How standardized tests don't measure what they are used for.

[kwassa]

Here is an excellent article on the subject, from the WaPo blog, The Answer Sheet.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/why-you-should-be-skeptical-ab.html

A new Mathematica study released by the U.S. Department of Education says that “in a typical performance measurement system, more than 1 in 4 teachers who are truly average in performance will be erroneously identified” as below average, with a similar percentage of below-average teachers not showing up as underperformers.

This should scare not just classroom teachers but anyone who believes our current data systems are infallible. They are not.

Importantly, the study also notes that more than 90 percent of the variation in student learning is due to factors beyond a teacher’s control. We ignore this fact at our own peril. It does not mean that teachers don’t matter, or that teachers cannot or should not be held accountable.

Repeat: this is the US Department of Education saying this!

[immoderate]

1. Isn't it scary?

I realize now how Rome fell.

--imm

[Hydra]

2. This is what happens when you have an agenda

And let "science" provide the proof.

[YvonneCa]

3. Hallelujah ! And thank you for posting...

...this. It's about time. :applause:

[txlibdem]

4. I don't understand all the teacher bashing in DC

I haven't been attentive to the charter school and privatization issue till quite recently and I find it appalling that they are using the many serious troubles in our school system as an excuse or a tool to transfer public school funds to favored private businesses. I'm just shaking my head, the more I read about it the fewer possible answers I can come up with.

Is it simply a continuation of "W"s privatization efforts (since Obama hasn't yet cleaned all those yahoos out of regulatory agencies, etc.) or is there a more sinister reason that our elected officials are behind this privatization effort when study after study has clearly shown that these private schools do no better than the public schools we have now.

I'm all for school reforms but when our elected officials push all the weight of the federal government towards privatizing, and the act of privatizing is shown not to improve outcomes, then why the continued myopic push for charter schools and privatization? Teachers are not the problem in America's schools. Why are our officials not rooting out what the problem actually IS and then fixing that?

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. It's not about "school reform"; it's the *opposite* of school reform.

>>>>>I'm all for school reforms >>>>>>


>>>>>but when our elected officials push all the weight of the federal government towards privatizing, and the act of privatizing is shown not to improve outcomes, then why the continued myopic push for charter schools and privatization?>>>>

Politicians have to do *something*; or at least BE SEEN AS doing something. Thus the flimsy analysis and the canned, nonsense verbiage: "test-based accountability"; "choice", etc. etc.. Plus the phony test scores and cooked books. Good god.





>>>> Teachers are not the problem in America's schools. >>>>

No, UNIONS are; at least from the POV of most professional "reformers". Get rid of unions and you'll... well... GET RID OF UNIONS. That's always a win-win from the pov of the governing class. Also public ed will be infinitely more.... shall we say... "cost effective".




>>>>Why are our officials not rooting out what the problem actually IS and then fixing that?>>>>>>>>

They ARE... at least from their angle; they send their kids to *private* schools... which is where they for the most part went themselves.

Seriously, REAL school reform is a serious business; what's wrong with schools is an immensely complicated subject. I've not been in a school environment that wasn't rife with cronyism, nepotism and all varieties of financial shenanigans. That's just at the bottom rung. Picture what it's like a few steps up the bureaucratic ladder. Most politicians don't want to go there and the "school reform" doesn't go anywhere NEAR any of this.

Messy, complicated, painful.

And embarrassing: reminds me of the scene from , I think, The Sting, where the proprietress of the illegal drinking establishment advises the newbie cops who show-up to break up an illegal card game: "They're in the last room on the right, but watch out; you'll be bustin' in on the Chief of Police".

[txlibdem]

6. Cronyism and Nepotism are rampant in TX

I haven't come across a privately owned company in Texas that isn't rife with it. And financial thievery is probably more the norm than the exception, but the laws favor the thieves so it's not even illegal anymore.

That aside, I agree that there are many complex causes of our failing schools. The most pressing among them, in my opinion, is bringing back the one-worker family and pay people a living wage.

[maryf]

7. K&Rnt