Jersey Jazzman: COVID and "Learning Loss": Test Scores Should Not Be Our Immediate Concern

Jersey Jazzman: COVID and "Learning Loss": Test Scores Should Not Be Our Immediate Concern

COVID and "Learning Loss": Test Scores Should Not Be Our Immediate Concern

I'll get back to Lakewood in a bit, but I want to take a minute and talk about a new report out yesterday from JerseyCAN and others about learning loss and COVID-19.

Regular readers know I've had my issues with JerseyCAN over the years: too many times, their analyses have missed the mark, often because of a lack of understanding about things like what test scores actually represent and how they should be used to direct K-12 education policy. 

I might make similar complaints about this latest report. Using a convenience sample's outcomes on one test to extrapolate outcomes on another for an entire population is inherently problematic. Further, changes in proficiency rates on the same test are often artifacts of the process of setting those rates, and not indications of any changes in actual student learning. There's also a whole problem of equating "proficiency" across grade levels that tends to get pushed aside in these discussions. Plus the easy way we accept "grade level" as some sort of absolute when it's really a social construct...

But in the end, none of that really matters, because what the report is showing is almost certainly correct: student learning has suffered during the pandemic, and the losses are almost certainly greater for students of color and those in economic disadvantage. 

How could this be otherwise? There is a clear digital divide along racial and ethnic lines in CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: COVID and "Learning Loss": Test Scores Should Not Be Our Immediate Concern

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point | Dissident Voice

Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point | Dissident Voice

Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point

Putting aside the endless problems with punitive high-stakes standardized tests produced by a handful of large for-profit corporations, charter school advocates have never stopped making a fetish out of students’ scores on these political instruments. Charter school promoters obsess endlessly over racist psychometric tests that have been rejected by many for decades. They appear to be immune to all criticism of these widely-rejected tests. No critical examination of these top-down corporate tests is even attempted. It is as if everyone is expected to automatically embrace them and treat them as being useful, flawless, and meaningful.

What is odd, however, is that thousands of charter schools, which frequently cherry-pick their students, actually perform poorly on such corporate tests, more poorly than many under-funded public schools, and about the same as some under-funded public schools. There is really not much to boast about. The charter school record is not impressive, especially when viewed in its totality. Thirty years after their appearance, segregated charter schools cannot seem to claim victory for much.

It is no surprise that more than 150 privately-operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools close every year due to academic failure (and financial malfeasance). Literally thousands have failed and closed in three decades, leaving many black and brown families out in the cold.

Overall, it remains hard to make a compelling argument for the existence of CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point | Dissident Voice

GUTCHECK – Dad Gone Wild

GUTCHECK – Dad Gone Wild

GUTCHECK

“[P]erhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

You would think that if a politician stood in front of a room full of microphones and made a pronouncement about pending dire outcomes, that the easiest question to answer after the announcement would be, where is the data to support your announcement? After all, if you are in a room full of microphones, you are likely in a room full of reporters. However, if the recent presser by Governor Lee and Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Lee is any indication, the follow up is much more difficult than one would anticipate.

Last Thursday, at one of his weekly press conferences – remember these events are scheduled in advance – Ms. Schwinn announced that she and Mr. Lee believed that proficiency rates for Tennessee students were fixin to drop by 50% in ELA and 65% in math.

Myself, I would view that as a pretty big announcement. One that I would anticipate requiring further explanation. Before leaving for the press conference I would probably give a shout out to department data guru Mike Hardy, and say, “Yo, Mike, don’t forget the data that backs up these dire warnings.”

If I was the Governor, I might text the Commissioner and say something like, ‘Yo Pen, make sure CONTINUE READING: GUTCHECK – Dad Gone Wild