Polls and "Experts"
I had briefly ragged on Patrick Murphy's Monmouth poll on schools a while back. Bruce Baker (via Twitter), DS Wright, and Matt DiCarlo gave their criticism as well.
Now Murphy's fighting back. But scroll down, and you'll find both Bruce and Matt have left responses of their own. Here's Bruce:
America's Smartest Man
Now Murphy's fighting back. But scroll down, and you'll find both Bruce and Matt have left responses of their own. Here's Bruce:
4) Setting aside this methodological quibbling, I take issue with Mr.
Murray's point that academic researchers might come at these issues with
normative values - as I admittedly do - and that having normative
values (based on years of extensive research on these topics) somehow
invalidates someone's ability to critique the poll. As Mr. Murray frames
it, only through outright blissful ignorance can anyone be sufficiently
impartial to be involved in, or make claims or arguments about polling
America's Smartest Man
Is apparently a school supervisor in New Jersey named John Fenimore, who wrote a letter containing some well-needed logic:
The editorial “High marks” (Sept. 12) regarding 75 percent of likely voters favoring merit pay for teachers misses an essential point. No one seems to be asking how much more it will cost to pay teachers based on merit. As a supervisor in a New Jersey public school district in the early 2000s, the school board insisted supervisors’ contract language include salary increases based on merit rather than a pay guide. As supervisors continued to attain the predetermined goals set by the superintendent, the cost to the district increased much more than anticipated. After
