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Teachers' union takes aim at graduation exam in Massachusetts
Massachusetts could roll back reforms that made it a model of educational excellence.

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 16, 20242 min read


Up, up and away: 'Recalibration' is raising AP exam scores
Advanced Placement scores were released this week, and they're higher than ever. But not necessarily because students are learning more....

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 10, 20243 min read


Tests may be 'optional,' but not if you want to get in to an elite college
Yale is not “being honest about the reality of our admissions process” because the university is “denying 98 percent of the students who...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 6, 20241 min read
NY will graduate critical thinkers and 'global citizens' who can't pass tests
New York plans to let students earn a high school diploma without passing Regents exams.

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 28, 20242 min read


When 96% pass science, but only 16% meet standards on the test
San Diego 11th-grade students are passing classes, but failing proficiency tests.

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 14, 20241 min read


Drop the admissions essay, and bring back the SAT
It's time to dump college admissions essays, writes Matthew Levey on The 74. Test scores and good grades in challenging courses are...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 19, 20242 min read


Top marks for low expectations: 'Rate your teacher' surveys could backfire
Asking students to rate their teachers is a dubious way to evaluate teachers' competence, writes Vladimir Kogan, a Ohio State political...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 8, 20242 min read


Poet X replaces Romeo: Why high school students can't read
Adam Kotsko, who teaches humanities at a small liberal arts college, finds that even his best students are unprepared to read and...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 23, 20241 min read


'Tis better to have tried AP and earned a low grade than never to have tried at all
Taking an Advanced Placement class, struggling with college-level material and earning a low grade on the exam is a learning experience,...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 14, 20242 min read


A reform too far: Sorry, your kid's only 67% of a 'whole child'
Liam sat through a semester of geometry and got a C for turning in homework, earning a 75 percent average on tests and bringing in...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 12, 20242 min read


Dartmouth will require SAT/ACT scores to help low-income students
Dartmouth will require applicants to submit standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT, ending a long "pandemic pause," reports...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 6, 20242 min read


Success Academy charters are #1 in New York in math, #3 in reading
Success Academy charter students are the best in New York state in math, third best in English Language Arts (ELA) among schools with 95+...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 19, 20241 min read


Fix 'em, don't nix 'em: Tests show what's working and what's not
The Zeitgeist, it is a changing. First, the New York Times ran David Leonhardt's defense of college admissions tests as a way to...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 19, 20242 min read


SAT/ACT scores predict success, open doors for 'diverse' students
Want equity? Require college applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores, writes David Leonhardt in the New York Times. The progressives' "war...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 8, 20242 min read


Graduation exams can be 'ladder of social mobility' -- or useless
For more than a century, New York students have taken Regents exams in multiple subjects to prove they were ready for college-level work,...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 4, 20242 min read


A diploma for you and a diploma for you! States drop exit exams
Grades are up and tests are out. "More states could abandon high school exit exams as a graduation requirement, writes Libby Stanford in...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 19, 20231 min read


College fail: Are the Covid kids ready to learn?
"(Are you ready?) Yes, I'm ready . . . I don't even know how to hold your hand Just to make you understand But I'm ready (ready) to learn...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 14, 20232 min read


Anti-racist math: 2 + 2 = whiteness
Apples and oranges featured heavily in my elementary school math curriculum, and yet I knew math was about the numbers, not about the...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 29, 20232 min read


'B-flation' misleads parents: 89% say their child is at grade level
Seventy-nine percent of parents say their child is receiving mostly B's or better, and 89 percent believe their child is at or above...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 29, 20232 min read


AP tests are tough: Is the bar too high for disadvantaged students?
"The basic philosophy of the Advanced Placement Program is simply that all students are not created equal," said the program's director,...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 21, 20233 min read
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