Lack of data is a problem. But using data from one test is even worse – and doesn’t take into account anything else going on in the school (or college).

Furthermore, I think your logic gets a little tripped up in that you’re using an editorial piece about measurement in higher ed to beat up on a K-12 reform initiative. They may both fall under the category of “fruit” but we’re definitely talking apples and oranges here.

john thompson

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I’m not sure you read past the paragraph you cite. Being anti-test doesn’t get us very far if we don’t have other measures on which to assess performance. And, if you agree that public schools merit some form of public scrutiny, lack of data is a real problem. Frankly, all of the metrics I mention are probably better tools to measure collegiate performance than a single test, but we don’t have access to that data.

Fryshman’s extreme argument about the human element (one that you’ve made here before) ignores both our statistical and our inherent abilities to balance outside characteristics. It says, as the title of this post suggests, “what we do cannot be measured.”

“The first camp is far less willing to measure results in any systematic way. It makes some sense too. If you believe demography is destiny, no mathematical formula, no matter how complex or inclusive, can address all the factors that go into schooling.”

It is full of factual errors and logical fallacies and it violates the fundamental spirit of collegiality they we in education seek to foster.

I think you would find that the signers of the Broader Bolder Challenge have a far greater record of empirical analysis. In fact, how many signers have ever had a peer reviewed publication?

Listen to Bill Clinton’s speech before the Harlem Children’s Zone and I think you would get a glimpse of some of the quantitative assessments that would be used for the early education part of the proposal. Check out the great matrices from the National Board to see the assessments for the training and development of educators. In fact, abandon the attempt to devise some all-encompassing test driven matrix, and a whole host of very professional, very solid assessments become practical. Limit ourselves to rifle-shot accountability, and the ptotential becomes unlimited very quickly.

You are like an accountant who wants to upgrade your profession and you hear that the Legal Bar’s test is better, so you use that test to license accountants. You would not allow that sort of absurdity to be held over your head. But against an overwhelming body of evidence, you still don’t want to concede a point.

Or to mix metaphors, think of those basketball players who will never respect a call by other while calling every little touch foul. Then ask why educators don’t trust you and your numbers to evaluate their schools.

In fact, since you were writing about evidence, where was yours? Any evidence for the paragraph I just cited? Any at all?

john thompson