tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post582512149150338221..comments2024-03-28T08:51:18.908-04:00Comments on the daily howler: AMANDA RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT BY LAW: You might almost think you’re getting conned!<b>bob somerby</b>http://www.blogger.com/profile/02963464534685954436noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-47683168107691048532013-09-28T12:15:58.962-04:002013-09-28T12:15:58.962-04:00You are exactly right, cacambo. He said they were...You are exactly right, cacambo. He said they were problematic for that reason in one of those types of throwaway sentences he attacks when others write them.<br />When I call it a throwawa sentence it is because he used it then as his excuse for DISAPPEARING the fact.<br /><br />You don't have the time or energy to comb through the archives, and I don't want to waste the time or energy on this now dead thread to explain the foolish bias in BOB's excuse. <br /><br />KZAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-21249360792746625802013-09-27T12:25:29.622-04:002013-09-27T12:25:29.622-04:00If I remember correctly, he didn't say the &qu...If I remember correctly, he didn't say the "are of no use." He said they are problematic if you have a decreasing drop out rate because more of your low-performing students are in the mix. I could be wrong, but I don't have the time or energy to go combing through the archives.cacambonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-66951382807520878642013-09-27T11:20:43.682-04:002013-09-27T11:20:43.682-04:00I think Ellen and her friends replying here are wr...I think Ellen and her friends replying here are wrong about Ripley's book and unions.<br /><br />This book gives me hope that we can create education systems of equity and rigor--if we heed the lessons from top performing countries and focus more on preparing teachers than on punishing them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-29511256905542676372013-09-27T01:05:09.883-04:002013-09-27T01:05:09.883-04:00OMB (The Good , The Bad, and the Foolish)
Good Bo...<br /><br />OMB (The Good , The Bad, and the Foolish)<br /><br />Good Bob: "Can we talk? Neither the United States nor Poland is producing any “miracles” at the present time."<br /><br />Bad Bob: "On the other hand, test scores have been rising rather rapidly in this country on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) once you “disaggregate” scores, as everyone knows you must.<br /><br />Foolish BOB: "But that improvement wasn’t reported, assessed or explained in Ripley’s suspiciously slanted book..... You might almost think you’re getting conned."<br /><br />NAEP’s long-term trend assessment has tracked performance in reading, mathematics, science, and writing. What do the data show? With some fluctuations, scores have changed little in over a generation.<br /><br />Evaluating the impact of these changes depended more on the eye of the beholder than on systematic analysis. The 2004 trend report generated a parade of upbeat, promotional press releases. Even though most scores had changed little and gains were modest, the U.S. Department of Education and leading educational organizations trumpeted the success of school reform.<br /><br />Such claims were sometimes true in a strictly numerical sense, but overall they painted a misleading picture. Even at younger ages, reading scores were only a few points higher in 2004 than in 1971 and, as the graphs showed, stable scores would have been a fairer description. The case in math was a stronger one, but the jumps at the younger ages were anomalous. The focus on younger students disregarded high school achievement, which was certainly not at all-time highs. Over 30 years, high school students’ scores had changed little. In 2004, their reading score was exactly the same as it had been in 1971, while their math score was the same as in 1992 and only 3 points higher than it was in 1973.<br /><br />"BUT WAIT, KZ", you cry, "But what about the disaggregation BOB demands?" <br /><br />Let's take reading. White high school seniors scored 297 in 1998. They scored 296 in 2009, the most recent year of available data. For black seniors there was no change in score (269) at all during the same period. Hispanics seniors, like whites, lost a point, from 275 to 274.<br /><br />We'd love to tell you BOB was right about math, but they changed the scoring system in the middle of the decadein the NAEP Data Explorer<br />data we were exploring. Scores were climbing in the first half of the 90s for each group, then falling for each group in the latter half, then they changed the scoring system and scores started back up in math. Did the scoring get it get harder?, BOB might ask, We just don't know, BOB might respond. And we'll go with the latter.<br /><br />BOB is right about Amanda Ripley's book and the lack of educational imracles here and abroad, but wrong about the "risng rather rapidly" US test scores. The record is decidedly mixed, particularly when you look at our students when they are leaving the system as seniors.<br /><br />But BOB is once again the Prince of Poo when he dares to attack someone else for leaving things our of their work. I challenge anyone to go back and find a time when BOB discussed the GOLD STANDARD of tests as he loves to call NAEP with regard to results of testing high school seniors. (Hint, I can link you to it if you bait me.) He does it in a section of a post where he attacks a Harvard Professor which he had the audacity to call "The Data Which Disappeared." Sure enough, in that post, as with this, test results from high school seniors disappeared. In fact, BOB attacked the professor for using them.<br />I would love BOB to chime in here and explain why they are of no use.<br /><br /><br />KZ (Ruling Doom on the Curve)<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-55631130081188207092013-09-26T17:13:52.963-04:002013-09-26T17:13:52.963-04:00Bill?Bill?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-47574548521745886072013-09-26T16:41:21.424-04:002013-09-26T16:41:21.424-04:00Whatever the imperfections of TDH, I have to say t...Whatever the imperfections of TDH, I have to say that no other blog has had as great an effect on the way I think about media coverage of education. <br /><br />Case in point: on the way home I was listening to the "smart network" NPR and they were reporting on the "depressing" news about SAT scores. Apparently half of test takers are not college ready. Wow, that sounds bad! But has there been any change in the population taking the test in recent years? Have more low-performing students been encouraged to take the test? As TDH would put it, "we have no way of knowing," at least as far as NPR is concerned. And the proposed solution? Wait for it.... Higher standards! If our students are under-performing it must be because they are sandbagging. If we crack the whip they'll certainly rise to the challenge. <br /><br />The script never dies.cacambonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-48737125681652602542013-09-26T14:37:29.089-04:002013-09-26T14:37:29.089-04:00What does Bill Gates have against unions?What does Bill Gates have against unions?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-34117918115869754312013-09-26T14:35:16.250-04:002013-09-26T14:35:16.250-04:00Ripely needs to be barefoot, pregnant, and in the ...Ripely needs to be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. <br /><br />Oh, and a WASP.CeceliaMchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16017255006204800193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-46414967741590179062013-09-26T14:02:13.459-04:002013-09-26T14:02:13.459-04:00Bob knows that. His point is really that ...[Cecel...Bob knows that. His point is really that ...[CeceliaMC?]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-67364077798585024792013-09-26T12:26:06.438-04:002013-09-26T12:26:06.438-04:00Why? Her book was funded by Bill Gates and publici...Why? Her book was funded by Bill Gates and publicized by the Gates echo chamber, which has a vested interest in making America look bad so they can "reform" it by getting rid of unions and paying workers a pittance. --EllenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com