Take a stand with CES! Commentary on this statement, links to more resources, and an action kit of advocacy tools, including an online petition, sample press releases, Op/Ed, letter to the editor, and methods for communicating with lawmakers can be found on our website. We urge you to sign the petition, alert your colleagues and friends, and join the CES
When schools change curriculum and assessment practices, everyone worries that students will suffer in the college selection process. But most selective colleges say they’re used to unusual transcripts, and big universities are looking for new ways to work with schools in change. Get any group of college professors talking about what kind of first- year students they long for, and
A State University of New York (SUNY) task force recommends that, beginning as early as ninth or tenth grade, students “engage in a continuous authentic assessment experience that is maintained throughout their high school years; and create an assessment product [portfolios, narrative teacher assessments, self-evaluations, checklists of proficiencies, etc.] that could be taken with them to college and used there
Through the efforts of the Coalition’s Admissions Project, the presidents and chief admissions officers of the colleges below – chosen because most participated in the Eight-Year Study in the l93O’s (see above) – have signed a statement supporting and affirming the work of educational reform under way in schools across America. “Ours is a time which calls for the ambitious
We are as concerned with how students learn as with what they learn. What we learn – knowledge of facts, processes, and concepts – is critical to success in college. How we learn is equally critical. We attach the highest value to the cultivation of such habits of mind as curiosity; independence, clarity, and incisiveness of thought; tolerance for ambiguity;
Many of us know Alfie Kohn for his courage and coherence on of the dangers of standardized testing. Kohn’s message in Punished by Rewards is perhaps even more important for educators and parents. In Punished by Rewards, Kohn painstakingly demonstrates the ways that behaviorist theory has seeped unawares into our everyday actions. We take it for granted that praise and
A good competency-based admission policy should encourage innovation at the secondary school level. It would allow a student to demonstrate knowledge of the required subject matter without completing a discrete course that would translate into a Carnegie unit. A good competency-based admission policy should make it possible for a student to be admitted to college by taking either college preparatory
What do the most selective colleges believe incoming students should know and be able to do so as to make the most of their post- secondary learning opportunities? A Harvard University booklet, “Choosing Courses to Prepare for College,” draws largely from a study of how Harvard students’ high-school preparation affected performance in the college’s Core program of study. For Essential
Fairtest: National Center for Fair and Open Testing The advocacy heavyweight for alternatives to high-stakes standardized tests, FairTest offers a resource-rich web site, The FairTest Examiner quarterly print newsletter, and a variety of publications devoted to critiques and alternatives within the testing reform movement. Don’t miss the website’s Assessment Reform Network, which will connect you with local movements supporting fair,