Around The Blogs

Four and a Half Myths About NCLB CKB
Checker Finn had a think-piece in Sunday’s Washington Post on the “5 Myths About No Child Left Behind,” which is facing an uncertain fate—or at least an uncertain timetable—as it awaits reauthorization this year.

Teach For America Shows Promise In North Carolina Charlie Barone
We’re sure this won’t settle the TFA debate. But the results are compelling, particularly given that the Urban Institute has in the past been very conservative in drawing conclusions from studies of teacher quality and student achievement.  PLUS: Teach For America Study Wrap-Up (eduonwkette)

Ed Research Angst: An AERA Challenger? eduwonketteAfter a few glasses of wine, someone will suggest that the dissatisfied band together and start an organization to compete with AERA. Few realize that this has already happened.  

Is the Non-Profit World Teeming With Fraud? Freakonomics
When we recently wrote a column suggesting that philanthropies be run more like businesses, one factor we didn't look into — but perhaps should have — was fraud.

Joanne Jacobs: Where tutors are hot
Hot tutors in Hong Kong are making big bucks.

Comments

[john thompson]

Alex,

At the risk of further increasing grade inflation for policy analysis, I'd give four and one half cheers to Chester Finn. I agree with him that setting academic standards will not fix U.S. schools. If those schools in Chicago, Detroit, and Philly who have been in the news about chronic violence had been teaching to National Standards, would it have made any difference? What's the difference to my students whose skills are four, five, or six years below grade level if we adopt mediocre or excellent Standards?

And I don't disagree that "The accountability made possible by standardized testing is not all bad," although Robert Pondisco's reply is a lot more true. The question is whether the "feckless implementation" of NCLB was a predictable response. Had lower poverty schools just used the increased funding to implement more of the principles espoused by Pondisco and Core Knowledge, those schools would have gotten a lot more bang for their $10,000 per student.

So heare's a thought experiment (and one that does not reflect on the excellence of AP tests.). If States had adopted Advanced Placement tests as opposed to their primitive standardized tests, what would be different? Schools would have responded with the same panic, and their fearful responses would have produced the extreme test prep method of Cover Your Ass. Outsiders would have understood, however. They would have recognized that an impossible task had been imposed, making CYA inevitable. But those same outsiders don't seem to realize that the AYP combined with the typical state tests creates an equally impossible task, reinforcing the beliefs that the whole purpose is to just shame schools.

I don't disagree with Finn in regard to certified and noncertified teachers. If we want to turnaround our toughest secondary schools we need a full range of adults to join the battle. But I hope that Finn, and others, do not forget that it was not the teachers that implemented NCLB in such a feckless manner. We would have told them about the propensity of the educational system to adopt a destructive testing culture. In my experience, since NCLB, teachers have had even less power in resisting terrible gimmicks. By the way, although I disagree with Pondisco on Standards, I'd be happy to concede the point in the context of collaborative effort to think through approaches for turning around high poverty secondary schools.