Blog
EdWeek Article on EngageNY
An article published in EdWeek today describes a RAND study of teachers who use the EngageNY web site's materials for Common Core English and math. (EngageNY is a web site of Common Core materials published by the New York State Education Department.) The survey found that the math materials are used much more often than the ELA materials, that K-8 materials are used much more often than the high school materials, and that most teachers modify the material for their own use.
Add a commentGoogle Classroom Review
Google Classroom is a powerful collaborative tool but has frustrating bugs and surprising limitations.
Google Classroom is a free learning platform for schools that allows teachers to create, distribute, and grade assignments online. Released in 2014, it is designed to be not just a platform for class web pages but a complete integrated online package for managing class information.
My school used eChalk for years to run its school and class webpages until we switched to Google Classroom in the fall of 2016. In the last few months, I have used Google Classroom to post and manage assignments for my classes. I found that while it has a smooth interface that is integrated well with Google’s other collaborative tools, it also has several annoying limitations.
Add a commentIt Takes a Mathematician to Criticize the Value-Added Model
Most mathematical models didn't get the 2016 election right. Why would we trust them to measure teacher performance? In his latest op-ed piece for the Huffington Post, mathematician John Ewing (president of Math for America, which runs the Master Teacher Fellowship that I have had since 2009) criticizes the use of the value-added model to measure teacher quality. The value-added model theoretically uses gains in standardized test scores to measure the amount of student knowledge added by a teacher.
Add a commentMy Article on Proposed Common Core Changes
Today, Math for America (MfA) published an article that I wrote on the proposed changes to the Common Core math standards in New York State. In this article, I argued that despite the modest scope of the proposed revisions, they create an opportunity for more substantial future changes in math education. Participating in the work of the state's Mathematics Standards Review Committee also made me realize that we need more chances for teachers like me to shape our educational system.
The complete article is online at http://mathforamerica.org/news/revising-common-core-math-should-be-just-beginning .
My One-Page Summary of Proposed Common Core Changes
I published a handy one-page summary of the recently proposed changes to the Common Core high school math standards in New York. This PDF file briefly summarizes what I consider to be the most important suggested changes. Many of the changes were relatively minor - small changes in grammar or breaking long standards into shorter bullet point-type standards. Other changes were more significant, such as removing the requirement that students divide polynomials using long division.
You can find the one-page summary on my other web site, Reach the Source (http://reachthesource.org), which contains resources related to Common Core high school math in New York State.
The state Education Department is allowing the public to comment on the proposed changes online until November 14 at http://nysed.gov/draft-standards-mathematics.
Add a comment
