New rule: You can't use "data" and "education" in the same sentence.

[Smarmie Doofus]

Diane Ravitch in today's NYT re. NY's "education mayor" ( he's running for a third term, understand) and the utter *uselessness* of the "data" on which the self-proclaimed educational reformers here and around the country are obsessing about.

A case study in how "data" is politicized and corrupted.


Op-Ed Contributor
Mayor Bloomberg’s Crib Sheet
DIANE RAVITCH



Published: April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/opinion/10ravitch.html

ARNE DUNCAN, the secretary of education, has urged the nation’s mayors to take control of their public schools so that they can impose radical reforms. He points to New York City as a prime example of a school system that made sharp improvements under mayoral control.

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Actually, the record on mayoral control of schools is unimpressive. Eleven big-city school districts take part in the federal test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Two of the lowest-performing cities — Chicago and Cleveland — have mayoral control. The two highest-performing cities — Austin, Tex., and Charlotte, N.C. — do not. Mr. Duncan came to New York City last week to urge the New York State Legislature to renew the law that grants control of the New York City public schools to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That law, passed in 2002, will expire at the end of June.

Mayoral control of the schools is not a new phenomenon in the city’s history. From 1873 to 1969, the mayor appointed every single member of the Board of Education. The era of decentralization from 1969 to 2002 was an aberration, because the mayor had only two appointees on a seven-member board.

Yet no mayor has exercised such unlimited power over the public schools as Mr. Bloomberg. Previous mayors respected the independence of the board members they appointed. The present version of the board, the Panel on Education Policy, serves at the pleasure of the mayor and rubber-stamps the policies and spending practices of the Department of Education, which is run by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Mr. Bloomberg’s allies say that the results of the current system are so spectacular that the law should be renewed without change. Secretary Duncan agrees: “I’m looking at the data here in front of me,” he said while in New York. “Graduation rates are up. Test scores are up ... By every measure, that’s real progress.”

It sounds good, but in fact no independent source has verified such claims.

On the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress — widely acknowledged as the gold standard of the testing industry — New York City showed almost no academic improvement between 2003, when the mayor’s reforms were introduced, and 2007. There were no significant gains for New York City’s students — black, Hispanic, white, Asian or lower-income — in fourth-grade reading, eighth-grade reading or eighth-grade mathematics. In fourth-grade math, pupils showed significant gains (although the validity of this is suspect because an unusually large proportion — 25 percent — of students were given extra time and help). The federal test reported no narrowing of the achievement gap between white students and minority students.

The city’s Department of Education belittles the federal test scores and focuses on the assessments given by New York State. And, indeed, the state scores have soared in recent years, not only in the city but also across New York state However, the statewide scores on the N.A.E.P. are as flat as New York City’s. Our state tests are, unfortunately, exemplars of grade inflation.

The graduation rate is another area in which progress has been overstated. The city says the rate climbed to 62 percent from 53 percent between 2003 and 2007; the state’s Department of Education, which uses a different formula, says the city’s rose to 52 percent, from 44 percent. Either way, the city’s graduation rate is no better than that of Mississippi, which spends about a third of what New York City spends per pupil.

Moreover, the city’s graduation rates have been pumped up with a variety of dubious means, like “credit recovery,” in which students who fail a course can get full credit if they agree to take a three-day makeup program or turn in an independent project. In addition, the city counts as graduates the students who dropped out and obtained a graduate-equivalency degree.

[ixion]

1. There is a big difference between 'data' and 'education'... definitely not synonymous

Data (real data, not bogus) is simply information in a solid state...potential energy, if you will.

Education -- and this is something western education truly lacks -- is about learning the tools you have to analyze the data.

Education is about learning how to learn. Data is meaningless with context.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. You mean "without", I hope. Yes?

>>>Data is meaningless with context. >>>>>

In which case I agree.

[ixion]

3. d'oh!... too late to edit... yes, I meant without

thanks! :hi:

[LWolf]

4. I would love to see that rule become law.

The rule in your thread title, I mean.

:rofl:

My district would be rendered instantly mute. :D

We have teachers pulled out of the classroom to be "achievement coordinators." Money spent to pay them, and to pay for constant subs, to meet with teachers to crunch data. All year long.

I hoped that would be the first thing to go with the current budget crisis; they ARE threatening staff cuts for next year. The ACs, though, are being paid for by a "special fund" specifically targeting the use of data to improve instruction, so...they stay.

We have been inundated with mountains of useless data this year. Meanwhile, it took me until April to get me the simple data I needed to "inform instruction" from them. I just wanted individual student reports of standardized scores over time. Their database doesn't crunch that way.

It's a damned good thing I'm able to figure out what my kids need WITHOUT all that official data my district is obsessed with. Not that any teacher didn't already know that.

As for the article you linked: good catch, thanks.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. In my school , they don't even hire subs for this.

>>>>>>>I hoped that would be the first thing to go with the current budget crisis; they ARE threatening staff cuts for next year. The ACs, though, are being paid for by a "special fund" specifically targeting the use of data to improve instruction, so...they stay.>>>>>>

More typically, they'll pull the teacher and divide the kids up into different classes. Result: the school saves $$$ and the kids are baby sat... since the teacher whose class they're sent to doesn't know them from adam.

If the general public was aware of how most public schools are actually run, how many corners are cut, how much administrative fat exists, how much money is wasted on cronyism and nepotism, there would be an armed citizens revolt.

Instead they think teachers aren't working hard enough.

Grrr.....