Lynch Signs School Accountablity Law

Never mind -- (4.00 / 3)

Never mind that "accountability" doesn't mean the same as account nor that "ability" determines what one actually does.

The problem with evaluating education in any meaningful way in the short term is that it can't be done.  The results of the effort to pass on useful information and skills will only be evident years later.  Education is not like turning on a faucet and watching the water fill the sink.  Pupils, especially young ones, can't just be stuffed with work sheets and exercises and declared done.  
The idea that one class of unique students should be compared with another class of the same age four years later to measure student progress makes no sense whatsoever, unless you assume that all children of a given age are the same.  Measuring the teachers' aptitude and dedication by testing students makes even less sense.  It does, however, generate income for testers and scorers and work-sheet printers.
My three children entered school in NH in the mid-seventies and they got a good start that carried them through the miserable Florida public schools--an evaluation I make on the basis of having volunteered in them all.  Thirty years later, I can't say the grand-children are getting similar benefits.  The Oyster River system, which now has the highest per pupil cost, is not producing the same results.  But, IMHO, the money is not the problem.  Rather, the problem seems to be a shift from teaching HOW to learn to teaching WHAT to learn.  And, in not focusing on HOW to learn, the fact people do learn differently (some by analysis; some by rote; some by imitation) is over-looked and a lot of energy goes into conforming learning patterns to a standard.

The whole thing reminds me of economists making recommendations to fit the economy into their models.

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by: hannah @ Wed Jul 15, 2009 at 08:34:19 AM CDT

Well said. (4.00 / 1)

The convoluted bizarro-world system of tiny carrots and enormous sticks that is No Child Left Behind is leaving plenty of children behind, or more precisely, leaving children's abilities to reason and learn behind in favor of teaching children to pass high-stakes tests.

Suffice it to say that I know whereof I speak, and am in a position to see the process from both ends.

The industry that has built up around this apparently well-intentioned but poorly executed law is enormous and continues to be highly profitable. Indeed, huge chunks of the current stimulus funding are well on their way into its insatiable maw.

Hard to watch, harder to talk about without getting steamed, then sad, then steamed all over again.

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by: GreyMike @ Wed Jul 15, 2009 at 21:49:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Neal Bush started a business (4.00 / 2)

selling curricula for 5 digit prices to "failing" school districts. Babs and Poppy are investors in it.

The assault on education began when Ronald Reagan got rid of grants for higher education and turned everything into loans. Then the planned decay trickled down to the K-12 system.

Note that in the last election, the analysts all said the less education a person had, the more likely s/he was to vore Republican.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 05:42:16 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Recc'd for this (0.00 / 0)

Rather, the problem seems to be a shift from teaching HOW to learn to teaching WHAT to learn.

The best one line to describe the education "crisis" I have read.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 05:44:07 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Great statement of the situation - (4.00 / 1)

Though I am left still wanting a system to measure the effectiveness of schools - even one with known gaps and flaws.

Partly because open-loop systems don't work well; partly because schools depend heavily on public support and "trust me" runs out of gas.

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by: elwood @ Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 05:52:43 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not suggesting that we throw out measures (4.00 / 1)

but a once-a-year high stakes test isn't enough to demonstrate much of anything, and comparisons of progress between one year and the next (AYP) as currently practiced are meaningless, as Hannah points out.

I am in favor of additional measures of student progress by means of assessing portfolios of student work against carefully-crafted rubrics. This measures both product and process, and if done well, can reflect critical thinking skills and individual differences in a way that standard testing cannot.

However, this also requires a level of effort and sophistication that many schools are incapable of at the present time. This is something that needs to be addressed in the rethinking of the NCLB law.

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by: GreyMike @ Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 07:18:59 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Also, stuffing information (4.00 / 1)

into children's heads for the sake of a standardized test is not education. The factoids go out of said heads very quickly. There was a news item last week saying the majority of young Americans in NM were unable to pass the citizenship test required of immigrants. Also, people cannot read maps, don't know the difference between Australia and Austria, etc.

Measuring the effects of education is tricky because sometimes those effects are not apparent for years. There are subtleties of human development that defy parameters of tests.

That being said, there are ways to hold schools accountable, such as portfolios, a sampling of students' work over time, community involvement, etc. Teacher observation is good as well.

I think school visits, which are part of the bill, are a good idea, but I hope the auditors are also educators.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 07:32:33 AM CDT

[ Parent ]