Brilliant or Insane?: trends

More Trouble for Pearson and Common Core Tests

Big Brother is watching: Pearson places gag order on NY #teachers who discover #CCSS test errors. pic.twitter.com/YkiaaGlPcc
— Mark Barnes (@markbarnes19) April 25, 2014

Education publishing giant Pearson wants teachers to stop talking about its tests, designed to align to Common Core State Standards. The Common Core and its high stakes tests have been highly scrutinized, since their inception. In fact, some states that originally adopted the standards -- Indiana is one -- have recently opted out.

Now, educators are finding mistakes in the new tests, but they can't specify what those errors are, due to a gag order, which Pearson included in its contract with New York state, which is rolling out the publishers' examinations.

Pearson, the world's largest education company, is being paid $32 million to prepare Common Core tests for New York students. So, the tests finally arrive, and educators find errors.

Not only is this unforgivable, the problem is compounded by Pearson attempting to hide the issues.

Some believe this signals trouble for Pearson. Doubtful. Pearson will continue to churn out textbooks and other materials, and school administrators will continue to buy.

For the Common Cores and its advocates, however, the battle continues, and the casualties continue to mount.

Mark Barnes is an education author and the publisher of Brilliant or Insane. Learn more aboutMark's work here. Follow him on Twitter here.

USedchat Is Powerful Forum for Education Reform

By Mark Barnes

Storify pic via @jennifer_hogan

A Twitter chat can be a daunting endeavor. When hundreds of people tweet at the same time to the same hashtag, the pace moves at what sometimes seems like Formula I speed.

When the tweets are aggregated by a third-party app, like Storify, they are saved for posterity, creating a fascinating record of often amazing content.

This Storify captures the USedchat, where I was one of four moderators, along with many other progressive-minded educators, discussing changes and trends in education.

Please add to the discussion in the comment section on this post.

Mark Barnes is an education author, consultant and the publisher of Brilliant or Insane. Learn more about Mark on our Team page. Follow him on Twitter here.