The Nonpartisan Education Review provides a forum for those interested in education issues but put off by the education policy groups affiliated with the political parties. We aim to make a difference by remaining non-aligned and non-partisan. Learn more about us and read the Nonpartisan Education Review^® (ISSN 2150-6477), our peer-reviewed, open access electronic journal.  

New in the Nonpartisan Education Review:

• Quail, Nos Censuimus Igitur Essemus (essay)
• Fitzhugh, Bend it Like Truman (essay)
• Fitzhugh, It's the Students, Stupid! (essay)
• Quirk, The Bogus Research in Kamii and Dominick's Harmful Effects of Algorithms Papers (research review)
• Quirk, The "Parrot Math" Attack on Memorization (research review)
• Stotsky, Literature or Technical Manuals: Who Should Be Teaching What, Where, and Why? (essay)

   Special Section: The Problem of Private Data in Education Research:

• Bishop, Clopton, & Milgram, A Close Examination of Jo Boaler’s Railside Report (article)
• Milgram, Private Data – The Real Story: A Huge Problem with Education Research (essay)
• Bishop & Milgram , A Response to Some of the Points of: When Academic Disagreement Becomes Harassment and Persecution (essay)
• Staradamskis, Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us (book review)

   Special Section: Depraved Indifference: Testing Experts and Education Policy

• Phelps, The Rot Spreads Overseas: OECD - Taken In and Taking Sides (resource)
• Phelps, Part 1. So Many Secrets
• Phelps, Part 2. The School-Test Publisher Complex
• Phelps, The Rot Festers: Another National Research Council Report on Testing

• Martel, Teaching in a Culture of Fear - the Atlanta Scandal (essay)
• Phelps, Educators cheating on tests is nothing new; Doing something about it would be (essay)
• Oliphant, Modern Metrology and the Revision of our Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (essay)
• Phelps, Extended Comments on the draft Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing (but, in particular, draft chapters 9, 12, & 13) (essay)
• Haladyna, Using Student Tests to Evaluate Teachers - A Very Bad Idea (essay)

Also in the Nonpartisan Education Review:

• McNee, Why Billy Can't Read (resource)
• Martel: DC Public Schools Fail to Meet Performance Requirements of 4 Foundation Grants (resource)
• Dancis, College Readiness--A Simple Description (essay), # K-12 "Pretend Mathematics" Curriculum Produces Freshmen Who Know Less Algebra (resource), # All Teachers Can Learn Mathematics; All Students Can Learn Mathematics From Teachers Who Know Mathematics (resource), # U.S. Government should stop financing arithmetic avoidance (essay)

• Stamm, Quality versus quantity (essay), # The Common Sense of Copying (essay), # The Real Source of Success in Japanese Education (essay)

• Oliphant, Standard Worldwide American Dictionary English versus Polyglot America (book) # AlzHope: A Multi-volume eBook Confidence Builder for Alzheimer’s Worriers (book), # Recommended Reading: the National Association of Scholars, and the Limits of Consensualism (review)

• Beals, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (book review)

• Stichter, High Stakes Accountability and High School Student Perceptions of Instructional Climate: A Longitudinal Trend Study (article)

• Junk Science Mom, Nothing Fair about the Fair Test Junk Science (essay), FairTest's Fishy Finances (essay)

• Garelick, Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World (book review), The Common Core Math Standards: When Understanding is Overrated (essay)

ANNOUNCING: US Government Accountability Office (GAO) collecting information on potential state testing improprieties

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has created this website for the purpose of gathering information on fraudulent behavior in state-administered standardized tests. The information submitted here will be used as part of an ongoing GAO investigation into cheating by school officials nationwide, and will be referred to the appropriate State Educational Agency, the U.S. Department of Education, or other agencies, as appropriate.

Any information provided through this website will be encrypted through our secure server and handled only by authorized staff. GAO will not release any individually identifiable information provided through this website unless compelled by law or required to do so by Congress. Anonymous reports are also welcome. However, providing GAO with as much information as possible allows us to ensure that our investigation is as thorough and efficient as possible. Providing contact information is particularly important to enable clarification or requests for additional information regarding submitted reports.

ANNOUNCING: New Educational Foundations: A Trans-ideological Journal of Criticism and Review^TM.

ANNOUNCING: M Power, an organization with a mission. "STEM curricula must move towards a greater focus and coherence; we believe that no change would achieve this goal more effectively than removing US customary (inch-pound) units from formal education. A Metric-only approach to STEM education would provide a rational, science-based, intuitive system to learn and build upon. We support metric-only education."

Sadly, one of my few heroes died this past summer. But, before his death, Pat Naughtin of Geelong, Australia completed the 100th issue of the Metrication Matters newsletter. A toast to Pat for fighting the good fight for socially beneficial progress and against the glorification of obstinance for its own sake. RP

The Silicon Valley Education Foundation hosts an interesting discussion on test cheating.

ProCon.org posts new issue page on standardized tests. (See also their issue page on teacher tenure.)