Chinese Test Success ≠ Educational Success
New York Review of Books
-
11/20/14
“China has the best education system because it can produce the highest test scores. But... it has the worst education system in the world because those test scores are purchased by sacrificing creativity, divergent thinking, originality, and individualism.”
The Rise of the AP Art Portfolio
New York Times
-
10/31/14
“Students are tested not by their mastery of the material but by their skill, a far more subjective area of evaluation. “Readers” must make judgments about competence and inventiveness as they work their way through some 48,000 portfolios of student artwork. That’s more than double the number submitted a decade earlier… But the growth does not necessarily signal artistic aspirations. According to a 2007 survey by the College Board, only about 13 percent of the students major in art. So why take A.P. studio? To try to impress a admissions office, of course, or perhaps to make a rest stop along the academic autobahn or, maybe, art really is a labor of love.”
Do We Need to Teach Algebra?
NPR
-
10/9/14
“The material covered in the courses, which do include some algebraic topics, was vetted independently by the Mathematical Association of America, the American Statistical Association and other groups… [and] a report released in July showed that Pathways students, when given the same final exam as other college-level math and statistics students, scored as well or better.”
On Letting Kids Teach Themselves
Wired
-
10/15/13
“Juárez Correa had mixed feelings about the test. His students had succeeded because he had employed a new teaching method, one better suited to the way children learn. It was a model that emphasized group work, competition, creativity, and a student-led environment. So it was ironic that the kids had distinguished themselves because of a conventional multiple-choice test.”