Some TAP Articles on Education

I just came across this article in The American Prospect (TAP), a liberal mag with a fascinating look at How the Dems Lost on Education .

Related is The Teacher Autonomy Paradox which explains a lot of hard to understand things like why the Teachers' unions continue to oppose testing standards.

I think what I like about them is that they state so clearly what seems so obvious yet no one talks about it.

SATs vs Grades? SATs Win!

The NYT has an article that shows statistically that SATs are a better predictor of college success than grades. So a 3+ hour exam and two-three 1 hr+ exams work betterthan all the collective effort of 4 years worth of HS teachers' painstakingly wrought grades with extra credit, partial credit, and did-your-homework credit. Priceless!

Where does the money GO?

In California, about $7,000+ change is spent per student on average. In New York State, the average is $14,000+ change per student. The respective NEAP scores for the two states are virtually identical. I haven't heard that NY does all that better by other measures either (like SAT scores), but perhaps I'm missing something.

So, if the average is 30 students per teacher, then in California we are spending $210,000 per teacher, while in New York they are spending $420,000 per student. The starting salary for teachers in the San Fransisco Bay area is about $40K to $45K rising to as much as $90K after 20+ years. Split the difference and say that the average teacher makes $65K. So where does the remaining $145K per teacher go? Much more interestingly, where does New York's additional $355K (per teacher) after salary go?? $355K PER TEACHER ABOVE SALARY?!!?? OH MY GAWD!!!!

Now remember, NY State spends twice as much per student with the same NEAP. Suppose I were a billionaire and went into the typical school in California and said "I'm going to double your funding per student. What are you going to do with that money?" After erecting a statue to me in the parking lot and renaming the school in my honor they would go nuts funding arts and science programs, lowering class sizes, buying technology, updating the facilities, etc. But this would just raise them to the same level as New York. So are NY State schools rolling in extra arts programs, in marble-faced gleaming facilities, awash in technological amenities, with considerably smaller class sizes?

I can't say for sure, but I doubt it. So, we have just shown that while there is intuitively a certain minimum funding you need to provide an adequate learning environment, beyond that point, the money serves no quantifiable function.

Dicipline Problems in the Schools

I'm returning to the library the book "Solving Discipline Problems" by Charles Wolfgang. Excellent book. Clearly a text and since it is in its fifth edition clearly popular. In California there is no credential requirement that HS teachers take a course in "Classroom Management" (the euphemism for keeping the class under your control and not theirs). Pity, since not knowing how to control the class room is the main thing driving people out of the teaching trade. This book should be handed out to every teacher before they enter the class room.

Sympathy for the English Language Learner

I was looking at the Wikipedia entry for the English verb conjugation tables recently. There are a lot of verb forms in English! ESL students have my sympathy. The following plausible conversation between a preliterate American and his parent shows how a five year old American uses or understands 18 separate verb forms. Someone learning English as a second language has a lot of work to catch up to a five year old.

Parent: Do you wish to play with Jimmy? (infinitive)
Child: I love playing (gerund) but I play with Jimmy a lot. (simple present indicative) Let me play with Freddy today, puh-leease? (simple present imperative)
P: Did you play with Freddy yesterday? (intensive past indicative).
C: I was playing with him in the morning, but just a little. (simple past progressive indicative)
P: You would play with him every day if I let you. (simple present conditional)
C: Yes! I would have played with him all day yesterday if you'd let me. (present perfect conditional)
P: You will be playing with Freddy tomorrow. (simple future progressive indicative)
C: Really!? I will play with him tomorrow? (simple future indicative)
P: Yes! And then you will have played with him four times this week. (future perfect indicative)
C: Have I been playing with him too much? (present perfect progressive indicative)
P: You would be playing with him now if you could but I think that's okay. ( simple present progressive conditional)
(Later on the phone)
P: Are you playing with Freddy and his little brother now? (simple present progressive indicative)
C: We played with his brother but he's napping now. (simple past indicative)
P: Time to come home now. In another half hour you will have been playing with Freddy for 4 hours. (future perfect progressive indicative)
C: Awww! May I play with him some more? (simple present potential)
P: I think you might have been playing too much today. (pluperfect progressive potential)

I could probably add some more but my attention span has expired.

Half of All Teachers are Below Average!

I had a little laugh when I mentioned to a friend that half of all teachers are below average. She was so surprised and worried. "Something should be done!" was the general tenor of her reply. Her husband laughed and I gather he explained it later.

Teachers don't matter

Proposition: Teaching staff (in aggregate) don't affect academic performance.

Proof by contradiction:
1. Assume teachers mattered and postulate two high schools, A and F.
2. Postulate school A is excellent with a California API of 930
3. Postulate school F is terrible with a California API of 530
4. Exchange all the teachers in school A with those in school F for four years.
5. If teachers mattered then the API of school F after 4 years should be 930 and that of school A should be 530.
6. Since 5. is clearly impossible, then the assumption is false and we have shown that teaching staff (in aggregate) don't matter.

Quod Erat Demonstratum (QED)

Not to say that an individual teacher can't make a difference, but honestly, not much.

Lurching towards academic standards

Look at the "American Diploma Project" (ADP) Link: http://www.achieve.org/

We all know one of the (many) problems with grades. The same paper or test gets an A from one teacher and a C from another. Or worse, despite failing the tests, a student gets passed to the next level ( e.g., Algebra 2) based on homework, class participation, effort, when they didn't really learn the material in Algebra 1. They flounder when they are supposed to use what they should have learned but didn't.

The problem is that we don't really know how to measure what is learned as a function of what needs to be learned. We believe that doing homework helps learn the material so we give a portion of the grade on turning in homework but there's so much from so many students that we can't possibly grade it all so they get credit just for turning it in. Same with all kinds of other stuff we count towards the grade.

Everyone is aware of the problem so a number of states got together and are trying to set up a meaningful and uniform way of determining what a student should know and how to measure it. Not there yet but it's a beginning. The following is from "Education Week:"

"Students across the country struggled with advanced algebra on a first-of-its-kind test in that subject, according to a report to be released this week by Achieve , the nonprofit Washington organization that helped coordinate the exam.

"A dozen states had students take part in the test, the product of an unusual collaboration among states seeking to establish a common standard for judging teenagers’ ability in challenging math, as well as their preparation for college.

"Achieve is part of the American Diploma Project Network , an effort among two-thirds of the nation’s states to align standards, tests, and graduation requirements. Achieve officials in 2005 began working with states to devise a test in advanced algebra, or Algebra 2. Nearly 90,000 students took part in the first test..."

My First Blog

Hi,

Just seeing how this thing works!

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Me