Sunday, September 11, 2011

Damn it, Jim, I’m a teacher, not a statistician! « Cooperative Catalyst

Damn it, Jim, I’m a teacher, not a statistician! « Cooperative Catalyst:

PHILOSOPHICAL MEANDERINGS

Damn it, Jim, I’m a teacher, not a statistician!

I don’t care about my provincial diploma exam results. There, I’ve said it.

Every year around this time, I get a little booklet slipped into my mailbox at school detailing how well my students did on their English 30 diploma exams, worth 50% of their final mark. I’ve always felt a bit nervous as I open up these booklets, perhaps as nervous as the students themselves as they open their own envelopes and look at their own grades. I look at my top students and see how they did on the diploma, and my weaker students to see how they did. Inevitably there are some surprises (“He got an 80?!? I thought he slept through my class!”) and some not-so-surprises (“Yep. 62%. That’s about right.”)

The booklet also talks about which of the 120 standards are met in each of the 70-odd multiple-choice questions