Under Pressure, Look What You Started, Rocky Mountain High…And, A Three Way!

Here’s an interesting article from the NYT about a forthcoming study looking at how pressure impacts various types of people:

…in a new study of math testing, psychologists are reporting that intense exam pressure is actually more likely to impair the performance of very good students than mediocre ones.

In the Wash Post, Jay Mathews looks at a forthcoming study about whether taking advanced courses in high school helps students in college if they don’t take the end of course tests. Aside from the content, the story is a great model. Mathews does an admirable job showing how this new study nests in the existing research and literature on this issue.

From Colorado, public charter schools outperforming traditional public schools. But, Colorado charter demographics may be anomalous. Nationwide charters disproportionately serve low-income and minority students, but possibly not in CO which could skew the data. There are a lot of charters in suburban areas of Colorado and places like Fort Collins and Colorado Springs (more than you see in most other states). This isn’t a bad thing, these parents are demanding more customized options from the public sector and the public sector should respond. Core Knowledge, for instance, is popular out there. But, the recent reforms to the state’s charter law, championed by state representative Terrance Carroll (D), increase the emphasis on opening charters in under-served communities.

Bloggers Mathew Yglesias, Ross Douthat on AndrewSullivan.com, and David Adesnik on Oxblog discuss college for all.