A Response to Justin's Response

I just read a good perspective from Justin Bathon over at "The Edjurist" that got my attention and maybe even a bit of ire. Some of the point is well taken, but some appears to be more of a "slight of hand type of move to focus on someone else, not me" thing. Please note that Justin is a respected blogger by many, including me. This time, though, I think he just has missed his normally high bar of expectation. Hey, that happens.In his response was this excerpt:How flippant, that combo of teachers' unions and ed schools. Are we to be demonized the same way as teachers' unions historically have been? Are we now officially part of the "problem" narrative in the media and amongst politicians? I have been noticing an uptick in the blame associated with ed. schools lately and this seems to be just...

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What Really is Important?

Currently there is a lot of good discussion about assessment of learning in our schools, and I would think it is with very good cause.  One part of this discussion is based on determining what information is truly valuable to assess - that educators should assess what is critical for long term retention and not worry about assessing that information that is more supportive and/or readily available.  It's a conversation that I've had many times and in many different ways, but copied below is one of the most recent I've had regarding the concept of whether a teacher should assess students on remembering the parts of a neuron as was originally posted on Dangerously Irrelevant.  The time and date are noted from Skype, and this is posted with the permission of my colleague.[1/16/2010...

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