Two More Days to Change the Common Standards - Takes Five Minutes

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Terry Smith on October 18, 2009 at 8:54am

Thanks Lisa - I just sent this out to twitter also. -- Terry

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on October 18, 2009 at 9:16am

Great Terry. Hopefully others will do the same :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on October 18, 2009 at 8:59am

Thanks for reminding me!

Here is what I wrote:

I worry about the lack of reference to the digital world of composition in many forms of media, and how these new technologies are really the emerging "language" of so many of our students. Any national standards has to reflect this reality if we want writing and reading and composition (in all aspects of that term) to be meaningful for our students. I don't get the sense that those elements are truly reflected in this document.
I am also dismayed that companies who would create standardized testing were instrumental in the development of the standards (if I understand this right). This seems backwards to me, at the very least. No testing, for-profit company should even be in the room when Curriculum Standards (influential ones, at that) are being developed.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on October 18, 2009 at 9:22am

That sounds great Kev. Just to give you insight, below are those who were involved with the standards creation. You will notice MANY testing companies, curriculum producers, and education materials businesses that have a LOT to gain from this.

Members of the English-language Arts Work Group are:
• Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• David Coleman, Founder, Student Achievement Partners
• Sally Hampton, Senior Fellow for Literacy, America's Choice
• Joel Harris, Director, English Language Arts Curriculum and Standards, Research and Development, The College Board
• Beth Hart, Senior Assessment Specialist, Research and Development, The College Board
• John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve
• Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
• Nina Metzner, Senior Test Development Associate—Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Sandy Murphy, Professor Emeritus, University of California – Davis
• Jim Patterson, Senior Program Development Associate—Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
• Sue Pimentel, Co-Founder, StandardsWork; English Language Arts Consultant, Achieve
• Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board
• Martha Vockley, Principal and Founder, VockleyLang, LLC

Members of the English-language Arts Feedback Group are:
• Peter Afflerbach, University of Maryland, Professor
• Arthur Applebee, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Professor & Chair, Department of Educational Theory & Practice, School of Education
• Mark Bauerlein, Emory University, Professor of English
• Mary Bozik, University of Northern Iowa, Professor, Communication Studies
• Don Deshler, University of Kansas, Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Special Education & Director, Center for Research on Learning
• Checker Finn, Fordham Institute Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University & President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Brian Gong, The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Executive Director
• Kenji Hakuta, Stanford University, Professor of Education
• Carol Jago, University of California – Los Angeles, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) President-elect, California Reading and Literature Project
• Jeanneine Jones, University of North Carolina – Charlotte, Professor
• Michael Kamil, Stanford University, Professor, School of Education
• Suzanne Lane, University of Pittsburgh, Professor in the Research Methodology Program, School of Education
• Carol Lee, Northwestern University, Professor of Education and Social Policy
• Robert Linn, University of Colorado, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and Co-Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST)
• Dolores Perin, Columbia University, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education
• Tim Shanahan, University of Illinois at Chicago, Professor, Urban Education
• Catherine Snow, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor
• Doranna Tindle, Friendship Public Charter Schools, Instructional Performance Coach

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on October 19, 2009 at 3:24pm

Just a reminder that tomorrow, October 20th is our last chance to share input on the Common Standards. Kev H. (below) has some great insight and if you visit http://tinyurl.com/commonstandards21c you'll see excerpts of what others in ed tech are saying. I encourage you to use your 21st century voice to share your feedback and if you do, share what you wrote here.

• ▶ Reply