Jersey Jazzman: Rhee Gets Drill & Kill Wrong

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee Gets Drill & Kill Wrong:

Rhee Gets Drill & Kill Wrong

by Duke

I wrote earlier this week about the drubbing Michelle Rhee got on the BBC from the British teachers union leader, Mary Bousted.

One of the difficulties in debating Rhee is that when she opens her mouth and the spin comes flying out, it's hard to know what to debunk first; I mean, there's just so much of it, so where do you start? But here's one claim she made that Bousted never got to rebut I'd like to put to rest right now:

(3.24) The research is very clear that teachers who teach to the test actually... don't... their kids don't do better academically. The kids who do the best academically, on tests, as measured by tests, are the teachers who teach a broad base of skills... and critical thinking skills and analytics. So teachers who are really paying attention to what works are never going to teach to the test.

Hmm... what research is that? Well, in this video, Rhee tells us:

Popout

(3:40) The Gates Foundation put out a study about a year ago that showed that teachers who teach to the test, meaning they do the drill-and-kill with the kids, actually those kids do not do as well on the test, don't do as well academically, as those teachers who teach high order thinking skills, and critical thinking and analytical skills.

Rhee is clearly talking about the Gates MET Project, which came out in 2010. She is claiming that the study shows that teachers who do not drill-and-kill have students who do better on standardized tests.

Is it true? Do teachers who don't train their students to pass bubble tests get better results on those tests? Has common sense been suspended?

Please:

The New York Times reported on these findings Friday and repeated the following strong 

More Vouchers Won't Save Anyone

by Duke

Tom Moran, via Twitter:

Real pity that Opp Scholarship Act is dead. Imagine having to send your kids to skul in Camden, with no escape.http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/062 …

That would assume there are private schools in Camden to escape to. From Gordon MacInnes:

There are not enough places in private schools with the experience and interest to enroll the number of students funded in the bill.

The 22,500 students attending "failing" schools in Newark, for example, can look to only 

If We Treated Lawyers Like Teachers

by Duke

UNDERGRADUATE #1: Hey, fellow best-and-brightest type! What do you want to do when we graduate with our insanely expensive college degrees?

UNDERGRADUATE #2: Well, I was going to go to law school and become a lawyer. But I heard the bar exam was too easy, so that just doesn't sound like the right career path for me.

UNDERGRADUATE #1: Why, haven't you heard the news? They're going to make the bar exam more difficult! Doesn't that make you want to be a lawyer even more?

UNDERGRADUATE #2: More difficult? Gosh, that sounds great! But will I have any more prestige in my career, or have any more say in my profession, or make any more money when the bar exam becomes more difficult?

UNDERGRADUATE #1: No way, pal! Lawyering will be a low-paying, dead-end, highly-maligned job with bad working conditions, where your salary, benefits, and even deferred compensation, no matter how modest, can be cut whenever a politician feels like it!

UNDERGRADUATE #2: Awesome! Sign me up to be a lawyer today!

NJDOE: Broadies? What Broadies?

by Duke

If you can square these two stories, there's probably a job at the NJDOE waiting for you!

Story #1 (6/29/12):

State education officials are denying that they had any role in the Jersey City Board of Education’s decision to select as its new superintendent a Delaware woman who graduated from the same controversial superintendents academy as acting state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf.

The board voted 6-3 Thursday night to begin negotiating a contract with Marcia V. Lyles, a schools superintendent in Delaware’s largest school district, to become the city’s newest chief school administrator.

Opponents of the move, including two BOE members, believe Lyles’ association with The Broad Superintendents Academy, an education training ground set up by billionaire Eli Broad, amounts to evidence that Cerf, also a Broad graduate, had a