John Thompson: Baseball Analogies Prone to Errors
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Guest post by John Thompson.
Chad Alderman's "If the Yankees Used 'First-In, Last-Out'..." is much too typical of the contemporary school "reform" movement. Like so many accountability hawks, Alderman loves to expound on topics that he knows well, but he reveals very little understanding of real life conditions in schools. This sincere advocate for students writes at length about what would happen to the Yankees if they inexplicably adopted the seniority system. He says nothing about schools or his reasons for believing that his baseball analogy is appropriate.
Of course, it would be just as absurd for major league sports to adopt education's work rules as it has been for school system to adopt the practices of hedge funds, as they pretend that data-driven accountability is a valid system for improving students' "outcomes." But, Alderman raises a fair point. What would happen if professional baseball adopted the top down methods of school "reform?"
What would happen if the baseball commissioner tried a baseball version of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants and decreed that, henceforth, all personnel decisions be driven by a simplistic statistical
Chad Alderman's "If the Yankees Used 'First-In, Last-Out'..." is much too typical of the contemporary school "reform" movement. Like so many accountability hawks, Alderman loves to expound on topics that he knows well, but he reveals very little understanding of real life conditions in schools. This sincere advocate for students writes at length about what would happen to the Yankees if they inexplicably adopted the seniority system. He says nothing about schools or his reasons for believing that his baseball analogy is appropriate.
Of course, it would be just as absurd for major league sports to adopt education's work rules as it has been for school system to adopt the practices of hedge funds, as they pretend that data-driven accountability is a valid system for improving students' "outcomes." But, Alderman raises a fair point. What would happen if professional baseball adopted the top down methods of school "reform?"
What would happen if the baseball commissioner tried a baseball version of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants and decreed that, henceforth, all personnel decisions be driven by a simplistic statistical