If you have not watched this footage of Perseverance touching down on Mars you really should, it’s remarkable.
Speaking of other worldly things, this article about water planets is interesting.
Working off a key tenet in science – that we should never presume we’re a special case – these scientists suggest water might be abundant on Earth-sized planets throughout our Milky Way galaxy.
What would this look like in our sector? It’s hard to miss the inward tendency in education around the search for solutions – because we habitually assume we’re a special case. In other words the default is to look to education for solutions to education’s challenges. It’s also why routine aspects of economics or human behavior are wished away in our sector. I’m not suggesting the answers to our problems in education are in the stars, and that they are often not resident in the sector, now, but some might be found in other sectors that are trying to solve analogous problems?
That brings us to EdTPA. You might ask, hey, how are things going for the EdTPA teacher assessment? Not good it seems!
Our research suggests that when it comes to the edTPA (a tool used across much of the United States to make high-stakes decisions about teacher licensure), the fundamental principles and norms of educational assessment have been violated. Further, we have discovered gaps in the guardrails that are meant to protect against such violations, leaving public agencies and advisory groups ill-equipped to deal with them. This cautionary tale reminds us that systems cannot counter negligence or bad faith if those in position to provide a counterweight are unable or unwilling to do so.
What’s striking about this story is given the money at stake, the big picture players, and the increasingly tortured history, just how little media attention to all this? People have raised concerns for years. Stephen Sawchuk has written about this issue but have there been mainstream articles? And there are other sectors that might have lessons about how to assess, credential, and induct new practitioners?
In other long running story news, new look at charter schools and unionization, and again finds a mixed bag.
From Bellwether:
Ashley LiBetti outlines a two-generation strategy for fighting poverty. John Bailey and I will be in (at?) the Clubhouse on Wednesday talking school reopening policy and politics.
