Canadian Education Wire – Thinking About a New Way to Rate School Performance
Great Schools Project aims to give parents clearer answer than implied by Fraser Institute rankings
How Good Is My Kid’s School? – The Tyee
David Chudnovsky feels for the parents who wonder, “How good is my kid’s school?”“We in education often answer, ‘The Fraser Institute sucks, and standardized testing doesn’t tell you much about how the school’s doing.’ And that’s true, we’re right about both of those things, but we haven’t answered [their] question,” says Chudnovsky, a public education advocate and former New Democratic Party MLA.
Related publication:
The Great Schools Project – How good is our school? How can we know?
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
What news am I missing? Can you recommend some education blogs for me to follow? Please tweet me at @max_cooke, e-mail me at mcooke@cea-ace.ca or better yet, use the comment box below to suggest additional articles happening in your region so that others can check it out.
OTHER EDUCATION NEWS
The job of principal is becoming too focused on paperwork, report says
Globe and Mail
Related report:
People for Education’s Annual Report on Ontario’s Publicly Funded Schools
History suggests all-boys schools don’t help with academics: study – National Post
Don’t sweat teacher strikes: The kids are alright – Globe and Mail
Wait lists for special education double for low-income students – Toronto Star
Looking for solutions in the classroom – Chilliwack Progress
Parents start campaign for more school funding – CBC Calgary
Mental health top issue facing schools, coalition says – Toronto Star
Suit opposes Quebec ban on teaching religion at subsidized daycares – Montreal Gazette
Teachers bargaining for some respect – Similkameen Spotlight
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
When should you teach children, and when should you let them explore? – The Economist
EDUCATION BLOG HIGHLIGHTS
So what is it about Finland’s schools? – 2 Cents Worth
Big question — and it’s probably a big answer. But several days ago, Swiss educator, Vicky Loras started a conversation with Finnish School Principal Esa Kukkasniemi. You can read the entire interview here in her blog as well as opportunities for you to talk with educators in Finland. But here are some statements from Esa that I highlighted in Diigo, as he ticked off major important points that have led to success in Finland’s education system.
CEA Video: Pasi Sahlberg – What is next for Finland?
Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in Helsinki, Finland, shares seven things that you need to know about Finland’s exceptional education performance and what the future holds for this country’s education system in the ongoing pursuit of social fairness and equality.
New Documentary: The Finland Phenomenon – Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System
Teaching to the test is malpractice – Joe Bower
Testing is not teaching. If you want proof of why, you need not look any further than this: Learning is messy. Real learning is really messy. Testing is, if nothing else, orderly. See the problem? Talk to any test-maker or psychometrician, and they’ll tell you the tests were never devised to make large sweeping, all-encompassing inferences. Even those who speak in favor of using test scores in moderation in low-stakes contexts understand that tests are merely a small sample of a much larger domain that we want to know about, and that great caution must be made in making inferences based on these tests.
The Fabric of Community- The Key to Transforming Education – 21st Century Learning
I have been thinking a lot about how to manage the needed change process in education. Looks like a lot of folks have been playing with that idea as well. ISTE released their new NETS for ADMIN framing it as having the potential for
Transforming Education– Administrators play a pivotal role in determining how well technology is used in our schools. The NETS for Administrators enable us to define what administrators need to know and be able to do in order to discharge their responsibility as leaders in the effective use of technology in our schools.
And take a look they are NOT too shabby when thinking about the characteristics leaders need to reform education in today’s fast changing world. The rub for me comes in when I try and look at these and other efforts to “transform” education and wonder if we aren’t really just talking about reform- small principled changes that look at change as we always have – through the lens of problem solving.
Meet the Expert(s)
Max Cooke
CEO
Max Cooke is the CEO of the EdCan Network.
Max Cooke est le directeur général du Réseau ÉdCan.
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