Education policymakers must put more focus on teaching and learning in the early years and continue that work up through third grade.

All policies should stem from the overarching goal of improving the interactions between teachers and children, which research identifies as critically important to children's future success in school and in life.  Without taking these actions -- streamlining today's public programs and pushing for predictable, sustainable funding -- we are never going to be able to accelerate access to quality education, birth through third grade.

The 

official mission

 of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri.

 

There are two main arguments against using standardized tests to guarantee that students reach at least a basic level of academic competency. The first is radical: These tests are not necessary. The second-less radical and more familiar-is that, even if standardized testing were an efficient benchmark of basic skills, the costs associated with it are too high.  Standardized tests are unnecessary because they rarely show what we don't already know.

  

Md. student test scores drop significantly as state shifts to Common Core  by Ovetta Wiggins and Donna St. George in the Washington Post.

Reading and math scores on state tests for Maryland elementary and middle school students have dropped to their lowest levels in seven years. Some Maryland officials expected the drop because schools are transitioning to new national academic standards that do not align with the tests.   

 

  

Ten Reform Claims That Teachers Should Know How to Challenge

by Jack Schneider

Reform bluster is as ubiquitous as it is shallow-something that frustrates teachers and scholars alike. Below are ten claims teachers should be ready to respond to, along with some questions they might ask in response.

Claim 1: American teachers need more incentive to work hard.

Claim 2: Schools need disruptive innovation. 

Claim 3: The public schools are in crisis. 

Claim 4: It should be easier to fire bad teachers. Tenure is a problem.

And, Six more "Reform Claims."

 

 

Why Is Arne Duncan Still Pushing the Dangerous Myth of Low Expectations?   by Paul Thomas on the AlterNet blog. 

Early and often, the 

Obama administration's education agenda

, headed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, has driven the public narrative about public schools, teachers and students with a relentless claim that everything wrong with education comes down to a single problem: expectations are too low.

 

 

  

How a better summer vacation could help low-income kids in school by Libby Nelson

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers ...  

  

  

  

 

 FAIRTEST: The Movement to Stop Test Mania Continues   by Diane Ravitch on the Ravitch Blog

An update on the spread of the movement against over-testing and the misuse of those fallible instruments.  The rapid pace of strong news stories and commentaries about assessment reform campaigns continued uninterrupted through the long Independence Day weekend. More and more media outlets are reporting the widespread grassroots response to testing overkill: "Enough is Enough!" And, some politicians are starting to listen.

The shaking of hand signal many things about the personality and intention of the shaker. The kind of grip loose, little or very tight or bone breaking mean different behaviors- attachments normal or more, or crudity or arrogance, etc. The formal shaking should have very normal pressure without much shaking- not more than two gentle jerks.