The Insidious Nature of Green's Sunday Times Article

[Starry Messenger]

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2010/03/insideous-nature-of-greens-sunday-times.html

Lots of good links in there, it was hard to select what to quote. I'm still reading it all myself.

A parent commented on the NYCEdNews list:

"I thought the piece was generally valuable in looking at actual classroom practices and considering their relationship to content, and challenging the effectiveness of carrot-and-stick approaches to improved learning. But I was startled that she cited the "value-added" model several times without skepticism, particularly stating that teachers' stats for raising student performance are consistent over time. I thought that statistical argument had been debunked. Diane Ravitch makes a strong case in her new book that studies show that teachers' stats for improving student test scores fluctuate dramatically over time and are not a predictor of future performance."

Of course Green had to ignore the research that shows value-added is unproven because the rest of the thesis laid out doesn't work without it. The article is all about measuring by test scores. My favorite quote "he by their students' test scores ..

Exactly what were the other PARTS than test scores?

A lot of the last part of the article is good touchy, feely stuff - good ideas for teachers to use. And we all can benefit. Talk of the video taping set me to chuckling. I was involved in a program to improve teaching by video taping lessons and cataloguing the kinds of questions I was asking - in 1969.

I learned so much of what is talked about in this article (which offers a blueprint of the high and mighty descending to give actual working teachers "The Word") by seeing experienced WORKING teachers (are there any left) in the context of working in their class - in action. I adapted their stuff to my personality and made a lot of it work. Almost every teacher I ever knew had mastered classroom management - at least 85% of them - or they left, often to become people who end up training other teachers.{/div]

[Hannah Bell]

1. "video taping lessons"?!!! these are the *new* ideas? they were doing that when i was

a university teaching assistant. decades ago.

like anyone who's ever been even *vaguely* associated with education doesn't know about that technique for examining & improving one's presentation, class management, & teaching technique.

i hate these fuckwits.

[Starry Messenger]

2. I love the word fuckwits.

:D

Hannah, have you seen this blog from Perimeter Primate yet about the The Broad Effect? http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2010/03/broad-effect.html I just found it a couple of minutes ago. It fills in some more activity in other states from Broad "graduates". I'm still reading it.


Re: Doug Lemov, here's a funny take on the *new* crap spouted in the NYT hit piece: http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/2010/03/whitney-tilson-is-in-love-with-doug.html