New Education Insider Deck

Some new data points from the Whiteboard Education Insiders survey:  Assessments, digital learning, teacher preparation, and school safety legislative prospects in Washington (pdf).

6 Replies to “New Education Insider Deck”

  1. I actually love the Whiteboard survey–it could be a valuable resource. I also love how modern education reform is unravelling just as I thought it would. Ah, the schadenfreude! Well, ok, I knew it would fail but the exact reasons are always in flux. The essence of fail though has been apparent since the 1983 roll-out of a massive work of fiction about how American schools are falling behind the rest of the world. The initial premise of tying national economic dominance and by extension, domestic security, to international test scores of dubious reliability was too simplistic in conception and elaboration. No studies ever came forth showing a demonstrable causal link between American test scores and global competitiveness, military security, or anything. Sure, we could all see that some countries sucked at education and were rather poor but in an odd way, I am a liberal who will on this measure admit to a kind of American exceptionalism in how we do education and how we benefit.

    Look, our monetary system is the envy of the world despite our failures. Why? Because most other world currencies are pegged to OUR dollar. Our pattern of immigration and resulting economic growth are nearly unique in the world. The USA has several structural and historical advantages in the global economic ecosystem. So is it in education. You cannot reliably compare the average American student with the average student anywhere else in the world except at a very general level of abstraction.

    So, when we went about having a big sob about how we fail our kids in schools, the real deal was we were and are doing ok. Well enough. We could do better. We all can always do better at everything–that’s another reason why modern reform fails as it falls victim to a logical fallacy. I want us to do better. Other countries can show us how. But let’s be clear about what we want to do better. Are we focused on post-industrial output or something like offering children the means to grow into self-aware adults capable of their own decisions? Were we to focus on the latter, the concerns of the former would take care of themselves.

    Yes, really.

  2. I love the “calculation” from Eric Hanushek that a good teacher can get a student to make 1.5 years of gain in one year and the bad teacher only .5.
    So, by this reformer’s calculation, a kindergartener who has 8 years of good teachers is ready for college at the end of 7th grade.
    Huzzah!

  3. Both of you offer unique insights and interpretations that truly deserve exposure through your own blog.

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