State Board of Education Votes to Add Cursive to Standards

The State Board of Education voted today to add handwriting and cursive to Utah's Core Standards. The Board will give the proposal time to receive public input before taking a final vote on it.

This is an excellent decision by the State Board. 
The ability to write cursive, and especially to read it, are important parts of a thorough education. These skills allow a person to participate in family history and other archival research, read facsimiles of source documents from the American founding and other historic documents, and participate in the civilzed art of the hand-written thank you note or personal letter (something which all of us could probably make time to do more often!)

It's unfortunate that the Common Core standards don't include handwriting and cursive. Kudos to the State Board for voting to move ahead with adding these skills to the standards for Utah's schoolchildren.

Further Information:
Utah School Board gives approval to keep cursive in schools

What You Can Do:
Contact the members of the State School Board and tell them "Thank You!" 
http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Board-Members/Find-Your-Board-Member.aspx

Public Meetings on New Utah Student Assessments - IMPORTANT!

The Utah State Office of Education is holding public meetings around the state about the new computer adaptive tests being adopted under Common Core. These presentations will give members of the public the opportunity to learn and ask questions. 

Please make the time to attend one of these meetings! We are approaching a HUGE overhaul of testing as we know it, overseen by a contractor whose credentials and mission raise great concern. Here is the schedule:

Schedule for Regional Meetings on Computer Adaptive Tests

The company the state has hired to direct the formation of the assessments is named "American Institutes for Research (AIR)." This organization is not an academic assessment company. It is "one of the world's largest behavioral and social science research organizations." (From it's website.) "AIR is continuously building upon its long history of contributing to evidence-based social change." (AIR History)

AIR's founder, John C. Flanagan, did some impressive work. He was "a major figure in

American psychology. During World War II he developed the aptitude tests that successfully identified the best candidates to serve as American combat pilots. At AIR he further developed the “critical incident technique,” which the Annual Review of Psychology called one of the "most important personnel selection milestones of the past 60 years." Flanagan went on to apply his technique to education." (AIR History)

But is it really appropriate to apply "personnel selection" techniques to school children? Do you want your child and the children of Utah to be assessed this way?

There are hundreds of parents concerned that a behavioral science research organization is directing the writing of tests that our kids are going to be taking. That group of concerned parents will grow to thousands and tens of thousands as more learn about who AIR is, and what computer adaptive testing is.

Under computer adaptive testing, no two students will see the same test. Each question is modulated based on the response to the previous question. A typical grade-level test administered today contains about 200 questions, and all the students see the same ones in the same order. Under computer adaptive testing, a grade-level test will have about 1600 possible questions. 

With 13 grade-level tests, that makes for over 20,000 possible questions for Utahns to try to review. How can we be sure these tests will match our values? And with the stated mission and focus of AIR, can we feel really good about accepting these assessment for our kids without reviewing every question?

Parents and community members, get out to one of these meetings. If you've missed the one for your district, attend another. You have the chance to speak up before your children become someone else's guinea pigs in a great social experiment.

Further Information:

New Tests Coming to Utah Schools - Salt Lake Tribune

American Institutes for Research (AIR) website

Christel Swasey's Blog - Posts about AIR
April 2 post
November 27 post

USOE page: "Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence (SAGE)"
Includes FAQs and other useful information.

Watch this Google video conference with 3 Utah moms discussing AIR, behavioral research in education and computer adaptive testing.

What You Can Do:
Attend a meeting! Here is the public invitation sent out by the USOE. View the PowerPoint presentation the state will use at the meeting so you can be prepared with your questions.

If you can't attend a meeting, send an email to the USOE with your questions:
John Jesse, Director of Assessment: John.Jesse@schools.utah.gov

AND/OR email your questions to your local district assessment coordinator, who you can look up on your school district website.