Tag Archives: Arkansas

TESS has no meat on her bones

Posted on June 2, 2016 by marcreif

There are structural and cultural problems with the Arkansas Department of Education’s newish Teacher Excellence and Support System (TESS), the system by which teachers are evaluated. TESS is not really going to change anything. TESS is based on Charlotte Danielson’s “The … Continue reading →

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What should a kid get out of high school science?

Posted on May 15, 2016 by marcreif

Some friends asked me this question recently, and I gave a bad answer. In my bad answer I said something like “They should know some things. Some big ideas.” And I listed a few that came to mind, like conservation of … Continue reading →

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Good Intentions

Posted on May 7, 2016 by marcreif

The Board of Education of the state of Arkansas has recently released the descriptions of the new Next Generation Science Standards-inspired courses for high school, debuting 2017-2018:  Proposed High School Science Courses. There are a lot of things to like in this plan. … Continue reading →

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