Tag Archives: US Department of Ed

How Do You Measure Learning?

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By Tina Barseghian

It’s not a new question, but it’s certainly a divisive one — how to best measure student learning. As the Department of Education works toward finding a way to assess student learning beyond what most agree are sub-par standardized tests, and movement for opting out of assessments grows, educators and those who work in the education system are attempting to define the criteria for themselves.

At the Big Ideas Fest a few months ago, where teachers, administrators, entrepreneurs and policymakers gathered to parse valuable ideas and figure out how to bring them to action, we asked a few participants their opinion on how to measure learning. Their answers showed the broad range of the differences in opinion.

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What Will Be Obsolete in 2020?

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Photo by Christopher Sessums/Flickr

by Tina Barseghian

Expounding on the ideas of the wildly popular article 21 Things That Will Be Obsolete in 2020, we asked a few of those who attended Big Ideas Fest, a recent gathering of teachers, administrators, entrepreneurs and policymakers, to predict what they think will be obsolete in 2020.

Walls around the classroom, said Bernadette Adams Yates, senior research analyst, who works at the Office of Education Technology at the Department of Education. “We’re moving towards students being able to create their own learning environments. It would be great for them to be able to put together their own learning path,” she said.

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