The best way to study for a test

December 7, 2007

Cognitive Daily dances through the research with alacrity, pointing to some research-approved methods for studying to do well on tests.

The best way? Greta and Dave Munger, the authors at Cognitive Daily, show the results that say students should study, take a month off, then study again. Cramming the night before has extremely limited benefits.

Can you apply that in class? Will your students listen to you?

The No Child Left Behind Act makes rumblings about using only research-proven methods in the classroom. If anyone ever enforces that clause, this post at Cognitive Daily better be your most visited site on the web. (They have other links, too. See “The Science of Cramming.”)

And, maybe we ought to stay up on the issue — the Mungers posted that information way back in August . . .

3 Comments | Education, Education assessment, No Child Left Behind Act, Testing | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Snuffing out math talent

December 6, 2007

Could I cover one block of math? Family emergency, the teacher had to go, math practice assignment was all duplicated, I didn’t have a class at that time . . .

Sure.

It was a class for kids generally not on the college-bound track, certainly not on the mathematics-intensive path. In a couple of minutes three kids told me they were there because they failed the state math test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). We got into the exercise and found it featured a whole bunch of algebraic equations that would tax my memory of the rules quite well.

As I was struggling to remember how to divide and multiply exponents in fractional forms, 15 minutes into the class a woman handed in the assignment. More than 30 equations done, each one I spot checked done correctly, all the work shown — even beautifully legible handwriting.

“You have a real facility for math,” I said. “Why are you here and not in the calculus-bound class?”

She said she had failed the TAKS math portion. I told her I found that highly unlikely.

“I can’t do story problems,” she said. “I can’t figure out how they should go.”

So here was a mathematics savant, relegated to remedial math because of a difficulty translating prose into equation.

In the old days, we’d take a kid like that, let her run as far and as fast as possible in what she was good at (higher abstract mathematics concepts), and work with her on the story problem thingy. If she’s stuck where she doesn’t learn new concepts, she probably won’t make “adequate yearly progress,” either. We have taken a kid with great math talent, and turned her into a statistic of failure.

It was a flawed sample, of course. 30 kids, one savant, three others not quite as fast but with roughly the same problem: Math is easy for them, prose is not easy, especially when it has to be translated into equations. 4/30 is 13%. Do we have that many mathematically capable kids who we flunk and put into remedial math — 13% of the total?

One way to make sure no child is left behind is to stop the train completely. If the train does not move, no one gets left behind.

No mail gets delivered, no milk gets delivered, people can’t go to far off places to study, or to sell. But nobody gets “left behind.”

Did I mention that the Texas Education Agency fired their science curriculum person in direct violation of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution? Is there a correlation there?

1 Comment | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education assessment, Education quality, Education success, No Child Left Behind Act, Science, TAKS, Testing, Texas | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Best education blogs – vote tonight!

November 7, 2007

Some kind soul nominated this blog for “best education blog” in some award process last year, but that was as far as this blog got. Several good education blogs were nominated, but I wasn’t impressed with the final standings. My candidates didn’t rank 1, 2, or 3.

So, should we swear off blog award? Heck, no! As Roger Beynon would say, everything someone says has potential value. And really, there is a lot of good stuff in a lot of these blogs.

So get on over to the 2007 Weblog Awards page on education, and check out the blogs in the running (do it now — you can vote tonight and tomorrow).

One blog excited me a lot — not because it covers education particularly well, but because it’s done by high school students. It’s solid, and it should give your students an idea of just what they can do. Even if you don’t check out the nominatees, go see the James Logan Courier.

Meanwhile, here are the ten finalists — only one of which I link to on this blogroll, which is a clue that I need to get out more, and a clue that there are a lot of high quality blogs out there:

Finalist Links

The Jose Vilson
Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs
Frumteacher
Hobo Teacher
NYC Educator
Education Week
Matthew K. Tabor, Education for the Aughts
James Logan Courier
The Miss Rumphius Effect
IvyGate

1 Comment | Education, Education assessment, Education blogs, Student projects, Weblogs | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Entire nation left behind on math

October 2, 2007

Sec. of Education Margaret Spellings defends the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” Act (NCLB) because, she says, it helps with accountability.  It’s all about testing to make sure education takes, don’t you know.

Unless the test might show that Spellings and Bush haven’t done what they promised to do.  Then the tests are off.

Bug Girl has the story:  The U.S. has pulled out of the international testing for math and science, claiming budget restrictions.  Surely the Bush administration did not fail to budget for their big test showing.   Is that the real reason?  Or do they fear that the test comparisons will show that NCLB has not worked?

Good discussion in the comments, too, about sequencing of math and science courses.

Leave a Comment » | Education assessment, Education quality, No Child Left Behind Act, Politics, Texas | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Progress? Latest education assessment scores

September 26, 2007

Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were released officially yesterday.

Education Week said:

Fourth grade math scores on NAEP, called “the nation’s report card,” rose from 238 to 240 from 2005 to 2007, while 8th grade performance climbed from 279 to 281, both on a 500-point scale. The 2007 NAEP results were released today.

Those gains continued an overall upward trend in NAEP math scores in both grades that dates to the early 1990s, while reading scores have been more stagnant over that time. While the gains in math were smaller than in some previous testing cycles, they were still statistically significant, as were the increases in reading.

“It shows that the public attention to math instruction and professional development of teachers is having a positive impact,” said James Rubillo, the executive director of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in Reston, Va. The movement for stronger standards that dates to the 1980s “has brought math and reading to the forefront of attention,” he said.

In reading, the subject that has seen the greatest investment of federal and state education spending over the past several years, 4th graders’ scores have risen from 219 to 221, also on a 500-point scale, since 2005. Eighth graders’ average mark increased from 262 to 263, which was a statistically significant gain, though that test score dipped slightly from the NAEP reading test given five years ago.

Two point gains on a 500 point scale sound measly to me. That’s less than 1%, after five years of a program that should have produced much more significant gains.

Is the No Child Left Behind Act badly misnamed?

Perhaps, instead of spending money on testing and forcing teachers to teach to the test or else, we should try putting some money into getting the best teachers, by providing significant pay raises, and put more money into providing the resources teachers need to make their classrooms successful — books, projectors, software, film, video, grading machines, classroom tools, classroom supplies (paper and pencils), preparation time, and parental involvement.

Other resources:

1 Comment | Education assessment, Education quality, Education reform, Education success, No Child Left Behind Act, State school boards | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Next Entries »