Kentucky, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Washington also will have pilot programs. The states will work individually and collectively to transform educator preparation.

"These seven states are among those on the leading edge of making substantive changes in the policy and practice of educator preparation," said Chris Minnich, the school officer council's executive director.

Senator Questions U.S. Department of Ed. on Protecting Student Data   by Sean Cavanagh in EDWeek.

A federal lawmaker with an interest in student-privacy issues has asked the U.S. Department of Education a series of pointed questions about its ability to protect data from being distributed to commercial providers without the consent of families.

Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, in a letter written to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, questions whether changes in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act have given schools too much authority to share student data with companies without parents' consent.

A new analysis of how all U.S. states stack up against countries around the world shows that 8th grade students in 35 states outperformed the international average in math and those in 46 did so in science.

The federal report, released today, showcases the academic prowess of high-achieving states, such as Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Vermont, which outperformed all but five of 47 countries, provinces, and jurisdictions abroad in mathematics. 

What we have learned after thirty years or more of standardized testing, is that the tests mirror family income education: they measure gaps but do nothing to close them; our kids spend (waste) too much time preparing to take the tests; the test results are massively misused for rewards and punishments instead of for diagnostic purposes; the testing industry is rich and powerful and hires lobbyists to protect its hegemony. 

 

 Linda Darling-Hammond on the Common Core Standards by Linda Darling Hammond, interviewed by Diane Ravitch

My view about what we should be doing re: curriculum and assessments can be found in the last chapter of my book, The Flat World and Education, where I describe how many other countries create thoughtful curriculum guidance as part of an integrated teaching and learning system. In short, what I would prefer and what other more deliberative countries do is a careful process by which educators are regularly convened over several years to revise the national or state curriculum expectations (typically national in smaller countries like Finland and Singapore, and state or provincial in large ones like Canada and China).  

"Amid growing alarm over the slipping international competitiveness of American students, a report comparing math and science test scores of eighth graders in individual states to those in other countries has found that a majority outperformed the international average. 

The latest study found that students in 36 states outperformed the international average on math exams given through the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which was administered in 2011 to students in 38 countries and 9 educational systems, like those in states or provinces."