High Test Scores Make Happy People
Much ado isbeing made about an economics-in-education study hailed as “new” by the New York Times, eventhough the Times reporter indicates that findings were presented at “more thana dozen seminars” during the past year. No specifics on that, and none are cited on the very current CV by leadauthor of the study and newest and youngest Harvard rock star economist, RajChetty.
And thoughthe paper has not been published or even submitted to a peer-reviewed journal,it
We’ve tested these kid three times and they’re still not meeting standards!
Today’s article in the Huffington Post, No Child Left Behind Anniversary: Education Law's Promise Falls Short After 10 Years got me thinking about a saying of a deceased family friend named Oscar, a carpenter by trade and a philosopher by nature. He had a saying that became – and remains – an adage in our family: “I’ve cut this board three times and it’s still too short!” At the literal level, it expresses the absurdity of repeating an unsuccessful action and being surprised that the results never work. On the deeper level, it warns against taking action without taking the time to know what you are doing.
It strikes me that Oscar’s adage is aptly applied to NCLB, which demanded testing kids to prove that they are meeting standards, without really knowing the nature of the phenomenon it’s supposed to capture or whether the data the testing does capture is useful for the achieving stated goals of the NCLB program. What is it that