What Students Do (And Don't Do) in Khan Academy

Re:What Students Do (And Don't Do) in Khan Academy by yummyfajitas on Sunday December 14, 2014 @11:32PM (#8750680)

So from what little I've seen, KA is reasonably well aligned with common core already. Most decent curriculums do. Also, I think you are misunderstanding what CC is. CC is just a list of topics students should know - there is no "CC testing standards and format".

If KA doesn't align with CC, it's because there is some particular topic that KA forgot about. E.g. maybe common core requires students to "Solve problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions by using information presented in line plots", but Khan forgot about that one.

I also don't think it would be harmful if KA made sure it covered the basic topics of AIEEE or the IIT-JEE either (important Indian standardized exams). A lot of people want to pass those exams and it would be a marginal amount of extra work for KA to help them.

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Re:What Students Do (And Don't Do) in Khan Academy by kennytilton on Tuesday December 16, 2014 @04:38AM (#8756435)

"there is no "CC testing standards and format"."

I see two. One is called PARC, one is called Smarter Balanced. And they want to use them to close schools and fire teachers, so look for everyone to teach to whatever sample tests they can get their hands on.

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Re:What Students Do (And Don't Do) in Khan Academy by jblad on Tuesday December 16, 2014 @11:15AM (#8757725)

PARC and SBAC are indeed tests intended to measure students against the Common Core State Standards. They are not from, or a part of, the CCSSI. People definitely do want to misuse these tests to punish schools and teachers, but none of this invalidates the Common Core. And while people will teach to the sample tests, that's on people who want to use these to destroy schools, not on the Common Core itself.

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Re:What Students Do (And Don't Do) in Khan Academy by kennytilton on Friday December 19, 2014 @06:28PM (#8775164)

Ah, but if you check out the Common Core page they go on and on about student performance being comparable between states, which is why the two standardized tests in effect are inseparable from CCSS. btw, I know what you meant by the rhetorical "people...do not want", but the problem is precisely that "accountability" is the other dog whistle never far from any CCSS discussion.

I am afraid your healthy view of CCSS is not widely shared, and the discussion would be much better if CC was offered purely as PD. Teachers love anything that works.

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