Author Archive

How to Cheat on State Standardized Tests and Not Get Caught by Dr. Doug Green

Monday, June 1st, 2015

Yesterday this article was posted at Education Week Online. My goal in writing it is to do my small part to take down a test and punish system that just about any educator I know thinks is bad for kids, and by extension our society as a whole. I encourage my readers to look for opportunities to do the same. I hope you enjoy it and please leave a comment if you can. My thanks go out to my editor Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) for believing in my work and doing such a fine editing job.

How to Cheat on State Standardized Tests and Not Get Caught by Dr. Doug Green

Also, be Sure to Check Out My Recent Book Summaries and Guest Posts.

Ball or Bands: Football vs Music as an Educational and Community Investment by John Gerdy (©2014) uses research to support the notion that due to costs, injuries, its focus on elite male athletes, and a negative impact on school cultures, support for high school football can no longer be defended. He also makes a case for why music and the arts in general need more support.

On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting by Thomas R. Guskey explains to all teachers why their grading practices are probably wrong for many reasons.

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count by Richard Nisbett shows how intelligence is mostly determined by one’s environment and provides concrete things that parents and teachers can do to make kids smarter.

Why Would Anyone Let Their Kid Play Football or Anything Else? This is my latest article posted at Ed Week Teacher’s online site yesterday. Thanks to Starr Sackstein for the great edits. @DrDougGreen @mssackstein @EdWeekTeacher

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Ball or Bands: Football vs Music as an Educational and Community Investment by John Gerdy
Monday, May 18th, 2015

Ball or Bands: Football vs Music as an Educational and Community Investment by John Gerdy (©2014) uses research to support the notion that due to costs, injuries, its focus on elite male athletes, and a negative impact on school cultures, support for high school football can no longer be defended. He also makes a case for why music and the arts in general need more support. He comes at this topic as a musician and an athlete with a brief career in the NBA. Click at the bottom of any page to get copies for your board of education members, and be strong if you take on king football.

John R. Gerdy

John is founder and executive director of Music for Everyone. A former all-American and professional basketball player, he served at the NCAA and as associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. He is author of Sports: The All-American Addiction and Air Ball: American Education’s Failed Experiment with Elite Athletics.

John’s Journey Through Sports and Music

The first two chapters outline John’s background experiences in athletics and music. While his father was a physics teacher, he was also the head football coach. Much to his father’s disappointment, John chose basketball and went on to become the leading career scorer at Davidson College followed by a brief professional career. He then went on to get a PhD and work several jobs as a sports administrator. His music life started in eight grade where he quit the school chorus because the director wouldn’t do any Beatles songs (1971). In high school he picked up the guitar, and over time gradually learned percussion and saxophone. As he moved around, he looked for opportunities to play in pick up bands and perform in clubs.

When his kids started school he volunteered to perform and teach, and even went so far as to develop a seven-week blues curriculum, which culminates in an assembly where children sing and play percussion to a blues song that they have written. John sees little difference between open mic and pick up basketball or other team sports. Each group is striving toward a common goal, which is to figure out where everyone’s talents can contribute.

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On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting by Thomas R. Guskey
Thursday, May 7th, 2015

On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting ©2015 by Thomas R. Guskey explains to all teachers why their grading practices are probably wrong for many reasons. If you teach or know teachers you need to share this book. Click the icon at the bottom of any page to get this essential book.

Thomas R. Guskey

Thomas is Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in Chicago Public Schools, and was the first Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning. He is the author/editor of 18 books and over 200 articles. Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, on the Task Force to develop the National Standards for Staff Development, and recently was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association. His books include Developing Standards-Based Report Cards (2010), Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading (Ed.) (2009), The Principal as Assessment Leader (Ed.) (2009), The Teacher as Assessment Leader (Ed.) (2009), and Benjamin S. Bloom: Portraits of an Educator (Ed.) (2006).

1. Define the Purpose of Grades

Guskey finds that there is little in the way of formal teacher preparation that deals with this subject. Teachers, therefore, tend to grade the way they were graded. As for report cards, they are usually cobbled together by a committee that takes what they like from other schools’ work. The process features enough compromise that everyone ends up with report cards that everyone can stand, but that no one really likes.

If you want to reform your reporting process the first thing you should do is step back and ask what is your purpose. There might be many and it is likely that no single reporting instrument will serve all your purposes well. While schools and policy makers aim for success by all, if that really happened there would be no variation in grades. This doesn’t happen and teachers and test makers set out to sort students and they tend to be very successful. Bottom line is that your reporting process should be aimed at facilitating student learning. Guskey recommends that whatever your purpose is, it should be printed on your report.

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Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count by Richard Nisbett
Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count ©2009 by Richard Nisbett shows how intelligence is mostly determined by one’s environment and provides concrete things that parents and teachers can do to make kids smarter. He is convinced that intelligence has nothing to do with race and lots to do with hard work. This is a must read for educators and parents alike.

Richard Nisbett

Richard is a distinguished professor at the University of Michigan. He has written numerous books on intelligence and cultural psychology, and is a member the National Academy of Sciences. If you like this book you might also like The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently and Why and Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South with Dov Cohen.

10. Raising Your Child’s Intelligence…and Your Own

Here are Rickard’s tips from the final chapter that you should share with all parents you know. The previous chapters delve into each of these tips and backs them up with research. 1) Talk to your child using high-level vocabulary, and include children in adult conversations. 2) Read to your child and ask questions to look for understanding. 3) Minimize reprimands and maximize comments that will encourage your child to explore the environment. 4) Teach how to categorize objects and events and how to make comparisons among them. 5) Encourage your child to analyze and evaluate interesting aspects of the world. 6) Give your child intellectually stimulating after-school and summertime activities. 7) Steer your child toward peers who will promote intellectual interests. 8) Exercise while you are pregnant and continue exercising into old age. Make sure your children do the same. 9) Brest feed if you can for nine months. More doesn’t seem to help. 10) Model delaying gratification. 11) Teach children that their intelligence is under their control. 12) Praise children for hard work not for being intelligent. 13) Avoid giving rewards for activities that are intrinsically rewarding. Save rewards for things they might not otherwise try. Avoid praise that could make the child feel like they are being evaluated. 14) Do what you can to get the best teachers for your child and avoid rookies. Look for schools that promote cooperative learning.

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the smartest kids in the world: and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley
Monday, April 13th, 2015

the smartest kids in the world: and how they got that way ©2013 by Amanda Ripley tells the stories of three American exchange students’ experiences in Finland, South Korea, and Poland. These countries were selected due to their high performance in the international PISA exams. While very different in many ways, all three countries feature highly prepared teachers, cultures where students are expected to develop higher-order thinking skills, and a high-stakes test for students at the end of high school. There are lessons here for the US. Be sure to pick up a copy for yourself and any policy makers you know.

Amanda Ripley

Amanda is a literary journalist whose stories on human behavior and public policy have appeared in Time, The Atlantic, and Slate and helped Time win two National Magazine Awards. She has appeared on ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX News, and NPR. Her first book, Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why, was published in fifteen countries and turned into a PBS documentary. Join her on Twitter at @amandaripley and follow her blog at AmandaRipley.Com.

The Mystery

When Amanda looked at the results of the international test scores she noticed that many countries out performed the US. In an attempt to find out why she recruited three exchange students who spent the 2010-11 school year in Finland, South Korea, and Poland. These so-called field agents introduced her to other students, parents, and teachers who helped in her quest. Video interviews with her subject sources are available at AmandaRipley.Com.

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Author Archive

How to Cheat on State Standardized Tests and Not Get Caught by Dr. Doug Green

Ball or Bands: Football vs Music as an Educational and Community Investment by John Gerdy

John R. Gerdy

John’s Journey Through Sports and Music

On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting by Thomas R. Guskey

Thomas R. Guskey

1. Define the Purpose of Grades

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count by Richard Nisbett

Richard Nisbett

10. Raising Your Child’s Intelligence…and Your Own

the smartest kids in the world: and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley

Amanda Ripley

The Mystery

Book Summaries