eduwonkette
Through the lens of social science, eduwonkette took a serious, if sometimes irreverent, look at some of the most contentious education policy debates in this opinion blog. Find eduwonkette’s complete archives prior to Jan. 6, 2008 here. This blog is no longer being updated.
School & District Management
Opinion
Data-Driven Decision Making Box Scores: Incentivists: 10, Instructionists: 1
In many ways, data-driven decision making (D3M) in education is an old idea packaged as a new one. As far back as anyone can remember, teachers have given their students regular quizzes, projects, and tests. When students performed poorly, "data-driven" teachers retaught the material or tried to figure out what went wrong. Without the benefit of spreadsheets or data displays, teachers have attempted to tailor their instruction to different groups of students. To be sure, there have been assumptions, blindspots, and kids overlooked, but the fundamental idea of teaching, assessing, figuring out what works for whom, and re-teaching is as old skool as Tupac.
Education
Opinion
Carnival of Education Pre-Party
Tomorrow's Carnival of Education will be hosted at The Median Sib. Til then, check out some of these posts:
Teaching Profession
Opinion
It's Our Secret! The NYC Teacher Experiment
The NY Times reported yesterday on an ongoing experiment on teacher effectiveness in NYC schools. Principals in the treatment group (140 schools) receive extensive value-added information on each teacher, and then are asked to evaluate the teachers. Principals in the control group do not receive these reports but also provide evaluations of their teachers. As far as I can tell, the goal is to determine how principals' evaluations are affected by having access to value-added data. By the summer, the NYC DOE will decide how these data will be used, and Deputy Chancellor Chris Cerf has even suggested releasing individual teachers' effectiveness data publicly. You can watch this video for more information about the experiment.
Education
Opinion
Remember MLK
Tune in to the Brian Lehrer Show, which is hosting its annual MLK Tribute.
School & District Management
Opinion
This week: Data-Driven Decision Making
Walk into any school's faculty meeting, and you'll think you've stumbled into a tongue twister competition. The push for data-driven decision making, DDDM, D3M - whatever you prefer to call it - is everywhere. This week I'll explore what data-driven decision making can and can't do for education and share some of the research on how data are currently used in schools.
Federal
Opinion
No Child Left Behind Not the Silent Killer, But...
Let me pile on to the eduwonk-Barone-Pondiscio debate. I'm no fan of the "NCLB: The Silent Killer" melodrama that blames the No Child Left Behind Act for all of our schools' problems, and there's obviously plenty of it to go around. This is what Charlie Barone and eduwonk reacted to yesterday when they pointed to a NYT article about college prep to argue that NCLB is not forcing schools to become drill and kill test-prep factories. (See eduwonk's post here.) Robert Pondiscio responded at Core Knowledge by providing an insider's view of currriculum narrowing and test prep. He concluded, "Dismiss it at your own peril."
Teaching Profession
Opinion
They Never Say "Thanks for Improving My Test Scores!"
New York City posted the nomination narratives from its "Thank a Teacher" awards program. Here's the first one, about a physics teacher named Sidney Harris:
School & District Management
Opinion
Cool People You Should Know: Kathryn Boudett
Spoiler alert: I'm going to write about data-driven decision making next week, so who better to profile than Kathryn Boudett, who teaches at the Harvard Grad School of Ed and is a co-author of the book Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning. Note that the book is about improving teaching and learning, not just test scores! And that's why I like it. Here is a little snippet about the book, which I will say more about next week, and the syllabus for her course.
School & District Management
Opinion
In New York City, Math is Hard
Test your skills with this word problem:
A comprehensive high school in New York City has an enrollment of 900 9th graders. The NYC Department of Education decides to close the school and replace it with 5 new small schools, each of which will enroll 108 9th graders. How many 9th graders are left over?
A comprehensive high school in New York City has an enrollment of 900 9th graders. The NYC Department of Education decides to close the school and replace it with 5 new small schools, each of which will enroll 108 9th graders. How many 9th graders are left over?
Education
Opinion
154th Carnival of Education!
"Welcome to the 154th Carnival of Education. Out on the red carpet, emotions are running high. Margaret Spellings took off her Sexy Librarian Glasses to wipe her brow. Rod Paige clung to Reg Weaver's arm to steady himself. And rumor has it that Bill Gates has even stopped talking about education and the election. I'll be hosting you this evening with my colleague - "
Education
Opinion
American Gladiator: Joel vs. Rudy
Earlier today, Diane Ravitch drew attention to American education's growing faceoff between non-educators and educators. She writes: How did American education fall so effortlessly into the control of Know Nothings from the world of business, law, and politics? Now, John Merrow releases a podcast with NYC's past and present Chancellors (moderated by Jay Mathews) that squarely hits on this philosophical divide. Some highlights:
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
The Demographic Bulge and BA Attainment
On Sunday, the NYT wrote about admissions anxiety stemming from a larger than average senior class in Connecticut. It turns out this isn't just another case of helicopter parent mania - economists John Bound and Sarah Turner analyzed 50 years of data and found that the size of the cohort in a state actually does affect the percentage of students getting a BA (Paper here). After ruling out competing explanations for this outcome – for example, that larger cohorts are less prepared for college – Bound and Turner concluded that a 10% increase in the size of the college cohort within a state leads to a 4% decrease in the college completion rate within that state.
Federal
Opinion
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
Last week, Madame Secretary unveiled a shiny new toy called the "National Dashboard." I pooh-poohed it, saying that most of these data were already available in the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data or elsewhere. After checking it out (and seeing how pretty it is!), I like it. If you need a tidbit of data quickly, this is helpful, and most data consumers aren't going to take the time to navigate the Common Core. Score one for the Madame.
Education
Opinion
Be My Guest
Edwize is pulling in a gaggle of guest bloggers to comment on the NYC Progress Reports - check out Sherman Dorn's post on "Bundling Accountability," Seth Pearce's post on "The Importance of the School Progress Debate," and my post, "The NYC Progress Report Catch-22".