Call me old fashioned and curmudgeonly, but I can’t stand it when the wonks break out in a “research shows” chorus with no references. If research so valiantly and definitively shows it, you should be able to tell us whose research shows it.
The quote of the day is a tie; both quotes hail from the Teachers College forum on class size this afternoon.
1) In introducing NYC Department of Education’s Garth Harries, who is the “Chief Portfolio Officer” and the former “engagement manager” at McKinsey, TC prof Carolyn Riehl said, “These titles - we usually don’t think about them in education - so I’m sure it makes for some great cocktail party conversation.”
2) After Harries spoke at length about how the effect of teacher quality is much larger than the effect of reduced class size, an audience member asked him to cite some studies supporting this claim. Harries replied, “Uh, I can’t quote to you on what the research is, but I can (pause) get it to you.” Research shows!
For a paper on teacher effects using the STAR data, see “How Large are Teacher Effects?”