Author Archives: Dr. Matt Ozolnieks

South Carolina’s New standards are not so revolutionary…

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Here’s a link to an article in Education Week about the new Language Arts and Math standards drafted to replace CCSS in South Carolina. There is nothing new under the sun.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2015/06/south_carolinas_new_math_stand.html?cmp=soc-edit-tw

Student absences and achievement; there is a connection.

28 Saturday Mar 2015

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I found this article in the Daily Mail.  I don’t post much in the way of newspaper articles.  They tend to go the way of junk science, but this article made a good argument.  As few as three absences from school can have a significant impact on student achievement on standardized tests.  This same correlation might be extended to classroom assessments and academic progress.

A note to consider: correlation does not necessarily mean causation.  There are multiple complexities in the lives of the students at the center of this study.  Still, the point is a good one.  The academic calendar is a deliberate mechanism designed to build understanding.  Interruptions to plans, sequence and content delivery can and will result in diminished student achievement.

Enjoy the story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3015426/Keep-sledding-Snow-days-NO-negative-effect-test-scores-individual-absences-do.html

Dr. James Milgram Hates Common Core, but why?

22 Monday Jul 2013

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Dr. James Milgram leads an attack on another front in support of low standards.

http://parentsacrossamerica.org/james-milgram-on-the-new-core-curriculum-standards-in-math/

A cursory study of Dr. Milgram et al points to a common thread.  Both Milgram and Stotsky point to the fear that students rising up through the system will be ill-served by requiring new, stronger standards, particularly in the middle grades as Stotsky (2013) argues.

 

References:

Milgram, J. (2010) http://parentsacrossamerica.org/james-milgram-on-the-new-core-curriculum-standards-in-math/

Stotsky, S., (2013) http://pioneerinstitute.org/blog/more-than-one-fatal-flaw-in-common-cores-ela-standards-by-sandra-stotsky/

Common Core opponents expose their ignorance

22 Monday Jul 2013

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Dr. Sandra Stotsky presents a heavily editorialized non-research based argument dated 26JAN2013.

http://pioneerinstitute.org/blog/more-than-one-fatal-flaw-in-common-cores-ela-standards-by-sandra-stotsky/

She misses the point that CCSS has, at its heart, to simplify the standards.  These standards repeat skills from Elementary to MS, from MS to HS.

Some of these skills deal with facts and ideas, sequencing, author’s purpose, comparing/contrasting, main idea and details, making inferences and generalizations and identifying literary elements (characters, plot, setting, structure).  Some of which Dr. Stotsky needs to review for paragraph 5 of her article.

CCA students are being taught to the CCSS.  This has proven successful based on the most recent round of standardized tests at the elementary level.  Her presumption that Common Core State Standards exist to fail students is erroneous and foolish (paragraph 6).

As for Paragraph 7, Dr. Stotsky needs to go back to school.  Standards are not lesson plans, nor are they curriculum maps.  They are standards to which these devices should guide instruction throughout the school year.

It appears that Dr. Stotsky is a blind apologist for the old way.  The way that dropped American student achievement to levels below Poland, New Zealand, Belgium and the like.  U.S. students ranked just above Hungary, Slovakia and Russia.

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/12/international-education-rankings-suggest-reform-can-lift-u-s/

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-17th-global-education-ranking-finland-south-korea-claim-top-spots-901538

Her bent toward classical education has blinded her to the necessity of change.