Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I hope that in the century ahead Mindsets come from the way we look at
students will be judged not by their the world scientifically
performance on a single test but by the
quality of their lives. I hope that Ether. Scientists used to think that light
students will be encouraged to be traveled along the ethers. they used to think
creative, not conforming, and learn to that light was a wave, but it also acts as a
cooperate rather than compete. particle (that's a shift in the mindset)
There have been dozens of major changes in Action: Congress made it easier to lend
humanity's collective mindset and we are in money
the middle of a mindset change now...
Response: Interest-only loans with a balloon
Howard Gardner helped us reset the way we payment and increased interest rate after four
think about intelligence (multiple or five years. OOPS: people who couldn't
intelligences) afford to borrow were given loans...
People like Dan Pink are saying, "Hey, "Tell us what's on the test, and let us prepare
design is important, look to the whole for the test."
brain" while test mavens want to standardize
education in a left-brained, data-driven, b) Preparing for a test (instead of teaching
lopsided manner. as we used to and just letting the test
measure what was taught.)
Progress does not have to move forward
smoothly. There will be losses, These were NOT what Governor Jeb Bush
retrenchment before we unloose the bonds stated in his plan for "A+" when the Florida
that bind us to tradition and then we can Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)
surge ahead. was proposed.
Many people talk about how difficult it is to We could continue complaining, but let's end
integrate a curriculum. How can English this training with two questions:
teachers work with math, science and history
teachers? That is ridiculous: the world is 1) How can we personalize our lessons?
integrated! Every day schools unravel the
world and all its vast knowledge and put it 2) How can we integrate our lessons with
into boxes called subjects and separate other subjects?
things that are not separate in the real world.
What is science and geography without 3. How can we bring the world into class
math? What is English with its history and or take the class out to the real world?
word origins and other languages? We teach
http://sites.google.com/site/visualandactive/H
ome/reset-the-mindset << see images online
Steve at a rally
Those two programs -- one federal and one state -- are on a collision course this summer.
That's when new test results could show that many of state's schools pass the Florida A+
standards while failing to show sufficient improvement under the federal No Child Left
Behind rules. Failing to make progress on the federal standards would require the state to
let the parents of students in failing schools transfer their children to better-performing
alternatives.
Ninety-four percent of Florida's schools passed the state standards but only 13 percent
passed the federal ones, according to a recent press release from Jim Davis, the
Democratic congressman who represents Tampa and St. Petersburg. More than a few
educators in Florida are worried that massive transfers could destroy the public
education system in the state.
Gov. Bush touted the results at a press conference at Coral Park Elementary School in
Miami. "When we ended social promotion and raised standards for our high school
seniors last year, many were skeptical," he said. "Today's results show Florida is moving
in the right direction, with more students reading on grade level and significant
improvement and opportunities among those who have struggled most."
Testing is not new to Florida's school kids. The state has required graduating seniors to
pass a competency test for 20 years, said Frances Marine, communication director of the
Florida Department of Education. The A+ plan merely increased the level of proficiency
required for graduation from an 8th-grade to a 10th-grade level. Marine said no one ever
complained about the previous testing requirement until Gov. Bush began pushing his
A+ plan, a sign that the opposition is playing politics. "Where was the outrage before?"
she asked
Gov. Bush's supporters and advisers in Florida say the federal No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) has integrated nicely with the state's existing testing formula. The goal of
NCLB is to raise reading and math proficiency to 100 percent for all students in the
country by 2014. Unlike the A+ plan, which grades schools on the aggregate scores of
all their students, NCLB measures the performance of subgroups of students in reading
and math and requires all groups -- defined by racial, ethnic, income and other factors --
to keep improving until all groups reach the 100 percent goal. These different scoring
techniques have given some schools passing grades under the state A+ plan but failing
grades under NCLB.
"I'm sure the motives were noble and honorable, but whenever high-stakes are attached
to any test -- bonuses for teachers, school funding -- the whole system becomes
deformed and distorted by test scores, and we confuse that with learning and gaining,"
Pipkin said, arguing that subjects such as social studies and creative writing are being
phased out to make way for test preparation. "I see high-stakes testing as a very real
threat to deep thinking, critical thinking and imaginative thinking…All we're concerned
about now is taking a test."