standardized

5Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

As The Ever Given Fiasco Illustrates, Today’s Global Economy Runs On Standardized Shipping Containers

Take a look around you. Perhaps you’re snacking on a banana, sipping some coffee or sitting in front of your computer and taking a break from work to read this article. Most likely, those goods – as well as your smartphone, refrigerator and virtually every other object in your home – were once loaded onto a large container in another country and traveled thousands of miles via ships crossing the ocean before ultimately arriving at your doorstep. Today, an estimated 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea, with 60% of that – including virtually all your imported fruits, gadgets and appliances – packed in large steel containers. The rest is mainly commodities like oil or grains that are poured directly into the hull. In total, about US$14 trillion of the world’s goods spend some ti...

Standardized Tests – Going Forth May Cause More Problems Than It Solves

Despite the many ways that COVID-19 has disrupted schools, the U.S. Department of Education will not give states a pass on giving standardized tests to students this year as it did in spring 2020. That’s according to new guidance the department issued Feb. 22. The guidance invites states to request waivers to shorten tests, give the tests in the fall or do the tests remotely. It allows states flexibility around testing depending on the particular circumstances in their state. It also urges states not to place as much emphasis on the results. Some states, such as Georgia, Michigan and New York, had already requested waivers from testing in the spring before the Biden administration’s new guidance came out. In our view, as education researchers who specialize in science education, the lea...

Skipping standardized tests in 2020 may offer a chance to find better alternatives

The Education Department is letting states cancel standardized tests. The move is a practical one: School buildings across the nation are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, even though distance learning efforts are widespread. As a result, 2020 is the first year without federally mandated standardized testing in nearly two decades. Washington has required all states to use these tests to evaluate students, teachers, principals, schools and entire school systems, first in accordance with accountability measures shaped by the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act and later under the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act. Until now, students in third through eighth grade were taking standardized tests annually for language arts and math, and then at least once again in high school. In addition, they...