Monday, July 12, 2010
The Better Example
Three cheers for Larry Ferlazzo for precisely the sort of more careful and nuanced analysis of this very same report that even offers an informative counter-example.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Research Proven!
Mr. Stross’ article in the NYT encapsulates all that goes wrong with educational reform, research, and reporting.
Step 1 : Reform – Well-meaning reformers throw a desperately needed resource, such as class-size reduction, a new technology, or pre-school, at low SES students, families or schools. None of teachers, parents or students is trained on how to make use of said resource. Little oversight is involved to ensure the resource is distributed properly. No on-going support is offered to maximize the benefits of said resource. Often it goes totally un- or under-utilized, except by a tiny number of teachers, parents or students for whom the resource changes their practice and lives.
Step 2 : Research – Well-meaning researchers wait two, five or seven years and then do a study showing that, despite access to this tremendous resource, those poor kids still underperformed, dropped out, or went to college in numbers more or less than the control group, their peers, or the state average, generally by the barest of statistically significant margins. Generally, the studies are very poorly controlled, with tiny sample sizes and obvious selection biases.
Step 3 : Reporting – Dubiously intentioned reporters (or business professors?) seize upon these research reports and, rather than critically appraising them or the reform efforts themselves, regurgitate the findings into the gaping mouths of conservative politicians, who use them as fodder to build arguments that the provision of said resource is just wasting precious state funds. The resource is then withdrawn and the reformers move on.
Step 4 : Complete Hypocrisy – Despite being publicly convinced by the research, all parties, as members of the well-educated classes, will, personally, pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for their own children to have continuing access to the same smaller classes, technology and pre-school that they are saying clearly make no difference to the education of the poor.
Mr. Stross, and all others who wish to research or write about education, please consider the following: Those of us in the trenches already know that any poorly executed initiative will not close the achievement gap. We’ve seen studies prove that even reading does not always improve reading. If closing the achievement gap was simply a matter of throwing books, hours, teachers, money, food, technology, art, music or pre-school at the children, please believe that we would have figured that out ourselves. Spend your time researching and reporting on what actually does work. Find and highlight reform initiatives done well, resources delivered properly. Failing that, at least take the time to develop the failure into a complete story. It may require you to visit a school, or talk to a child or parent, and perhaps look a little more deeply at the varied ways these resources can be used. Admittedly, it’s much harder for you and much less satisfying for the conservatives, but it's infinitely more helpful to us and the kids.
Step 1 : Reform – Well-meaning reformers throw a desperately needed resource, such as class-size reduction, a new technology, or pre-school, at low SES students, families or schools. None of teachers, parents or students is trained on how to make use of said resource. Little oversight is involved to ensure the resource is distributed properly. No on-going support is offered to maximize the benefits of said resource. Often it goes totally un- or under-utilized, except by a tiny number of teachers, parents or students for whom the resource changes their practice and lives.
Step 2 : Research – Well-meaning researchers wait two, five or seven years and then do a study showing that, despite access to this tremendous resource, those poor kids still underperformed, dropped out, or went to college in numbers more or less than the control group, their peers, or the state average, generally by the barest of statistically significant margins. Generally, the studies are very poorly controlled, with tiny sample sizes and obvious selection biases.
Step 3 : Reporting – Dubiously intentioned reporters (or business professors?) seize upon these research reports and, rather than critically appraising them or the reform efforts themselves, regurgitate the findings into the gaping mouths of conservative politicians, who use them as fodder to build arguments that the provision of said resource is just wasting precious state funds. The resource is then withdrawn and the reformers move on.
Step 4 : Complete Hypocrisy – Despite being publicly convinced by the research, all parties, as members of the well-educated classes, will, personally, pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for their own children to have continuing access to the same smaller classes, technology and pre-school that they are saying clearly make no difference to the education of the poor.
Mr. Stross, and all others who wish to research or write about education, please consider the following: Those of us in the trenches already know that any poorly executed initiative will not close the achievement gap. We’ve seen studies prove that even reading does not always improve reading. If closing the achievement gap was simply a matter of throwing books, hours, teachers, money, food, technology, art, music or pre-school at the children, please believe that we would have figured that out ourselves. Spend your time researching and reporting on what actually does work. Find and highlight reform initiatives done well, resources delivered properly. Failing that, at least take the time to develop the failure into a complete story. It may require you to visit a school, or talk to a child or parent, and perhaps look a little more deeply at the varied ways these resources can be used. Admittedly, it’s much harder for you and much less satisfying for the conservatives, but it's infinitely more helpful to us and the kids.
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