• The Denver Classroom Teachers Association’s agreement includes:1) A 7% to 11% increase in base salary of $43,255 for a starting teacher;
    2) A “clear and transparent 20-step salary schedule;
    3) Full cost of living increases in the 2nd and 3rd year of the agreement;
    4) The ability to use professional development “to move lanes” on the salary schedule;
    5) No more extravagant five-figure bonuses for senior administrators;
    6) An overhauling of the performance pay schedule adopted by the district that led to high turnover.
  • A Mueller and Oppenheimer 2014 study found that students who took notes by hand fared better on conceptual test questions than those took them on  a laptop. Now a similar but recent study found that students who took notes by hand fared only a little better on factual test questions, but not conceptual ones. Stay tuned.
  • Called the “mode effect,” Massachusetts students who took their 2015 PARCC state exams online “scored significantly worse than their peers who took the same exams on paper.
  • About grades, the director of humanities for the West Hempstead, NY and edweek.org blogger Starr Sackstein said: “Grades aren’t the best way to communicate learning, it’s the easiest way, it’s the most efficient way. When we start… understanding that kids aren’t numbers or letters, they’re complex people who often require a lot more than that–it’s not that we don’t want to give it to them, but I think sometimes we feel burdened by the extra responsibilities [and requirements] in the school system.”

Anything to add? With my many thanks, Carol