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It's difficult to know where to start when it comes to today's paean on the changes to the College Board's AP exams written by Thomas Friedman, but I feel a thread coming on. nytimes.com/2019/02/12/opi…
My first thought as someone who is struggling to get #WhyTheyCantWrite seen by influential people such as Thomas Friedman is that I wish I was as lucky as David Coleman and had a NYTimes columnist as my PR agent. Here's another example from 2017. nytimes.com/2017/05/10/opi…
Heck, let's start with 2017 when Friedman repeated a College Board talking point uncritically as a nice little boost to his bud. nytimes.com/2017/05/10/opi… 
For a less credulous take on the changes to the SAT, here's @palan57 doing some analysis, which is a contrast to Friedman's uncritical parroting of College Board PR in the 2017 article. curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/09/colema…
Okay, on to today's piece. The thesis: The College Board has cracked what all students need to know. 👇👇
I know what you're thinking. That sounds dubious. That sounds like an attempt at the College Board branding their tests so they're palatable to both left and right, and that you're not sure how those things have anything to do with education and learning. TF's got you covered
Please know "how computers work" is a clumsy shorthand for "coding." Here's where Friedman makes this clearer.
My question: Can Thomas Friedman code? I bet not. How's he managing to do so well without his 21st century education?
Perhaps Friedman's lack of shame about uncritically repeating what other people tell him is his special skill (Iraq War, cough...cough). Here he does it straight from what must be a College Board press released. The SAT isn't your old fuddy duddy test, it's hip and new!
The AP government test is even better. Not only can students get college credit, taking the course will help heal our partisan divide. No, really!
"Our country was argued into existence," says David Coleman. Yes, that's exactly what happened when the first colonizers showed up. They argued those natives right off of their lands. Good point Mr. Coleman!
At his various stops, Coleman has claimed to not be in the curriculum business ("standards aren't curriculum") but clearly that's changed. The Constitution for everyone. Also, coding.
The op-ed ironically illustrates one of the problems Friedman claims this sort of approach should remedy, the uncritical acceptance of information on the internet. Facebook was abused in the election. Columnists like Friedman abuse public discourse in other ways.
Here is what's really happening. The SAT and AP exams are under threat. Elite institutions are dropping the SAT as a requirement. insidehighered.com/admissions/vie… Fewer colleges are accepting AP credits.
The College Board and its SAT test are in a pitched battle for market share v. the ACT. edweek.org/ew/articles/20…
The College Board recently changed its registration policies for the AP exams increasing the burden on schools and students and making it more likely that students will pay for exams they don't take. insidehighered.com/admissions/vie…
The changes to the SAT and AP exams are motivated by increasing market share. The rationale of "two codes" is pure PR/marketing B.S., They have no evidence to demonstrate a relationship to learning. @audreywatters explores "everyone learn to code" here. wise-qatar.org/learn-to-code-…
I'm working on a post of my own about the B.S. of the "21st century skills" argument, an argument which is made almost exclusively by those educated in the 20th C. If those skills were good enough to put them on the top of the heap, why are we so sure we need radical change now?
Anyway, I've got some thoughts of my own about how we can help students learn to think critically, and they happen to be rooted in the opportunities and agency I was given during my decidedly 20th century education. They're in #WhyTheyCantWrite. amazon.com/Why-They-Cant-…
I also have a book that is filled with the kinds of experiences that will help students (and anybody else for that matter) learn to think and act as writers do, writers much better than Thomas Friedman who is wrong about almost everything. amazon.com/Writers-Practi…
