Tag Archives: test scores

Many Years of School Reform: A Veteran Teacher Reflects on Changes in Kids and the Classroom

The attention span of young kids in particular has shortened, both in the intellectual and physical sense, over the duration of Ticia’s career. Roughly 50% of kids need to be moving all the time – feet, bodies, hands, fingers — whereas at the beginning of Ticia’s working life compulsive movement described perhaps only one or two out of a class of 30. This is one category of school measurement where boys have continued to reign supreme. Continue reading

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Housing Disorder, Poverty, and Test Scores

Summary: Poverty and serial housing destabilize the school fortunes of children from poor neighborhoods and stymie the battle to improve their academic skills.  Promising political developments, economic insights and human resilience contribute hope to the schoolhouse.

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School Reform: Tough to Measure and Hostage to Heightened Poverty

Summary: What is the report card on school reform? Test scores, mediocre at best, are too narrow a measure, though useful. Project based deep learning and interventions that motivate students are important, but difficult to measure. Increasing poverty and income … Continue reading

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