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Friday, January 8, 2016

CURMUDGUCATION: Metrics and Behaviorism

CURMUDGUCATION: Metrics and Behaviorism:

Metrics and Behaviorism




 Mark Garrison is a helluva guy. He lists scholar, activist, evaluator and artist as his businesses, and lists two books and three albums among his achievements. He has clearly put a whole lot of thought into the current state of education policy, with a particular sharp eye for the problems of Trying To Measure Stuff. Garrison says many things I agree with, but he says it all smarter.


In "Metric Morality," Garrison addresses the issue of just what can be measured, and why the current educational measurements are doomed to fail. I love this stuff, because it cuts to why the whole concept of educational metrics is, as he puts it, "fraudulent."

"They confound properties of individuals, individual schools and individual school systems with the relations those individuals, individual schools and individual school systems have with their social contexts." In other words, they talk about qualities like "wetness" as being properties of the individual and not as they are related to whether one is standing inside, under an umbrella, or outside naked in a monsoon.

They "follow the long discredited practice of defining the object of measurement 'operationally'; that is, things and phenomena are defined by how they are 'measured'." Garrison's example is perfect-- the definition of "intelligence" is the ability to do well on an intelligence test. Yay, tautology.

They use the "flawed definition" of measurement which is the process of assigning numbers 
CURMUDGUCATION: Metrics and Behaviorism:

The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score Delivery | deutsch29

The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score Delivery | deutsch29:

The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score Delivery


On December 15, 2015, I wrote a post about The College Board’s delayed reporting of October 2015 PSAT scores. I reposted the piece on Huffington Post on December 21, 2015.  Below is an excerpt:
According to Nancy Griesemer of the Examiner, school counselors were told that the PSAT scores would be available by mid-December. This is in keeping with the College Board’s information for educators, which tells educators to expect online PSAT results “around two months after the test”:
In the past, students’ PSAT/NMSQT paper score reports were received by schools approximately two months after the test. As we roll out the redesigned PSAT/NMSQT during the 2015-16 school year, the paper score reports will not be received until approximately three months after the test. We will, however, release results online around two months after the test. Results will be released to educators online one day prior to scores being released to students online.
It is now mid-December– two months after the mid-October PSAT. No scores.
Instead, the College Board has declared Plan B– which is Plan A, Delayed: An online access that school counselors will be able to view on January 6th, 2016, and students, on January 7th, 2016.
Well. It appears that January 7th, 2016, came and went without The College Board’s delivering on its once-postponed promise for those October 2015 PSAT scores for at least some October 2015 PSAT test takers.
At 11:48 a.m. CST on January 08, 2016, I received the following email from a Pennsylvania parent:
Greetings Ms. Schneider. I read your 12/21/15 article about delays by the College Board in reporting October 2015 PSAT scores and thought you would be interested in a new delay that nobody appears to be reporting as the crisis deepens at College Board.
As you noted in your article, the scores were supposed to have been made available online yesterday, January 7. Indeed, the College Board’s website states that the scores were made available as of yesterday by logging into student accounts. But at least for students at several top ranked public high schools in [Pennsylvania], this is not at all true. Students and school counselors are unable to view October 2015 PSAT scores, and no explanation or fix has been offered by College Board. Please see the email below from my 
The College Board Botches Its Re-Promised, January 7th, 2016, PSAT Score Delivery | deutsch29:

Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week. | Welcome to the Testing Games

Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week. | Welcome to the Testing Games:

Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week.


Enough is enough, they claim. Florida’s state teacher union, FEA, is hosting a rally against high stakes testing next week in Tallahassee, Florida. I guess holding up signs against testing in front of the Capitol is their idea of action. Get on the bus, their signs declare.
I’ll pass.
Yea. Yea. I know I will take a heap of crap for this post, but meh. It is what it is.
Why am I not jumping on the bus? Um. Been there, done that. Need more.
Honestly, FEA could have hosted this rally 3 years ago and I would have made sure to fill their buses with my teacher and parent friends. I would have made the signs and MC’d the Get on the Bus? I’ll Pass – Why I Am NOT Attending Florida Teacher Union Rally in Tally Next Week. | Welcome to the Testing Games:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/8/15



CORPORATE ED REFORM





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The Mary Walker School District rescinds their request for charter schools in the Seattle Public School District | Seattle Education
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King: Schooled by loss, ‘saved’ by teachers - POLITICO
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CURMUDGUCATION: Getting Low Income Students to College
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Poor health: when poverty becomes disease | University of California
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Roanoke Parents Across America fighting to keep charter schools out of Virginia | WSLS
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Deliberately deceiving the public on Common Core | NewBostonPost
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YESTERDAY

The “Dear Colleague” Letters and John King’s Homework | deutsch29
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CURMUDGUCATION: Rules for Tools
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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/7/15
CORPORATE ED REFORMTransform the New York State Board of Regents From the Inside | Alan SingerTransform the New York State Board of Regents From the Inside | Alan Singer: Transform the New York State Board of Regents From the InsideChancellor Merryl Tisch and Vice-Chancellor Anthony Bottar are both resigning from the New York State Board of Regents, the governing body for education in New York Sta



Transform the New York State Board of Regents From the Inside | Alan Singer
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