- Mar 30, 2015
PARCC Bullies
From Raise Your Hand Illinois Published in ChicagoNow, March 30, 2015 The headline of an Evanston Now (no connection to ChicagoNow) post...
- Mar 12, 2015
Excessive Testing Removes Bulletin Boards and Children’s Imaginations
From Meriwether Lewis Elementary Published in ChicagoNow, March 12, 2015 A Chicago Public School teacher, who served as a proctor for the...
- Feb 11, 2015
Special Education, the PARCC Test, and Opting Out
Commonly attributed to Albert Einstein Published in ChicagoNow, February 11, 2015 Just how should a student with special needs that...
- Jan 12, 2015
PARCC Standardized Test Divides Evanston – Part II
Published in ChicagoNow, January 12, 2015 Back in 1969 when I was teaching high school English, a colleague questioned how I gave a...
- Jan 7, 2015
PARCC Standardized Test Divides Evanston – Part I
Published in ChicagoNow, January 7, 2015 It doesn’t take much to stir up a controversy in Evanston. At a Strategic Planning Focus Group...
- Dec 8, 2014
My Sad History with Standardized Testing
Photo by Anthony Quinn Published in ChicagoNow, December 8, 2014 I have a personal aversion to standardized fill-in-the-bubble tests....
- Dec 1, 2014
A Third Grader’s 10 Ideas for School Improvement
Guest blogger Published in ChicagoNow, December 1, 2014 Remember the old Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo? In it, young Gerald McGrew...
- Nov 17, 2014
Common Core Testing for Dogs and Cats
Published in ChicagoNow, November 17, 2014 I’m not making this up. In the print version of Scientifics Direct, a very nice catalog of...
- Oct 28, 2014
A Test No One Wants to Give but Everyone has to Take
Photo by Anthony Quinn Published in ChicagoNow, October 28, 2014 Suppose a new children’s cereal came on the market. Its manufacturer...
- Oct 21, 2014
To the Parent of the Shy Kindergartener
Cartoon by Marcia Liss Published in ChicagoNow, October 21, 2014 Since when did shyness in a 5-year-old become something requiring...