a bit). On TIMSS, Massachusetts, mirroring its strong performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, did very well in both science and math, compared with the United States and other high-performing countries and education systems. However, the good news largely evaporates when you look at the percentages of students that scored "advanced," "high," "intermediate," or "low" on the tests, the formal benchmark names for performance levels. In terms of the share of students scoring at the top level, or advanced, other high-performing countries leave many U.S. states eating dust.
Also, of interest, a report on digital education and devices used by children from Ed Week.
The Federal Trade Commission has approved revised rules that spell out the types of information that cannot be collected from children without their parents' permission, an action meant to address privacy concerns in the constantly evolving era of smartphones, tablets, social media, and apps.
The new policies, announced Wednesday, seek to close loopholes that the agency says too often allow websites and online services to gather information improperly from students and turn it over to third parties for advertising purposes.
One significant change clarifies that the types of "personal information" that can't be culled without parents' approval include geolocation information, photos, and videos.
What's on your mind?
(Also, I had mentioned a possible meeting about BEX IV and what parents believe would work best/has the most support. Is there any interest in such a meeting before school starts?)
Comments
http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2012/12/fooled-about-schools-black-kids-beat.html
TS
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013009_1.pdf
TS
Now, if only we can prepare ALL children for STEM careers, we'll be set....
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020024309_latin31m.html
What I want to know is, will Vance keep her if there isn't some kind of value-added assessment for Latin...?
Not just the Road Map Project. What about MAP data, MSP/HSPE data and every other thing the district is gathering right now to support "longitudinal studies". I believe much of this data gets shared out with not only state and federal education departments, but private corporations as well. The recent FERPA changes about a year ago are a mixed bag, and have actually made some things worse in the name of the almighty SLDS (statewide longitudinal data systems, i.e. tracking your kids from Kindergarten until they join the workforce)
I can't see any easy way to fight this other than to educate parents and push for legal changes and clarifications over time. If anyone has better ideas, please share.
-ff
-- Dan Dempsey