Monday, January 9, 2012

Schools Matter: Chetty Study: "simpleminded, technocratic, dehumanizing and disturbing"

Schools Matter: Chetty Study: "simpleminded, technocratic, dehumanizing and disturbing":

Chetty Study: "simpleminded, technocratic, dehumanizing and disturbing"

The heart of Bruce Baker's first review of the corporate boot-licking conclusions by Chetty & Co.:
. . . . The authors find that teacher value added scores in their historical data set vary. No surprise. And they find that those variations are correlated to some extent with “other stuff” including income later in life and having reported dependents for females at a young age. There’s plenty more.

These are interesting findings. It’s a really cool academic study. It’s a freakin’ amazing data set! But these findings cannot be immediately translated into what the headlines have suggested – that immediate use of value-added metrics to reshape the teacher workforce can lift the economy, and increase wages across the board! The headlines and media spin have been dreadfully overstated