Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Schools Matter: Guest Post: Assumptions that 'Just Seem Obvious' to Steve Brill

Schools Matter: Guest Post: Assumptions that 'Just Seem Obvious' to Steve Brill:

Guest Post: Assumptions that 'Just Seem Obvious' to Steve Brill

By John Thompson

There is a long line of education experts exposing the factual errors in Steve Brill's Class Warfare so, instead, I set out to illuminate the assumptions underneath his brand of "reform." I was overwhelmed, however, by the number of times that Brill, and the non-educators he fawned over, discovered findings that "just seemed obvious." So, I only want to recount Brill's tale of the naive assumptions, opinions, and assertions, based on numbers from one district, that supposedly propelled Bill Gates into the experiment that Gates said was, "the riskiest thing we have ever done."
Brill begins with "Identifying Effective Teaching Using Performance on the Job," by Tom Kane, Robert Gordon,