Parent Cortical Mass

Week's Best Articles on Learning and Education, for Parents

After fifteen years, the era of No Child Left Behind is nearly over. Congress will likely pass a new law--the Every Student Succeeds Act. Many NCLB policies have been abandoned. Powers of the Secretary of Education have been specifically limited, likely due to Sec Arne Duncan's political tactics over his seven year tenure. The short summary of this policy defeat: State Gov’t 1; Federal Gov’t 0. 3 4 “In parenting, is ‘failure’ the new black?” asks Richard Rende. Current advice says parents should ‘helicopter’ less and let their kids learn from failure. But, exactly how much should parents back off? Worth the read. 1 Carol Dweck, the social psychologist whose research uncovered the growth mindset, says parents and educators are using her findings about praise incorrectly. There are three pitfalls, she says. Don’t miss this! 2 Looking for a good family game for the holidays? Melissa Taylor at Imagination Soup has found it! 5

Parenting

1 The Problem with This Whole "Failure" Thing - Richard Rende, Ph.D., Psychology Today

Why Affluent Parents Put So Much Pressure on Their Kids - Rebecca J. Rosen, The Atlantic

Kids Addicted to Phones: Why Parents Shouldn't Worry - Jackie Ogburn-Duke, Futurity

Is Tech Hampering Kids' Reading? Authors Say It's Not - Greg Toppo, USA Today

Google Proves That TV Teaches Girls to Not Like Computer Science - Emily DeRuy, National Journal

Silicon Valley Is Growing Up, Giving Parents a Break - Claire Cain Miller, New York Times

Learning

2 Praising Effort Alone is Mistaken, Says Carol Dweck - Jill Barshay, Hechinger Report

Scientists Have Found a Way to Score Your Attention IQ - Monica Rosenberg, Quartz

Why Some Math Anxiety Might Actually Be a Good Thing - Jonathan Wai, Psychology Today

‘Not a Math Person’: How to Remove Obstacles to Learning Math - Katrina Schwartz, Mind/Shift

Education

3 No Child Left Behind to End: Congress to Launch New Era of Ed Policy - R. Berman, The Atlantic

4 Accountability Under ‘Every Student Succeeds,’ the New NCLB - Emma Brown, Washington Post

Does It Pay To Pay Teachers $100,000? - Ryan Schuette, nprEd

Bill Gates to Put Millions Into New Education Focus: Teacher Preparation - Valerie Strauss, Wash Post

Google Deceptively Tracks Students’ Internet Browsing - Electronic Frontier Foundation

US Falls Behind Other Nations in the Global Knowledge Economy - Jill Barshay, Hechinger Report

Massachusetts’s Rejects Common Core Test, Signaling Shift in U.S. - Kate Zernike, New York Times

Sorry, Parents, Common Core Math Makes More Sense Than You Think - James Goodman, Salon

Resources

5 Our New Favorite Family Game — Bounce-Off - Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

Women in STEM Field Dolls and Action Figures - Maia Weinstock, Scientific American

4 Inventive Games That Show Us the Future of Learning - Tanner Higgin, Mind/Shift

30 Christmas Gift Ideas for Tech-Savvy Children - Stuart Dredge, The Guardian

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Follow us on Twitter at @ParentCorticalM. Thank you!

Week's Best Articles on Learning and Education, for Parents

The parent movement to “opt out” of excessive standardized tests has been so persuasive it actually won over President Obama this week. He announced that his administration needed a "smarter" testing policy. Just about all the pundits agreed. Still, diverse opinions abound. 1 2 3 5 The President’s announcement came two days before scores on the latest Nation’s Report Card were released. For the first time since the launch of these tests in the 1990s, scores declined. What does this mean? Get some facts, read some opinions. 4 5 6 7 8 You’ve probably heard of "adaptive learning software," but, could you explain it to a neighbor? Read Will Oremus’ primer and get informed. 9 In the eighties, E.D. Hirsch developed the controversial “cultural literacy” list, his codification of common knowledge all American’s should know. This list was an ancestor of the Common Core. Thirty years later an effort to establish a new list is underway, and of course it’s crowdsourced! What 10 items would you include? 10

Parenting

Everything You Need to Know About the New SAT - Eric Hoover, New York Times

'Affirmative Testing' a New Way to Look at Learning Process - Leanna Landsmann, uexpress

How the Internet Has Changed Bullying - Maria Konnikova, The New Yorker

Parents’ Dilemma: What Should My School Do About New Technologies - Yalda Uhls, Larry Cuban's Blog

"How to Raise an Adult," a Q&A with Julie Lythcott-Haims - Patt Morrison, L.A. Times

How to Give Your Child the Gift of Failure - Nico Pitney, Huffington Post

Learning

For Babies, Copy-Cat Games Provide a Social Compass - Susan Pinker, Wall Street Journal

Can You Get Smarter? - Richard A. Friedman, New York Times

8 Brain 'Facts' We All Get Wrong - Kate Horowitz, mental_floss

Best Way to Learn Math Is to Learn How to Fail Productively - Jenny Anderson, Quartz

Education

1 Open Letter to America's Parents and Teachers on Smarter Testing - Pres. Barack Obama, Huff Post

2 Study Says Standardized Testing Is Overwhelming Public Schools - Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post

3 The President's Pledge to Reduce School Tests Is Meaningless - Robert Pondiscio, US News

4 U.S. Student Performance Slips on "Nation's Report Card" - Emma Brown, Washington Post

5 Our National Test Fixation Isn't Just Bad for Kids, It Doesn't Work - Diane Ravitch, Salon

6 Beware the NAEP Overreactions - Matt Barnum, The 74 Million

7 Heartbreak on NAEP - Michael J. Petrilli, Flypaper

8 Why Did NAEP Scores Drop? - Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, Brookings

No Child Left Behind: What Worked, What Didn't - Cory Turner, nprEd

9 Adaptive Learning Software Is Replacing Textbooks, & Reshaping US Education - Will Oremus, Slate

Resources

10 What Every American Should Know - whateveryamericanshouldknow.org

Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2015 - The New York Times

A Demo of the Pythagorean Theorem Using Water - Flowing Data

Apps That Actually Help Kids Learn - Annie Murphy Paul, The Brilliant Blog

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Follow us on Twitter at @ParentCorticalM. Thank you!

Week's Best Articles on Learning and Education, for Parents

"Grit” is the featured topic this week. Can we help kids get more of it? Can it be taught in classrooms? Is it reliably measured? And...should the government collect the grit scores of students? 2 5 6 8 The screen-time debate continues this week. The focus? How does parents' screen-time impact their kids? 1 Congress is finally taking on the re-write of No Child Left Behind and its troublesome accountability system. Should parents be allowed to opt out their kids from mandated tests without risking federal sanctions against their schools? Get familiar with the issues. 3 4 Did you get caught up in the buzz about Pluto? When does the question, “What makes a planet a planet?” get such air time?! Read up, and then argue with your kids: Should Pluto be reinstated as a planet? It’s a generational thing! 7

Parenting

1 How to Cut Children’s Screen Time? Say No to Yourself First. - Jane E. Brody, New York Times

Why “Work Life Balance” Is Too Simplistic for Modern Dads - Angela Arsenault, Parent Co

The Captivity of Motherhood - Wednesday Martin, The Atlantic

A Parent's View of Homework: Wavering Between Tolerance and Hatred -Toni Hargis, The Guardian

The Great Gift of Reading Aloud - Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal

Learning

The Cognitive Benefits of Doodling - Steven Heller, The Atlantic

Children Recognize Complex Emotions at Young Age - Rick Nauert, PhD, PsychCentral

Can Neuroscience Solve the Mystery of How Students Learn? - Ben Martynoga, The Guardian

Helping Toddlers Expand Their Language Skills - Rachel Cortese, PBS Parents

2 The Writing Assignment That Changes Lives - Anya Kamenetz, nprEd

Education

3 Congress Might Finally Kill No Child Left Behind - Libby Nelson, Vox

4 Senate Rejects Plan to Allow Parents to Opt Out of Standardized Tests - Emma Brown, Wash Post

Why Aren’t NAEP Scores for High School Students Going Up? - Chad Aldeman, Education Next

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds - Joy Resmovits, HuffPost

5 Resilience: The Capacity to Rebuild and Grow from Adversity - M. Price-Mitchell, PhD, Psych Today

6 U.S. Gov't to Collect Data on Students' ‘Grit’ Levels - Valerie Strauss, Washington Post

How Textbooks Can Teach Different Versions Of History - Laura Isensee, nprEd

Resources

7 NASA Mission Brings Pluto Into Sharp Focus — But It’s Still Not a Planet - David Rothery, Time

8 100+ Ways to Help Kids Learn Grit and Resilience - A. Zimmerman, Common Sense Media

Money Magazine’s New College Rankings - Jeffrey Selingo, Washington Post

Common Sense Things to Know About Parental Controls - Common Sense Media, GeekDad

Make a Whirlybird from Paper - Science Buddies, Scientific American

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!