by Scott McLeod | Jan 20, 2010 | Assessment, Learning and Teaching |
The Education Trust has come out with a nifty little report, Gauging the Gaps: A Deeper Look at Student Achievement, that examines different ways of thinking about achievement gaps. Although EdTrust uses NAEP data to illustrate its points, this could be done with any achievement data.
EdTrust outlines four different perspectives when considering achievement gaps. Each has its own merits, but together they have more power than simply using one or two of them in isolation. At the end of the report, EdTrust includes several NAEP data tables that show the progress of each state along each of these perspectives.
Perspective 1: Simple gap narrowing
“Have absolute gaps in mean performance between groups decreased over time? Nationwide, low-income students and students of color perform, on average, below their peers. So it is imperative to evaluate whether we’re helping these young people catch up.” (p. 2)
Perspective 2: Progress for all
“Have all groups of students gained over time? Our country needs to improve achievement for all students and accelerate gains for those who lag behind. Reading performance for low-income fourth grade students nationwide inched up by four points from 2003 to 2007. This represents movement in the right direction but at far too slow a pace. Some states, however, improved much more rapidly than the nation as a whole.” (p. 3)
Perspective 3: Gap size
“What is the current size of the gap between groups? In addition to examining how far a state has come in closing the gaps and looking at whether all students are gaining, it’s important to know the extent of the gaps that remain. The current-year size of a state’s gap suggests how far we have to go until race and income no longer play a significant role in student achievement. Nationally and in every state, low-income students trail their higher income peers in reading performance. Yet a closer scrutiny of state data shows that some are closer to achieving equitable results than others.” (p. 4)
Perspective 4: Group comparisons across jurisdictions
“How does each group of students currently perform compared with their counterparts in other jurisdictions? Although many assume that certain groups of children perform about the same no matter where they attend school, comparisons of group performance across jurisdictions can reveal striking differences. In fact, dramatic variations in the achievement of similar groups of children occur across states or from one district to the next.” (p. 4)
What do you think?
How does your school organization think about achievement gaps? Does it predominantly use only one or two of these perspectives? What could be done to increase your organization’s capacity to use more or all of these perspectives? Is all of this even worthwhile?
by Scott McLeod | Nov 4, 2009 | Assessment, Leadership and Vision |
I have done a lot of work over the years on various data-driven decision-making projects. I've taught courses, given workshops, delivered multi-day institutes for state departments of education and corporate partners, and written book chapters and white papers.
I collected some of the highlights of that work on my new DDDM page here at Dangerously Irrelevant. Resources include some of the products from my work with Microsoft, the American Psychological Association, the Chicago Public Schools, the Minnesota Department of Education, and others.
I hope these are useful to you. Happy reading!
by Scott McLeod | May 14, 2009 | 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Learning and Teaching, Our Changing World |
I often hear educators say…
We could be teaching differently if it weren't for ‘the tests.’
Or…
We could do a better job of meeting our students’ needs if it weren't for ‘the tests.’
I emphatically dispute these assertions. We must take ownership of our own culpability.
Our prevalent instructional model that emphasizes low-level, decontextualized, factual recall was dominant long before ‘the tests.’ Our challenges of providing higher-order thinking experiences, opportunities for authentic collaboration, and real-world connectedness existed long before the No Child Left Behind Act. Our inability to effectively facilitate empowered technology usage, true cultural/global awareness, and other necessary skills for a digital, global, information age is a byproduct of long-held, deeply-rooted cultural and pedagogical norms, not recently-acquired beliefs and behaviors.
Is anyone willing to argue that achievement gaps were smaller before evil NCLB came along and messed us all up? Does anyone think that we were doing a fine job of meeting the needs of underserved populations before ‘the tests?’ Have we all forgotten that school has been boring for generations?
It's not ‘the tests.’ It's our unwillingness and/or inability to do something different, something better.
It's not ‘the tests.’ It's us.
UPDATE: There are some phenomenal comments below. I hope you'll take a few moments to read them. Be sure to also read Greg Thompson's reaction to this post.
by Scott McLeod | Mar 10, 2009 | 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Learning and Teaching, News and Events, Our Changing World, Quotes, Research and Evaluation |
The President is calling:
I’m calling on our nation’s governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity.
President Barack Obama, March 10, 2009
Alia iacta est. How will we answer the call?
by Scott McLeod | Dec 11, 2008 | Assessment, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Learning and Teaching, Reading |
Alfie Kohn’s new article in The Nation comes out in print next week. You can read it early online and get his perspectives on the next U.S. Secretary of Education. Here’s a quote:
Almost never questioned … are the core elements of traditional schooling, such as lectures, worksheets, quizzes, grades, homework, punitive discipline and competition. That would require real reform, which of course is off the table.
I’m sure that many of you are unsurprised that Kohn is one of my favorite education writers. My all-time favorite education book is Beyond Discipline. I like how Kohn speaks truth to power and is willing to hold topics up to the light that are given little thought by most educators because they’re so deeply ingrained in the system.
Update: if the link at The Nation doesn't work for you, this one should.
by Scott McLeod | Nov 21, 2008 | 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Learning and Teaching, Slides |
[Download this file: png ppt pptx]
[from David Warlick, Happy Birthday Jude]
![SETDA’s Class of 2020 Action Plan for Education]()
by Scott McLeod | Oct 22, 2008 | 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Leadership and Vision, Learning and Teaching, Online Learning, Planning and Funding, Professional Development, Reading, Research and Evaluation, Tech Integration |
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has been on an unbelievable tear this year. Back in February it released its annual Trends Report on NCLB Title II, Part D (Enhancing Education Through Technology, or E2T2). Previous national reports are available at the SETDA web site. You also can access state-level reports at the Metiri Group’s web site.
Now SETDA’s Class of 2020 Action Plan for Education project is releasing its reports. The first three already are available:
Two more reports are coming out this month and next:
Be sure to tap into the incredible wealth of good information on the Reports, Research & Tools page of the SETDA web site [warning: it’s easy to get lost in here for hours…]. There are numerous high-quality resources available for K-12 educational technology advocates and change agents, including the 2007 report, Maximizing the impact: The pivotal role of technology in a 21st century education system.
Keep up the great work, SETDA!
by Scott McLeod | Oct 1, 2008 | 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Guest Bloggers, Leadership and Vision, Miscellaneous, Not So Irrelevant, Online Learning, Our Changing World, Professional Development, Quotes, Safety and Security, Tech Tools |
My latest roundup of links and tools…
When did the IT staff get promoted above the superintendent?
Will Richardson notes:
[A] school superintendent I spoke with … lamented the fact that his IT staff wouldn’t give him access to YouTube and even Wikipedia.
See also my older post: Principal blogging not allowed.
Math and motocross
Check out this sweet series of motocross math videos at HotChalk. The brains behind the math? Former guest blogger Jason Dyer!
“I didn’t know Sasquatch was real.”
Fun with the Pacific Tree Octopus!
Maybe we should do this for teachers and administrators too
"Seventy-one-year-old Peggy McIntyre needs to learn as much as she can about Windows before 8 a.m. Or else."
Post-Gutenberg economics
It’s now a publish-then-filter world. Clay Shirky notes that “we’re clocking a singularity a week at this point.”
We need to educate our educators
Seth Godin says:
It’s easy to be against something you’re afraid of. And it’s easy to be afraid of something that you don’t understand.
Open your brain, open your model of education
The Education Innovation blog has an interesting post on closed v. open models of education. [Note to self: this might be the world’s longest URL]
Some good thinking going on here
Thanks to Mike Sansone, I recently discovered the Union Square Ventures blog. In Power to the People, they state:
[W]e believe that we are only at the beginning of the web’s impact on the fundamental structure of education. We expect much of that change to be away from the existing educational institutions and towards empowering individuals and newly-formed groups.
In Why the Flow of Innovation Has Reversed, they note:
[T]he vector of innovation has changed. It used to be that innovation started with NASA, flowed to the military, then to the enterprise, and finally to the consumer. Today, it is the reverse. All of the most interesting stuff is being built first for consumers and is tricking back to the enterprise. . . . [O]ne reason this is happening is that the success of a web service is more often determined by its social engineering than its electrical engineering.
Students aren’t the only ones missing the big picture
The Florida Department of Education is concerned that students are missing the big picture when it comes to science. A task force stated that “teachers should provide a broader focus on scientific concepts and process in a ‘big picture’ sense.” Hmmm… I wonder if that means the Department is going to narrow down the list of required science standards and also pare down the size of approved textbooks. I’m guessing not. Download the full report if you dare.
Disempowered today = disempowered tomorrow
I left this comment at Jim Gates’ Tipline blog:
Students who aren’t fluid technology users today will be the low-wage workers and disempowered citizens of tomorrow.
I want it right THERE
Finally, if you’re anal-retentive about your Windows taskbar like I am, check out Taskbar Shuffle.
by Scott McLeod | Sep 29, 2008 | Assessment, Miscellaneous, Pre-Service Preparation |
This semester my preservice administrator students are creating a wiki that hopefully will become a helpful resource for high-poverty rural school districts. In particular, they’re trying to locate resources that are helpful for educators working to increase the academic achievement of economically-disadvantaged rural students. If you know of any good resources in this area, please leave them here as a comment. Thanks!
by Scott McLeod | Sep 25, 2008 | 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Blogging, Gaming, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Learning and Teaching, Not So Irrelevant, Our Changing World, Planning and Funding, Quotes, Tech Tools |
Three great questions
I especially like the last of these three questions from Rodney Trice. We should be asking teachers and principals that question more often (and just that directly).
- How do you intend to bring the global community into your classroom?
- How will you prepare students for a future that is relatively unknown?
- How you will eliminate the racial predictability of achievement outcomes in your classroom?
This just in: Teenagers play video games!
All kidding aside, the latest report from the amazing Pew Internet & American Life Project confirms that kids – even girls! – are up to their eyeballs in video games.
We’ll stick to the tried and (not) true
Nope, sorry. iPods are not allowed. Back to the old way. Too bad it doesn’t work as well. Gotta do it anyway. Oh, and I love how the music players are categorically, by definition, a ‘distraction’ (if not in actuality). Who needs reality when we have these little educational policy fantasy worlds that we can create for ourselves?
Throw da bums out!
After attempts to bring in turnaround experts didn’t work, the state of Maryland is increasingly leaning toward completely restructuring schools that are academically unsuccessful. State schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick says:
We are very comfortable being more aggressive about this. We have seen much better results [when the staff is replaced].
Blog like a farmer
I ran across an old post by Mike Sansone, one of my Iowa blogging buddies. I really like his metaphor that blogging should be like farming.
Scorecards
I bet parents and community members would really like to see scorecards like this one (maybe with different data) for their local schools. I know some schools and districts already do this. Hopefully they use line graphs rather than tables of numbers. Could you tell the essential story of a school district with 10 key, well-done graphs? I bet you could!
No writing in journalism class?
Check out this excellent article about the NYU journalism student who got in trouble for blogging about her class. [hat tip to Tim Stahmer]
I got no money, honey
Did you catch Edutopia’s advice on how to innovate without extra money or support?
Spend hours on content you can find with Google in 3 seconds!
One of my favorite things about Wes Fryer is his ability to highlight the ridiculous. I also enjoy his irreverance (“Behold! I hold aloft the holy words!”), particularly when I have the same experience at my kids’ school.
Speaking of Google…
Finally, I’m digging Google Chrome. it’s now my default browser and I’m using Firefox less and less (and I love Firefox). Chrome is much faster. I also like that each tab is a separate process; I have yet to have a browser hang…
