We Don’t Judge Teachers by Numbers Alone – The Same Should Go for (Some?) Schools
In the Huffington Post yesterday, Fordham’s Mike Petrilli throws his support behind adding a UK-esque school inspectorate system into school accountability – a topic Craig Jerald explored in Education Sector’s On Her Majesty’s School Inspection Service and in subsequent chatter on this blog. Petrilli writes:
To the extent that school grades (and consequences linked to them) drive policy and behavior, we ought to make sure that those grades are informed by more than just numbers.I completely agree that numbers – specifically test scores alone – cannot paint a complete picture of school quality. There are numerous other pieces of information – whether they are quantitative measures like AP success, postsecondary enrollment, and college remediation rates, or qualitative observations made by professional inspectors – that could inform our perceptions of school performance. And I am a firm believer in the