Dev Ed in the News: Does Remediation Need Remediation?

Leticia Bustillos, a remedial education consultant, has a post over at Huffington Post about the problems with the way we talk about remedial and developmental courses. She suggests our conceptions of remedial education are too limiting, especially on a policy level:

Unfortunately, policymakers and their outdated definition of "remediation" stubbornly cling to a perception that does not fully account for the issue's complexity. Rather than asking the question, "What does it take to successfully serve students considered underprepared?" policymakers are more inclined to ask "What does it take to make remedial education programs most efficient?" In doing so, policies emerging from this imprudent focus do not make allowances for the "development" of students as learners and impose arbitrary timelines and restrictions for the mastery of knowledge.

Read the whole thing here. 

Do you agree with Bustillos? What would be the best way to remediate our discussion of remediation? 

Education News Link: Why Computers Can't Grade Writing

Doug Hesse's article in the Washington Post offers a quiz and an argument for why computers can't grade essays.

Here's an excerpt:

Any piece of writing is good or bad within at least five dimensions:

*how well it fits a given readership or audience;
*how well it achieves a given purpose;
*how much ambition it displays;
*how well it conforms to matters of fact and reasoning; and
*how well it matches formal conventions expected by its audience. 

...

No writing teacher can be a walking encyclopedia, but all must have a flexible broad knowledge and a keen ear for things missing or ringing not quite true.  They ask whether claims have evidence and whether reasoning is sound, then suggest ways to improve.

Of course, teachers must also judge how students handle conventions: matters of grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling, citation, formatting, and so on.  I list these features last, when many people assume they most occupy English teachers, but of course they’re vital.  My point is that so are the other dimensions.  The art of grading requires judging how all five together describe a student’s performance.

Education News Links

Teacher Knows if You’ve Done the E-Reading (NY Times, April 8, 2013)
You know if they've done the homework, but now you can see if they even cracked the (e-)book. Teachers already having mixed reviews to this CourseSmart feature.


Rigorous Schools Put College Dreams Into Practice (April 9, 2013)

What catching up with their peers looks like at Bard High School Early College. No review or remediation for these students.