Do persistence and creativity matter in standardized testing?

Conversation With Parents

The Next in the Series -- February 28, 7pm

This Conversation will be around the topic:

"Malcolm Gladwell, TIMSS* and The New York Times"

*Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

Do persistence and creativity matter in standardized testing?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, records some surprising observations regarding the U.S. performance in the quadrennial TIMSS testing.  He poses probing questions about what many regard as lagging U.S. test results.   His observations point to the need to build student persistence and creativity in order to raise U.S. performance.  A New York Times contributor, Edward Rothstein, raises precisely the same questions.  To make his point, Rothstein analyses a particularly challenging question from one of the TIMSS tests.  

On February 28, a group of Mustard Seed students and teachers will lead this Conversation With Parents.  They will summarize the points raised by Gladwell and Rothstein, and look at the TIMSS question analysed by Rothstein.  They will consider other challenging questions posed in standardized tests, and demonstrate some efforts underway to help children build persistence and creativity at different developmental stages.

We hope you will come.  So we can plan materials and seating, please RSVP here:   RSVP Feb. 28

This event is free.