Ten years ago, ASCD published a book that I compiled about education jargon and buzzwords. It is called EdSpeak.
Recently, I became aware that Nancy Bailey, a teacher-blogger, was collecting jargon and buzzwords, and I started thinking that EdSpeak needs to be updated. It predated Race to the Top and many new fads and innovations of the past decade.
I wrote on a post that I would love to help Nancy’s help in revising the book, and she responded offering to be co-editor.
ASCD has given us the go-ahead to revise the book with new buzzwords, jargon, phrases, and terminology that have grown up in the past decade.
Last time, when I compiled the glossary of education language and terminology, I spent months scouring EdWeek and other publications to pick up on the latest words.
This time, I am asking you to send me your favorite buzzwords, terminology, and jargon. Just send them here as a comment, and Nancy and I will add them to our collection.
Thank you for your help. This will be the first time I have ever crowd sourced a book, but I can’t think of a better way to gather all the current and latest language of our field.
Here is an example of a possible new entry:
“Reformer”: someone who wants to close local public schools and replace them with privately managed charter schools. Also known as a corporate education reformer.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don’t reinvent the wheel, go to Education Jargon Generator right here!
http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html
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No, no, this is not about nonsense. It is about real language used in the schools and in the education journals.
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OK, how about differentiated instruction? In my district that was the latest and greatest. Now it’s accountable talk.
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A reformer by any other name is a “deformer” (coined by Norm Scott)
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“No excuses charter schools” — A place where children of color are punished for independent thought and action.
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Individualized learning = every kid in a corner with an iPad
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I think that’s called personalized learning. And just like a student predicted on NOVA’s recent “School of the Future” segment, there will be no teachers.
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You have to wonder what a segment of society–teachers–will do when they are pushed out of their jobs by tech. How will it affect the economy?
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Diane: Right off hand, and in today’s climate, and with a bit of a chuckle–but REALLY seriously–perhaps you should do a double-entry for many words to account for the raft and overflow of “doublespeak” that’s going on in our culture at present and that has been building-up for years. And in the introduction, perhaps reference and quote from some of the works that have been written on the subject since Orwell and others came on the scene with regard to that and other methods of propaganda?
If anyone should be acutely aware of such usage and manipulation of language, it’s Teachers.
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Addendum: “Reform” is a good example. As a general term, it sounds innocuous or positive and should have that definition in such a book–because there ARE authentic reforms going on.
But those sounds are a part of the manipulation–by those who want readers to “hear” something good, and be accepting, while it’s really a cover for all sorts of nefarious sxxt–like oil barons and oligarchs working under the name: The Blue Skies Institute. Just as example, the “education” people have made an art form out of double-speak. And Carl Rove didn’t make it up–but he is one of its main users of the method–channeling Machiavelli as he does.
BTW, many on the news today are making sounds like: OMG! Trump’s tweets are going to destroy decades of work! They don’t seem to realize–it’s what they WANT to do–dismantle and destroy the whole thing.
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I second this recommendation. It is helpful to know both what a word is supposed to mean and what it really means. In addition to doublespeak, there is also the people of genuine confusion or misapplication of terms.
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Good one, Diane!
And agree with Catherine Blanche King
Off the top of my head only:
Blended Learning
Every Student Succeeds Act
LEARN Act
No Child Left Behind Act
Race to the Top Act
Inidivualized Instruction/Learning
Personalized Instruction/Learning
Public Charter Schools
High Tech; High Touch
Third Grade Reading Level
Reading Levels
College Ready
Preschool Ready
First Grade Ready
High School Ready
Workforce Ready
Grade Level Curriculum
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Perhaps you meant “Third grade reading guarantee”
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Populism = main-scream-media-sprach for fascist movements promoted by indeterminately wealthy demagogues.
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Apologies if they’re redundant- (1) “Human capital pipelines” (Bellwether)
(2) “We’ got to blow up the ed schools” (Philanthropy Roundtable citing the language, thought and action of reformers, from the article, “Don’t Surrender the Academy” (3) “schools-in-a-box”, Non-profit Quarterly’s term to describe the Bridge international Academies’ investment of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Pearson,… BIA’s founder cited the project’s 20% return as attracting investors.
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P20W – Preschool through to workplace data collection and analysis. The purpose of which is to hone what is taught in schools and colleges for what corporations want in their employees.
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Something about caps. and numbers that seem cold and creepy. Very unchildlike. Thanks, Julie.
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“School choice” = corporate run schools that cherry pick students with high test scores in order to justify half million dollar CEO bonuses at taxpayer expense
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data driven
SBG – standards-based grading
tracking
flying monkeys – these are aics, aps, and other administrators who appear in yr classroom to make misinformed judgments about what’s going on (ie., one student had her head on the desk; response (IF you have the opportunity to respond): her sister is in hospital & not expected to survive the week, okay?). flying monkeys come swooping in when you least expect them – they are allegedly there to support you but they only impede your class’s journey down the yellow brick road – they are an omnipresent threat to peace & happiness in the classroom; they are there in the name of …
accountability
just getting started
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Contemporary Educational Reality! I used it in my dissertation. I first saw it used by Maxine Greene. She defined it as the discourse between social inequalities and the drive by school officials to meet economic and technical needs. We know that today it means more: increased accountability, budget cuts, societal criticism of teachers, and more.
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Is not all reality contemporary?
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EdSpeak â âTuitioning Systemâ AKA vouchers: From the Daily Oklahoman describing a voucher system developed in Vermont where 93 out of 200 school districts in the state âno longer have a public school.â âVermont children can even use taxpayer money to attend schools in neighboring states, such as Massachusetts.â
Best,
Howard Kuchta Cameron University Lawton, Oklahoma
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Would find the process inviting
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“Unpacking the standards”
Pegs my bullshit meter every time.
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Ah yes, my elementary school district is always “unpacking” something. With CCSS it meant translating the grade level standards into something that was appropriate for that age child.
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Absolutely. Thank you. “Unpack” was at the top of my list. I’ve heard it used repeatedly by “consultants” who are paid to do drive-by inservice. They show up to “help” teachers “unpack” the standards -meanwhile they’re packing up the money the school district is spending on this crap, then driving off down the Route 17.
It’s all so…..”rigorous” -another word that should be banned. (Mentioned in another comment above.)
It’s a “work in progress” is another phrase that I hate. For school reformers it’s typically a work in progress, meaning they can just keep pretending to “build that plane while flying it”…..meanwhile real teachers have to worry about actual life.
And how about a blast from the past: a “seamless curriculum”….? 20+ years later I still don’t have a clue what the “consultant” who used that one was really talking about. This woman spent a day just stringing together edu-jargon along with platitudes. And, about 20 times she said “seamless curriculum”. Anyone who has spent time teaching knows that hardly anything in school is ever “seamless”.
Of course, if you try to politely ask these “experts” what the hell they are talking about they will write your comment, what is it, “in the parking lot” or “holding tank” or….?? Help me here…. I’m blanking out on this one….. The mind does this to heal, I guess. Years ago they’d actually have one of those easels with a big flip chart of paper and they’d write the phrase “parking lot” or “school yard” up there. Then they’d “jot” your real life question up there and say, “we’ll come back to that later…” Yeah, right…. hate the word “jot”, btw.
“Think outside the box” also deserves scorn. I recall a “consultant” saying to me, in a very patronizing voice, that I ought to learn to “think outside the box”. Love that one. What “box”? The box labelled “rationality” or “free will” or “common sense”?
Interestingly enough, in our odd world, actual human beings become edu-jargon, too. Budding “consultants” come in and drop names or use the so-called well known edu-writers as short cuts to refer to “big” ideas. “Marzano”, “Danielson”….. or, some airhead talking about meeting “Grant Wiggins”. Two words: don’t care.
Have to go get ready to leave for work. Best of luck in this effort. George Orwell would approve, I think. I’m sure other examples will come to me.
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ROI (return on investment) used to determine if a school can keep a social worker.
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Growth/Fixed Mindset
Work/Assessment Product
Move students (from one level to another)
DOK wheel/charts/rubrics
Cognitive demand
Rigor
Multiple Entry
Open-ended questions (multiple correct answers)
Scaffolded
Targets/Goals/Standards (Lesson Objectives/Unit Goals/Curriculum Standards)
CCLS Common Core Learning Standards
And much, much more!
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Thank you!
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You’re welcome!
And . . .
Approaching/Meeting/Exceeding Standards
Ongoing assessment in instruction
RTI Response to Intervention
Professional Development PD replaced with Professional Learning PL
CTT Collaborative Co-teaching replaced with ICT Integrated Co-Teaching
Engagement
Taking the pulse of the room
Cite Evidence
Document (If it is not documented, it didn’t happen)
Self-assessment
Peer assessment
questioning and discussion strategies
Outreach
Conferencing Notes
Instructional Rounds
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You are good!
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STEM and STEAM
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Sorry, ICT was previously something else, maybe CCT, but not CTT.
CTT has to do with vocational skills.
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Turn key- training one person and then having that person train others. Also known as train the Trainer. It often is used when staff is in need of Just in Time training- which is actually good when done effectively. Training staff on how to do/use something at implementation time instead of weeks or months before hand, so the training is fresh and relevant.
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Status Quo: not the state of things now, but before all the changes brought about by NCLB and RTTT, as well as state and local privatizing efforts. Used as a straw man and/or a red herring, and to blame negative aspects of the past 14 years on things other than NCLB, RTTT, and privatizing status quo.
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Scholar (n) a child, possibly still learning the alphabet and counting, with no higher education degrees, who was hoodwinked into attending a charter scam
Academy (n) a money making scam; not a public school
Flipping the classroom (v) making online videos for students instead of teaching; not teaching
Datum (n) a number, just a useless representation of a possibly vibrant school performance narrowed down to a dang number
Blended learning (n) showing videos in class, like what your gym teacher used to do to teach you how to duck and cover during an atom bomb attack
No Child Left Behind (n) no public schools left behind
Every Student Achieves (n) every student yields data to marketing departments
Leadership (n) the act of dropping out of teaching for America because you don’t like it; teaching is too much work
Civil Rights (n) corporate privilege
Tablet computer (n) a tool that can be helpful if used as a flat surface on which to slice vegetables
Proficient (adj) above grade level
Voucher (n) like giving a kid a quarter so she can buy a steak dinner, a way to take funding from the poor and give it to the rich instead
United States Department of Education (n) an office used by elitists to slowly take away the funding allotted by the ESEA from the poor and give it all to the rich
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grit= ability to SLANT, ignore boring drills, endure torturous shaming and isolation, do exactly as you were told and delay gratification for years
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SLANT= acronym for Sit up, Listen, Ask and answer, Nod your head, and Track the speaker
teaching like a champion= not thinking for yourself, doing what you’re told, implementing SLANT and following scripts with fidelity, willingness to show off that you are in charge of your classroom because you are an elite college graduate whose class is named after your college, taunting children endlessly with chants (often promising a better tomorrow if they would just tow the line), putting children through constant test prep, manipulating students through old school Behaviorism and willingness to dole out consequences that border on cruel and unusual punishment
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MICROAGGRESSION: When offense is taken by someone, usually a minority or marginalized person, but anyone, because a teacher did not forewarn students that spoken or written content might hurt feelings or be offensive before said content is delivered.
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Personalized Learning – plopping a child in front of a computer all day in order to enhance some tech companies wallet; also end of teacher/student interactions in learning, as well as student/student interactions.
School Choice – not really choice; it is the choice of the charter if they pick YOUR child to go to YOUR neighborhood charter school or if they don’t pick them your child must board a public bus to go to a school far away from their home.
Vouchers – not meant for poor children to be able to go to school where they want, meant for wealthy to have tax payers pay for part of their child’s religious or private school tuition. (see SPLC suit against the Alabama Accountability Act or the failed Indiana Voucher program)
Competency Based Education – See Personalized learning only add that they will mine your child’s data and embed testing to try and fool opt out parents.
Rigor – creating standards that are several grade levels above what your child is capable of doing so that they will fail tests that are developmentally inappropriate and close your school as a result.
Accountability – See rigor but add that they will now rate teachers, students, and schools on inappropriate standards and tests.
Cut Scores – in NYS they get to set them where they want in order to manufacture a crisis
Grit – see rigor
Public Charter School – a private school that takes public tax dollars and has no oversight or accountability for how they spend that money on children. They cherry pick the children that attend and “counsel out” those that will not have the test scores they want.
Alternate Certification to Teaching – Teach for America or other programs that only train for five weeks to become a teacher and place the least experienced in schools that have our most vulnerable children; these types of teacher last for roughly 3 years before they quit or move onto something else (aka resume building).
Diane – I could go on all night and excuse the typos – on a phone.
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Thank you!
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I come from a project based, inquiry learning base over 30 years in the making. Jonathon Kozol and Herb Kohl my heroes. It saddens me to see progressive educators being part of watering educational dialogue down to cute stereotypes and generalizations. Education never has been simple or clean. Where is the thoughtful and generative open minded exchange of ideas that I had come to respect Diane Ravitch for championing?
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edupreneur and teacherpreneur because in this brave new world, we can all make money on the kids.
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Grit,
TDA: Text Dependent Analysis
Accomodate
Differentiate
Differentiated Instruction
Individualized Instruction
Surround- as in surround services or supports
Constructed Response,
Higher Order Thinking
Lower Order Thinking (?)
SGI- Small Group Instruction
D.E.A.R.- Drop every thing and read
Common Core Aligned
Drill Down- into the data for a more nuanced understanding of standardized assessments
Bubbling
Wrong to Right (erasure patterns)
Right to Wrong (corporate reform)
Gradual Release- of whatever you are teaching- from teacher led to independent student work
SLO- Student Learning Objective
PAR- Peer Assistance and Review
PBIS- Positive Behavior Instructional Support
Fidelity
Strategies
Comprehension
Fluency
Decoding
Chunking
Consonant Clusters
Accommodation Room- 21st century career and college ready detention room
Diagnostic- a standardized assessment(?)
Student Share- time set aside for students to talk about whatever they want, (within reason)
W.R.A.P. – Writing and Reading Assessment Profile
Exit Slip
Item Analysis
Skills Analysis
Summative Assessment
Formative Assessment
Aims Web Fluency Assessment
Benchmark Assessment
Below Basic
Basic
Proficient
Advanced
Non-Cognitive Skills
Executive Skills
etc…
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Jonathan,
That’s great!
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Formative Assessment is one of those phrases that requires two definitions: What We Mean (assessment that assists teacher and learner to understand the learner’s current thinking and plan appropriate learning experiences) and What They Mean (another standardized test in between the Big Tests).
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social entrepreneurs: people who avoid paying dues and manipulate their way to the top of a field they know nothing about in order to make their fortunes off tax dollars intended to help the most vulnerable (and through fraud if need be)
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AKA: Donald Trump
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RTI. Response to Intervention
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Great one! Thank you, Judith.
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Hello Friends,
As someone who is NBC and has taught low income ELLs for 24 years, here is what I have come up with:
English language learner
second language acquisition
multilingualism
bilingual
monolingual
biliterate
bicultural
dual language program
bilingual education
language interference
affective filter
language transfer
translanguaging
code switching
repeated readings
Lotta Lara method of reading
TESOL
ESL
ENL
cognates
socio-pragmatics
interlocution
chunking
utterance
utterance length
Stephen Krashen
El Dictado method of writing
language progressions
compound sentences
complex sentences
simple sentences
SV sentence structure
SVO sentence structure
phrases
yes/no questions
higher cognitive order inferential questions
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To add to the above ELL/ELA:
Community English
Home Language
Academic English
Standard Academic English
Work Ready Writing
College Ready Writing
Constructed Responses
Performance Based Assessment
Multi Modal Writing
Digital Writing
Multi Media Learning (title of teacher-ed course name)
Instructional Technology
Learning Technologies
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And “ELL” is itself suspect. It was changed from “ESL” during the Bush era because they didn’t like the idea of people having a second language called English.
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How so?
ELL = English language learner, while ESL = English as a second language. The former describes a person while the latter conveys a linguistic status.
Actually, the latter was changed in NY State to “ENL”, which is “English as a new language” because the fact is, for many people, it is not necessarily their second language; it could be a third or fourth one. “New” seems to be a more universal term.
It’s interesting.
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self-assessment: because kids don’t need expert teachers; they can decide for themselves how they are progressing.
impact teams: because if we rename them every year, meetings with colleagues will stay just as time consuming but require a different paperwork trail. (see: accountability)
facilitator: because teaching is not a profession but just a way to make sure a legal adult is in the room while kids learn from themselves. (see: constructivism on steroids)
co-construct: because kids don’t need expert curriculum or lessons delivered by educational experts; they can design their own standards of learning.
grouping: because kids don’t need to develop their own minds; they can hide behind the thoughts of others. (see: student centered)
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This is silly. I can only extrapolate from my own experience as a parent, but I doubt many, if any, who espouse self-assessment believe that it should be the sole form of assessment. My kids, now in middle and high school, have had self-assessment as part of their schooling since the get-go and I think it has been great for them to see that reflecting on their work, rather than just done-and-out, is an important value. For me, it is wonderfully informative to read what part of a project they found most difficult, easiest, rewarding, and why. I could write something similar about the merits of “co-construct,” “grouping,” and, in spirit at least, “facilitator.” Knowledge is not something owned by teachers to be injected into passive students. To suggest otherwise is to demean both teacher and student.
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The problem is your experiences as a parent don’t qualify you to determine what makes good learning in a classroom. Don’t demean expert teaching by assuming otherwise.
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Differentiation-Plan as though you were 6 teacher$ in one–accommodate every learning style and need in the classroom.
P.L.C.-Professional Learning Communities–New idea that teachers benefit from collaboration-Who knew?!
“Lockdown” Drill-Fight, Flee, Hide. No, that’s Flee, Hide, Fight. No, that’s, “Lockdown w/Intruder.” No, that’s “Lockdown w/armed Intruder.” No, that’s, no…..
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Outcomes assessment
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Overachiever!?
Children don’t achieve ABOVE their ability level.
Where did this silly descriptor come from? Heard it often enough.
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Maybe it’s a private school thing to describe silver spooners who have multiple opportunities handed to them and cannot fail, because family members (and government bankruptcy laws) will always be there to bail them out…
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I hate underachiever too.
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Close reading: Paying attention to dense readings.
LEP-Limited English Proficiency
FLEP-Former Limited English Proficiency
L1-Native language
L2-Acquired language
SIFE-Student w/Interrupted Formal Education
SLIFE-Student w/Limited or Interrupted Formal Education
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“teacher accountability”
Brought to us by the Lords of Impunity AKA Reformsters.
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I use your book in my Ed. Psych. course. Yes, it does need up-dated – the students love it and it is the only book that they rarely sell back to the bookstore! Please do it!! I see many terms that could be added. Also, just go through your “Reign of Error” book, and pull them from there. THANKS, Diane!!!!
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MTSS – Multi Tiered Support System (use to be RTi, which used to be SBPS – school based problem solving)
TFA –
PARCC –
SEL – Social Emotional Learning
Grit –
SES – SocioEconomic Status
PM – Progress monitoring
CEO – head of school district sometimes called axe man
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GRR – gradual release of responsibility (I do, we do, you do)
Scaffolding
PLC – professional learning community
RA – reading apprenticeship
T4 – talk to the text
Classroom norms
Metacognition
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VAM (value added measurement)
Danielson Frameworks
Domains
Advance
Engage NY
“College and Career Ready”
Rubrics ( for everything)
Common Core Learning Standards
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Here in California, we have the dreaded Co-Location. The ability for CCSA to threaten litigation unless you allow charters to “share” school space with you. Translates into “let’s kick the students out of that underutilized band room so we can put some more computers in there.”
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“What’s best for kids”. Meaning– don’t challenge about what I just said. No matter what you think, we will just say “what’s best for kids” and you cannot say it isn’t.
For example– “we are tracking all student achievement using a third party data warehouse because it is what’s best for kids…”
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Excellent!
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How could I forget professional development?
PD -sitting in the auditorium for 80 minutes every Monday listening to blah, blah, blah and learning very little that was constructive or that pertained to the grade I taught.
ESI-R a mandated Pre-K assessment given at the beginning of the school year.
SESIS s data site used by providers and special Ed teachers .
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Brooklynteacher, thank you.
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TEI: Technology Enhanced Item: 50 shades of multiple choice
Ed-Tech: or Education Technology: Industry full of for-profit (and some non-profit) companies “created by educators for educators” but overwhelmingly about its bottom line.
Focus School: Next step up from a…
Priority School: Bottom 5% of the state (whatever that means)
NJ example: http://www.state.nj.us/education/reform/PFRschools/TechnicalGuidance.pdf
Student Growth: how to best measure low-performing students
Student Proficiency: how to best measure high-performing students
Bubble Kid: Who a school focuses on when trying to up its grade
Proficiency Based Grading: Maine-Style
And related: proficiency based diploma
Cross-disciplinary
Lifelong Learning
Soft Skills: The skills that really matter in life but that no one has figured out how to measure yet (although many are trying)
Thanks for the exercise in fun/frustration!
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Cindi, great stuff!
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To make sure even reformers and turnaround experts read the book, I recommend a section where the definitions reflect the reformers point of view.
School
1) Place where students and teachers put up a college ready performance to please the reformers.
2) Circus.
3) Worker producing factory.
Performers
1) Students.
2) Teachers.
Scholar
1) 5 year old in patriotic-blue jacket and necktie.
2) Charter school performer.
Charter school
1) Pipeline taking tax dollars to reformers’ pockets. Very green and hence environmentally safe.
2) Scholar training and disciplining facility.
3) Test-worshiping temple for worker level people’s offspings.
VAMming
1) Yearly ritualistic butt whipping to ensure ever increasing performance.
2) Lying with statistics.
3) Measuring with thin air.
Low performing school
1) VAMmed school under siege.
2) Designated laboratories for future child experiments.
3) Goldmine.
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Race to the top! Top of what?!!!!
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How could we forget “virtual education”–?
(The real definition, of which, is NO education!)
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Using the program with “fidelity” – A word chosen for its loaded moral connotation, but that really just means slavishly using software for the large amounts of time each week dictated by the vendor.
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“The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm. Capitalism is that kind of a system.”
— Milton Friedman
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Rigor = You’re on your own kid because we can’t offer you any services. Anyway, living out of a car builds character.
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Oh, I thought living out of a car comes under the category of “grit.”
As for “rigor,” that’s the death lock of a comprehensive, humanistic education.
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Good catch. The whole “disingenuity” of so-called reforms gets me riled up.
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social impact bonds: hedging your bets that disabilities in low income children result from their not attending high quality preschool, so if you invest in preschools for poor kids and they don’t get special ed services, you can increase your ROI
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“child focused” — often means that you’re not going to address family background issues
PBL — Project-based learning
achievement gap (sometimes AG)
opportunity gap — what you call the achievement gap if you want to show you’re not focusing so much on standardized test scores.
school climate
climate gap
STEM — science, technology, engineering, math
STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts, math
STOMP — science, technology, origami, math, programming (just kidding)
ELA — English Language Arts
basic skills — another name for certain math and ELA proficiencies
language immersion
Dual immersion
restorative justice — an alternative disciplinary approach
FRL — free & reduced lunch, often used as a proxy to indicate SES
pathways
active learning
GATE — gifted and talented education (also TAG)
“back to basics”
“Sage on a stage, guide on the side”
wrap around services
Montessori
Waldorf
small learning communities
flipped classroom
LCFF (Local control funding formula — a term of California K-12 budgeting)
TK — transitional kindergarten
SSR — sustained, silent, reading
FTE — full time equivalent
OLSAT
Naglieri
TONI
IB — International Baccalaureate
AP — Advanced placement
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Prison Pipeline–what all your low income, black, or “other” kids are in.
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“Building a plane while it’s flying” should surely make the list.
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BCR–brief constructed response–paragraph
ECR–extended constructed response–essay
Selected response–multiple choice question
Elbow partner–the kid sitting next to you (or a teacher !!! during PD)
Parking lot–large paper to post questions on–after PD since asking questions during PD is not encouraged
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Commercial Schools = Charter and private schools more interested in profit than pedagogy. Adept at siphoning taxpayer dollars away from district schools with little or no transparency or accountability for return on investment, often at the expense of our most disadvantaged students.
More about this here: http://wp.me/p3aqgr-wP.
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Malanthropy (n): false and fatuous claims about helping children masking naked self-interest, and subsidized by the tax codes.
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DRIP school or district. Data Rich but Information Poor. Schools or districts that push hard on data walls, data notebooks and the like, but know little about the other things of their students and communities. This mentality leads to Data Driven decisions that make decsions solely on test scores without consideration for other factors in a students life.
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My favorite!
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Oh – i have such a long list. I don’t even know what they all really “mean” – and my suspicion is that words are co-opted right and left to mean whatever someone wants them to mean, but not have people really understand. I will probably think of more.
21st century school
21st century learning and learning environment
21st century skills
p21
mastery-based
proficiency-based
competency-based
standards-based
authentic
summative
formative
differentiated
personalized
individualized
accelerated
enrichment
data mining
grade smarter not harder
digital learning has been renamed innovative learning
digital ecosystem
learning ecosystem
self-assessment (see above)
heterogeneous
flexible grouping
at your own pace
engagement
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Thought of more!
Totally agree with a definition of what something originally meant vs. how it plays out in real life
flipped learning
blended learning
brain break (how it plays out in real life: equals watching a video on a screen to make kids dance along . It should be true child-directed play/talking etc.)
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“Totally agree with a definition of what something originally meant vs. how it plays out in real life”
Yeah, this sounds like a good proposition to make each definition both clearer and entertaining: BS definition intended for public consumption vs Definition of what it is used by reformers to accomplish.
Voucher
BS definition: Gives school choice to poor people.
Real purpose: establish steady flow of tax dollars into teaching intelligent design.
Useful side effects: less money to teach evolution and critical thinking.
Technology-based education
BS definition: Brings 21st century cool stuff into the classroom to make learning individualized and much more fun.
Real purpose: wean students off teachers, and get them used to staring at screens all day long without using a brain cell.
Useful side effect: channels all the savings on teachers’ salaries and benefits to friendly software and hardware companies; primes kids’s brain for easy manipulation.
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Mate–love your dual-definitions (& “BS definition” should definitely be included in any ed. vocab. dictionary).
BS…lovingly brought to us courtesy of those…villainthropists.
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Reblogged this on Mark's Text Terminal.
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You need to get more STAKEHOLDERS to help you THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX…
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Personalized Pathways
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“Betsy DeVos, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to run the U.S. Department of Education, is an indirect investor in online-lending company Social Finance Inc., a startup whose fortunes hinge in part on policies crafted by the department Ms. DeVos would run.
Ms. DeVos and her husband Dick DeVos are investors in RPM Ventures, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based venture-capital firm that was one of SoFi’s earliest backers, according to the firms’ websites. Founded in 2011, SoFi is worth about $4 billion and in the midst of raising a new round of money”
I feel so bad for young people. There’s a whole industry of adults preying on them. It simply wasn’t like this when I was 20 and attending community college. I could trust that the adults in education weren’t there to rip me off.
Trust no one, youngsters. You’re surrounded by sharks
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Administration is now “Leadership Team”
Libraries are “Media Centers”
Faculty Meetings are now “Faculty Communication Sessions”
Just talking to a colleague is now a “Professional Learning Community” and must be scheduled. 😦
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Haha! 🙂
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Edubloggers! People who speak truth to power and provide actual information on all things education.
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YES.
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“Listening tours” as done by Duncan and then others in the ed reform movement in hopes that people will think they actually have a say in the education of their children.
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“Listening tours”
Also known as “Democracy theater” or “Democracy circus”.
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“Human Capitol” What ed reformers call teachers and became popular with Gates backed NCTQ that went around the country doing fake reports on teachers and their “inefficiencies”, see https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/the-nctq-reports/.
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And don’t forget “Broadies”, Broad Academy graduates… which in itself is a whole other story.
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&–to go with “Broadies,” seattle, “Dance of the lemons.”
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My favorite terms: disproportionality and disproportionate representation. Can you explain the difference? And yes, they do mean different things in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
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Research-based = Please take my word for it because there isn’t any proof.
Transparent = You’ll never see it.
Stakeholder input = After the fact.
Open discussion = Asking questions just proves you don’t care about kids.
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Oh, & “standardized” testing (yes–including the quotation marks, because there exists NO SUCH THING!!!)
Make sure to include Senor Swacker’s “definition,” as well as his Wilson rant.
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readiness: mentally and psychologically preparing a child to be yanked away from the authentic learning they have been doing since birth and forced to learn what, when, and how they are told for the next 12 years!
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close reading – reading the same passage ad nauseum.
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failing schools – most schools in low income neighborhoods
educators – formerly known as teachers
benchmarks – impossible standards to meet
growth – improvement in standardized test scores that does not meet benchmarks
hyperactive – child who would prefer not to remain seated
behaviorally challenged – child rejected by a charter school
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Rubric, rubric on the wall. Who’s the most rigorous of us all?
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creaming – process used by charter schools to syphon off high performing kids in low income neighborhoods
lottery – imaginary mechanism used to select charter school students
gate keeping – technique used by child study teams to deny children special education services
veteran teacher – experienced educator no longer wanted by the district
expensive to educate – special needs students who require a lot of services
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Relay – make believe graduate school of education
TFA – usually Ivy League graduate who has more lofty long term goals than teaching
PD – ongoing educational bullshit that changes from season to season aka professional development
coach – former teacher who was smart enough to get out of the classroom
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“coach – former teacher who was smart enough to get out of the classroom
As opposed to a teacher leader who wasn’t?
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Data Wall
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data dashboard
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state takeover – state runs district into the ground through the unrelenting efforts of highly paid administrators, consultants and non-profits.
non-profit – organization set up to give tax benefits to rich people who know nothing about education, but need to feel better about their avarice and greed.
return to local control – highly publicized myth
budget cuts – ways to deprive children of all school pleasures; art, music, library, field trips
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Good ones!
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student-centered and learner centered
pedagogy – I know this has a real substantive definition – but it is tossed around now in sentences with lots of big words; heedlessly, to tell parents that the school system knows better and we should just go along with it.
customized learning
student choice / student voice and choice
“Devices allow for learning to be authentic, connected to real-world problems, and not limited by the location in which they live or go to school.”
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“non-public schools” as the replacement for “private schools.”
The reformers run from the words “privatization” or “private” — because of their negative connotation and derision with the mass public. Therefore they figure that if they include the word “public” in the descriptor, it sounds more palatable. That way, an exclusive $50,000 – a – year rich kids private school attended by the children of the 1% … why that’s not a “private school”. It’s a “non-public school.” When John King got confronted in Poughkeepsie three years ago, he used that verbiage to defend his choice to send his kids to a Common-Core-Free rich kids’ private Montessori school.
“Non-public schools like the one my children attend are part of a the family of schools that educate our children.”
Betsy Devos also uses that term over and and over. Here’s an example:
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/topic/excellence_in_philanthropy/interview_with_betsy_devos
BETSY DEVOS: “Meanwhile, there are very good non-public schools, hanging on by a shoestring, that can begin taking students today.”
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“Having a conversation” was popular in Washington state when reformers began their second push for charter schools.
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late and long, some from prior posts.
impacting student growth” -increasing a numerical score or letter grade on some valued outcome of learning
non-cognitive” skills. See soft skills.
performance management”—exercising simultaneous control over behavior and results in organizations.
results, not excuses- also “Throwing more money at schools won’t improve them;” McKinsey-style management—cut health care for teachers, eliminate pensions and collective bargaining, increase class sizes, convert into private schools all public schools that receive the lowest scores on standardized tests.
teacher effects- a statistical fiction based on the assumption that algorithms applied to test scores identify and isolate the amount of influence the teacher had on the score (needs some work)
the civil rights issue of our time. low graduate rates and low scores on standardized tests especially among low income students “of color.”
gain-score–the difference between test scores from one point in time to another. The difference can be a positive or negative number.
above, below, or at grade level-determined by scores on a standardized test relative to the median on a percentile scale (1-99).
academic peers- students whose test scores in a given year are the same or nearly the same. This concept permits comparisons of their scores from the prior year to the current year. Students who make greater gains than their academic peers have an accelerated growth trajectory. Students who fall behind their academic peers need remedial work to keep up.
alignments-a perfected system of linking instruction to standards, and instruction to tests, and tests to standards. Also known as the iron triangle for programmed instruction.
annual yearly progress (AYP)- evidence that the same group of students made higher scores on standardized tests of reading and mathematics than they did in the prior year.
at scale, or bring to scale—an educational policy, practice, or product believed to merit replication in multiple locations, as in manufacturing and in franchise systems for a mass market. See also replicate
baseline data. Records about student performance, especially on standardized tests, that are made available to teachers at the beginning of the year so the instruction offered to each student, during a known interval of time, is efficient and has a measurable impact on student learning. See also impact.
best practices- the idea that one set of practices size should fit all. Also known as “what works,” especially in raising test scores in reading and math.
calibration-a process of getting raters of people, place, or things to produce the same about the same ratings
calibration events-training sessions intended to standardize how raters use or interpret language and to verify that rules for making judgments have been followed with fidelity. Such events are also called trainings or calibrations.
college and career ready. A phrase that assumes all or most colleges and careers have the same entry requirements. A phrase used to argue that all students should pass Algebra II before graduating from high school
continuous improvement- version of AYP, making adequate yearly progress, year after year.
core subjects, core content-the immutable hierarchy of subjects to study in school: reading NS math, then science, then social studies/history. Also known as academic content, with the intent of marginalizing studies in the arts and learning of a language other than English.
cut scores used to rank teachers and place them in a few categories such as highly effective (distinguished, exemplary), effective (proficient, satisfactory) needs improvement (basic, developing), or ineffective (unsatisfactory, unacceptable).
great- a mandatory adjective for any educational practice or policy preferred by the speaker or writer. Anything else is mediocre at best and usually worse. (great schools, great teachers, great classrooms, etc…
high quality- a mandatory adjective for any educational practice or policy preferred by the speaker or writer. Anything else is mediocre at best and usually worse
Learnings. The outcomes of trainings or calibrations.
Lexile® scores are derived from computer-aided analyses of the semantic complexity, syntax, and characteristics of vocabulary in literary and informational texts. Unlike traditional readability formulas, Lexile® scores can be applied to students’ writing. Invented by statisticians at MetaMetrics,
outcomes only education- do more with less and less, same as “throwing more money at schools won’t improve them.”
pay-for-performance-general term for methods of reimbursing educators for exceeding expectations set by district, state, or federal officials.
proficient -on a large-scale test, a score at or near the 50th percentile (the median) in relation to the skills and subject matter on the test.
recommendation system- a computer program for teachers that links students’ test scores and their learning profiles to the computer programmer’s preferred set of instructional actions and resources
replicatation- one or more standardized best practices organized and marketed to form a system analogous to a franchise. A variant of one size fits all thinking, “at scale”
talent pipeline. The idea that a generous supply of new teachers flowing into the labor market will allow schools to hire only the most talented. Talent refers to having a high GPA in any subject, and the ability to pass muster at a job interview, including some demonstration of teaching skill.
targets for learning-a teacher’s best guess about expected increases in student learning taking into account each student’s baseline data. Meeting targets for learning is analogous to meeting a sales target or a production quota by a date certain. See also impacting student growth.
value-added and growth measures- a collection of statistical procedures commonly used in business to gauge the productivity of workers; or to predict the price of a stock based on past performance; or to evaluate a corporation’s economic performance in relation to competitors. The same statistical methods are routinely used in genetic engineering studies that seek higher yields in seeds, sows, and cows
verbatim-word for word, a stipulation on the proper use of the Common Core State Standards
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above, below, or at grade level-determined by scores on a standardized test relative to the median on a percentile scale (1-99).
academic peers- students whose test scores in a given year are the same or nearly the same. This concept permits comparisons of their scores from the prior year to the current year. Students who make greater gains than their academic peers have an accelerated growth trajectory. Students who fall behind their academic peers need remedial work to keep up.
alignments-a perfected system of linking instruction to standards, and instruction to tests, and tests to standards. Also known as the iron triangle for programmed instruction.
annual yearly progress (AYP)- evidence that the same group of students made higher scores on standardized tests of reading and mathematics than they did in the prior year.
at scale, or bring to scale—an educational policy, practice, or product believed to merit replication in multiple locations, as in manufacturing and in franchise systems for a mass market. See also replicate
autonomous schools-schools free to hire and fire at will, choose their curriculum, set conditions of work and pay, with totally private oversight but receiving public funds. School freed from public oversight and accountability.
baseline data. Records about student performance, especially on standardized tests, that are made available to teachers at the beginning of the year so the instruction offered to each student, during a known interval of time, is efficient and has a measurable impact on student learning. See also impact.
best practices- the idea that one set of practices size should fit all. Also known as “what works,” especially in raising test scores in reading and math.
calibration-a process of getting raters of people, place, or things to produce the same about the same ratings
calibration events-training sessions intended to standardize how raters use or interpret language and to verify that rules for making judgments have been followed with fidelity. Such events are also called trainings or calibrations.
college and career ready. A phrase that assumes all or most colleges and careers have the same entry requirements. A phrase used to argue that all students should pass Algebra II before graduating from high school
continuous improvement- version of AYP, making adequate yearly progress, year after year.
core subjects, core content-the immutable hierarchy of subjects to study in school: reading NS math, then science, then social studies/history. Also known as academic content, with the intent of marginalizing (as if non-academic) studies in the arts and learning of a language other than English.
cut scores used to rank teachers and place them in a few categories such as Highly effective (distinguished, exemplary), Effective (proficient, satisfactory), Developing (needs improvement, basic), or Ineffective (unsatisfactory, unacceptable). Also called HEDI scores.
gain-score–the difference between test scores from one point in time to another. The difference can be a positive or negative number.
great. an all-purpose adjective for any educational practice or policy preferred by the speaker or writer. Anything else is mediocre at best and usually worse.
high quality- an all-purpose pair of adjectives for any educational practice or policy preferred by the speaker or writer. Anything else is mediocre at best and usually worse
impacting student growth -increasing a numerical score or letter grade on some valued outcome of learning
Learnings. The outcomes of trainings or calibrations.
Lexile® scores are derived from computer-aided analyses of the semantic complexity, syntax, and characteristics of vocabulary in literary and informational texts. Unlike traditional readability formulas, Lexile® scores can be applied to students’ writing. Invented by statisticians at MetaMetrics,
non-cognitive” skills. See soft skills.
outcomes only education- do more with less and less, same as “throwing more money at schools won’t improve them.”
pay-for-performance-general term for methods of reimbursing educators for exceeding expectations set by district, state, or federal officials.
performance management—exercising simultaneous control over behavior and results in organizations.
portfolio district- a system of autonomous schools managed like a stock portfolio with each school closed or allowed to stay in the portfolio based on perfomance measures, with new schools added for closures or to enlarge the portfolio
proficient -on a large-scale test, a score at or near the 50th percentile (the median) in relation to the skills and subject matter on the test.
recommendation system- a computer program for teachers that links students’ current and past test scores to a packaget of instructional actions and resources, usually selected by curriculum designers and computer programmers who are unknown to the teacher
replicatation- One or more standardized “best practices” organized and marketed into a system analogous to that of a franchise. A variant of one size fits all thinking, “at scale”
results, not excuses- abbreviated version of “Throwing more money at schools won’t improve them;” McKinsey-style management—cut health care for teachers, eliminate pensions and collective bargaining, increase class sizes, convert into private schools all public schools that receive the lowest scores on standardized tests.
talent pipeline- the idea that a generous supply of new teachers flowing into the labor market will allow schools to hire only the most talented. Talent refers to having a high GPA in any subject, and the ability to pass muster at a job interview, including some demonstration of teaching skill.
targets for learning-A teacher’s best guess about expected increases in student learning taking into account the each student’s baseline data. Meeting targets for learning is analogous to meeting a sales target or a production quota by a date certain. See also impacting student growth.
teacher effects- a statistical fiction based on the assumption that algorithms applied to test scores identify and isolate the amount of influence a specific teacher had on the score
the civil rights issue of our time-low graduate rates and low scores on standardized tests especially among low income students “of color”
value-added and growth measures- a collection of statistical procedures commonly used in business to gauge the productivity of workers; or to predict the price of a stock based on past performance; or to evaluate a corporation’s economic performance in relation to competitors. The same statistical methods are routinely used in genetic engineering studies that seek higher yields in seeds, sows, and cows
verbatim-word for word, a stipulation in the Common Core State Standards about their proper use.
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Some education buzzwords and other common sayings:
mastery
performance-based assessment
“share out”/”repeat out”
pre-test/ post-test
best practices/ best practice
“start the conversation”
“buy in”
engage/ engagement
“there’s still work to be done”
formative assessment
summative assessment
benchmark
college and career ready
social-emotional
STEM
STEAM
“outside the box”
“out of your comfort zone”
unpack
“organic”
project -based learning
inquiry-based
“real world”
“authentic assessment”
disruptive technology
BYOD- bring your own device
passion project
“technology for technology’s sake”
“meaningful”
80/20
student-centered
guide on the side vs. sage on the stage
“digital natives”
flipped classroom
data-driven
tech-savvy
growth/fixed mindset
“higher order thinking”
close reading
individualized learning styles
differentiated instruction
scaffolding
text-complexity (tool)
collaboration
PLC (professional learning community)
“maker”
blended learning
life-long learning
“whole child”
MOOC
learning outcomes (also, any kind of “outcome”)
“norms”
“enrichment”
credit recovery
disproportionality
APPR
RTI-response to intervention: ie “let’s not give this student an IEP”
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Thank you!
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“Problem solving”
I lived with an engineer for many years who claimed that only in education do we say we “problem solve;” in other fields, they “solve problems.”
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In addition to terms mentioned in previous posts, such as “college ready,” the concept of “readiness” in learning and child development.
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Two terms come to mind: “personalized-learning” and “flexibility”.
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“data-based accountability”
“public charter schools”
moving from a “sage on the stage” to a “guide on the side”
and the one I perhaps loath the most: “potential”
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sorry for the typo: loathe, not loath
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Fill in the gaps–which really stands for try to figure out which skills will help them to pass the test.
Focus standards –which is code for the standards that will be tested
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Delicate Balance:
What a wall-to-wall union must maintain to gently extract the surplus labor of adjuncts and funnel it to administrators to buy perks for full-timers at the negotiating table, while shedding crocodile tears for the plight of their downtrodden colleagues; also see Slowly Boiling a Frog.
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Delicate Balance: Trying to steer between what is authentic and what is inauthentic in education, but also in life.
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