My interview on CBC's The Current: Debate over Teacher evaluations in Alberta

You can find the interview on the CBC website here, too.

I mentioned that the Alberta Teachers' Association already has processes in place for disciplining misconduct and upholding professional standards of teachers. Here is the Teacher Quality Standard outlined by the Alberta Government and here's how the Alberta Teachers' Association upholds professional standards for teachers:

Professional Conduct

Practice Review

Here's the latest edition of the Alberta Teachers' Association News that highlights the Provincial Executive Council (governing body of the ATA) monthly meeting and results of teacher disciplinary hearings.

Here are 9 ways that Jeff Johnson and his Task Force are failing Albertans. 

Dave Martin on how to teach math

Take 7 minutes and listen to my friend and colleague Dave Martin talk about math:

Dave backs up this interview with tons of examples from his class room on his blog.

Why Finland's public schools are so successful

Check out this interview with Pasi Sahlberg on CBC's Sunday Edition with Michael Enright.

Withdrawing from Provincial Achievement Tests

An Edmonton father faces pressure from school administrators after he said he did not want his daughter to write the Provincial achievement test.

The CBC ran a story on how an Alberta mother received pressure about her decision to opt her daughter out of grade six Provincial Achievement Tests. This is the same mother who wrote a guest post for this blog on the pressure she received.

There are many teachers who opt their children out of Provincial Achievement Tests. Here is an anonymous post from a teacher on how they opted their child out. They decided to remain anonymous in fear of reprimand.

Here are more posts on Alberta's Provincial Achievement Tests:

Assessment and Provincial Achievement Tests

University of Saskatchewan waives PATs and Diploma exams

Alberta teacher excuses their child from PAT

Accountability and the Provincial Achievement Tests: Myth and Reality

Are Provincial Achievement Tests in Alberta High Stakes Exams?

The fear of Provincial Achievement Testing

The Folly of Provincial Achievement Testing

Exempting from Testing in Alberta

Alberta Provincial Achievement Test Taking Tips

Alberta axes written portion of PATs

Teachers know best

Standardized Testing is Dumbing Down our Schools

Misuse of Provincial Achievement Tests

Thomas Lukaszuk on Standardized Testing

More on opting out of testing

My interview on CBC's The Current on abolishing grading

Here is an interview I participated in from CBC's The Current where we talked about abolishing grading from school.



Check out this page for all of the blog posts I've written about how and why we need to abolish grading.






Here are a couple posts that I would like to recommend:


Detoxing students from grade-use - Here's how my students responded to a learning environment with no grades.


Real assessment for learning - Students should experience their successes and failures not as reward and punishment but as information.


No Good Reason to Grade - here's why there really is no good reason to grade

Grading without Grading - here's how I abolished grading as much as I could even though I had to place a grade on the report card.

The day I abolished grading - here's how it happend for me

My de-grading philosophy Q & A - here's a quick Q & A where I answer some of the most common questions about how I assess with no grades.

If we don't grade, how will we know if children are learning - Real learning is found in children not data, and unfortunately, there is no appropriate shortcut to collecting or sharing this information.

My second interview with CBC Radio on giving kids zeroes

Here is a second short interview I had on CBC Radio. My first was with CBC Calgary, and this one with CBC Edmonton. We talked briefly about no zero grading policies.

My interview on CBC Radio on assigning kids zeroes

Here is the short interview I had on CBC Radio Calgary. We talked briefly about no zero grading policies.




Here is the post I wrote on how Giving kids a zero teaches them a lesson, and you can find all of my posts on the folly of grades and other assessment topics here.

You can also read about The Case Against Grades here.