We've discussed the nature of grading a few times. This article discusses how letter grades get in the way of the "pursuit" of knowledge.

During his (Chomsky) junior high school years, he went to an experimental school run by Temple University's education department. With no grades or competition, each student was simply encouraged to do his or her best. Chomsky recollects this school as a wonderful and influential experience.

His parents then sent him to a competitive high school for college-bound students. Chomsky realized that grades and success were all that mattered, and school suddenly became a scary place that he admits he hated: "If I got a B in something, it was tragic," he writes in a letter. "I even got a D once - in English grammar, a subject that made no sense at all as far as I could figure out."

Since joining the linguistics faculty at MIT in 1955, he has changed the face of linguistics, and especially the English language, with his theories on generative grammar. The point here: Grades aren't everything; excellence is.

This didn't take long: NEA Memo: Kerry Backs Away
From "Pay for Performance"

A confidential memo from National Education Association President Reg Weaver to union officials detailed a meeting he had last week with U.S. Senator John Kerry in which Kerry backed away from the “pay for performance” language in his proposed education plan.

So much for "new" ideas.

This is school? Yes, this is school:

The three R's are of no interest to anyone here. Fairhaven, modeled after a system called the Sudbury Valley School, is a school, yes. But not as you might know it.

It is everything the ubiquitous "Leave No Child Behind" model of school, with its standardized testing and formulaic demands, is not.

This is a school with no set hours, no required classes, no grades, no parent-teacher meetings, and no rules except for the ones the people here make up and vote on themselves. It's a school where youngsters have a say on everything - from whether sipping soda should be allowed in the sound-proofed music room to which staff should be fired at the end of the year.

My initial view is that some of the critics are right; is sculpting Play-Doh for the whole school year a valid educational exercise? But why can't the best methods of this system be implemented into a public setting?

We at Quasi have used the addage (cliche?) "less is more" when discussing classrooms and education. Another phrase employed at discussions is "work smarter, not harder".

This article from the Progressive Policy Institute reports on both concepts and how it applies to the classroom.

Raymond Park Middle School is a classic example of the difficult and often painstaking decisions school officials now must make as standards-based accountability becomes the focal point of determining school effectiveness under NCLB. It may also be an example of doing more of the same instead of doing things differently in order to improve student learning. As with all new education trends, the "devil is in the details." The move toward focusing greater attention on all students, particularly disadvantaged students, is a powerful force for greater educational equity. Too often, however, educators responding to this move tend to overreact and miss the critical points. In this case, as schools respond to demands for better achievement, too frequently they are doing more -- for example, more math or more reading -- but they are not doing much differently. This is a potentially debilitating strategy because more is not always better.

This is why: If a school has low reading or mathematics achievement, and it is already allocating a sufficient amount of time for reading and math instruction, it is likely that there are other factors causing the low student achievement. If this is the case, then simply spending more time on reading or math is not likely to lead to improvement. Instead, school leaders must examine instruction to gauge its effectiveness. Are teachers teaching the curriculum? Do teachers receive substantive professional learning experiences to help them meet the diverse needs of their students?

Some gains made locally:

Amid the concern over the very real racial achievement gap of students here and across the nation, here's one bright spot: Washington led the nation last year in reading scores for African-American fourth-graders.

The results are from National Assessmen of Educational Progress, state by state results can be found here: www2.edtrust.org

An updated version of Simple Justice, the classic analysis of Brown vs Topeka Board of Education, is being released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the decision.

Slate today did a review of the book and its findings. I thought this was interesting:

If we think about schools broadly, as institutions that train not only workers who need cognitive skills but tolerant citizens who aspire to live in a unified democracy, then racial separation is intolerable. Kluger quotes the words of Marshall in his dissent in the Milliken case: "Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together."

Two questions come to mind; 1) What is the role of public education? 2) Does the above quote take the "industrial" view that education is only for future work experience?

Man I'm sure glad our state maintains the "high standards" the testing subjects...uh students deserve.

Panel lowers bar for passing parts of WASL

The scores needed to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) will go down a little this year for fourth- and seventh-graders, and perhaps next year for 10th-graders as well.

By my count, since last May, Washington is the sixth state to lower standards on the "high" performing, "high" stakes, test.

I wonder when more of this will happen: Students skip state academic testing

I love this tagline: 17 at Bonita Vista High displease their principal

A great quote from a student:

I can understand that it is the principal's job to look out for the school's welfare," said Caitlin O'Neill, a junior who was among those who boycotted the state tests. "We could definitely see why the API scores were important to him," she said, referring to the Academic Performance Index, which rates schools statewide.

"But it was just an overwhelming amount of testing," O'Neill said.

"Whether other people view it as selfish or not, it is our personal and legal right" to refuse to take the standardized state tests, she said.

Since we've added the comment option I thought a great point of discussion would be John Kerry's education plan.

More of the same, not enough, too "REPUBLICAN"?

Just added a comment option thanks to Comment This!

The death of common sense?

A souvenir T-shirt from a national landmark has a middle school student fighting for her rights and a school defending its dress code policy.

The T-shirt says, "Somebody went to the Hoover Dam and all I got was this 'Dam' t-shirt."

This is why zero tolerance makes no sense.

Locally from The Oregonian:

Toss out the tests

Schools should drop their reliance on standardized tests and pursue performance-based criteria that address the individual.

The introduction makes a great analogy -

The Vietnam War's measure of success was the number of sorties and the enemy "body count." That accounting, over time, proved flawed. Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and others hired accountants from supposedly top-notch firms. The result? Investors were fleeced, taxes evaded, pension funds robbed.

The No Child Left Behind Act is another misguided reliance on measuring -- an unnatural accountability that relies on just one student dimension: test taking. Last month more than half the state's high school sophomores failed the math test. Now this statistical hiccup (maybe the test was too hard!) might be corrected by boosting the scores so the results are fair. Does that sound like sound measuring to you?

Plus the author quotes Alfie Khon

Testing has a place, but let's remember to measure growth not height.

Educators and DUI's: What about "Zero Tolerance"?

A teachers situation: Teacher Suspended After DUI Arrest

A Reidland (KY) High School teacher arrested last week on a drunken driving charge has been suspended by McCracken County school officials.

Terry VanMeter, 47, was suspended with pay after school officials learned of his arrest, said Superintendent Tim Heller.

Heller said the district's investigation of VanMeter should be completed soon, and he promised "heavy discipline."

A superintendent's situation: Fate of Alexandria school superintendent on the line at board meeting

The city school board voted to keep superintendent Rebecca L. Perry in her post Thursday night, nearly a week after she was arrested on drunken driving charges.

The 7-1 vote came after four days of debate among the board members behind closed doors. The only dissenting vote came from the board's vice chairman, who said Perry set a bad example for students.

I guess good superintendents are harder to find than good teachers.