LOL! Yes, both are high profile. In both, stats are key, and in both, methodology is suspect, undermining the validity of the outcomes. It’s like the TV commercial, which gets a laugh out of measuring expertise in a given field by one’s stay at the Holiday Inn. What exactly are we basing our conclusions on? What are the best variables to measure to answer the research question?

I’m afraid to think what the unquestioning acceptance of flawed studies says about critical thinking in the U.S. and what the implications are for meaningful reform.

Most frightening is the thought that those in power may be deliberately supporting and promoting the logic that best defends their turf — regardless of validity. When this happens, we end up with decisions that serve selfish interests at the expense of social good. Perhaps the crisis in education is neither pedagogical nor technological, but moral.

First of all, thanks again for sharing this report with us! Re the Common Core, here is a partial response: a recent blog post about Common Core turmoil (http://www.thesevenfutures.com/blog/common-core-turmoil-has-arrived) — Diane Ravitch’s postings on the Common Core also offer some helpful thoughts on why the Common Core is already being vilified — http://dianeravitch.net/category/common-core/

It’s worth noting that Diane Ravitch has also already ravaged the report:
http://dianeravitch.net/2013/06/18/that-nctq-report-on-teacher-education-f/

I also just came across this response from the National Council on Teachers of English: http://www.ncte.org/cee/positions/nctqanalysis

NOTE to Jim: while writing this article, the thought of US News & World Report rankings came across my mind as a point of comparison, but I did not know that USNWR was involved until I saw the NCTE article. Suddenly the NCTQ review makes a lot more sense in terms of its origin. If I’d have known that USNWR was involved in this report, my article would have been a lot more caustic…

I am convinced that at one of the meetings , think talks at Aspen or Poptech or others that they decided to make a target .. teachers have been the target for awhile.. and now they move on to
the teacher’s colleges. They have been demeaning college professors for a long time.

I work with SITE.org , and the research arm is grueling. I guess reporters don’t have time to check on the things they report. I was actually at one of the meetings where the idea of common core was developed ( not my idea) over lay the same and core points across curriculum nation wide and you can sell curriculum online.
What thoughts do you have, as we are being vilified for common core when it is just getting started …beats me.

We ,in my classes did raise Tilapia, and vegetables from the “MoonBase America” We measured ourselves for space suits, and created recipes.. and we even had songs that we sang .. the art was incredible…we were assisted by using the NASA resources and posters. We built our own models and had our own individual ideas based on the knowledge network we had courtesy of NASA, the Challenger Center, Langley and Goddard.

We visited the planetarium. We did star hikes viewing the night sky. First a teacher, Neal Haygood asked me to invited children to gaze through the telescopes of the local club and we did. We liked that experience so we went to the Outdoor Lab. The Outdoor Lab was a place we spent hands on time in Haymarket , Virginia.
There was a huge telescope there and we took turns sky gazing.

We dreamed…We built telescopes and then headed to Baltimore o the Hubble Space Science Institute. They gave us videos ( it was back in the day),Using technologies we questioned each of the areas of learning. We were elementary students working with a project that some high schools were doing .That made us want to prove that we were able to do it. We had mock ups to show what the Hubble would look like.. We called it the eye in the sky. We were around when at first it did not work. The kids loved it that a person on land could engineer a fix to make it work. We plastered the classroom with the first photos.

Many of the first astronauts were ham radio operators. At the time there was an exhibit in the Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian that featured use of the ham radio.

Hubble Space Science Institute
http://infographicworld.com/a-look-at-the-hubble-space-telescope/
Living on the Moon ( program now update to a simulation)

http://www.moonbasealphagame.com

Goddard Resources
NASA – Lunar Nautics: Designing a Mission to Live and Work on the Moon Educator Guide

Students will design, test, analyze and manage a space mission from initial concept to project funding while using this set of hands-on activities.

The beautiful songs of Moonbase Alpha

There was a child in my class who wanted to know how would he get his favorite food, hamburgers on the moon if the base actually materialized. He and a NASA scientist, who came to my school, had lunch and talked about this.. whether it would be miniature cows, or food that was made to taste like hamburger meat. We raised tomatoes and basil and made space salads with sprouts.

We read science fiction and did our writings and made our own books.This was at the beginning of the Internet years. We had a science fiction library.

At the time the Smithsonian had an incredible exhibit of hydroponically grown plants, a mock up of them in a part of a space station, there were fabrics to look at and select, a section on engineering. ( We used Legos to try to build our systems, ie transportation, education, as the Mars projects evolved)..Mars City Alpha became the project of choice)At the time I was on the Advisory Board of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, so I had films, the set of Star Wars movies, and lots of games that were developed for kids by another part of the industry, Industrial Light and Magic. The games were difficult but fun. I think I was the only person who did not know the games well.

We knew that there were scientists who preferred colonization on the moon, and some who thought Mars would be the best place to colonize.

Mars Colonization Programs

Marsville

http://marsville.sd73.bc.ca

Because we were close to NSF,in Arlington, we were able to direct Rovers in different geographical locations.

Since we linked with Canada and drove their rover I chose this link to share the Marsville Program. We had a book with the information on how to create the project based initiative.

Mars City Alpha http://www.extension.iastate.edu/e-set/mca.html

Mars City Alpha Project http://prezi.com/4nkfzxz1mlic/mars-city-alpha-project/

We Had Imagination

** I was catching heck from my principal who said we were spending too much time on a project based initiative. It was not easy being a STEM pioneer.My training from NASA not the school syst

http://infographicworld.com/a-look-at-the-hubble-space-telescope/
Bonnie Bracey Sutton
230 G Street , SW