While we're on the subject of "causal connection" I'll bring up one of my pet peeves in the correlation-does-not-imply-causality department that I worry is becoming almost endemic in ed-policy discussions.

Even if SAT scores are a good predictor of graduation rate, focused efforts to raise SAT scores (like sending all high school students to test prep classes) will not necessarily improve overall graduation rates. That example may seem obviously silly, but in CA the logic that pushes for all 8th graders to take Algebra goes something like this: students who take Algebra II in high school tend to do well in college. Therefore students should take Algebra I in 8th grade to increase the chances that they take Algebra II in the two years of high school math that are required for graduation, to help ensure their success in college. The logic tends to leave math teachers banging their heads against walls.

Posted by eduwonkette at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

The soul-crushing aspect of Fryer's theoretical framework....is that it lets the curriculum and the teacher and the school entirely off the hook. It's not a matter of creating learning experiences that connect with a child, her culture, her community; or creating curriculum that intrigues her or teaching that respects her and her family; or about creating schools where families and communities can find support and education and develop skills of active citizenship....No, it's a much more cynical view on students living in poverty. They don't care, they are only motivated by material objects that they don't have, they have to be bribed into "learning" (or at least learning to get a better score on a bubble sheet)....RRRRR! Get me out of here.

Posted by eduwonkette at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You have to feel sorry for the brain trust working on [the Progress Reports]. Up until this week, if you told the American public that you had hired a group of really smart economists to develop some complicated statistical models that explain the entire universe, many people would have been very impressed. But that was before those really smart economists crashed the entire global economy.

(...) To be blunt, the results make no...sense to anyone. Schools shouldn't be jumping all over the place in terms of progress scores or achievement. That is simply not reality. A school that moved up should be proudly proclaiming how they spun gold from wet straw, but the principal says nothing changed. What strange statistical model is spitting out this nonsense?....recoding statistical noise into a letter grade does not an accountability system make.

Now that the results are out and the validity in question for a second year, critics are being told: "Statistics don't lie." But ordinary people know that companies shouldn't be allowed to borrow 30 times more than what they own so they can gamble the money on other stocks. You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to know what that smells like. New York's "Progress Reports" have the same foul stench. Maybe everyone will feel differently about it in 10 or 20 years when we have forgotten the damage done, but right now something about value-added models seems just a bit too...risky.

Posted by eduwonkette at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think the reason we don't want to inject the idea that student achievement is based partly on what [students] come to school with (parent support, poverty rates, etc.) into the NCLB debate is because it comes too close to admitting that our public education system doesn't help everyone equally. And that education does give everyone the same advantages is one of our cherished public ideals....We don't want to admit that there are problems that are too big for education as it exists right now to fix.

I've often wished that if I am going to be held so accountable for student performance that we had a boarding school system, so I could make sure my students had a quiet place to do homework, a good dinner and breakfast, etc....I like the idea of value-added assessments; we get value-added scores for each classroom teacher in my state. I wish that NCLB took those scores into account....I know one year, our value-added scores were great, yet we still didn't make AYP because our students were so far behind to begin with. It's very demoralizing to be labeled in the news as a failing school when you've made so much progress based on where the students started.

The development of medicine and education was not random. Both were a function of very specific decisions made by key opinion leaders and laws passed both on the state and federal levels....We take for granted the the scientific, evidentary basis of our medical system, but it was not pre-ordained to be so.

Posted by eduwonkette at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

No, there's no convention commentary here (or else skoolboy would have to shoot himself). This week’s “Comment of the Week Award,” also known as the COWAbunga Award, goes to NYC Educator, for a comment on yesterday’s Coffee Talk question about which big-city school district is the worst-managed. NYC Educator wrote:

I see the system in which I work on a daily basis, and I don't always see its reality reflected in the press--although they've made great strides over the last few years.

Really, when you're a teacher and you find blatantly preposterous statements in the NY Times, you have to wonder about the reporting from other cities. Who knows whether or not they're telling the truth, or whether they've sent anyone to find out what was really happening. Certainly it's easier to just ask City Hall what's going on and write whatever they tell you.

Big-city school districts are notorious for turning inward—transparency has never been their strong suit. A vigorous press is one of the ways that those in charge of these districts can be held to account for their responsibilities as public servants. This is one of the reasons why yesterday’s announcement that the New York Sun may be folding at the end of the month was so disappointing. skoolboy didn’t often agree with the editorial pages of the Sun, but I always felt better knowing that there was a venue for opinions different from mine to be aired and debated.

Even more importantly, though, the shutdown of the Sun would mean less daily beat reporting on New York City schools. eduwonkette has said repeatedly, and I agree wholeheartedly, that Sun reporter Elizabeth Green has been breaking important stories since she arrived on the scene last year, and it would be a shame if those of us with a stake in New York City schools were to be deprived of her investigative skills. (And yes, she wrote a feature on eduwonkette, and I’ve assisted her in a story or two, but the quality of her work speaks for itself.) Alexander Russo over at This Week in Education has also lamented the recent transitions of a number of well-regarded education writers to new positions that remove them from day-to-day beat reporting. Really, is it possible to have too much high-quality reporting on public education? Maybe … but we have a long way to go before that’s a serious question to consider.

In the meantime, the gap between the person-power devoted by school systems to transmitting messages about public schools to the public and the person-power available in an independent press to interpret these messages in a critical and thoughtful way for the public continues to widen. This, in skoolboy's view, does not serve the public interest.

Posted by skoolboy at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's my hypothesis - teachers don't think like scientists. They're more idealists at heart. They envision a certain role for themselves and they gravitate to approaches that reinforce their idealism. (...)

Secondly, the action of "doing something" is preferable to waiting for valid methods to develop, especially when there is a presumption that teachers and methods are all that stand between equal educational outcomes and wide-ranging gaps in performance. The fact that this model of how things works is divergent from reality is little consequence to idealists, for they're driven, when push comes to shove, by belief, not evidence, and that's why they continue to believe, even with little supporting evidence, that the solution is just around the corner and will eventually be found and can then be easily implemented.

Further, it's assumed that no harm is done by implementing invalid methods because the teacher doesn't mean to cause harm, as though good intention will inoculate the students from bad practices. (...)

Any solution has to start at ground zero, that is, the point where all teachers find common origin, education schools. These institutions must inculcate skepticism into the practitioners of teaching and those who make careers of research....More teachers need to adopt the practice of skepticism and chuck overboard the role of advocate for approaches that appeal to them and the role of progressive educator who is intent on implementing the cutting edge of new approaches (where more emphasis is given to the notion of progress than efficacy.) They need to learn to look at a new approach and find that their first instinct should be to tear it apart, rather than to embrace the approach and try to give it a chance....To put it simply, less embracing and more skepticism needs to be at the core of the education school experience.

Posted by eduwonkette at 5:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

I still disagree [that] it is the responsibility of the parents (husband and wife) to deal with a woman's problems in the workforce due to children, rather than the responsibility of employers.

If a husband says, "OK, I will cut back on my hours to help out around the house and with the kids," his employer may fire him.

If a husband says, "I will willingly work part time rather than full time," he will probably be denied that choice by his employer.

If a husband says, "I will work nights so that one of us can be home with the baby," the employer may well say, "Too bad, not going to happen."

If a husband says, "I will go into work early and come home early, to be there for the kids when the get home from school," the employer may well say, "No you won't."

If a husband says, "I will swap places with you and stay home on bedrest, as you were ordered by the doctor, so that you can continue at your job for the rest of the pregnancy," obviously that is not a possible solution.

A supportive husband is great, but from my take on the situation, a husband and wife together can only do so much. If businesses were willing to deviate just a bit from their current 9-5, 40 hour week, no breaks in service model, I think families across the country would all benefit.

Posted by eduwonkette at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Finland systematically includes the arts at a young age--although not in what we would consider to be "school" (more like after-school programs that all students attend). In Japan, the "shadow" system--which some think of as "cram" schools, actually functions to offer enrichment to most young students (with a more academic bent as high school levels are approached). Many of countries the countries mentioned include languages at a very early (elementary) age. In Finland instruction begins with "mother-tongue" (Finnish, Swedish, Sami, or the homeland language of immigrants), with the addition of a second national language soon after. I would call this evidence of "[well-]roundedness."

Unlike some people, I know what "half off" really means. Not that I would buy a Gap sweater even if it was half off. But I know the difference between a "storewide sale" and a "discount on selected merchandise." Trust me. You don't want to be standing at the cash register screaming at a clerk for overcharging you only to realize you messed up your math. Not hot.

And Mike and Joel, let me just say on a personal note that I understand that people make mistakes. As a famous New Yorker once said, "I have always believed in second chances." But let me warn you -- when something you did that a lot of people think was really wrong gets out on the internet, it won't go away. My advice to you is to swallow your pride, lay low, and hope none of your friends talks about it to the press. The last thing you need is that white-haired wrinkly dude talking about you over and over and over again because that will just make people google your name. And guess what they will find? Exactly. In 24 hours, your dumb mistake will be the most searched phrase in the entire world. Everyone will link to it. Everywhere. People might even forget that you are a singer and a model and so much more.

Posted by eduwonkette at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)