Number 2 Pencil

Great moments in public educationFour

Great moments in public education

Four teachers in Medford, OK, are being accused of drinking with their underage students. One teacher denies any wrongdoing, and the school board assures that action has been taken. Me, I'm just hoping that one of the key pieces of evidence the outraged parents have - a photo of one teacher being held upside down by students and drinking from a keg - will be posted on The Smoking Gun soon.

Great moments in public educationFour

Great moments in public education

Four teachers in Medford, OK, are being accused of drinking with their underage students. One teacher denies any wrongdoing, and the school board assures that action has been taken. Me, I'm just hoping that one of the key pieces of evidence the outraged parents have - a photo of one teacher being held upside down by students and drinking from a keg - will be posted on The Smoking Gun soon.

Great moments in public educationFour

Great moments in public education

Four teachers in Medford, OK, are being accused of drinking with their underage students. One teacher denies any wrongdoing, and the school board assures that action has been taken. Me, I'm just hoping that one of the key pieces of evidence the outraged parents have - a photo of one teacher being held upside down by students and drinking from a keg - will be posted on The Smoking Gun soon.

Getting worse instead of betterMore

Getting worse instead of better

More than half of the students in New York's Otsego, Delaware, Schoharie and Chenango county school districts performed worse on eighth-grade standardized tests than they did on their fourth-grade tests. In other words, students seem to be losing ground as they advance in school. What does the school think is happening?

District officials looking for answers are offering several theories, including one that says middle school students are strapped with academic and adolescent issues they never experienced in elementary school....

The decline was most precipitous at Laurens Central School, where the district competency level dropped from 72 percent in 1999 to 36 percent this year. "Honestly, we're a little dumbfounded by the results," said Laurens Superintendent Romona Wenck, who said it can be hard to motivate eighth-graders to take any state-mandated test seriously.

But English scores may also have dropped, Wenck said, because the district has spent the last two years focusing on beefing up its math and science curriculum. She said realigning the English/language arts curriculum was put on the back burner because English scores in 1999 were high — higher, in fact, than any other district in Otsego County.

Sigh. Unfortunately, I think we're going to see more of this. I'm all for testing, which should surprise no one, but when testing is driving so much of the curriculum, you will see this sort of rapid-switching of focus. While the students were doing well in English, it sounds like the necessary steps to make sure they continued to do well were dropped so that math and science could take center stage. Acheiving a balance is difficult to do.

Getting worse instead of betterMore

Getting worse instead of better

More than half of the students in New York's Otsego, Delaware, Schoharie and Chenango county school districts performed worse on eighth-grade standardized tests than they did on their fourth-grade tests. In other words, students seem to be losing ground as they advance in school. What does the school think is happening?

District officials looking for answers are offering several theories, including one that says middle school students are strapped with academic and adolescent issues they never experienced in elementary school....

The decline was most precipitous at Laurens Central School, where the district competency level dropped from 72 percent in 1999 to 36 percent this year. "Honestly, we're a little dumbfounded by the results," said Laurens Superintendent Romona Wenck, who said it can be hard to motivate eighth-graders to take any state-mandated test seriously.

But English scores may also have dropped, Wenck said, because the district has spent the last two years focusing on beefing up its math and science curriculum. She said realigning the English/language arts curriculum was put on the back burner because English scores in 1999 were high — higher, in fact, than any other district in Otsego County.

Sigh. Unfortunately, I think we're going to see more of this. I'm all for testing, which should surprise no one, but when testing is driving so much of the curriculum, you will see this sort of rapid-switching of focus. While the students were doing well in English, it sounds like the necessary steps to make sure they continued to do well were dropped so that math and science could take center stage. Acheiving a balance is difficult to do.

Getting worse instead of betterMore

Getting worse instead of better

More than half of the students in New York's Otsego, Delaware, Schoharie and Chenango county school districts performed worse on eighth-grade standardized tests than they did on their fourth-grade tests. In other words, students seem to be losing ground as they advance in school. What does the school think is happening?

District officials looking for answers are offering several theories, including one that says middle school students are strapped with academic and adolescent issues they never experienced in elementary school....

The decline was most precipitous at Laurens Central School, where the district competency level dropped from 72 percent in 1999 to 36 percent this year. "Honestly, we're a little dumbfounded by the results," said Laurens Superintendent Romona Wenck, who said it can be hard to motivate eighth-graders to take any state-mandated test seriously.

But English scores may also have dropped, Wenck said, because the district has spent the last two years focusing on beefing up its math and science curriculum. She said realigning the English/language arts curriculum was put on the back burner because English scores in 1999 were high — higher, in fact, than any other district in Otsego County.

Sigh. Unfortunately, I think we're going to see more of this. I'm all for testing, which should surprise no one, but when testing is driving so much of the curriculum, you will see this sort of rapid-switching of focus. While the students were doing well in English, it sounds like the necessary steps to make sure they continued to do well were dropped so that math and science could take center stage. Acheiving a balance is difficult to do.

Teacher helps students cheat on

Teacher helps students cheat on FCAT

And speaking of Daryl Cobranchi (see below), who awoke much earlier than I did this morning), he caught wind of an interesting little FCAT scandal:

A math teacher at Florida A&M's Developmental Research School has been fired for copying and distributing portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a study tool. James Saylor had been on paid administrative leave since April. He had admitted copying portions of the 2002 FCAT and giving them to students as practice for the 2003 exam, officials said.

Two story passages in the copied material were identical to passages in this year's 10th-grade FCAT reading test. State law prohibits the reproduction of a state standardized test.

Florida doesn't distribute tests after administration, and reuses items. Thus, providing anyone with past tests is copyright infringement and cheating.

Anyone want to start a betting pool on how much time elapses before the first article is published offering this teacher's mendacity as "proof" that high-stakes testing "causes" cheating? I say one week.

Teacher helps students cheat on

Teacher helps students cheat on FCAT

And speaking of Daryl Cobranchi (see below), who awoke much earlier than I did this morning), he caught wind of an interesting little FCAT scandal:

A math teacher at Florida A&M's Developmental Research School has been fired for copying and distributing portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a study tool. James Saylor had been on paid administrative leave since April. He had admitted copying portions of the 2002 FCAT and giving them to students as practice for the 2003 exam, officials said.

Two story passages in the copied material were identical to passages in this year's 10th-grade FCAT reading test. State law prohibits the reproduction of a state standardized test.

Florida doesn't distribute tests after administration, and reuses items. Thus, providing anyone with past tests is copyright infringement and cheating.

Anyone want to start a betting pool on how much time elapses before the first article is published offering this teacher's mendacity as "proof" that high-stakes testing "causes" cheating? I say one week.

Teacher helps students cheat on

Teacher helps students cheat on FCAT

And speaking of Daryl Cobranchi (see below), who awoke much earlier than I did this morning), he caught wind of an interesting little FCAT scandal:

A math teacher at Florida A&M's Developmental Research School has been fired for copying and distributing portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a study tool. James Saylor had been on paid administrative leave since April. He had admitted copying portions of the 2002 FCAT and giving them to students as practice for the 2003 exam, officials said.

Two story passages in the copied material were identical to passages in this year's 10th-grade FCAT reading test. State law prohibits the reproduction of a state standardized test.

Florida doesn't distribute tests after administration, and reuses items. Thus, providing anyone with past tests is copyright infringement and cheating.

Anyone want to start a betting pool on how much time elapses before the first article is published offering this teacher's mendacity as "proof" that high-stakes testing "causes" cheating? I say one week.

Worst anti-testing article ever?Fellow edublogger

Worst anti-testing article ever?

Fellow edublogger Daryl Cobranchi sent me this article on Education News, which he thinks might be "possibly the worst anti-testing article ever written." If you don't know Daryl, he's been quoted in USA Today as being an expert on kittyblogs (just kidding, Daryl). Anyway, let's check out this article for ourselves:

...Unable to find competent education accountability standards in any of the 50 states, the No Child Left Behind education act (NCLB) weapons of mass public education destruction were devised for a new education marketplace...

Okay, I don't like the "weapons of mass destruction" analogy. It's just tossed in here as a cheap literary device, and the author, Daniel Pryzbyla, has yet to offer any support for why a federal act that was intended to improve education should be labeled as a "weapon."

Get rid of all the nonsensical frills of music, art, theatre, physical fitness, field trips and other non-academic squandering. Back to the basic 3 Rs – readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic. If you can’t perform on these tests in English, too bad. Sit in 2nd grade until you’re old enough to drive or your school shuts down. Above all else, no more whining!

Classic misdirection - or perhaps the straw man argument? NCLB says nothing about getting rid of every "nonsensical" course; just that the reading and math basics must be emphasized. Since when does emphasis on reading rule out art, theatre, and field trips? Obviously, the comment that kids might "sit in 2nd grade until [they're] old enough to drive" is meant to stoke fears that higher standards will result in massive grade retention, but it's a cheap shot. And doesn't the driver's license exam require you to read signs? If you're old enough to drive but still in second grade because you can't read, hell, I don't think you should be issued a license either.

Department of Education Secretary Dr. Rod Paige followed these hard-nosed tactics of the international political wizards down the hall at the Department of Defense after President Bush revitalized White House, Inc. Long before “September 11” and the search for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Bush’s advisors already knew “without a doubt” the appalling oil czar and vicious dictator Saddam Hussein (unlike dictators that agree with us) was stockpiling biological and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They didn’t sit around and wait for wimpy UN weapons inspectors to find them. Reliable evidence proved their existence, reason enough to attack Saddam’s evil intentions before he could unleash his nuclear warheads and WMD on all humanity. Well, we sure kicked butt! Started launching missiles and bombs in Iraq on March 19, 2003 and Baghdad was in the bag by April 9. How’s that for achieving war proficiency in record time? Sure! War is hell and people get killed, but somebody had to have the guts to destroy Iraq’s WMD before Hussein did it to us and other innocent bystanders. Less than 2 weeks later on April 21, Ret. U.S. General Jay Garner arrived to administer Iraq’s “reconstruction.”

The hell does that have to do with standardized testing? The NCLB Act? Education reform? Testing? Anyone? Where the heck did this rambling, incohrent, illogical, anti-war rant come from, and why is it on "Education" News? I'm not sure if I have the stomach for the rest of the article, if this is what the author considers to be legitimate education reform and testing discussion. I certainly don't have the stomach for this anti-Bush nonsense, so let's snip yet another paragraph of anti-war blather (that offers a political cartoon as support of Bush's "evil") and move on. Oh, and we have to remove the Rod Paige football references as well.

“We urge policymakers to use testing to inform, rather than replace, decision-making. A test score reveals only a very limited amount of information about individual students,” wrote editors Gary Orfield and Mindy L. Kornhaber in the preface of their Century Foundation book “Raising Standards or Raising Barriers? – Inequality and high-stakes testing in public education”...“Therefore, all major professional associations involved in educational testing, as well as the National Research Council, emphasize that decisions about student promotion, retention, program or curricular placements, and graduation must be based on more than a single test score…

Which is the same thing that AERA and NCME say as well, although they do qualify this statement by saying that if such a score is used, there should be ample validity evidence, and the students should be allowed multiple chances to pass, and given remedial education if they fail. In fact, all schools that use exit exams follow these rules, and they often provide alternatives (or loopholes) for students who don't pass the exit exam. Most educators do follow Orfield and Kornhaber's advice, despite what the author of this article would have you believe. An exit exam in and of itself does not confer a high school diploma - other education acheivements are required. Scores on college-level and professional-level exams (SAT, ACT, GRE, etc) are never the sole basis for admission.

In other words, most K-12 testing follows the AERA and NCME guidelines for ensuring the validity and fairness of high-stakes exams. Certification exams, on the other hand, are true barriers - but they're also often minimum-competency exams, which is what many high school exit exams are becoming. This article would have you believe that millions of high performing students are going to be denied diplomas solely based on one exam. This is simply not true.

A chapter “The Adverse Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Minority Students,” written by education researchers George Madaus and Marguerite Clarke, highlighted four conclusions after more than 30 years of research at Boston College. 1. High-stakes, high-standards tests do not have a markedly positive effect on teaching and learning in the classroom. 2. High-stakes tests do not motivate the unmotivated. 3. Contrary to popular belief, “authentic” forms of high-stakes assessments are not a more equitable way to assess the progress of students who differ by race, culture, native language or gender. 4. High-stakes testing programs have been shown to increase high school dropout rates, particularly among minority student populations.

Testing proponents are aware of this research, just as they are aware of the adverse impact of testing on minority students. I haven't read the chapter in question, but I've read a great deal about it, and it is by no means unconditionally accepted in the education world. I can think of a few reasons right off the bat to be wary of their conclusions.

Let's focus just on point #4. I doubt that Madaus & Clarke actually found that high-stakes exams cause higher high school dropout rates, because causal relationships are very difficult to prove and almost always require random assignment to conditions. Testing and dropout rates are most likely highly correlated, but that doesn't imply causation, and one could argue that higher dropout rates cause more testing, or that tests are more likely to be implemented in school districts that are not managing to keep kids in schools. What's more, other research I've seen on this topic uses a very broad definition of "dropout." In some studies, students who've moved to private schools, who've move out of state, or who've become homeschooled, have been counted as "dropouts" simply because they disappeared from the public school system.

What's more, there is research that contradicts this causal theory. Last month, I cited a peer-reviewed study showing that high-stakes exams do not lead to higher drop-out rates. Were Madaus & Clarke aware of this research? Or did they discount it?

Let me state for the record that I don't think high-stakes test will keep more kids in school, not unless substantial reforms accompany the tests. But neither do I think that testing in and of itself causes higher dropout rates. I should be more familiar with Madaus & Clarke's research than I am, but the fact that Mr. Pryzbyla didn't see fit to mention more recent research that disputes their conclusion shows me that he has an ax to grind.

In comparison, the Christian Science Monitor reviewed the Madaus & Clarke work, and presented a balanced picture by mentioning some reactions to the research:

Reformers respond that it's not the failure to graduate that hurts kids, it's pretending that they have the skills to be successful in life when they do not. "It is quite evident, no matter how you cut the data, that minority and poor kids are learning less of what they need to know than other kids," says Kati Haycock, executive director of the Education Trust, a Washington-based group that supports education reform. "There are already big-time consequences for kids if they learn or don't learn, but we hide it from them until they get out of school." Testing makes it clear to parents and to school systems that students need help at a time when it is still possible to help, she says.

In response to concerns over high failure rates, states such as Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York are already directing new resources for remediation to help failing students. "The numbers look bleak now, but we're putting $20 million into schools for remediation - and have requested $22 million for next year," says Alan Safran, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education. He urges caution in over-interpreting early test results. "Students won't take the test seriously until 2001. We want to activate parents whose kids are failing to insist on remediation and extra help," he adds.

Last week, the Massachusetts Board of Education deliberately proposed a low passing score for the MCAS tests to ensure that failure rates in the first years of the test are not overwhelming. "We are very fearful of a backlash building," says Abigail Thernstrom, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

In other words, depite what Mr. Pryzbyla would have you believe, testing proponents do care about minority children. They do notice when there's disparate impact. We don't consider this to be a "war" on poor children, despite all the military analogies being scattered about.

The big finish?

Unlike the alleged WMD in Iraq that have yet to be found, NCLB weapons of mass public education destruction have been located.

What a sorry conclusion. Based on two reports, Mr. Pryzbyla concludes that all of NCLB is flawed, when in fact, it's doing what it was intended to do - demonstrate that many public school-children, especially minority kids, are being shortchanged by the system. And he brings an inane anti-war agenda to the discussion to boot.

I think Daryl's assessment was right.

Worst anti-testing article ever?Fellow edublogger

Worst anti-testing article ever?

Fellow edublogger Daryl Cobranchi sent me this article on Education News, which he thinks might be "possibly the worst anti-testing article ever written." If you don't know Daryl, he's been quoted in USA Today as being an expert on kittyblogs (just kidding, Daryl). Anyway, let's check out this article for ourselves:

...Unable to find competent education accountability standards in any of the 50 states, the No Child Left Behind education act (NCLB) weapons of mass public education destruction were devised for a new education marketplace...

Okay, I don't like the "weapons of mass destruction" analogy. It's just tossed in here as a cheap literary device, and the author, Daniel Pryzbyla, has yet to offer any support for why a federal act that was intended to improve education should be labeled as a "weapon."

Get rid of all the nonsensical frills of music, art, theatre, physical fitness, field trips and other non-academic squandering. Back to the basic 3 Rs – readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic. If you can’t perform on these tests in English, too bad. Sit in 2nd grade until you’re old enough to drive or your school shuts down. Above all else, no more whining!

Classic misdirection - or perhaps the straw man argument? NCLB says nothing about getting rid of every "nonsensical" course; just that the reading and math basics must be emphasized. Since when does emphasis on reading rule out art, theatre, and field trips? Obviously, the comment that kids might "sit in 2nd grade until [they're] old enough to drive" is meant to stoke fears that higher standards will result in massive grade retention, but it's a cheap shot. And doesn't the driver's license exam require you to read signs? If you're old enough to drive but still in second grade because you can't read, hell, I don't think you should be issued a license either.

Department of Education Secretary Dr. Rod Paige followed these hard-nosed tactics of the international political wizards down the hall at the Department of Defense after President Bush revitalized White House, Inc. Long before “September 11” and the search for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Bush’s advisors already knew “without a doubt” the appalling oil czar and vicious dictator Saddam Hussein (unlike dictators that agree with us) was stockpiling biological and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They didn’t sit around and wait for wimpy UN weapons inspectors to find them. Reliable evidence proved their existence, reason enough to attack Saddam’s evil intentions before he could unleash his nuclear warheads and WMD on all humanity. Well, we sure kicked butt! Started launching missiles and bombs in Iraq on March 19, 2003 and Baghdad was in the bag by April 9. How’s that for achieving war proficiency in record time? Sure! War is hell and people get killed, but somebody had to have the guts to destroy Iraq’s WMD before Hussein did it to us and other innocent bystanders. Less than 2 weeks later on April 21, Ret. U.S. General Jay Garner arrived to administer Iraq’s “reconstruction.”

The hell does that have to do with standardized testing? The NCLB Act? Education reform? Testing? Anyone? Where the heck did this rambling, incohrent, illogical, anti-war rant come from, and why is it on "Education" News? I'm not sure if I have the stomach for the rest of the article, if this is what the author considers to be legitimate education reform and testing discussion. I certainly don't have the stomach for this anti-Bush nonsense, so let's snip yet another paragraph of anti-war blather (that offers a political cartoon as support of Bush's "evil") and move on. Oh, and we have to remove the Rod Paige football references as well.

“We urge policymakers to use testing to inform, rather than replace, decision-making. A test score reveals only a very limited amount of information about individual students,” wrote editors Gary Orfield and Mindy L. Kornhaber in the preface of their Century Foundation book “Raising Standards or Raising Barriers? – Inequality and high-stakes testing in public education”...“Therefore, all major professional associations involved in educational testing, as well as the National Research Council, emphasize that decisions about student promotion, retention, program or curricular placements, and graduation must be based on more than a single test score…

Which is the same thing that AERA and NCME say as well, although they do qualify this statement by saying that if such a score is used, there should be ample validity evidence, and the students should be allowed multiple chances to pass, and given remedial education if they fail. In fact, all schools that use exit exams follow these rules, and they often provide alternatives (or loopholes) for students who don't pass the exit exam. Most educators do follow Orfield and Kornhaber's advice, despite what the author of this article would have you believe. An exit exam in and of itself does not confer a high school diploma - other education acheivements are required. Scores on college-level and professional-level exams (SAT, ACT, GRE, etc) are never the sole basis for admission.

In other words, most K-12 testing follows the AERA and NCME guidelines for ensuring the validity and fairness of high-stakes exams. Certification exams, on the other hand, are true barriers - but they're also often minimum-competency exams, which is what many high school exit exams are becoming. This article would have you believe that millions of high performing students are going to be denied diplomas solely based on one exam. This is simply not true.

A chapter “The Adverse Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Minority Students,” written by education researchers George Madaus and Marguerite Clarke, highlighted four conclusions after more than 30 years of research at Boston College. 1. High-stakes, high-standards tests do not have a markedly positive effect on teaching and learning in the classroom. 2. High-stakes tests do not motivate the unmotivated. 3. Contrary to popular belief, “authentic” forms of high-stakes assessments are not a more equitable way to assess the progress of students who differ by race, culture, native language or gender. 4. High-stakes testing programs have been shown to increase high school dropout rates, particularly among minority student populations.

Testing proponents are aware of this research, just as they are aware of the adverse impact of testing on minority students. I haven't read the chapter in question, but I've read a great deal about it, and it is by no means unconditionally accepted in the education world. I can think of a few reasons right off the bat to be wary of their conclusions.

Let's focus just on point #4. I doubt that Madaus & Clarke actually found that high-stakes exams cause higher high school dropout rates, because causal relationships are very difficult to prove and almost always require random assignment to conditions. Testing and dropout rates are most likely highly correlated, but that doesn't imply causation, and one could argue that higher dropout rates cause more testing, or that tests are more likely to be implemented in school districts that are not managing to keep kids in schools. What's more, other research I've seen on this topic uses a very broad definition of "dropout." In some studies, students who've moved to private schools, who've move out of state, or who've become homeschooled, have been counted as "dropouts" simply because they disappeared from the public school system.

What's more, there is research that contradicts this causal theory. Last month, I cited a peer-reviewed study showing that high-stakes exams do not lead to higher drop-out rates. Were Madaus & Clarke aware of this research? Or did they discount it?

Let me state for the record that I don't think high-stakes test will keep more kids in school, not unless substantial reforms accompany the tests. But neither do I think that testing in and of itself causes higher dropout rates. I should be more familiar with Madaus & Clarke's research than I am, but the fact that Mr. Pryzbyla didn't see fit to mention more recent research that disputes their conclusion shows me that he has an ax to grind.

In comparison, the Christian Science Monitor reviewed the Madaus & Clarke work, and presented a balanced picture by mentioning some reactions to the research:

Reformers respond that it's not the failure to graduate that hurts kids, it's pretending that they have the skills to be successful in life when they do not. "It is quite evident, no matter how you cut the data, that minority and poor kids are learning less of what they need to know than other kids," says Kati Haycock, executive director of the Education Trust, a Washington-based group that supports education reform. "There are already big-time consequences for kids if they learn or don't learn, but we hide it from them until they get out of school." Testing makes it clear to parents and to school systems that students need help at a time when it is still possible to help, she says.

In response to concerns over high failure rates, states such as Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York are already directing new resources for remediation to help failing students. "The numbers look bleak now, but we're putting $20 million into schools for remediation - and have requested $22 million for next year," says Alan Safran, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education. He urges caution in over-interpreting early test results. "Students won't take the test seriously until 2001. We want to activate parents whose kids are failing to insist on remediation and extra help," he adds.

Last week, the Massachusetts Board of Education deliberately proposed a low passing score for the MCAS tests to ensure that failure rates in the first years of the test are not overwhelming. "We are very fearful of a backlash building," says Abigail Thernstrom, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

In other words, depite what Mr. Pryzbyla would have you believe, testing proponents do care about minority children. They do notice when there's disparate impact. We don't consider this to be a "war" on poor children, despite all the military analogies being scattered about.

The big finish?

Unlike the alleged WMD in Iraq that have yet to be found, NCLB weapons of mass public education destruction have been located.

What a sorry conclusion. Based on two reports, Mr. Pryzbyla concludes that all of NCLB is flawed, when in fact, it's doing what it was intended to do - demonstrate that many public school-children, especially minority kids, are being shortchanged by the system. And he brings an inane anti-war agenda to the discussion to boot.

I think Daryl's assessment was right.

Worst anti-testing article ever?Fellow edublogger

Worst anti-testing article ever?

Fellow edublogger Daryl Cobranchi sent me this article on Education News, which he thinks might be "possibly the worst anti-testing article ever written." If you don't know Daryl, he's been quoted in USA Today as being an expert on kittyblogs (just kidding, Daryl). Anyway, let's check out this article for ourselves:

...Unable to find competent education accountability standards in any of the 50 states, the No Child Left Behind education act (NCLB) weapons of mass public education destruction were devised for a new education marketplace...

Okay, I don't like the "weapons of mass destruction" analogy. It's just tossed in here as a cheap literary device, and the author, Daniel Pryzbyla, has yet to offer any support for why a federal act that was intended to improve education should be labeled as a "weapon."

Get rid of all the nonsensical frills of music, art, theatre, physical fitness, field trips and other non-academic squandering. Back to the basic 3 Rs – readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic. If you can’t perform on these tests in English, too bad. Sit in 2nd grade until you’re old enough to drive or your school shuts down. Above all else, no more whining!

Classic misdirection - or perhaps the straw man argument? NCLB says nothing about getting rid of every "nonsensical" course; just that the reading and math basics must be emphasized. Since when does emphasis on reading rule out art, theatre, and field trips? Obviously, the comment that kids might "sit in 2nd grade until [they're] old enough to drive" is meant to stoke fears that higher standards will result in massive grade retention, but it's a cheap shot. And doesn't the driver's license exam require you to read signs? If you're old enough to drive but still in second grade because you can't read, hell, I don't think you should be issued a license either.

Department of Education Secretary Dr. Rod Paige followed these hard-nosed tactics of the international political wizards down the hall at the Department of Defense after President Bush revitalized White House, Inc. Long before “September 11” and the search for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Bush’s advisors already knew “without a doubt” the appalling oil czar and vicious dictator Saddam Hussein (unlike dictators that agree with us) was stockpiling biological and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They didn’t sit around and wait for wimpy UN weapons inspectors to find them. Reliable evidence proved their existence, reason enough to attack Saddam’s evil intentions before he could unleash his nuclear warheads and WMD on all humanity. Well, we sure kicked butt! Started launching missiles and bombs in Iraq on March 19, 2003 and Baghdad was in the bag by April 9. How’s that for achieving war proficiency in record time? Sure! War is hell and people get killed, but somebody had to have the guts to destroy Iraq’s WMD before Hussein did it to us and other innocent bystanders. Less than 2 weeks later on April 21, Ret. U.S. General Jay Garner arrived to administer Iraq’s “reconstruction.”

The hell does that have to do with standardized testing? The NCLB Act? Education reform? Testing? Anyone? Where the heck did this rambling, incohrent, illogical, anti-war rant come from, and why is it on "Education" News? I'm not sure if I have the stomach for the rest of the article, if this is what the author considers to be legitimate education reform and testing discussion. I certainly don't have the stomach for this anti-Bush nonsense, so let's snip yet another paragraph of anti-war blather (that offers a political cartoon as support of Bush's "evil") and move on. Oh, and we have to remove the Rod Paige football references as well.

“We urge policymakers to use testing to inform, rather than replace, decision-making. A test score reveals only a very limited amount of information about individual students,” wrote editors Gary Orfield and Mindy L. Kornhaber in the preface of their Century Foundation book “Raising Standards or Raising Barriers? – Inequality and high-stakes testing in public education”...“Therefore, all major professional associations involved in educational testing, as well as the National Research Council, emphasize that decisions about student promotion, retention, program or curricular placements, and graduation must be based on more than a single test score…

Which is the same thing that AERA and NCME say as well, although they do qualify this statement by saying that if such a score is used, there should be ample validity evidence, and the students should be allowed multiple chances to pass, and given remedial education if they fail. In fact, all schools that use exit exams follow these rules, and they often provide alternatives (or loopholes) for students who don't pass the exit exam. Most educators do follow Orfield and Kornhaber's advice, despite what the author of this article would have you believe. An exit exam in and of itself does not confer a high school diploma - other education acheivements are required. Scores on college-level and professional-level exams (SAT, ACT, GRE, etc) are never the sole basis for admission.

In other words, most K-12 testing follows the AERA and NCME guidelines for ensuring the validity and fairness of high-stakes exams. Certification exams, on the other hand, are true barriers - but they're also often minimum-competency exams, which is what many high school exit exams are becoming. This article would have you believe that millions of high performing students are going to be denied diplomas solely based on one exam. This is simply not true.

A chapter “The Adverse Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Minority Students,” written by education researchers George Madaus and Marguerite Clarke, highlighted four conclusions after more than 30 years of research at Boston College. 1. High-stakes, high-standards tests do not have a markedly positive effect on teaching and learning in the classroom. 2. High-stakes tests do not motivate the unmotivated. 3. Contrary to popular belief, “authentic” forms of high-stakes assessments are not a more equitable way to assess the progress of students who differ by race, culture, native language or gender. 4. High-stakes testing programs have been shown to increase high school dropout rates, particularly among minority student populations.

Testing proponents are aware of this research, just as they are aware of the adverse impact of testing on minority students. I haven't read the chapter in question, but I've read a great deal about it, and it is by no means unconditionally accepted in the education world. I can think of a few reasons right off the bat to be wary of their conclusions.

Let's focus just on point #4. I doubt that Madaus & Clarke actually found that high-stakes exams cause higher high school dropout rates, because causal relationships are very difficult to prove and almost always require random assignment to conditions. Testing and dropout rates are most likely highly correlated, but that doesn't imply causation, and one could argue that higher dropout rates cause more testing, or that tests are more likely to be implemented in school districts that are not managing to keep kids in schools. What's more, other research I've seen on this topic uses a very broad definition of "dropout." In some studies, students who've moved to private schools, who've move out of state, or who've become homeschooled, have been counted as "dropouts" simply because they disappeared from the public school system.

What's more, there is research that contradicts this causal theory. Last month, I cited a peer-reviewed study showing that high-stakes exams do not lead to higher drop-out rates. Were Madaus & Clarke aware of this research? Or did they discount it?

Let me state for the record that I don't think high-stakes test will keep more kids in school, not unless substantial reforms accompany the tests. But neither do I think that testing in and of itself causes higher dropout rates. I should be more familiar with Madaus & Clarke's research than I am, but the fact that Mr. Pryzbyla didn't see fit to mention more recent research that disputes their conclusion shows me that he has an ax to grind.

In comparison, the Christian Science Monitor reviewed the Madaus & Clarke work, and presented a balanced picture by mentioning some reactions to the research:

Reformers respond that it's not the failure to graduate that hurts kids, it's pretending that they have the skills to be successful in life when they do not. "It is quite evident, no matter how you cut the data, that minority and poor kids are learning less of what they need to know than other kids," says Kati Haycock, executive director of the Education Trust, a Washington-based group that supports education reform. "There are already big-time consequences for kids if they learn or don't learn, but we hide it from them until they get out of school." Testing makes it clear to parents and to school systems that students need help at a time when it is still possible to help, she says.

In response to concerns over high failure rates, states such as Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York are already directing new resources for remediation to help failing students. "The numbers look bleak now, but we're putting $20 million into schools for remediation - and have requested $22 million for next year," says Alan Safran, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education. He urges caution in over-interpreting early test results. "Students won't take the test seriously until 2001. We want to activate parents whose kids are failing to insist on remediation and extra help," he adds.

Last week, the Massachusetts Board of Education deliberately proposed a low passing score for the MCAS tests to ensure that failure rates in the first years of the test are not overwhelming. "We are very fearful of a backlash building," says Abigail Thernstrom, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

In other words, depite what Mr. Pryzbyla would have you believe, testing proponents do care about minority children. They do notice when there's disparate impact. We don't consider this to be a "war" on poor children, despite all the military analogies being scattered about.

The big finish?

Unlike the alleged WMD in Iraq that have yet to be found, NCLB weapons of mass public education destruction have been located.

What a sorry conclusion. Based on two reports, Mr. Pryzbyla concludes that all of NCLB is flawed, when in fact, it's doing what it was intended to do - demonstrate that many public school-children, especially minority kids, are being shortchanged by the system. And he brings an inane anti-war agenda to the discussion to boot.

I think Daryl's assessment was right.

A new definition of "bilingual"Do

A new definition of "bilingual"

Do you think an American who can't communicate well in English should be fired from his or her job? Doesn't sound quite fair, does it? After all, the job might not depend on the worker being fluent in English, and insisting upon English fluency might prevent the company from hiring the best (or most qualified or most available or cheapest) person for the job.

But what if the job in question is bilingual education teacher?

Doesn't the job title explicitly state that the person must be fluent in at least two languages - specifically, the two languages being taught? Turns out that Boston cut corners a while back to hire "bi"-lingual teachers, and are now discovering that dozens of them may lose their jobs because they can't pass oral exams in English:

A new state law will eliminate most bilingual education programs and require schools to prove by the end of the summer that their teachers are proficient in English. So far, assessments, such as classroom observations by administrators, have found that dozens of them may have difficulty holding onto their jobs because of poor language skills.

In Lawrence, for example, 31 of 93 teachers evaluated did not pass English proficiency standards and could be fired if they fail an oral exam scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Lawrence Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy said...The state Department of Education recommends various methods of determining proficiency, such as the classroom screenings Laboy oversaw in Lawrence. If a teacher's proficiency is in question after the initial review, the state suggests an oral test be given by outside evaluators. The test measures the speaker's ability to use English in real-life situations...

Districts hired teachers who couldn't adequately speak English because growing ethnic populations had to be educated, but there were few qualified bilingual teachers to do it...

Bizarrely, the article the quotes someone who describes the hiring of someone with poor English skills as essential merely because that person was "bilingual." Either you can be fluent in only one language and be considered bilingual in Massachusetts, or you can be fluent in two languages, but neither needs to be English. What a wonder.

Update: Reader Bill claims that my last statement here was a misinterpretation. Here's the full quote:

Districts hired teachers who couldn't adequately speak English because growing ethnic populations had to be educated, but there were few qualified bilingual teachers to do it, said Claretha Coleman, director of personnel at the Springfield public schools. She added Springfield has less than 10 teachers who need testing.

''We really shouldn't let it happen at all,'' Coleman said. ''Sometimes a principal needs a person who's bilingual. So we take that person.''

Bill claims that what Ms. Coleman is really saying was, the principal had to have someone who spoke the language that wasn't English, so they were willing to hire "that person" regardless of their fluency in English. Okay, I see where I mixed that up (sorry), but I think Ms. Coleman's statement could have been clearer (because the "that person" in sentence 2 of her statement is not the "a person" that is bilingual in sentence 1 of the statement). I believe what she meant with her statement is, "We really shouldn't let it happen at all...Sometimes a principal needs a person who's bilingual, but when no qualified bilingual teachers were available, we chose to hire non-bilingual teachers who were fluent in the non-English language that the students used."

A new definition of "bilingual"Do

A new definition of "bilingual"

Do you think an American who can't communicate well in English should be fired from his or her job? Doesn't sound quite fair, does it? After all, the job might not depend on the worker being fluent in English, and insisting upon English fluency might prevent the company from hiring the best (or most qualified or most available or cheapest) person for the job.

But what if the job in question is bilingual education teacher?

Doesn't the job title explicitly state that the person must be fluent in at least two languages - specifically, the two languages being taught? Turns out that Boston cut corners a while back to hire "bi"-lingual teachers, and are now discovering that dozens of them may lose their jobs because they can't pass oral exams in English:

A new state law will eliminate most bilingual education programs and require schools to prove by the end of the summer that their teachers are proficient in English. So far, assessments, such as classroom observations by administrators, have found that dozens of them may have difficulty holding onto their jobs because of poor language skills.

In Lawrence, for example, 31 of 93 teachers evaluated did not pass English proficiency standards and could be fired if they fail an oral exam scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Lawrence Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy said...The state Department of Education recommends various methods of determining proficiency, such as the classroom screenings Laboy oversaw in Lawrence. If a teacher's proficiency is in question after the initial review, the state suggests an oral test be given by outside evaluators. The test measures the speaker's ability to use English in real-life situations...

Districts hired teachers who couldn't adequately speak English because growing ethnic populations had to be educated, but there were few qualified bilingual teachers to do it...

Bizarrely, the article the quotes someone who describes the hiring of someone with poor English skills as essential merely because that person was "bilingual." Either you can be fluent in only one language and be considered bilingual in Massachusetts, or you can be fluent in two languages, but neither needs to be English. What a wonder.

Update: Reader Bill claims that my last statement here was a misinterpretation. Here's the full quote:

Districts hired teachers who couldn't adequately speak English because growing ethnic populations had to be educated, but there were few qualified bilingual teachers to do it, said Claretha Coleman, director of personnel at the Springfield public schools. She added Springfield has less than 10 teachers who need testing.

''We really shouldn't let it happen at all,'' Coleman said. ''Sometimes a principal needs a person who's bilingual. So we take that person.''

Bill claims that what Ms. Coleman is really saying was, the principal had to have someone who spoke the language that wasn't English, so they were willing to hire "that person" regardless of their fluency in English. Okay, I see where I mixed that up (sorry), but I think Ms. Coleman's statement could have been clearer (because the "that person" in sentence 2 of her statement is not the "a person" that is bilingual in sentence 1 of the statement). I believe what she meant with her statement is, "We really shouldn't let it happen at all...Sometimes a principal needs a person who's bilingual, but when no qualified bilingual teachers were available, we chose to hire non-bilingual teachers who were fluent in the non-English language that the students used."

A new definition of "bilingual"Do

A new definition of "bilingual"

Do you think an American who can't communicate well in English should be fired from his or her job? Doesn't sound quite fair, does it? After all, the job might not depend on the worker being fluent in English, and insisting upon English fluency might prevent the company from hiring the best (or most qualified or most available or cheapest) person for the job.

But what if the job in question is bilingual education teacher?

Doesn't the job title explicitly state that the person must be fluent in at least two languages - specifically, the two languages being taught? Turns out that Boston cut corners a while back to hire "bi"-lingual teachers, and are now discovering that dozens of them may lose their jobs because they can't pass oral exams in English:

A new state law will eliminate most bilingual education programs and require schools to prove by the end of the summer that their teachers are proficient in English. So far, assessments, such as classroom observations by administrators, have found that dozens of them may have difficulty holding onto their jobs because of poor language skills.

In Lawrence, for example, 31 of 93 teachers evaluated did not pass English proficiency standards and could be fired if they fail an oral exam scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Lawrence Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy said...The state Department of Education recommends various methods of determining proficiency, such as the classroom screenings Laboy oversaw in Lawrence. If a teacher's proficiency is in question after the initial review, the state suggests an oral test be given by outside evaluators. The test measures the speaker's ability to use English in real-life situations...

Districts hired teachers who couldn't adequately speak English because growing ethnic populations had to be educated, but there were few qualified bilingual teachers to do it...

Bizarrely, the article the quotes someone who describes the hiring of someone with poor English skills as essential merely because that person was "bilingual." Either you can be fluent in only one language and be considered bilingual in Massachusetts, or you can be fluent in two languages, but neither needs to be English. What a wonder.

Update: Reader Bill claims that my last statement here was a misinterpretation. Here's the full quote:

Districts hired teachers who couldn't adequately speak English because growing ethnic populations had to be educated, but there were few qualified bilingual teachers to do it, said Claretha Coleman, director of personnel at the Springfield public schools. She added Springfield has less than 10 teachers who need testing.

''We really shouldn't let it happen at all,'' Coleman said. ''Sometimes a principal needs a person who's bilingual. So we take that person.''

Bill claims that what Ms. Coleman is really saying was, the principal had to have someone who spoke the language that wasn't English, so they were willing to hire "that person" regardless of their fluency in English. Okay, I see where I mixed that up (sorry), but I think Ms. Coleman's statement could have been clearer (because the "that person" in sentence 2 of her statement is not the "a person" that is bilingual in sentence 1 of the statement). I believe what she meant with her statement is, "We really shouldn't let it happen at all...Sometimes a principal needs a person who's bilingual, but when no qualified bilingual teachers were available, we chose to hire non-bilingual teachers who were fluent in the non-English language that the students used."

Defending affirmative actionScott Dillon, a

Defending affirmative action

Scott Dillon, a graduate of the University of Indiana-Bloomington's law school, recently published a pamphlet (using data directly from the law school) which showed that LSAT scores for Indiana's black law students were on average significantly lower than LSAT scores for their corresponding white classmates. He distributed these pamphlets free of charge to the mailboxes of current students. The pamphlets mysteriously vanished - and officials of the law school have now gone on record to defend affirmative action (subscription required):

According to Mr. Dillon's research, in 1999, for example, the average LSAT score for black applicants accepted at the law school was 146, which was the 32nd percentile of test-takers nationwide. The average nonminority student's LSAT score was 159, which was the 81st percentile. The law school no longer tracks test scores by minority status.

After the information packets disappeared from students' mailboxes, Mr. Dillon complained to Lauren K. Robel, the dean of the law school, and demanded an investigation. He also asked that she send an e-mail message to students with his 13-page document attached. She did send out an e-mail message, telling students about the reported theft, and giving them Mr. Dillon's e-mail address in case they wanted copies.

The National Association of Scholars, which opposes AA, is involved, and the controversy seems to be getting on everyone's nerves. Oh, and Dean Robel provided some lovely double-speak in regards to the irrefutable test score gap:

Ms. Robel said she has no reason to doubt the numbers cited in Mr. Dillon's report, which were provided by the law school. "But the point of affirmative action is to look past test scores," she said. "It doesn't surprise me that the median test scores of minority students are lower than those of Caucasian students. If that weren't the case, affirmative action would be unnecessary." Nevertheless, she added, "our minority students come wonderfully qualified in all sorts of ways, and they do good work when they leave. I'll stack them up against any students in the country."

"All sorts of ways," none of which apparently translate into intellectual mastery as evidenced by the highly-reliable and predictive LSAT. Her honesty about the fact that Indiana is willing to ignore low test scores based on skin color is refreshing, although by her logic, there's no rationale for refusing anyone on the basis of a low LSAT, which makes me wonder why the test is used for admissions there at all. Oh, and I also wonder why the school "no longer tracks test scores by minority status." At least, not after minorities who are "wonderfully qualified" in other ways are admitted. And, given this stated policy, how could Indiana possibly defend themselves against a non-minority students who possesses "wonderful" qualifications in other ways, yet ends up being rejected? And how can Indiana consider itself to be progressive, when they require that only non-minority (white) students demonstrate mastery of pre-law skills, while waiving that requirement for minority applicants? Isn't this, in essence, the racist assumption that minority students can't be expected to do as well as non-minorities?

There's more here, in this Hoosier Review article by Scott Dillon:

During an hour and a half interview I conducted with both [Chair of the Law School's Admissions Committee Jeffrey] Stake and Law School Dean Robel in January, Stake explained the same "two-pronged" approach...As Stake's quote from the Herald Times article explains, the law school does not evaluate each applicant's "file as a whole" as appears in the Law School's brief in Grutter. In fact, the actual "two-pronged" approach places emphasis on LSAT only for "half" of the student body, with, as stated by Stake, those applicants in the bottom fifty percent of LSAT scores evaluated in a different manner that does not "pay too much attention to the [LSAT] test." Such a system permits those applicants with lower LSAT scores much greater likelihood to gain admission than a system that evaluates each applicant on equal terms.

Sounds like Indiana's version of giving minority students a hand up is simply to ignore LSAT scores, a decision that has no basis in psychometric soundness.

Thanks to John at Discriminations for the link.

Defending affirmative actionScott Dillon, a

Defending affirmative action

Scott Dillon, a graduate of the University of Indiana-Bloomington's law school, recently published a pamphlet (using data directly from the law school) which showed that LSAT scores for Indiana's black law students were on average significantly lower than LSAT scores for their corresponding white classmates. He distributed these pamphlets free of charge to the mailboxes of current students. The pamphlets mysteriously vanished - and officials of the law school have now gone on record to defend affirmative action (subscription required):

According to Mr. Dillon's research, in 1999, for example, the average LSAT score for black applicants accepted at the law school was 146, which was the 32nd percentile of test-takers nationwide. The average nonminority student's LSAT score was 159, which was the 81st percentile. The law school no longer tracks test scores by minority status.

After the information packets disappeared from students' mailboxes, Mr. Dillon complained to Lauren K. Robel, the dean of the law school, and demanded an investigation. He also asked that she send an e-mail message to students with his 13-page document attached. She did send out an e-mail message, telling students about the reported theft, and giving them Mr. Dillon's e-mail address in case they wanted copies.

The National Association of Scholars, which opposes AA, is involved, and the controversy seems to be getting on everyone's nerves. Oh, and Dean Robel provided some lovely double-speak in regards to the irrefutable test score gap:

Ms. Robel said she has no reason to doubt the numbers cited in Mr. Dillon's report, which were provided by the law school. "But the point of affirmative action is to look past test scores," she said. "It doesn't surprise me that the median test scores of minority students are lower than those of Caucasian students. If that weren't the case, affirmative action would be unnecessary." Nevertheless, she added, "our minority students come wonderfully qualified in all sorts of ways, and they do good work when they leave. I'll stack them up against any students in the country."

"All sorts of ways," none of which apparently translate into intellectual mastery as evidenced by the highly-reliable and predictive LSAT. Her honesty about the fact that Indiana is willing to ignore low test scores based on skin color is refreshing, although by her logic, there's no rationale for refusing anyone on the basis of a low LSAT, which makes me wonder why the test is used for admissions there at all. Oh, and I also wonder why the school "no longer tracks test scores by minority status." At least, not after minorities who are "wonderfully qualified" in other ways are admitted. And, given this stated policy, how could Indiana possibly defend themselves against a non-minority students who possesses "wonderful" qualifications in other ways, yet ends up being rejected? And how can Indiana consider itself to be progressive, when they require that only non-minority (white) students demonstrate mastery of pre-law skills, while waiving that requirement for minority applicants? Isn't this, in essence, the racist assumption that minority students can't be expected to do as well as non-minorities?

There's more here, in this Hoosier Review article by Scott Dillon:

During an hour and a half interview I conducted with both [Chair of the Law School's Admissions Committee Jeffrey] Stake and Law School Dean Robel in January, Stake explained the same "two-pronged" approach...As Stake's quote from the Herald Times article explains, the law school does not evaluate each applicant's "file as a whole" as appears in the Law School's brief in Grutter. In fact, the actual "two-pronged" approach places emphasis on LSAT only for "half" of the student body, with, as stated by Stake, those applicants in the bottom fifty percent of LSAT scores evaluated in a different manner that does not "pay too much attention to the [LSAT] test." Such a system permits those applicants with lower LSAT scores much greater likelihood to gain admission than a system that evaluates each applicant on equal terms.

Sounds like Indiana's version of giving minority students a hand up is simply to ignore LSAT scores, a decision that has no basis in psychometric soundness.

Thanks to John at Discriminations for the link.

Defending affirmative actionScott Dillon, a

Defending affirmative action

Scott Dillon, a graduate of the University of Indiana-Bloomington's law school, recently published a pamphlet (using data directly from the law school) which showed that LSAT scores for Indiana's black law students were on average significantly lower than LSAT scores for their corresponding white classmates. He distributed these pamphlets free of charge to the mailboxes of current students. The pamphlets mysteriously vanished - and officials of the law school have now gone on record to defend affirmative action (subscription required):

According to Mr. Dillon's research, in 1999, for example, the average LSAT score for black applicants accepted at the law school was 146, which was the 32nd percentile of test-takers nationwide. The average nonminority student's LSAT score was 159, which was the 81st percentile. The law school no longer tracks test scores by minority status.

After the information packets disappeared from students' mailboxes, Mr. Dillon complained to Lauren K. Robel, the dean of the law school, and demanded an investigation. He also asked that she send an e-mail message to students with his 13-page document attached. She did send out an e-mail message, telling students about the reported theft, and giving them Mr. Dillon's e-mail address in case they wanted copies.

The National Association of Scholars, which opposes AA, is involved, and the controversy seems to be getting on everyone's nerves. Oh, and Dean Robel provided some lovely double-speak in regards to the irrefutable test score gap:

Ms. Robel said she has no reason to doubt the numbers cited in Mr. Dillon's report, which were provided by the law school. "But the point of affirmative action is to look past test scores," she said. "It doesn't surprise me that the median test scores of minority students are lower than those of Caucasian students. If that weren't the case, affirmative action would be unnecessary." Nevertheless, she added, "our minority students come wonderfully qualified in all sorts of ways, and they do good work when they leave. I'll stack them up against any students in the country."

"All sorts of ways," none of which apparently translate into intellectual mastery as evidenced by the highly-reliable and predictive LSAT. Her honesty about the fact that Indiana is willing to ignore low test scores based on skin color is refreshing, although by her logic, there's no rationale for refusing anyone on the basis of a low LSAT, which makes me wonder why the test is used for admissions there at all. Oh, and I also wonder why the school "no longer tracks test scores by minority status." At least, not after minorities who are "wonderfully qualified" in other ways are admitted. And, given this stated policy, how could Indiana possibly defend themselves against a non-minority students who possesses "wonderful" qualifications in other ways, yet ends up being rejected? And how can Indiana consider itself to be progressive, when they require that only non-minority (white) students demonstrate mastery of pre-law skills, while waiving that requirement for minority applicants? Isn't this, in essence, the racist assumption that minority students can't be expected to do as well as non-minorities?

There's more here, in this Hoosier Review article by Scott Dillon:

During an hour and a half interview I conducted with both [Chair of the Law School's Admissions Committee Jeffrey] Stake and Law School Dean Robel in January, Stake explained the same "two-pronged" approach...As Stake's quote from the Herald Times article explains, the law school does not evaluate each applicant's "file as a whole" as appears in the Law School's brief in Grutter. In fact, the actual "two-pronged" approach places emphasis on LSAT only for "half" of the student body, with, as stated by Stake, those applicants in the bottom fifty percent of LSAT scores evaluated in a different manner that does not "pay too much attention to the [LSAT] test." Such a system permits those applicants with lower LSAT scores much greater likelihood to gain admission than a system that evaluates each applicant on equal terms.

Sounds like Indiana's version of giving minority students a hand up is simply to ignore LSAT scores, a decision that has no basis in psychometric soundness.

Thanks to John at Discriminations for the link.

Little schools, big schoolsThe nation's

Little schools, big schools

The nation's one-room schoolhouses, in which half of all America's youths were once enrolled, are now vanishing. Only 423 one-room, one-teacher schools remain in the US - and some have Internet access and visiting education specialists. Allison Shelley's sympathetic article provides a wealth of links for those interested in this bit of Americana, as well as in-depth stories of four one-room schools that are still operational.

Be sure to click on the photo gallery accompanying the article. Reminds me a lot of the town where my mom and dad grew up. While the one-room schools there have been replaced with behemoth buildings, many one room-churches still remain...

At the other extreme, there's Los Angeles's Belmont Learning Center, aka the most expensive high school in history, aka "The Belmonster". Almost $200 million has already been spent on the non-operational school, which, according to the Pacific Research Institute, has given us "clear lessons about what is wrong with California's government education system":

Los Angeles could have eased overcrowding by converting administrative facilities to classrooms. They opted instead to build Belmont, a high-school for 5,000 students, a shopping mall, and 120 apartments. The grandiose project raised expectations and proved difficult to oppose, even with a $200 million price tag...

The winning bid came from a firm with connections in the district. But in 1998, a year after breaking ground, a report indicated serious environmental problems on the site, including seepage of methane gas. The report got buried but the dangers could not be long ignored.

In January 2000, the Los Angeles Board of education voted to kill the project, which had then consumed more than $123 million without serving a single student. It now stands partly wrapped in plywood and plastic, a monument to waste and ineptitude visible from the Harbor Freeway...

On May 22, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted 4-3 to plow another $111 million into the Belmont Learning Center. The new plan includes a park but no apartments or retail space. The revamped school will serve 2,600 students, just over half the original estimate. And yet the cost has increased to more than a quarter billion dollars. Based on past experience, the actual cost will be even higher...

If finished at all, the facilities deliver less than promised. That is because buildings and students play a secondary role.The system works best as a means for the redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to educational bureaucrats and their cronies. For them, Belmont is a raging success. Many took the money and ran. As far as can be discerned, not a single district employee was fired, though several have been suspended for a year-with pay, of course.This is how things work in the government education monopoly, which thrives on waste, facilitates corruption, cheats those it claims to serve, and ultimately harms the entire state...

This came in an email from the PRI's Capital Ideas page, but the link isn't up there yet.

Little schools, big schoolsThe nation's

Little schools, big schools

The nation's one-room schoolhouses, in which half of all America's youths were once enrolled, are now vanishing. Only 423 one-room, one-teacher schools remain in the US - and some have Internet access and visiting education specialists. Allison Shelley's sympathetic article provides a wealth of links for those interested in this bit of Americana, as well as in-depth stories of four one-room schools that are still operational.

Be sure to click on the photo gallery accompanying the article. Reminds me a lot of the town where my mom and dad grew up. While the one-room schools there have been replaced with behemoth buildings, many one room-churches still remain...

At the other extreme, there's Los Angeles's Belmont Learning Center, aka the most expensive high school in history, aka "The Belmonster". Almost $200 million has already been spent on the non-operational school, which, according to the Pacific Research Institute, has given us "clear lessons about what is wrong with California's government education system":

Los Angeles could have eased overcrowding by converting administrative facilities to classrooms. They opted instead to build Belmont, a high-school for 5,000 students, a shopping mall, and 120 apartments. The grandiose project raised expectations and proved difficult to oppose, even with a $200 million price tag...

The winning bid came from a firm with connections in the district. But in 1998, a year after breaking ground, a report indicated serious environmental problems on the site, including seepage of methane gas. The report got buried but the dangers could not be long ignored.

In January 2000, the Los Angeles Board of education voted to kill the project, which had then consumed more than $123 million without serving a single student. It now stands partly wrapped in plywood and plastic, a monument to waste and ineptitude visible from the Harbor Freeway...

On May 22, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted 4-3 to plow another $111 million into the Belmont Learning Center. The new plan includes a park but no apartments or retail space. The revamped school will serve 2,600 students, just over half the original estimate. And yet the cost has increased to more than a quarter billion dollars. Based on past experience, the actual cost will be even higher...

If finished at all, the facilities deliver less than promised. That is because buildings and students play a secondary role.The system works best as a means for the redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to educational bureaucrats and their cronies. For them, Belmont is a raging success. Many took the money and ran. As far as can be discerned, not a single district employee was fired, though several have been suspended for a year-with pay, of course.This is how things work in the government education monopoly, which thrives on waste, facilitates corruption, cheats those it claims to serve, and ultimately harms the entire state...

This came in an email from the PRI's Capital Ideas page, but the link isn't up there yet.

Little schools, big schoolsThe nation's

Little schools, big schools

The nation's one-room schoolhouses, in which half of all America's youths were once enrolled, are now vanishing. Only 423 one-room, one-teacher schools remain in the US - and some have Internet access and visiting education specialists. Allison Shelley's sympathetic article provides a wealth of links for those interested in this bit of Americana, as well as in-depth stories of four one-room schools that are still operational.

Be sure to click on the photo gallery accompanying the article. Reminds me a lot of the town where my mom and dad grew up. While the one-room schools there have been replaced with behemoth buildings, many one room-churches still remain...

At the other extreme, there's Los Angeles's Belmont Learning Center, aka the most expensive high school in history, aka "The Belmonster". Almost $200 million has already been spent on the non-operational school, which, according to the Pacific Research Institute, has given us "clear lessons about what is wrong with California's government education system":

Los Angeles could have eased overcrowding by converting administrative facilities to classrooms. They opted instead to build Belmont, a high-school for 5,000 students, a shopping mall, and 120 apartments. The grandiose project raised expectations and proved difficult to oppose, even with a $200 million price tag...

The winning bid came from a firm with connections in the district. But in 1998, a year after breaking ground, a report indicated serious environmental problems on the site, including seepage of methane gas. The report got buried but the dangers could not be long ignored.

In January 2000, the Los Angeles Board of education voted to kill the project, which had then consumed more than $123 million without serving a single student. It now stands partly wrapped in plywood and plastic, a monument to waste and ineptitude visible from the Harbor Freeway...

On May 22, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted 4-3 to plow another $111 million into the Belmont Learning Center. The new plan includes a park but no apartments or retail space. The revamped school will serve 2,600 students, just over half the original estimate. And yet the cost has increased to more than a quarter billion dollars. Based on past experience, the actual cost will be even higher...

If finished at all, the facilities deliver less than promised. That is because buildings and students play a secondary role.The system works best as a means for the redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to educational bureaucrats and their cronies. For them, Belmont is a raging success. Many took the money and ran. As far as can be discerned, not a single district employee was fired, though several have been suspended for a year-with pay, of course.This is how things work in the government education monopoly, which thrives on waste, facilitates corruption, cheats those it claims to serve, and ultimately harms the entire state...

This came in an email from the PRI's Capital Ideas page, but the link isn't up there yet.

More thanks, again...Received yet another

More thanks, again...

Received yet another book today from a Generous Reader - Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed. That goes in the big pile o'stuff to read and blog. Thanks so much.

More thanks, again...Received yet another

More thanks, again...

Received yet another book today from a Generous Reader - Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed. That goes in the big pile o'stuff to read and blog. Thanks so much.

More thanks, again...Received yet another

More thanks, again...

Received yet another book today from a Generous Reader - Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed. That goes in the big pile o'stuff to read and blog. Thanks so much.

The problem of intuitive test

The problem of intuitive test theory

I only have time for one post today, so I'm going to make it count. Here's a link to a newly-posted article on intuitive test theory, written by two eminent psychometricians. The first author is Robert Mislevy, who's a professor of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation at the University of Maryland. He's also a giant in my field and an all-around nice, brilliant, funny guy (here's a link to various doodles he drew during boring meetings - "The worse the meeting, the better the drawing", in his words). His co-author is Henry Braun, a well-known researcher who was former VP for research management at ETS, and is now a distinguished presidential appointee (let me hasten to add, however, that the paper does not represent ETS's position or policies).

This paper is really, really, really neat, and I want to know what you non-psychometricians out there think of it (and so does Bob Mislevy, for that matter). The thesis of the paper is that there are "phenomenological primitives," or p-prims, in psychometrics just as there are in physics (from where the term is borrowed). P-prims are:

...primitive notions in the sense that they "stand without significant explanatory substructure or explanation" (diSessa, 1983, p. 15). Familiar examples [in physics] are "Heavy objects fall faster than light objects", "things bounce because they are 'springy'", and "Continuing force is needed for continuing motion."

Most anyone who is not a physicist is going to have a world-view that is in some way shaped by p-prims - these are intuitive, primitive notions, drawn from direct observation, that can serve as an explanation for functioning in the world without actually being correct. Physicists know these p-prims are not correct, of course, but most of the rest of us don't, because we don't need to. We're not the ones building particle accelerators or "shooting rockets to the moon," so it doesn't matter if we can't explain much about space, time, and force without resorting to broad, inaccurate generalities. We know how to throw a ball to a dog; we don't have to know why the ball flies or why it stops. We aren't the engineers.

So let's move on to the field of testing. As some of you might remember, I was inspired a while back by this Steven Den Beste article, and subsequently wrote about how psychometricians are the engineers of educational testing. We're the ones who have to know how things actually work in testing, and we have to build tests according to empirical models, not sociological or educational theories about how tests should work. Problem is, a vast set of testing p-prims has developed - the "intuitive test theory" in the paper's title - and much of the current debate about testing is being informed not by empirical test theory, but by the intuitive theory. Actually, "inform" might be the wrong word, because these p-prims, which are explicitly stated in the paper, are often a hindrance to intelligent discussion and decision-making in the education world:

...first I will list a number of beliefs about testing that my colleagues and I come upon time and again in discussions of tests in everyday conversations. We will return to them presently.

• A test measures what it says at the top of the page.
• A test is a test is a test.
• Any two tests that measure the same thing can be made interchangeable, with a little equating magic
• A score is a score is a score.
• You score a test by adding up scores for items.
• 93% is an A, 85% is a B, 78% is a C, and 70% is passing.
• Multiple-choice questions only measure recall.
• It's easy to write test items.
• You can tell if an item is good by looking at it.
• You can tell if a test is good by looking at it.
• Technology will solve testing problems by making it possible to get voluminous amounts of data.

The remainder of the paper then goes on to address these p-prims, in a manner that's meaty enough for psychometricians yet readable enough for the layperson. I think the entire subject is absolutely fascinating. And I agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion about how this makes life frustrating for psychometricians:

One [aspect of the job] isn't fun, but the other is. The one that isn't fun is trying to critique or implement policies and programs that have been put together on the basis of intuitive test theory. This kind of project requires a lot of telling people that what they want to do won't work, and to do it right is harder or takes longer or isn't as accurate as they want.

Amen. What I've been routinely bashing as testing "myths" are what Mislevy and Braun have more elegantly defined in this paper, and in writing this, they've done a great service to psychometricians and others educators alike.

In addition, I received an email from Bob Mislevy, in which he mentioned the connection between this topic and my comment about psychometricians and engineers. He also mentioned the astounding lack of solid test theory knowledge in some people who should know better, including the hapless Mr. Freedle, who had the, um, "imaginative" solution for correcting racial bias on the SAT:

...it is amazing how many people in the education business, including even assessment policy, don't really understand the concepts underlying psychometrics--even when they know a lot of the words and use some of the formulas...The other [connection] is the more recent entry about Roy Freedle's paper. Despite his many years at ETS, and knowing a great deal about language and substance of language assessment, Mr. Freedle remained remarkably robust against those basic ideas of the inferential machinery of assessment. What he says does indeed make for good copy in the popular press, unfortunately. Hooks in so neatly to some strong and popular p-prims...

Yes, those people whose comments match up with the more popular myths are the ones who get the publicity; those of us who try to patiently defuse these myths are often ignored. The refusal of some to correct their intuitive test ideas is understandable - after all, who wants a lecture on physics every time they play catch with Oscar? - but when the intuitive test theories are driving educational reform, or state standards, it's incredibly frustrating to watch.

"Remains remarkably robust against those basic ideas" - heh. Hee hee hee. Okay, so you'd have to be a psychometrician to really see the humor in that. Still, the joke is greatly appreciated on this end.

Anyway, I want to see plenty of reader discussion about this. Those of you who are educational professionals and reformers, those of you who are parents, those of you who have way too much time on your hands (you know who you are) - send me some emails. Download this paper. Suggest some other p-prims (such as the one I keep bashing, which is "Group mean differences indicate test bias," although I'm not sure that's so much a myth as a willful misrepresentation for ideological purposes). Let me know what you think.

The problem of intuitive test

The problem of intuitive test theory

I only have time for one post today, so I'm going to make it count. Here's a link to a newly-posted article on intuitive test theory, written by two eminent psychometricians. The first author is Robert Mislevy, who's a professor of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation at the University of Maryland. He's also a giant in my field and an all-around nice, brilliant, funny guy (here's a link to various doodles he drew during boring meetings - "The worse the meeting, the better the drawing", in his words). His co-author is Henry Braun, a well-known researcher who was former VP for research management at ETS, and is now a distinguished presidential appointee (let me hasten to add, however, that the paper does not represent ETS's position or policies).

This paper is really, really, really neat, and I want to know what you non-psychometricians out there think of it (and so does Bob Mislevy, for that matter). The thesis of the paper is that there are "phenomenological primitives," or p-prims, in psychometrics just as there are in physics (from where the term is borrowed). P-prims are:

...primitive notions in the sense that they "stand without significant explanatory substructure or explanation" (diSessa, 1983, p. 15). Familiar examples [in physics] are "Heavy objects fall faster than light objects", "things bounce because they are 'springy'", and "Continuing force is needed for continuing motion."

Most anyone who is not a physicist is going to have a world-view that is in some way shaped by p-prims - these are intuitive, primitive notions, drawn from direct observation, that can serve as an explanation for functioning in the world without actually being correct. Physicists know these p-prims are not correct, of course, but most of the rest of us don't, because we don't need to. We're not the ones building particle accelerators or "shooting rockets to the moon," so it doesn't matter if we can't explain much about space, time, and force without resorting to broad, inaccurate generalities. We know how to throw a ball to a dog; we don't have to know why the ball flies or why it stops. We aren't the engineers.

So let's move on to the field of testing. As some of you might remember, I was inspired a while back by this Steven Den Beste article, and subsequently wrote about how psychometricians are the engineers of educational testing. We're the ones who have to know how things actually work in testing, and we have to build tests according to empirical models, not sociological or educational theories about how tests should work. Problem is, a vast set of testing p-prims has developed - the "intuitive test theory" in the paper's title - and much of the current debate about testing is being informed not by empirical test theory, but by the intuitive theory. Actually, "inform" might be the wrong word, because these p-prims, which are explicitly stated in the paper, are often a hindrance to intelligent discussion and decision-making in the education world:

...first I will list a number of beliefs about testing that my colleagues and I come upon time and again in discussions of tests in everyday conversations. We will return to them presently.

• A test measures what it says at the top of the page.
• A test is a test is a test.
• Any two tests that measure the same thing can be made interchangeable, with a little equating magic
• A score is a score is a score.
• You score a test by adding up scores for items.
• 93% is an A, 85% is a B, 78% is a C, and 70% is passing.
• Multiple-choice questions only measure recall.
• It's easy to write test items.
• You can tell if an item is good by looking at it.
• You can tell if a test is good by looking at it.
• Technology will solve testing problems by making it possible to get voluminous amounts of data.

The remainder of the paper then goes on to address these p-prims, in a manner that's meaty enough for psychometricians yet readable enough for the layperson. I think the entire subject is absolutely fascinating. And I agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion about how this makes life frustrating for psychometricians:

One [aspect of the job] isn't fun, but the other is. The one that isn't fun is trying to critique or implement policies and programs that have been put together on the basis of intuitive test theory. This kind of project requires a lot of telling people that what they want to do won't work, and to do it right is harder or takes longer or isn't as accurate as they want.

Amen. What I've been routinely bashing as testing "myths" are what Mislevy and Braun have more elegantly defined in this paper, and in writing this, they've done a great service to psychometricians and others educators alike.

In addition, I received an email from Bob Mislevy, in which he mentioned the connection between this topic and my comment about psychometricians and engineers. He also mentioned the astounding lack of solid test theory knowledge in some people who should know better, including the hapless Mr. Freedle, who had the, um, "imaginative" solution for correcting racial bias on the SAT:

...it is amazing how many people in the education business, including even assessment policy, don't really understand the concepts underlying psychometrics--even when they know a lot of the words and use some of the formulas...The other [connection] is the more recent entry about Roy Freedle's paper. Despite his many years at ETS, and knowing a great deal about language and substance of language assessment, Mr. Freedle remained remarkably robust against those basic ideas of the inferential machinery of assessment. What he says does indeed make for good copy in the popular press, unfortunately. Hooks in so neatly to some strong and popular p-prims...

Yes, those people whose comments match up with the more popular myths are the ones who get the publicity; those of us who try to patiently defuse these myths are often ignored. The refusal of some to correct their intuitive test ideas is understandable - after all, who wants a lecture on physics every time they play catch with Oscar? - but when the intuitive test theories are driving educational reform, or state standards, it's incredibly frustrating to watch.

"Remains remarkably robust against those basic ideas" - heh. Hee hee hee. Okay, so you'd have to be a psychometrician to really see the humor in that. Still, the joke is greatly appreciated on this end.

Anyway, I want to see plenty of reader discussion about this. Those of you who are educational professionals and reformers, those of you who are parents, those of you who have way too much time on your hands (you know who you are) - send me some emails. Download this paper. Suggest some other p-prims (such as the one I keep bashing, which is "Group mean differences indicate test bias," although I'm not sure that's so much a myth as a willful misrepresentation for ideological purposes). Let me know what you think.

The problem of intuitive test

The problem of intuitive test theory

I only have time for one post today, so I'm going to make it count. Here's a link to a newly-posted article on intuitive test theory, written by two eminent psychometricians. The first author is Robert Mislevy, who's a professor of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation at the University of Maryland. He's also a giant in my field and an all-around nice, brilliant, funny guy (here's a link to various doodles he drew during boring meetings - "The worse the meeting, the better the drawing", in his words). His co-author is Henry Braun, a well-known researcher who was former VP for research management at ETS, and is now a distinguished presidential appointee (let me hasten to add, however, that the paper does not represent ETS's position or policies).

This paper is really, really, really neat, and I want to know what you non-psychometricians out there think of it (and so does Bob Mislevy, for that matter). The thesis of the paper is that there are "phenomenological primitives," or p-prims, in psychometrics just as there are in physics (from where the term is borrowed). P-prims are:

...primitive notions in the sense that they "stand without significant explanatory substructure or explanation" (diSessa, 1983, p. 15). Familiar examples [in physics] are "Heavy objects fall faster than light objects", "things bounce because they are 'springy'", and "Continuing force is needed for continuing motion."

Most anyone who is not a physicist is going to have a world-view that is in some way shaped by p-prims - these are intuitive, primitive notions, drawn from direct observation, that can serve as an explanation for functioning in the world without actually being correct. Physicists know these p-prims are not correct, of course, but most of the rest of us don't, because we don't need to. We're not the ones building particle accelerators or "shooting rockets to the moon," so it doesn't matter if we can't explain much about space, time, and force without resorting to broad, inaccurate generalities. We know how to throw a ball to a dog; we don't have to know why the ball flies or why it stops. We aren't the engineers.

So let's move on to the field of testing. As some of you might remember, I was inspired a while back by this Steven Den Beste article, and subsequently wrote about how psychometricians are the engineers of educational testing. We're the ones who have to know how things actually work in testing, and we have to build tests according to empirical models, not sociological or educational theories about how tests should work. Problem is, a vast set of testing p-prims has developed - the "intuitive test theory" in the paper's title - and much of the current debate about testing is being informed not by empirical test theory, but by the intuitive theory. Actually, "inform" might be the wrong word, because these p-prims, which are explicitly stated in the paper, are often a hindrance to intelligent discussion and decision-making in the education world:

...first I will list a number of beliefs about testing that my colleagues and I come upon time and again in discussions of tests in everyday conversations. We will return to them presently.

• A test measures what it says at the top of the page.
• A test is a test is a test.
• Any two tests that measure the same thing can be made interchangeable, with a little equating magic
• A score is a score is a score.
• You score a test by adding up scores for items.
• 93% is an A, 85% is a B, 78% is a C, and 70% is passing.
• Multiple-choice questions only measure recall.
• It's easy to write test items.
• You can tell if an item is good by looking at it.
• You can tell if a test is good by looking at it.
• Technology will solve testing problems by making it possible to get voluminous amounts of data.

The remainder of the paper then goes on to address these p-prims, in a manner that's meaty enough for psychometricians yet readable enough for the layperson. I think the entire subject is absolutely fascinating. And I agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion about how this makes life frustrating for psychometricians:

One [aspect of the job] isn't fun, but the other is. The one that isn't fun is trying to critique or implement policies and programs that have been put together on the basis of intuitive test theory. This kind of project requires a lot of telling people that what they want to do won't work, and to do it right is harder or takes longer or isn't as accurate as they want.

Amen. What I've been routinely bashing as testing "myths" are what Mislevy and Braun have more elegantly defined in this paper, and in writing this, they've done a great service to psychometricians and others educators alike.

In addition, I received an email from Bob Mislevy, in which he mentioned the connection between this topic and my comment about psychometricians and engineers. He also mentioned the astounding lack of solid test theory knowledge in some people who should know better, including the hapless Mr. Freedle, who had the, um, "imaginative" solution for correcting racial bias on the SAT:

...it is amazing how many people in the education business, including even assessment policy, don't really understand the concepts underlying psychometrics--even when they know a lot of the words and use some of the formulas...The other [connection] is the more recent entry about Roy Freedle's paper. Despite his many years at ETS, and knowing a great deal about language and substance of language assessment, Mr. Freedle remained remarkably robust against those basic ideas of the inferential machinery of assessment. What he says does indeed make for good copy in the popular press, unfortunately. Hooks in so neatly to some strong and popular p-prims...

Yes, those people whose comments match up with the more popular myths are the ones who get the publicity; those of us who try to patiently defuse these myths are often ignored. The refusal of some to correct their intuitive test ideas is understandable - after all, who wants a lecture on physics every time they play catch with Oscar? - but when the intuitive test theories are driving educational reform, or state standards, it's incredibly frustrating to watch.

"Remains remarkably robust against those basic ideas" - heh. Hee hee hee. Okay, so you'd have to be a psychometrician to really see the humor in that. Still, the joke is greatly appreciated on this end.

Anyway, I want to see plenty of reader discussion about this. Those of you who are educational professionals and reformers, those of you who are parents, those of you who have way too much time on your hands (you know who you are) - send me some emails. Download this paper. Suggest some other p-prims (such as the one I keep bashing, which is "Group mean differences indicate test bias," although I'm not sure that's so much a myth as a willful misrepresentation for ideological purposes). Let me know what you think.

Bowled over by your generosityI'm

Bowled over by your generosity

I'm in meetings all day today, so I'm not sure how many posts I'll get to. But I do have to take time to thank those readers who visited my Wish List, because I've already received three books. The first book I received, Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas, was a quick read, and I'll soon be posting some of her more pungent comments on ed school follies. I've also received a book I mentioned previously but could not critique, The Worm In The Apple, and I'll let you know my opinion on that as well.

Thanks so much, Devoted Readers. I really appreciate your generosity.

Bowled over by your generosityI'm

Bowled over by your generosity

I'm in meetings all day today, so I'm not sure how many posts I'll get to. But I do have to take time to thank those readers who visited my Wish List, because I've already received three books. The first book I received, Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas, was a quick read, and I'll soon be posting some of her more pungent comments on ed school follies. I've also received a book I mentioned previously but could not critique, The Worm In The Apple, and I'll let you know my opinion on that as well.

Thanks so much, Devoted Readers. I really appreciate your generosity.

Bowled over by your generosityI'm

Bowled over by your generosity

I'm in meetings all day today, so I'm not sure how many posts I'll get to. But I do have to take time to thank those readers who visited my Wish List, because I've already received three books. The first book I received, Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas, was a quick read, and I'll soon be posting some of her more pungent comments on ed school follies. I've also received a book I mentioned previously but could not critique, The Worm In The Apple, and I'll let you know my opinion on that as well.

Thanks so much, Devoted Readers. I really appreciate your generosity.

More FCAT newsProtestors stormed Florida's

More FCAT news

Protestors stormed Florida's Governor Jeb Bush's office last Thursday, demanding that he suspend the FCAT exit exam or face a statewide boycott. The next day, Governor Bush proposed an alternative method for failing seniors. Coincidence, or calculated timing?

Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday expanded the scope of the Legislature's special session to consider a measure that would help some students get standard diplomas if they fared well on national college placement exams, calling it a "common sense measure to meet the real needs" of students without lowering standards...

Bush's plan was unveiled only a day after 2,500 parents and students rallied outside the governor's Miami office to protest the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as an unfair roadblock to graduation...But the governor's aides said he is not backing off his support of the FCAT.

More than 13,000 seniors are at risk state-wide of failing to obtain their diplomas. The panacea of using "passing" (as yet undefined) SAT/ACT scores is just that. The article admits "the FCAT and the college placement exams are not comparable because they don't evaluate the same knowledge and skills," and that 40% of those failing don't have the credits necessary for graduation. Will they still be given diplomas with high SAT scores?

Florida's education officials are claiming that the FCAT can be compared with the college entrance exams, and that "a passing score of 300 out of a possible 500 on the FCAT is equivalent to a 410 out of a possible 800 on the SAT verbal test and 370 out of a possible 800 on the SAT math test. For students who take the ACT, they say an FCAT score of 300 is equivalent to a score of 15 out of a possible 36 on both the verbal and math test."

I haven't seen any data that scales FCAT scores to SAT/ACT scores, so I can't comment on the validity of this comparison. If true, it's more evidence that the FCAT is a minimum-competency exam - students are passing with the equivalent of a 780 combined SAT score - but I won't believe in this comparison until I see the study supporting it. Another problem is that students who were perhaps not planning to go to college must now register and pay for these exams - and perhaps not pass them. I don't think I need to remind any readers that the same students who are flunking the FCAT in large numbers are also the ones who, as a group, tend to score lower on the SAT and ACT as well.

If this is a possible solution, even temporarily, why administer the FCAT at all? And what makes the school board think that their SAT/ACT passing scores won't be challenged by the same groups who are challenging the FCATs? If the FCAT isn't considered by some to be a valid measure of the mastery of Florida's high school curriculum, the college entrance exams are obviously less so.

More FCAT newsProtestors stormed Florida's

More FCAT news

Protestors stormed Florida's Governor Jeb Bush's office last Thursday, demanding that he suspend the FCAT exit exam or face a statewide boycott. The next day, Governor Bush proposed an alternative method for failing seniors. Coincidence, or calculated timing?

Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday expanded the scope of the Legislature's special session to consider a measure that would help some students get standard diplomas if they fared well on national college placement exams, calling it a "common sense measure to meet the real needs" of students without lowering standards...

Bush's plan was unveiled only a day after 2,500 parents and students rallied outside the governor's Miami office to protest the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as an unfair roadblock to graduation...But the governor's aides said he is not backing off his support of the FCAT.

More than 13,000 seniors are at risk state-wide of failing to obtain their diplomas. The panacea of using "passing" (as yet undefined) SAT/ACT scores is just that. The article admits "the FCAT and the college placement exams are not comparable because they don't evaluate the same knowledge and skills," and that 40% of those failing don't have the credits necessary for graduation. Will they still be given diplomas with high SAT scores?

Florida's education officials are claiming that the FCAT can be compared with the college entrance exams, and that "a passing score of 300 out of a possible 500 on the FCAT is equivalent to a 410 out of a possible 800 on the SAT verbal test and 370 out of a possible 800 on the SAT math test. For students who take the ACT, they say an FCAT score of 300 is equivalent to a score of 15 out of a possible 36 on both the verbal and math test."

I haven't seen any data that scales FCAT scores to SAT/ACT scores, so I can't comment on the validity of this comparison. If true, it's more evidence that the FCAT is a minimum-competency exam - students are passing with the equivalent of a 780 combined SAT score - but I won't believe in this comparison until I see the study supporting it. Another problem is that students who were perhaps not planning to go to college must now register and pay for these exams - and perhaps not pass them. I don't think I need to remind any readers that the same students who are flunking the FCAT in large numbers are also the ones who, as a group, tend to score lower on the SAT and ACT as well.

If this is a possible solution, even temporarily, why administer the FCAT at all? And what makes the school board think that their SAT/ACT passing scores won't be challenged by the same groups who are challenging the FCATs? If the FCAT isn't considered by some to be a valid measure of the mastery of Florida's high school curriculum, the college entrance exams are obviously less so.

More FCAT newsProtestors stormed Florida's

More FCAT news

Protestors stormed Florida's Governor Jeb Bush's office last Thursday, demanding that he suspend the FCAT exit exam or face a statewide boycott. The next day, Governor Bush proposed an alternative method for failing seniors. Coincidence, or calculated timing?

Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday expanded the scope of the Legislature's special session to consider a measure that would help some students get standard diplomas if they fared well on national college placement exams, calling it a "common sense measure to meet the real needs" of students without lowering standards...

Bush's plan was unveiled only a day after 2,500 parents and students rallied outside the governor's Miami office to protest the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as an unfair roadblock to graduation...But the governor's aides said he is not backing off his support of the FCAT.

More than 13,000 seniors are at risk state-wide of failing to obtain their diplomas. The panacea of using "passing" (as yet undefined) SAT/ACT scores is just that. The article admits "the FCAT and the college placement exams are not comparable because they don't evaluate the same knowledge and skills," and that 40% of those failing don't have the credits necessary for graduation. Will they still be given diplomas with high SAT scores?

Florida's education officials are claiming that the FCAT can be compared with the college entrance exams, and that "a passing score of 300 out of a possible 500 on the FCAT is equivalent to a 410 out of a possible 800 on the SAT verbal test and 370 out of a possible 800 on the SAT math test. For students who take the ACT, they say an FCAT score of 300 is equivalent to a score of 15 out of a possible 36 on both the verbal and math test."

I haven't seen any data that scales FCAT scores to SAT/ACT scores, so I can't comment on the validity of this comparison. If true, it's more evidence that the FCAT is a minimum-competency exam - students are passing with the equivalent of a 780 combined SAT score - but I won't believe in this comparison until I see the study supporting it. Another problem is that students who were perhaps not planning to go to college must now register and pay for these exams - and perhaps not pass them. I don't think I need to remind any readers that the same students who are flunking the FCAT in large numbers are also the ones who, as a group, tend to score lower on the SAT and ACT as well.

If this is a possible solution, even temporarily, why administer the FCAT at all? And what makes the school board think that their SAT/ACT passing scores won't be challenged by the same groups who are challenging the FCATs? If the FCAT isn't considered by some to be a valid measure of the mastery of Florida's high school curriculum, the college entrance exams are obviously less so.

Poking fun at the perenially

Poking fun at the perenially offended

UNC Prof Mike Adams, who's known for challenging the politically correct academic environment with humorous mule-headedness, is in trouble yet again. A student was offended by a bumper sticker on his door, and got her daddy to complain to the UNC Board of Trustees. The link goes to a letter he apparently sent to the Board:

Dear UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees: It has recently come to my attention that a feminist student at UNCW has taken offense to a sticker on my office door which reads "So you're a feminist . . . Isn't that cute." I found this out after obtaining a copy of a letter her father wrote to you, the Board of Trustees. I could comment at some length on the obvious hypocrisy of this student's decision to ask her father to defend feminism for her, but I won't. Let me get straight to the point: I did not put that sticker on my office door.

This terrible misunderstanding is all the result of an experiment on diversity and tolerance that I decided to undertake several years ago. It all started when I noticed that a colleague of mine had a "Mondale/Ferraro '84" sticker on the filing cabinet in her office...Remembering that the university has a provision specifically prohibiting faculty from using "University funds, services, supplies, vehicles, or other property to support or oppose the candidacy of any person for elective public office . . ." I decided to initiate my experiment.

First, I placed a "Clinton/Gore '96" sticker prominently on my office door to see if anyone would take offense. After two years without any complaints, I decided to replace the sticker with one that said "George W. Bush for President." Within a few weeks I heard reports from two faculty members and one staff member saying that someone was preparing to file a complaint about the Bush sticker...I decided it was time to let the faculty in on my little experiment. I did this by sending an e-mail to everyone in the building which began as follows: "You have all been involved in an experiment in tolerance which, unfortunately, some of you have failed..."

As you can imagine, the "liberal" Democrat who was conspiring to punish me for the Bush sticker decided to let the matter go. But, for me, the First Amendment fun was just beginning.

He then goes on to say that he declared his office door a campus "free speech zone", and so was not the one who posted the anti-feminism sticker. He suggests that perhaps the offender's "daddy can call the feminist's daddy and work everything out."

I wonder if the "feminist" in question is actually pissed about this article, instead of the bumper sticker?

Update: Dr. Adams is not only a gadfly, but a bad influence as well: Walter Williams has announced he will follow Dr. Adam's suggested "affirmative action" grading policy. All in the name of social engineering over meritocracy, of course.

Poking fun at the perenially

Poking fun at the perenially offended

UNC Prof Mike Adams, who's known for challenging the politically correct academic environment with humorous mule-headedness, is in trouble yet again. A student was offended by a bumper sticker on his door, and got her daddy to complain to the UNC Board of Trustees. The link goes to a letter he apparently sent to the Board:

Dear UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees: It has recently come to my attention that a feminist student at UNCW has taken offense to a sticker on my office door which reads "So you're a feminist . . . Isn't that cute." I found this out after obtaining a copy of a letter her father wrote to you, the Board of Trustees. I could comment at some length on the obvious hypocrisy of this student's decision to ask her father to defend feminism for her, but I won't. Let me get straight to the point: I did not put that sticker on my office door.

This terrible misunderstanding is all the result of an experiment on diversity and tolerance that I decided to undertake several years ago. It all started when I noticed that a colleague of mine had a "Mondale/Ferraro '84" sticker on the filing cabinet in her office...Remembering that the university has a provision specifically prohibiting faculty from using "University funds, services, supplies, vehicles, or other property to support or oppose the candidacy of any person for elective public office . . ." I decided to initiate my experiment.

First, I placed a "Clinton/Gore '96" sticker prominently on my office door to see if anyone would take offense. After two years without any complaints, I decided to replace the sticker with one that said "George W. Bush for President." Within a few weeks I heard reports from two faculty members and one staff member saying that someone was preparing to file a complaint about the Bush sticker...I decided it was time to let the faculty in on my little experiment. I did this by sending an e-mail to everyone in the building which began as follows: "You have all been involved in an experiment in tolerance which, unfortunately, some of you have failed..."

As you can imagine, the "liberal" Democrat who was conspiring to punish me for the Bush sticker decided to let the matter go. But, for me, the First Amendment fun was just beginning.

He then goes on to say that he declared his office door a campus "free speech zone", and so was not the one who posted the anti-feminism sticker. He suggests that perhaps the offender's "daddy can call the feminist's daddy and work everything out."

I wonder if the "feminist" in question is actually pissed about this article, instead of the bumper sticker?

Update: Dr. Adams is not only a gadfly, but a bad influence as well: Walter Williams has announced he will follow Dr. Adam's suggested "affirmative action" grading policy. All in the name of social engineering over meritocracy, of course.

Poking fun at the perenially

Poking fun at the perenially offended

UNC Prof Mike Adams, who's known for challenging the politically correct academic environment with humorous mule-headedness, is in trouble yet again. A student was offended by a bumper sticker on his door, and got her daddy to complain to the UNC Board of Trustees. The link goes to a letter he apparently sent to the Board:

Dear UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees: It has recently come to my attention that a feminist student at UNCW has taken offense to a sticker on my office door which reads "So you're a feminist . . . Isn't that cute." I found this out after obtaining a copy of a letter her father wrote to you, the Board of Trustees. I could comment at some length on the obvious hypocrisy of this student's decision to ask her father to defend feminism for her, but I won't. Let me get straight to the point: I did not put that sticker on my office door.

This terrible misunderstanding is all the result of an experiment on diversity and tolerance that I decided to undertake several years ago. It all started when I noticed that a colleague of mine had a "Mondale/Ferraro '84" sticker on the filing cabinet in her office...Remembering that the university has a provision specifically prohibiting faculty from using "University funds, services, supplies, vehicles, or other property to support or oppose the candidacy of any person for elective public office . . ." I decided to initiate my experiment.

First, I placed a "Clinton/Gore '96" sticker prominently on my office door to see if anyone would take offense. After two years without any complaints, I decided to replace the sticker with one that said "George W. Bush for President." Within a few weeks I heard reports from two faculty members and one staff member saying that someone was preparing to file a complaint about the Bush sticker...I decided it was time to let the faculty in on my little experiment. I did this by sending an e-mail to everyone in the building which began as follows: "You have all been involved in an experiment in tolerance which, unfortunately, some of you have failed..."

As you can imagine, the "liberal" Democrat who was conspiring to punish me for the Bush sticker decided to let the matter go. But, for me, the First Amendment fun was just beginning.

He then goes on to say that he declared his office door a campus "free speech zone", and so was not the one who posted the anti-feminism sticker. He suggests that perhaps the offender's "daddy can call the feminist's daddy and work everything out."

I wonder if the "feminist" in question is actually pissed about this article, instead of the bumper sticker?

Update: Dr. Adams is not only a gadfly, but a bad influence as well: Walter Williams has announced he will follow Dr. Adam's suggested "affirmative action" grading policy. All in the name of social engineering over meritocracy, of course.

Better late than neverLet me

Better late than never

Let me be the last (probably) to congratulate Joanne Jacobs on her excellent criticism of the anti-testing New York Times - and the apparently inability of its reporters to do basic research. As she notes, a May 21st NYT article claims that children who flunk the third-grade FCAT must repeat the grade. A simple web search, however, turns up an Orlando Sentinel article which clearly states that children may be promoted with flunking FCAT scores if the student's teacher, principal and superintendent all verify that the child is reading at grade level. This judgment may be based on the child's work on a portfolio, in summer school, or on an alternative test. This is the law, and it's very easy to find information about this online.

Is this "loophole" subject to abuse? Are portfolios notoriously unreliable measurement instruments? Yes, and yes. But that's not the point. The NYT author, Michael Winerip, believes that holding children back a grade has no academic benefits. I believe the NYT should insist that their journalists know how to use Google.

Update: Reader ESS was under the impression that all NYT reporters can access "all the Nexis they can eat, along with straight access to wire services." So what's the conclusion? Was Mr. Winerip being lazy in his failure to report the facts? Or did his anti-testing, anti-retention agenda cause him to ignore the facts?

Better late than neverLet me

Better late than never

Let me be the last (probably) to congratulate Joanne Jacobs on her excellent criticism of the anti-testing New York Times - and the apparently inability of its reporters to do basic research. As she notes, a May 21st NYT article claims that children who flunk the third-grade FCAT must repeat the grade. A simple web search, however, turns up an Orlando Sentinel article which clearly states that children may be promoted with flunking FCAT scores if the student's teacher, principal and superintendent all verify that the child is reading at grade level. This judgment may be based on the child's work on a portfolio, in summer school, or on an alternative test. This is the law, and it's very easy to find information about this online.

Is this "loophole" subject to abuse? Are portfolios notoriously unreliable measurement instruments? Yes, and yes. But that's not the point. The NYT author, Michael Winerip, believes that holding children back a grade has no academic benefits. I believe the NYT should insist that their journalists know how to use Google.

Update: Reader ESS was under the impression that all NYT reporters can access "all the Nexis they can eat, along with straight access to wire services." So what's the conclusion? Was Mr. Winerip being lazy in his failure to report the facts? Or did his anti-testing, anti-retention agenda cause him to ignore the facts?

Better late than neverLet me

Better late than never

Let me be the last (probably) to congratulate Joanne Jacobs on her excellent criticism of the anti-testing New York Times - and the apparently inability of its reporters to do basic research. As she notes, a May 21st NYT article claims that children who flunk the third-grade FCAT must repeat the grade. A simple web search, however, turns up an Orlando Sentinel article which clearly states that children may be promoted with flunking FCAT scores if the student's teacher, principal and superintendent all verify that the child is reading at grade level. This judgment may be based on the child's work on a portfolio, in summer school, or on an alternative test. This is the law, and it's very easy to find information about this online.

Is this "loophole" subject to abuse? Are portfolios notoriously unreliable measurement instruments? Yes, and yes. But that's not the point. The NYT author, Michael Winerip, believes that holding children back a grade has no academic benefits. I believe the NYT should insist that their journalists know how to use Google.

Update: Reader ESS was under the impression that all NYT reporters can access "all the Nexis they can eat, along with straight access to wire services." So what's the conclusion? Was Mr. Winerip being lazy in his failure to report the facts? Or did his anti-testing, anti-retention agenda cause him to ignore the facts?

Bogus test score increases in

Bogus test score increases in Maryland?

Maryland may be faking an increase in test scores, according to Sunday's Washington Post. Author and New America Foundation Fellow J.H. Snider begins by detailing the the potential test misuses and abuses:

No one in his right mind can be against raising test scores. That's like being against motherhood and apple pie. The concern is over how it's done: Are there adequate safeguards from abuse? Unfortunately, the answer is no. There are many ways to abuse a system of test-based accountability. The most widely reported is "teaching to the test." If tests don't accurately measure real performance, then teaching to the test may detract from learning...

An important qualification - "teaching to the test" is indeed an hindrance to learning if the test is not measuring the right constructs.

Another abuse is to dumb down the test: Instead of raising the performance of kids, the level of the test is brought down to that of the kids. Because the No Child Left Behind Act leaves the choice of test to the state, many have chosen this strategy. They can't fail if they set the bar low enough.

...which is what we're seeing with so many high school exit exams. An exit exam with a high passing bar is going to be a more rigorous measure of what a high-school student has learned, but schools are unwilling to flunk the large numbers of students who will fail to pass under strict conditions. So the passing requirements have been lowered to the point that these exams serve as a minimal competency measures of less-than-12th-grade knowledge (the FCAT, for example, has 10th-grade-level items).

Moreover, test-based accountability may measure only output, not productivity. Productivity reflects both test scores (outputs) and resources put into educating children (inputs). Anne Arundel County, ground zero of Maryland's test-based accountability reform agenda, provides an excellent example of the results of Maryland's perverse incentive system, which rewards higher output but not higher productivity...The productivity abuse is very simple. Only a small fraction of subjects are actually tested. And only a small fraction of these -- reading and math -- are high-profile, high-stakes tests. So the trick is to shift resources from the untested subjects to the tested ones...None of this was advertised. Advocates of test-based reforms didn't call for a back-to-basics curriculum...They promised excellence and higher achievement across the board.

Perhaps. But I believe that most testing supporters understand that children who aren't mastering math and reading aren't necessarily going to benefit from a more "well-rounded curriculum." The point of the NCLB is to make sure that every child can read, and it's not surprising that the results are seemingly becoming No Child Gets Ahead. It's not surprising that schools with limited resources are shutting down other courses to focus on reading and math. Ideally, yes, every child would master reading early enough so that more advanced courses will be beneficial. But when kids are still illiterate in high school, does a "well-rounded curriculum" really make sense?

The so-called "cannibalizing" of untested school subjects is not, I think, a "bogus" way of increasing the educational productivity of low-performing schools. It's merely the most realistic response to the demand that all children be taught to read. I wish the author had asked why it is that current schools, with their layers of bureaucracy and their obedience of teachers' unions, can't manage to teach reading and math along all those other subjects. Certainly, schools used to be capable of this.

Thanks to Devoted Reader Richard H. for the link.

Bogus test score increases in

Bogus test score increases in Maryland?

Maryland may be faking an increase in test scores, according to Sunday's Washington Post. Author and New America Foundation Fellow J.H. Snider begins by detailing the the potential test misuses and abuses:

No one in his right mind can be against raising test scores. That's like being against motherhood and apple pie. The concern is over how it's done: Are there adequate safeguards from abuse? Unfortunately, the answer is no. There are many ways to abuse a system of test-based accountability. The most widely reported is "teaching to the test." If tests don't accurately measure real performance, then teaching to the test may detract from learning...

An important qualification - "teaching to the test" is indeed an hindrance to learning if the test is not measuring the right constructs.

Another abuse is to dumb down the test: Instead of raising the performance of kids, the level of the test is brought down to that of the kids. Because the No Child Left Behind Act leaves the choice of test to the state, many have chosen this strategy. They can't fail if they set the bar low enough.

...which is what we're seeing with so many high school exit exams. An exit exam with a high passing bar is going to be a more rigorous measure of what a high-school student has learned, but schools are unwilling to flunk the large numbers of students who will fail to pass under strict conditions. So the passing requirements have been lowered to the point that these exams serve as a minimal competency measures of less-than-12th-grade knowledge (the FCAT, for example, has 10th-grade-level items).

Moreover, test-based accountability may measure only output, not productivity. Productivity reflects both test scores (outputs) and resources put into educating children (inputs). Anne Arundel County, ground zero of Maryland's test-based accountability reform agenda, provides an excellent example of the results of Maryland's perverse incentive system, which rewards higher output but not higher productivity...The productivity abuse is very simple. Only a small fraction of subjects are actually tested. And only a small fraction of these -- reading and math -- are high-profile, high-stakes tests. So the trick is to shift resources from the untested subjects to the tested ones...None of this was advertised. Advocates of test-based reforms didn't call for a back-to-basics curriculum...They promised excellence and higher achievement across the board.

Perhaps. But I believe that most testing supporters understand that children who aren't mastering math and reading aren't necessarily going to benefit from a more "well-rounded curriculum." The point of the NCLB is to make sure that every child can read, and it's not surprising that the results are seemingly becoming No Child Gets Ahead. It's not surprising that schools with limited resources are shutting down other courses to focus on reading and math. Ideally, yes, every child would master reading early enough so that more advanced courses will be beneficial. But when kids are still illiterate in high school, does a "well-rounded curriculum" really make sense?

The so-called "cannibalizing" of untested school subjects is not, I think, a "bogus" way of increasing the educational productivity of low-performing schools. It's merely the most realistic response to the demand that all children be taught to read. I wish the author had asked why it is that current schools, with their layers of bureaucracy and their obedience of teachers' unions, can't manage to teach reading and math along all those other subjects. Certainly, schools used to be capable of this.

Thanks to Devoted Reader Richard H. for the link.

Bogus test score increases in

Bogus test score increases in Maryland?

Maryland may be faking an increase in test scores, according to Sunday's Washington Post. Author and New America Foundation Fellow J.H. Snider begins by detailing the the potential test misuses and abuses:

No one in his right mind can be against raising test scores. That's like being against motherhood and apple pie. The concern is over how it's done: Are there adequate safeguards from abuse? Unfortunately, the answer is no. There are many ways to abuse a system of test-based accountability. The most widely reported is "teaching to the test." If tests don't accurately measure real performance, then teaching to the test may detract from learning...

An important qualification - "teaching to the test" is indeed an hindrance to learning if the test is not measuring the right constructs.

Another abuse is to dumb down the test: Instead of raising the performance of kids, the level of the test is brought down to that of the kids. Because the No Child Left Behind Act leaves the choice of test to the state, many have chosen this strategy. They can't fail if they set the bar low enough.

...which is what we're seeing with so many high school exit exams. An exit exam with a high passing bar is going to be a more rigorous measure of what a high-school student has learned, but schools are unwilling to flunk the large numbers of students who will fail to pass under strict conditions. So the passing requirements have been lowered to the point that these exams serve as a minimal competency measures of less-than-12th-grade knowledge (the FCAT, for example, has 10th-grade-level items).

Moreover, test-based accountability may measure only output, not productivity. Productivity reflects both test scores (outputs) and resources put into educating children (inputs). Anne Arundel County, ground zero of Maryland's test-based accountability reform agenda, provides an excellent example of the results of Maryland's perverse incentive system, which rewards higher output but not higher productivity...The productivity abuse is very simple. Only a small fraction of subjects are actually tested. And only a small fraction of these -- reading and math -- are high-profile, high-stakes tests. So the trick is to shift resources from the untested subjects to the tested ones...None of this was advertised. Advocates of test-based reforms didn't call for a back-to-basics curriculum...They promised excellence and higher achievement across the board.

Perhaps. But I believe that most testing supporters understand that children who aren't mastering math and reading aren't necessarily going to benefit from a more "well-rounded curriculum." The point of the NCLB is to make sure that every child can read, and it's not surprising that the results are seemingly becoming No Child Gets Ahead. It's not surprising that schools with limited resources are shutting down other courses to focus on reading and math. Ideally, yes, every child would master reading early enough so that more advanced courses will be beneficial. But when kids are still illiterate in high school, does a "well-rounded curriculum" really make sense?

The so-called "cannibalizing" of untested school subjects is not, I think, a "bogus" way of increasing the educational productivity of low-performing schools. It's merely the most realistic response to the demand that all children be taught to read. I wish the author had asked why it is that current schools, with their layers of bureaucracy and their obedience of teachers' unions, can't manage to teach reading and math along all those other subjects. Certainly, schools used to be capable of this.

Thanks to Devoted Reader Richard H. for the link.

Legacies vs. affirmative actionJeff Jacoby

Legacies vs. affirmative action

Jeff Jacoby has a sound and thought-provoking article for those who claim that legacy admissions are the same as affirmative action admissions. His argument is that legacy admissions are nowhere near as pervasive, nor as unfair, as race-based point systems:

...legacy preferences are slowly disappearing. At Middlebury, legacies were 12 percent of the entering class in 1965; they make up just 5 percent of current freshmen. William F. Buckley writes that at Yale, his alma mater, 29 percent of the 1940 entering class were the children of alumni; in 1971, 14 percent were. The vast majority of legacies are white, but that too is changing...

Competition is shrinking the advantage that legacy status confers. According to William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions, the average SAT score of legacies admitted is just two points lower than the schoolwide average. At Middlebury, legacy freshmen scored 33 points *higher* than their average classmate. Similarly, legacies entering the University of Virginia generally have better grades than the school's in-state students.

By contrast, racial preferences give black and Hispanic applicants a huge advantage over whites and Asians with comparable records. On the University of Michigan's 150-point scale, being a legacy earns four points. Being black earns 20. At elite schools like Michigan and the Ivies, racial preferences are used to surmount not a 2-point deficit in SAT scores, but a deficit of 150 to 200 points. For selective colleges and universities, race is not a modest "plus factor." It is the decisive factor. In too many cases, race determines who gets in -- and who doesn't.

Admitting students who are not up to a university's standards, solely due to race, is discriminatory in a way that a preference for legacy students whose academic achievements are close to or above the norm is not. The comparison of affirmative action admits to legacy admits is a bogus one.

Legacies vs. affirmative actionJeff Jacoby

Legacies vs. affirmative action

Jeff Jacoby has a sound and thought-provoking article for those who claim that legacy admissions are the same as affirmative action admissions. His argument is that legacy admissions are nowhere near as pervasive, nor as unfair, as race-based point systems:

...legacy preferences are slowly disappearing. At Middlebury, legacies were 12 percent of the entering class in 1965; they make up just 5 percent of current freshmen. William F. Buckley writes that at Yale, his alma mater, 29 percent of the 1940 entering class were the children of alumni; in 1971, 14 percent were. The vast majority of legacies are white, but that too is changing...

Competition is shrinking the advantage that legacy status confers. According to William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions, the average SAT score of legacies admitted is just two points lower than the schoolwide average. At Middlebury, legacy freshmen scored 33 points *higher* than their average classmate. Similarly, legacies entering the University of Virginia generally have better grades than the school's in-state students.

By contrast, racial preferences give black and Hispanic applicants a huge advantage over whites and Asians with comparable records. On the University of Michigan's 150-point scale, being a legacy earns four points. Being black earns 20. At elite schools like Michigan and the Ivies, racial preferences are used to surmount not a 2-point deficit in SAT scores, but a deficit of 150 to 200 points. For selective colleges and universities, race is not a modest "plus factor." It is the decisive factor. In too many cases, race determines who gets in -- and who doesn't.

Admitting students who are not up to a university's standards, solely due to race, is discriminatory in a way that a preference for legacy students whose academic achievements are close to or above the norm is not. The comparison of affirmative action admits to legacy admits is a bogus one.

Legacies vs. affirmative actionJeff Jacoby

Legacies vs. affirmative action

Jeff Jacoby has a sound and thought-provoking article for those who claim that legacy admissions are the same as affirmative action admissions. His argument is that legacy admissions are nowhere near as pervasive, nor as unfair, as race-based point systems:

...legacy preferences are slowly disappearing. At Middlebury, legacies were 12 percent of the entering class in 1965; they make up just 5 percent of current freshmen. William F. Buckley writes that at Yale, his alma mater, 29 percent of the 1940 entering class were the children of alumni; in 1971, 14 percent were. The vast majority of legacies are white, but that too is changing...

Competition is shrinking the advantage that legacy status confers. According to William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions, the average SAT score of legacies admitted is just two points lower than the schoolwide average. At Middlebury, legacy freshmen scored 33 points *higher* than their average classmate. Similarly, legacies entering the University of Virginia generally have better grades than the school's in-state students.

By contrast, racial preferences give black and Hispanic applicants a huge advantage over whites and Asians with comparable records. On the University of Michigan's 150-point scale, being a legacy earns four points. Being black earns 20. At elite schools like Michigan and the Ivies, racial preferences are used to surmount not a 2-point deficit in SAT scores, but a deficit of 150 to 200 points. For selective colleges and universities, race is not a modest "plus factor." It is the decisive factor. In too many cases, race determines who gets in -- and who doesn't.

Admitting students who are not up to a university's standards, solely due to race, is discriminatory in a way that a preference for legacy students whose academic achievements are close to or above the norm is not. The comparison of affirmative action admits to legacy admits is a bogus one.

Home againHowdy, ya'll. I'm back

Home again

Howdy, ya'll. I'm back in town after a very relaxed weekend, bookended by 11-hour drives down I-95. The driving was not as stressful as it could have been, but tiring nonetheless.

The family picnic was great, and my boyfriend got to meet my family - all 983 members, to hear him tell it. He comes from a very small family; I come from a very big one. Oh, and it was HOT and humid outside, while up here in PA it was cool and rainy. I'm still feeling pretty relaxed, although I figure that will change by tomorrow, when I have a long meeting in the morning, and in the afternoon, a mandatory (ick) seminar on preventing sexual harassment.

Anyway, I've just got to post two photos, both of which include my sister's new dog. It's a miniature Dachshund, and he's only nine weeks old, and he is the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. I'm now hounding (heh) my boyfriend for one.

Me, holding Oscar

Oscar, asleep in my brother-in-law's arms

Home againHowdy, ya'll. I'm back

Home again

Howdy, ya'll. I'm back in town after a very relaxed weekend, bookended by 11-hour drives down I-95. The driving was not as stressful as it could have been, but tiring nonetheless.

The family picnic was great, and my boyfriend got to meet my family - all 983 members, to hear him tell it. He comes from a very small family; I come from a very big one. Oh, and it was HOT and humid outside, while up here in PA it was cool and rainy. I'm still feeling pretty relaxed, although I figure that will change by tomorrow, when I have a long meeting in the morning, and in the afternoon, a mandatory (ick) seminar on preventing sexual harassment.

Anyway, I've just got to post two photos, both of which include my sister's new dog. It's a miniature Dachshund, and he's only nine weeks old, and he is the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. I'm now hounding (heh) my boyfriend for one.

Me, holding Oscar

Oscar, asleep in my brother-in-law's arms

Home againHowdy, ya'll. I'm back

Home again

Howdy, ya'll. I'm back in town after a very relaxed weekend, bookended by 11-hour drives down I-95. The driving was not as stressful as it could have been, but tiring nonetheless.

The family picnic was great, and my boyfriend got to meet my family - all 983 members, to hear him tell it. He comes from a very small family; I come from a very big one. Oh, and it was HOT and humid outside, while up here in PA it was cool and rainy. I'm still feeling pretty relaxed, although I figure that will change by tomorrow, when I have a long meeting in the morning, and in the afternoon, a mandatory (ick) seminar on preventing sexual harassment.

Anyway, I've just got to post two photos, both of which include my sister's new dog. It's a miniature Dachshund, and he's only nine weeks old, and he is the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. I'm now hounding (heh) my boyfriend for one.

Me, holding Oscar

Oscar, asleep in my brother-in-law's arms

The sunshine is calling my

The sunshine is calling my name....

Hi, everyone. I'm starting my vacation today, and I'll be South Carolina until the 27th. I'll still be checking my email, and I might have the chance to blog a little story or two. However, I'll be staying with my family, and my stepfather is ill, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to be online.

Anyway, before I go, here are a few snippets from the world of testing and K-12 education:

Jay P. Greene of National Review wonders why anyone would hope for the day when schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber. As his article demonstrates, more than 7 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was spent on education during the 2000-2001 school year, while the Defense Department received only 3 percent of GDP during 2000:

...according to the U.S. Department of Education, public schools spent $8,830 per child nationwide during the 2000-1 school year. This is up from $4,626 thirty years earlier, using 2000-1 dollars. To put this $8,830 spent per student in perspective, the median household in the U.S. earned $42,151 in 2000....By comparison to the funding given to education, the Air Force might actually need to have that bake sale to buy another bomber. In 2000 the Department of Defense spent $295 billion versus $392 billion spent in 2000-1 on public elementary and secondary education. That doesn't even include the amount spent on higher education or spent in the private sector...

The hard reality is that we spend a large amount of money on education and have every reason to expect something in return. We spend considerably less on national defense and yet reasonably expect our armed forces to protect all of our lives and fortunes from foreign dangers. And the armed forces do this difficult job without soliciting donations and without an army of apologists blaming their shortcoming on a lack of funds. It will be nice when educators adopt a similar "can-do" attitude.

So who's mis-spending all this money? Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe points the finger at the National Education Association:

...however much the NEA and its affiliates may try to disguise it, they are union to the core. Indeed, they are among the most successful unions in US history. The Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern observes in ''Breaking Free,'' his engrossing new book on why so many public schools are dysfunctional, that ''teacher unions now dominate the American trade union movement, accounting for almost 50 percent of all unionized government employees and more than 20 percent of all union members.''

Teachers unions ''cast a giant shadow over American politics,'' Stern writes, donating tens of millions of dollars directly to Democratic candidates and supporting them indirectly...The unions do not spend all this money out of the goodness of their hearts. Their goals are not better schools or improved student performance. What they want is more income for themselves, and teachers unions only collect more income when public-school payrolls increase. That is why they constantly clamor for hiring more teachers.

According to reader Richard H., a recent version of the Palo Alto Weekly printed the "good news" that Palo Alto will be able to spend more money per child on its schools than virtually all other school districts in the state of California. The bad news? Palo Alto high school students are suffering from an immense amount of pressure, so much that the Palo Alto Youth Council sponsored a "community forum to address stress caused by school work, extra-curricular commitment and family pressure." While the article with the "good news" is online, the "bad news" one is not. Here are a few snippets:

... the workshop at a PAUSD [Palo Alto Unified School District, ed.] boardroom served up a buffet of stress-relievers. Among the offerings were massage therapy, yoga instruction and even a table laden with markers and glitter for art therapy. The forum is the latest effort in the community’s commitment to helping students struggling with anxiety...

The idea to lend solace to worrisome students developed out of an interview session between the Youth Council and two adolescent focus groups three months ago. When asked what topics they wanted to hear more about, a majority named stress as a constant sore point. “Stress was just the overwhelming issue,” said Elizabeth Falcon, Youth Council President and a Paly senior. “I would say it was about less social and more success-oriented pressure..

Many Palo Alto students sat they suffer from the [sic] their ambitious expectations to have it all. As the pressure to get into the best college rises, teens pile on activities such as community service, sports and student government...For some students, their “best” isn’t good enough for their parents...

Richard wasn't that sympathetic to their plight - after all, these kids are the ones with most opportunities to succeed - but I'm a bit sympathetic. Nowadays, a college degree is practically mandatory, and enrollment in professional and post-graduate schools is up as well. Smart kids probably know they're going to have to work that much harder just to stand out from the pack.

If you had hoped your kids would receive moving lessons this week about the heroism and sacrifice of the nation’s servicemen and women, thanks to the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, well, I hope they're not attending this California middle school. And if you thougt your kid's test scores were looking good, better wait and see how the investigation at this South Carolina middle school pans out.

Finally, online testing is taking off in the K-12 world, in order to meet the growing needs of schools. You have to register the read the entire article, but I received an email about with some quick stats. Currently, 13 states and the District of Columbia are administering computer-based tests (often over the Web, but not necessarily).

Computer-based testing is one of my areas of expertise, so if you or your child has had an experience with these kinds of tests, I'd love to hear about it.

The sunshine is calling my

The sunshine is calling my name....

Hi, everyone. I'm starting my vacation today, and I'll be South Carolina until the 27th. I'll still be checking my email, and I might have the chance to blog a little story or two. However, I'll be staying with my family, and my stepfather is ill, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to be online.

Anyway, before I go, here are a few snippets from the world of testing and K-12 education:

Jay P. Greene of National Review wonders why anyone would hope for the day when schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber. As his article demonstrates, more than 7 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was spent on education during the 2000-2001 school year, while the Defense Department received only 3 percent of GDP during 2000:

...according to the U.S. Department of Education, public schools spent $8,830 per child nationwide during the 2000-1 school year. This is up from $4,626 thirty years earlier, using 2000-1 dollars. To put this $8,830 spent per student in perspective, the median household in the U.S. earned $42,151 in 2000....By comparison to the funding given to education, the Air Force might actually need to have that bake sale to buy another bomber. In 2000 the Department of Defense spent $295 billion versus $392 billion spent in 2000-1 on public elementary and secondary education. That doesn't even include the amount spent on higher education or spent in the private sector...

The hard reality is that we spend a large amount of money on education and have every reason to expect something in return. We spend considerably less on national defense and yet reasonably expect our armed forces to protect all of our lives and fortunes from foreign dangers. And the armed forces do this difficult job without soliciting donations and without an army of apologists blaming their shortcoming on a lack of funds. It will be nice when educators adopt a similar "can-do" attitude.

So who's mis-spending all this money? Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe points the finger at the National Education Association:

...however much the NEA and its affiliates may try to disguise it, they are union to the core. Indeed, they are among the most successful unions in US history. The Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern observes in ''Breaking Free,'' his engrossing new book on why so many public schools are dysfunctional, that ''teacher unions now dominate the American trade union movement, accounting for almost 50 percent of all unionized government employees and more than 20 percent of all union members.''

Teachers unions ''cast a giant shadow over American politics,'' Stern writes, donating tens of millions of dollars directly to Democratic candidates and supporting them indirectly...The unions do not spend all this money out of the goodness of their hearts. Their goals are not better schools or improved student performance. What they want is more income for themselves, and teachers unions only collect more income when public-school payrolls increase. That is why they constantly clamor for hiring more teachers.

According to reader Richard H., a recent version of the Palo Alto Weekly printed the "good news" that Palo Alto will be able to spend more money per child on its schools than virtually all other school districts in the state of California. The bad news? Palo Alto high school students are suffering from an immense amount of pressure, so much that the Palo Alto Youth Council sponsored a "community forum to address stress caused by school work, extra-curricular commitment and family pressure." While the article with the "good news" is online, the "bad news" one is not. Here are a few snippets:

... the workshop at a PAUSD [Palo Alto Unified School District, ed.] boardroom served up a buffet of stress-relievers. Among the offerings were massage therapy, yoga instruction and even a table laden with markers and glitter for art therapy. The forum is the latest effort in the community’s commitment to helping students struggling with anxiety...

The idea to lend solace to worrisome students developed out of an interview session between the Youth Council and two adolescent focus groups three months ago. When asked what topics they wanted to hear more about, a majority named stress as a constant sore point. “Stress was just the overwhelming issue,” said Elizabeth Falcon, Youth Council President and a Paly senior. “I would say it was about less social and more success-oriented pressure..

Many Palo Alto students sat they suffer from the [sic] their ambitious expectations to have it all. As the pressure to get into the best college rises, teens pile on activities such as community service, sports and student government...For some students, their “best” isn’t good enough for their parents...

Richard wasn't that sympathetic to their plight - after all, these kids are the ones with most opportunities to succeed - but I'm a bit sympathetic. Nowadays, a college degree is practically mandatory, and enrollment in professional and post-graduate schools is up as well. Smart kids probably know they're going to have to work that much harder just to stand out from the pack.

If you had hoped your kids would receive moving lessons this week about the heroism and sacrifice of the nation’s servicemen and women, thanks to the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, well, I hope they're not attending this California middle school. And if you thougt your kid's test scores were looking good, better wait and see how the investigation at this South Carolina middle school pans out.

Finally, online testing is taking off in the K-12 world, in order to meet the growing needs of schools. You have to register the read the entire article, but I received an email about with some quick stats. Currently, 13 states and the District of Columbia are administering computer-based tests (often over the Web, but not necessarily).

Computer-based testing is one of my areas of expertise, so if you or your child has had an experience with these kinds of tests, I'd love to hear about it.

The sunshine is calling my

The sunshine is calling my name....

Hi, everyone. I'm starting my vacation today, and I'll be South Carolina until the 27th. I'll still be checking my email, and I might have the chance to blog a little story or two. However, I'll be staying with my family, and my stepfather is ill, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to be online.

Anyway, before I go, here are a few snippets from the world of testing and K-12 education:

Jay P. Greene of National Review wonders why anyone would hope for the day when schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber. As his article demonstrates, more than 7 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was spent on education during the 2000-2001 school year, while the Defense Department received only 3 percent of GDP during 2000:

...according to the U.S. Department of Education, public schools spent $8,830 per child nationwide during the 2000-1 school year. This is up from $4,626 thirty years earlier, using 2000-1 dollars. To put this $8,830 spent per student in perspective, the median household in the U.S. earned $42,151 in 2000....By comparison to the funding given to education, the Air Force might actually need to have that bake sale to buy another bomber. In 2000 the Department of Defense spent $295 billion versus $392 billion spent in 2000-1 on public elementary and secondary education. That doesn't even include the amount spent on higher education or spent in the private sector...

The hard reality is that we spend a large amount of money on education and have every reason to expect something in return. We spend considerably less on national defense and yet reasonably expect our armed forces to protect all of our lives and fortunes from foreign dangers. And the armed forces do this difficult job without soliciting donations and without an army of apologists blaming their shortcoming on a lack of funds. It will be nice when educators adopt a similar "can-do" attitude.

So who's mis-spending all this money? Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe points the finger at the National Education Association:

...however much the NEA and its affiliates may try to disguise it, they are union to the core. Indeed, they are among the most successful unions in US history. The Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern observes in ''Breaking Free,'' his engrossing new book on why so many public schools are dysfunctional, that ''teacher unions now dominate the American trade union movement, accounting for almost 50 percent of all unionized government employees and more than 20 percent of all union members.''

Teachers unions ''cast a giant shadow over American politics,'' Stern writes, donating tens of millions of dollars directly to Democratic candidates and supporting them indirectly...The unions do not spend all this money out of the goodness of their hearts. Their goals are not better schools or improved student performance. What they want is more income for themselves, and teachers unions only collect more income when public-school payrolls increase. That is why they constantly clamor for hiring more teachers.

According to reader Richard H., a recent version of the Palo Alto Weekly printed the "good news" that Palo Alto will be able to spend more money per child on its schools than virtually all other school districts in the state of California. The bad news? Palo Alto high school students are suffering from an immense amount of pressure, so much that the Palo Alto Youth Council sponsored a "community forum to address stress caused by school work, extra-curricular commitment and family pressure." While the article with the "good news" is online, the "bad news" one is not. Here are a few snippets:

... the workshop at a PAUSD [Palo Alto Unified School District, ed.] boardroom served up a buffet of stress-relievers. Among the offerings were massage therapy, yoga instruction and even a table laden with markers and glitter for art therapy. The forum is the latest effort in the community’s commitment to helping students struggling with anxiety...

The idea to lend solace to worrisome students developed out of an interview session between the Youth Council and two adolescent focus groups three months ago. When asked what topics they wanted to hear more about, a majority named stress as a constant sore point. “Stress was just the overwhelming issue,” said Elizabeth Falcon, Youth Council President and a Paly senior. “I would say it was about less social and more success-oriented pressure..

Many Palo Alto students sat they suffer from the [sic] their ambitious expectations to have it all. As the pressure to get into the best college rises, teens pile on activities such as community service, sports and student government...For some students, their “best” isn’t good enough for their parents...

Richard wasn't that sympathetic to their plight - after all, these kids are the ones with most opportunities to succeed - but I'm a bit sympathetic. Nowadays, a college degree is practically mandatory, and enrollment in professional and post-graduate schools is up as well. Smart kids probably know they're going to have to work that much harder just to stand out from the pack.

If you had hoped your kids would receive moving lessons this week about the heroism and sacrifice of the nation’s servicemen and women, thanks to the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, well, I hope they're not attending this California middle school. And if you thougt your kid's test scores were looking good, better wait and see how the investigation at this South Carolina middle school pans out.

Finally, online testing is taking off in the K-12 world, in order to meet the growing needs of schools. You have to register the read the entire article, but I received an email about with some quick stats. Currently, 13 states and the District of Columbia are administering computer-based tests (often over the Web, but not necessarily).

Computer-based testing is one of my areas of expertise, so if you or your child has had an experience with these kinds of tests, I'd love to hear about it.

The "bow-tie" of bad educationJohn

The "bow-tie" of bad education

John O'Sullivan of the Chicago Sun-Times ponders the inverse relationship between per-pupil spending and pupil achievement, and places the blame squarely on the teachers' unions: Blame pain-in-the-neck unions for education bow tie:

Some years ago a Forbes columnist was compiling a chart for an article on education. The statistical relationship he uncovered in his research was so remarkable that it became an article in itself--or what the columnist called "a charticle."...In this case the charticle consisted of two lines.

One line, beginning at the lower left hand corner of the chart and rising diagonally to the upper right hand corner, represented national spending on education. The other line, beginning at the upper left hand corner and descending diagonally to the lower right hand corner, described falling standards of educational performance as represented by SAT scores, etc.

Together the two lines, intersecting in the middle of the chart, formed an elegant bow tie pattern. But the inelegant truth they revealed was that America's educational standards had not risen in line with rising expenditure on education--but had actually fallen...

Here was statistical evidence that higher spending was linked to worse schools. Linked, yes. But was there a causal connection? Did higher spending actually bring about worse education? That was less clear. For in strict logic, a third factor might conceivably have caused both higher spending and worse schools. And the more the columnist looked at the evidence, the more he was convinced that there was such a Factor X.

That Factor X? Teachers' unions. I haven't read the book described in the article - Worm in the Apple - but it sounds fascinating. O'Sullivan's description statement that, "the education market, like all monopoly-dominated markets, is inefficient, uncompetitive and marked by low innovation, poor standards and high prices," is particular relevant during this time of honors students with flunking exit-exam scores.

The "bow-tie" of bad educationJohn

The "bow-tie" of bad education

John O'Sullivan of the Chicago Sun-Times ponders the inverse relationship between per-pupil spending and pupil achievement, and places the blame squarely on the teachers' unions: Blame pain-in-the-neck unions for education bow tie:

Some years ago a Forbes columnist was compiling a chart for an article on education. The statistical relationship he uncovered in his research was so remarkable that it became an article in itself--or what the columnist called "a charticle."...In this case the charticle consisted of two lines.

One line, beginning at the lower left hand corner of the chart and rising diagonally to the upper right hand corner, represented national spending on education. The other line, beginning at the upper left hand corner and descending diagonally to the lower right hand corner, described falling standards of educational performance as represented by SAT scores, etc.

Together the two lines, intersecting in the middle of the chart, formed an elegant bow tie pattern. But the inelegant truth they revealed was that America's educational standards had not risen in line with rising expenditure on education--but had actually fallen...

Here was statistical evidence that higher spending was linked to worse schools. Linked, yes. But was there a causal connection? Did higher spending actually bring about worse education? That was less clear. For in strict logic, a third factor might conceivably have caused both higher spending and worse schools. And the more the columnist looked at the evidence, the more he was convinced that there was such a Factor X.

That Factor X? Teachers' unions. I haven't read the book described in the article - Worm in the Apple - but it sounds fascinating. O'Sullivan's description statement that, "the education market, like all monopoly-dominated markets, is inefficient, uncompetitive and marked by low innovation, poor standards and high prices," is particular relevant during this time of honors students with flunking exit-exam scores.

The "bow-tie" of bad educationJohn

The "bow-tie" of bad education

John O'Sullivan of the Chicago Sun-Times ponders the inverse relationship between per-pupil spending and pupil achievement, and places the blame squarely on the teachers' unions: Blame pain-in-the-neck unions for education bow tie:

Some years ago a Forbes columnist was compiling a chart for an article on education. The statistical relationship he uncovered in his research was so remarkable that it became an article in itself--or what the columnist called "a charticle."...In this case the charticle consisted of two lines.

One line, beginning at the lower left hand corner of the chart and rising diagonally to the upper right hand corner, represented national spending on education. The other line, beginning at the upper left hand corner and descending diagonally to the lower right hand corner, described falling standards of educational performance as represented by SAT scores, etc.

Together the two lines, intersecting in the middle of the chart, formed an elegant bow tie pattern. But the inelegant truth they revealed was that America's educational standards had not risen in line with rising expenditure on education--but had actually fallen...

Here was statistical evidence that higher spending was linked to worse schools. Linked, yes. But was there a causal connection? Did higher spending actually bring about worse education? That was less clear. For in strict logic, a third factor might conceivably have caused both higher spending and worse schools. And the more the columnist looked at the evidence, the more he was convinced that there was such a Factor X.

That Factor X? Teachers' unions. I haven't read the book described in the article - Worm in the Apple - but it sounds fascinating. O'Sullivan's description statement that, "the education market, like all monopoly-dominated markets, is inefficient, uncompetitive and marked by low innovation, poor standards and high prices," is particular relevant during this time of honors students with flunking exit-exam scores.

Go forth and blogInstapundit directed

Go forth and blog

Instapundit directed me to the best description of blogging I've ever read:

A blog isn't your friend, it isn't your life, and it most certainly shouldn't be the only thing you ever do - it may inspire and spark creativity - but it can also be a destructive illusion - a reality that feeds the worst part of you if you are desperate for it to give something back. All you can really hope for out of a blog is a release, and perhaps to make a connection with another person. If you make only one, that is one more than you had before.

That is all, now go forth and blog with your heart, not with your ass.

Perfect. By the way, did you know that all of us who read or create blogs are now known collectively as the blogeouisie? Pronounced "blog-schwah-zay" or "blog-ah-zay", I assume. What a great term.

Go forth and blogInstapundit directed

Go forth and blog

Instapundit directed me to the best description of blogging I've ever read:

A blog isn't your friend, it isn't your life, and it most certainly shouldn't be the only thing you ever do - it may inspire and spark creativity - but it can also be a destructive illusion - a reality that feeds the worst part of you if you are desperate for it to give something back. All you can really hope for out of a blog is a release, and perhaps to make a connection with another person. If you make only one, that is one more than you had before.

That is all, now go forth and blog with your heart, not with your ass.

Perfect. By the way, did you know that all of us who read or create blogs are now known collectively as the blogeouisie? Pronounced "blog-schwah-zay" or "blog-ah-zay", I assume. What a great term.

Go forth and blogInstapundit directed

Go forth and blog

Instapundit directed me to the best description of blogging I've ever read:

A blog isn't your friend, it isn't your life, and it most certainly shouldn't be the only thing you ever do - it may inspire and spark creativity - but it can also be a destructive illusion - a reality that feeds the worst part of you if you are desperate for it to give something back. All you can really hope for out of a blog is a release, and perhaps to make a connection with another person. If you make only one, that is one more than you had before.

That is all, now go forth and blog with your heart, not with your ass.

Perfect. By the way, did you know that all of us who read or create blogs are now known collectively as the blogeouisie? Pronounced "blog-schwah-zay" or "blog-ah-zay", I assume. What a great term.

Stupidity + dishonesty + aggression

Stupidity + dishonesty + aggression = arrest warrant

Okay, so you might be upset if a teacher gives you a zero on a test. That's understandable. Of course, if you admit that you cheated, you don't really have a leg to stand on in disputing the grade. And if you already have an A in the course, which would drop o an A- with the zero, you think you'd be smart enough to contest the failing test grade in such a way as to avoid an arrest for false imprisonment and a $1,445 bail bond. In fact, you'd have to be profoundly stupid to end up in jail over this, but apparently, that's the sort of stupidity Murfreesboro High School senior Peter Oakley possesses:

Aggressive behavior toward a teacher who reportedly caught a student cheating on a test has resulted in a Murfreesboro High School senior being charged with false imprisonment, according to Police Chief Mark Barnes. Barnes said he was called to the school campus on Friday, May 9 concerning a call that a student had confronted teacher LaDonna Ashbrooks about the `zero" grade he received on a test. Barnes said the student admitted to cheating on the test and wanted to talk to the teacher about the grade.

The student, Peter Oakley, entered the teacher's classroom and when she refused to talk to him without another school official present the student became very upset, according to a witness's statement. When the teacher attempted to leave the classroom, the student pushed the door shut and physically blocked the exit. The teacher was able to use the room intercom system to alert the main office that she was being held against her will by the student. Barnes said a school employee was able to push the door open and then instruct Oakley to leave. There was reportedly another student in the room at the time of the incident.

Update: The link is no longer working, and their website doesn't have a search function, so the story may be gone from their site (although the Google cache is still available for now).

Stupidity + dishonesty + aggression

Stupidity + dishonesty + aggression = arrest warrant

Okay, so you might be upset if a teacher gives you a zero on a test. That's understandable. Of course, if you admit that you cheated, you don't really have a leg to stand on in disputing the grade. And if you already have an A in the course, which would drop o an A- with the zero, you think you'd be smart enough to contest the failing test grade in such a way as to avoid an arrest for false imprisonment and a $1,445 bail bond. In fact, you'd have to be profoundly stupid to end up in jail over this, but apparently, that's the sort of stupidity Murfreesboro High School senior Peter Oakley possesses:

Aggressive behavior toward a teacher who reportedly caught a student cheating on a test has resulted in a Murfreesboro High School senior being charged with false imprisonment, according to Police Chief Mark Barnes. Barnes said he was called to the school campus on Friday, May 9 concerning a call that a student had confronted teacher LaDonna Ashbrooks about the `zero" grade he received on a test. Barnes said the student admitted to cheating on the test and wanted to talk to the teacher about the grade.

The student, Peter Oakley, entered the teacher's classroom and when she refused to talk to him without another school official present the student became very upset, according to a witness's statement. When the teacher attempted to leave the classroom, the student pushed the door shut and physically blocked the exit. The teacher was able to use the room intercom system to alert the main office that she was being held against her will by the student. Barnes said a school employee was able to push the door open and then instruct Oakley to leave. There was reportedly another student in the room at the time of the incident.

Update: The link is no longer working, and their website doesn't have a search function, so the story may be gone from their site (although the Google cache is still available for now).

Stupidity + dishonesty + aggression

Stupidity + dishonesty + aggression = arrest warrant

Okay, so you might be upset if a teacher gives you a zero on a test. That's understandable. Of course, if you admit that you cheated, you don't really have a leg to stand on in disputing the grade. And if you already have an A in the course, which would drop o an A- with the zero, you think you'd be smart enough to contest the failing test grade in such a way as to avoid an arrest for false imprisonment and a $1,445 bail bond. In fact, you'd have to be profoundly stupid to end up in jail over this, but apparently, that's the sort of stupidity Murfreesboro High School senior Peter Oakley possesses:

Aggressive behavior toward a teacher who reportedly caught a student cheating on a test has resulted in a Murfreesboro High School senior being charged with false imprisonment, according to Police Chief Mark Barnes. Barnes said he was called to the school campus on Friday, May 9 concerning a call that a student had confronted teacher LaDonna Ashbrooks about the `zero" grade he received on a test. Barnes said the student admitted to cheating on the test and wanted to talk to the teacher about the grade.

The student, Peter Oakley, entered the teacher's classroom and when she refused to talk to him without another school official present the student became very upset, according to a witness's statement. When the teacher attempted to leave the classroom, the student pushed the door shut and physically blocked the exit. The teacher was able to use the room intercom system to alert the main office that she was being held against her will by the student. Barnes said a school employee was able to push the door open and then instruct Oakley to leave. There was reportedly another student in the room at the time of the incident.

Update: The link is no longer working, and their website doesn't have a search function, so the story may be gone from their site (although the Google cache is still available for now).

Is the FCAT biased?Reporter Angeline

Is the FCAT biased?

Reporter Angeline Taylor asks that question in yesterday's Sun-Herald. I had the opportunity to be interviewed for this article, but passed on it because I don't consider myself to be an expert on either test bias or the FCAT. I did, however, recommend Dr. Gregory Cizek at UNC-Chapel Hill, a very accomplished psychometrician whom I know personally - his articles about cheating on tests are legendary, and he also has a well-known book on educational policy. I'm very pleased to see that his comments are featured in the article:

"There is a grossly disproportionate number of Hispanics and African-Americans that fail that test," said Gloria Pipkin, head of the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform. Ninety-seven percent of Sarasota County's Caucasian 10th-graders passed the writing portion of the test in 2002. In comparison, 90 percent of African-American and 91 percent of Hispanic 10th-graders passed the writing portion with a score of Level 3 or above. That is as close as the numbers get. Sixty-three percent of Hispanic 10th-graders passed the FCAT math test and only 39 percent of African-American 10th-graders passed. Even worse, a mere 17 percent of the county's African-American 10th-graders passed the reading portion with a score of Level 3 or above. Twenty-nine percent of the Hispanic 10th-graders achieved that score...

Numbers don't always tell the whole story. And lemons aren't always yellow. Many Mexican-Americans living in California will tell you that there is no such thing as a yellow lemon. Consequently, many of them got a question wrong on that state's assessment test, which is similar to the FCAT. California's test results also show a disproportionate minority failure rate, in part, some claim, due to such cultural differences. Although such tests undergo thorough review to ensure that bias is eliminated, whether those efforts are successful is a subject of debate...

According to the DOE Web site, FCAT test items receive "intensive, qualitative reviews by expert panels" before being placed into use. The tests undergo review for possible gender or ethnicity bias.

"Usually, a group of teachers develop what they believe are important questions to compose the test," said Dr. Gregory Cizek, a nationally recognized expert in testing issues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I have to say I believe the states do a really good job. There are a lot of procedures in place to delete bias."

While Webster defines bias as "partiality" or "prejudice," Cizek said testing officials think of bias in terms of an advantage or disadvantage to some group. "The test is not supposed to manage how test-wise you are," he said. "The test should determine how well you know that context of materials. There are sensitivity review panels, both Hispanic and African-American panelists. They serve as the last resort in determining regional, cultural or linguistic factors or bias."

However, some bias can slip through the cracks. That was the case for the assessment test in California. "Mexican-American students were only familiar with green lemons," Cizek said. "It's actually a very popular lemon that is green"

To avoid such problems, the individuals who write the questions for the tests attend training. States also conduct statistical comparisons on how different people respond during the test. But biased test questions can only be partly to blame for the minority failure rate.

"When groups perform differently on the test it may be due to other factors," Cizek said.

This is one of the few mainstream articles I have seen that correctly defines the issue of test bias - which is NOT group mean differences. When Dr. Cizek refers to testing officials being concerned with "an advantage or disadvantage to some group," what he means is, are test takers who are matched on ability, but differ by subgroup (sex, ethicity) performing differently? If smart Hispanic kids in California have never seen a yellow lemon, then the test item is biased. Small amounts of cultural bias on some items, however, don't explain why only 39 percent of the Hispanic 10th-graders passed the math exams.

Is the FCAT biased?Reporter Angeline

Is the FCAT biased?

Reporter Angeline Taylor asks that question in yesterday's Sun-Herald. I had the opportunity to be interviewed for this article, but passed on it because I don't consider myself to be an expert on either test bias or the FCAT. I did, however, recommend Dr. Gregory Cizek at UNC-Chapel Hill, a very accomplished psychometrician whom I know personally - his articles about cheating on tests are legendary, and he also has a well-known book on educational policy. I'm very pleased to see that his comments are featured in the article:

"There is a grossly disproportionate number of Hispanics and African-Americans that fail that test," said Gloria Pipkin, head of the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform. Ninety-seven percent of Sarasota County's Caucasian 10th-graders passed the writing portion of the test in 2002. In comparison, 90 percent of African-American and 91 percent of Hispanic 10th-graders passed the writing portion with a score of Level 3 or above. That is as close as the numbers get. Sixty-three percent of Hispanic 10th-graders passed the FCAT math test and only 39 percent of African-American 10th-graders passed. Even worse, a mere 17 percent of the county's African-American 10th-graders passed the reading portion with a score of Level 3 or above. Twenty-nine percent of the Hispanic 10th-graders achieved that score...

Numbers don't always tell the whole story. And lemons aren't always yellow. Many Mexican-Americans living in California will tell you that there is no such thing as a yellow lemon. Consequently, many of them got a question wrong on that state's assessment test, which is similar to the FCAT. California's test results also show a disproportionate minority failure rate, in part, some claim, due to such cultural differences. Although such tests undergo thorough review to ensure that bias is eliminated, whether those efforts are successful is a subject of debate...

According to the DOE Web site, FCAT test items receive "intensive, qualitative reviews by expert panels" before being placed into use. The tests undergo review for possible gender or ethnicity bias.

"Usually, a group of teachers develop what they believe are important questions to compose the test," said Dr. Gregory Cizek, a nationally recognized expert in testing issues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I have to say I believe the states do a really good job. There are a lot of procedures in place to delete bias."

While Webster defines bias as "partiality" or "prejudice," Cizek said testing officials think of bias in terms of an advantage or disadvantage to some group. "The test is not supposed to manage how test-wise you are," he said. "The test should determine how well you know that context of materials. There are sensitivity review panels, both Hispanic and African-American panelists. They serve as the last resort in determining regional, cultural or linguistic factors or bias."

However, some bias can slip through the cracks. That was the case for the assessment test in California. "Mexican-American students were only familiar with green lemons," Cizek said. "It's actually a very popular lemon that is green"

To avoid such problems, the individuals who write the questions for the tests attend training. States also conduct statistical comparisons on how different people respond during the test. But biased test questions can only be partly to blame for the minority failure rate.

"When groups perform differently on the test it may be due to other factors," Cizek said.

This is one of the few mainstream articles I have seen that correctly defines the issue of test bias - which is NOT group mean differences. When Dr. Cizek refers to testing officials being concerned with "an advantage or disadvantage to some group," what he means is, are test takers who are matched on ability, but differ by subgroup (sex, ethicity) performing differently? If smart Hispanic kids in California have never seen a yellow lemon, then the test item is biased. Small amounts of cultural bias on some items, however, don't explain why only 39 percent of the Hispanic 10th-graders passed the math exams.

Is the FCAT biased?Reporter Angeline

Is the FCAT biased?

Reporter Angeline Taylor asks that question in yesterday's Sun-Herald. I had the opportunity to be interviewed for this article, but passed on it because I don't consider myself to be an expert on either test bias or the FCAT. I did, however, recommend Dr. Gregory Cizek at UNC-Chapel Hill, a very accomplished psychometrician whom I know personally - his articles about cheating on tests are legendary, and he also has a well-known book on educational policy. I'm very pleased to see that his comments are featured in the article:

"There is a grossly disproportionate number of Hispanics and African-Americans that fail that test," said Gloria Pipkin, head of the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform. Ninety-seven percent of Sarasota County's Caucasian 10th-graders passed the writing portion of the test in 2002. In comparison, 90 percent of African-American and 91 percent of Hispanic 10th-graders passed the writing portion with a score of Level 3 or above. That is as close as the numbers get. Sixty-three percent of Hispanic 10th-graders passed the FCAT math test and only 39 percent of African-American 10th-graders passed. Even worse, a mere 17 percent of the county's African-American 10th-graders passed the reading portion with a score of Level 3 or above. Twenty-nine percent of the Hispanic 10th-graders achieved that score...

Numbers don't always tell the whole story. And lemons aren't always yellow. Many Mexican-Americans living in California will tell you that there is no such thing as a yellow lemon. Consequently, many of them got a question wrong on that state's assessment test, which is similar to the FCAT. California's test results also show a disproportionate minority failure rate, in part, some claim, due to such cultural differences. Although such tests undergo thorough review to ensure that bias is eliminated, whether those efforts are successful is a subject of debate...

According to the DOE Web site, FCAT test items receive "intensive, qualitative reviews by expert panels" before being placed into use. The tests undergo review for possible gender or ethnicity bias.

"Usually, a group of teachers develop what they believe are important questions to compose the test," said Dr. Gregory Cizek, a nationally recognized expert in testing issues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I have to say I believe the states do a really good job. There are a lot of procedures in place to delete bias."

While Webster defines bias as "partiality" or "prejudice," Cizek said testing officials think of bias in terms of an advantage or disadvantage to some group. "The test is not supposed to manage how test-wise you are," he said. "The test should determine how well you know that context of materials. There are sensitivity review panels, both Hispanic and African-American panelists. They serve as the last resort in determining regional, cultural or linguistic factors or bias."

However, some bias can slip through the cracks. That was the case for the assessment test in California. "Mexican-American students were only familiar with green lemons," Cizek said. "It's actually a very popular lemon that is green"

To avoid such problems, the individuals who write the questions for the tests attend training. States also conduct statistical comparisons on how different people respond during the test. But biased test questions can only be partly to blame for the minority failure rate.

"When groups perform differently on the test it may be due to other factors," Cizek said.

This is one of the few mainstream articles I have seen that correctly defines the issue of test bias - which is NOT group mean differences. When Dr. Cizek refers to testing officials being concerned with "an advantage or disadvantage to some group," what he means is, are test takers who are matched on ability, but differ by subgroup (sex, ethicity) performing differently? If smart Hispanic kids in California have never seen a yellow lemon, then the test item is biased. Small amounts of cultural bias on some items, however, don't explain why only 39 percent of the Hispanic 10th-graders passed the math exams.

Study Less, Score MoreIs high

Study Less, Score More

Is high school grade inflation getting out of hand? That's the possibility suggested by MSU's independent newspaper in their article, Students studying less, receiving higher grades. The article reports on a recent study showing that, while high school seniors are spending less time on homework, they're still acheiving high grades:

The study, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, showed a 26.5 percent increase in the number of high school seniors who earned 'A' averages. Of those students, 16 percent reported studying for only an hour a week - double the number of students who answered the same question in 1987.

But university officials said it's difficult to measure grade inflation for high school seniors. College admission standards don't change based on the possibility of grade inflation."There's certainly a lot of talk about grade inflation," said Jim Cotter, senior associate director in admissions and scholarships. "To assume all high schools are equal wouldn't be a fair assessment."

I'll say. An hour a week? And that gets you an A average? How? I spent more than an hour a week on my Latin homework alone.

...the overall grade equalizer and for college admissions and honors college acceptance is standardized test scores, Cotter said. Grade inflation might be more prevalent in some areas than others, but standardized tests allow universities to see how students have academically prepared, he said. "It allows us to look at students differently," Cotter said said. "It allows us to look at it globally because everyone takes the same test."

Yup, that's what the "standardized" part means. And that's why some people hate it.

Study Less, Score MoreIs high

Study Less, Score More

Is high school grade inflation getting out of hand? That's the possibility suggested by MSU's independent newspaper in their article, Students studying less, receiving higher grades. The article reports on a recent study showing that, while high school seniors are spending less time on homework, they're still acheiving high grades:

The study, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, showed a 26.5 percent increase in the number of high school seniors who earned 'A' averages. Of those students, 16 percent reported studying for only an hour a week - double the number of students who answered the same question in 1987.

But university officials said it's difficult to measure grade inflation for high school seniors. College admission standards don't change based on the possibility of grade inflation."There's certainly a lot of talk about grade inflation," said Jim Cotter, senior associate director in admissions and scholarships. "To assume all high schools are equal wouldn't be a fair assessment."

I'll say. An hour a week? And that gets you an A average? How? I spent more than an hour a week on my Latin homework alone.

...the overall grade equalizer and for college admissions and honors college acceptance is standardized test scores, Cotter said. Grade inflation might be more prevalent in some areas than others, but standardized tests allow universities to see how students have academically prepared, he said. "It allows us to look at students differently," Cotter said said. "It allows us to look at it globally because everyone takes the same test."

Yup, that's what the "standardized" part means. And that's why some people hate it.

Study Less, Score MoreIs high

Study Less, Score More

Is high school grade inflation getting out of hand? That's the possibility suggested by MSU's independent newspaper in their article, Students studying less, receiving higher grades. The article reports on a recent study showing that, while high school seniors are spending less time on homework, they're still acheiving high grades:

The study, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, showed a 26.5 percent increase in the number of high school seniors who earned 'A' averages. Of those students, 16 percent reported studying for only an hour a week - double the number of students who answered the same question in 1987.

But university officials said it's difficult to measure grade inflation for high school seniors. College admission standards don't change based on the possibility of grade inflation."There's certainly a lot of talk about grade inflation," said Jim Cotter, senior associate director in admissions and scholarships. "To assume all high schools are equal wouldn't be a fair assessment."

I'll say. An hour a week? And that gets you an A average? How? I spent more than an hour a week on my Latin homework alone.

...the overall grade equalizer and for college admissions and honors college acceptance is standardized test scores, Cotter said. Grade inflation might be more prevalent in some areas than others, but standardized tests allow universities to see how students have academically prepared, he said. "It allows us to look at students differently," Cotter said said. "It allows us to look at it globally because everyone takes the same test."

Yup, that's what the "standardized" part means. And that's why some people hate it.

The appalling lack of writing

The appalling lack of writing instruction

Joanne Jacobs has a good take on the LA Times story about the only two "R's" left in education. We got Readin', we got 'Rithmatic...but somewhere along the line, writing has vanished from the high school curriculum:

Across the country, high school English and social studies teachers have cut back or simply abandoned the traditional term paper.

Although some students and critics contend that teachers are lazier than in the past, many educators say they can't grade piles of papers for overcrowded classes while trying to meet the increased demands of standardized testing, many of which involve multiple-choice questions. Other teachers believe that term papers are meaningless exercises, because the Internet has made plagiarism more common and difficult to spot. And many say long (10- to 15-page) research papers are pointless, because many students' basic writing skills are weak and are more likely to improve with shorter and more frequent assignments.

A report by the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, a panel of academics gathered by the College Board, found that 75% of high school seniors never receive writing assignments in history or social studies. The study also found that a major research and writing project required in the senior year of high school "has become an educational curiosity, something rarely assigned." In addition, the report found that, by the first year of college, more than 50% of freshmen are unable to analyze or synthesize information or produce papers free of language errors.

Hey, whaddaya know, they managed to work a critique of standardized testing into the beginning of an article on the death of writing...as though there are no tests which measure writing, and no way to teach writing in addition to other skills. Is there nothing that can't be blamed on the tests?

And the rise of the Internet makes papers "meaningless"? For starters, search engines make it easier to spot papers cribbed from online sources. There are classes offered on this very subject. There have been articles written about it. There are teacher's combat guides. Any teacher who claims that teaching writing skills are meaningless because of the Internet is simply refusing to do their job and citing a bogus reason for doing so. And any teacher who can't tell their students' writing from online sources either isn't requiring the students to write enough, or isn't paying close enough attention to what they write.

Joanne has excellent comments, of course:

The story concludes with a Santa Monica High senior who's never written a long term paper, though he's enrolled in honors and AP classes. He says writing research papers would take time from his extracurriculars: "band, tennis, religious studies and political and youth groups." He also claims there wouldn't be time for required testing, though there are no required tests for 12th graders.

"To be accepted into a university, you have to be a stellar student, athletic, musically inclined and involved in the community," he said. "For students like me, if I was getting term and research papers, it would hinder my ability to perform well in other classes and continue all of the extracurricular activities I am involved in."

He's going to Duke. Good luck on learning to organize and write a term paper, kid. You'll need it.

The daughter of a friend of mine went to a small, nurturing private school that believed in emphasizing students' strengths. Nobody told the girl she had to learn to organize and write long papers. In her freshman year at an elite college, she had to write long papers for every class. She flunked out.

The appalling lack of writing

The appalling lack of writing instruction

Joanne Jacobs has a good take on the LA Times story about the only two "R's" left in education. We got Readin', we got 'Rithmatic...but somewhere along the line, writing has vanished from the high school curriculum:

Across the country, high school English and social studies teachers have cut back or simply abandoned the traditional term paper.

Although some students and critics contend that teachers are lazier than in the past, many educators say they can't grade piles of papers for overcrowded classes while trying to meet the increased demands of standardized testing, many of which involve multiple-choice questions. Other teachers believe that term papers are meaningless exercises, because the Internet has made plagiarism more common and difficult to spot. And many say long (10- to 15-page) research papers are pointless, because many students' basic writing skills are weak and are more likely to improve with shorter and more frequent assignments.

A report by the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, a panel of academics gathered by the College Board, found that 75% of high school seniors never receive writing assignments in history or social studies. The study also found that a major research and writing project required in the senior year of high school "has become an educational curiosity, something rarely assigned." In addition, the report found that, by the first year of college, more than 50% of freshmen are unable to analyze or synthesize information or produce papers free of language errors.

Hey, whaddaya know, they managed to work a critique of standardized testing into the beginning of an article on the death of writing...as though there are no tests which measure writing, and no way to teach writing in addition to other skills. Is there nothing that can't be blamed on the tests?

And the rise of the Internet makes papers "meaningless"? For starters, search engines make it easier to spot papers cribbed from online sources. There are classes offered on this very subject. There have been articles written about it. There are teacher's combat guides. Any teacher who claims that teaching writing skills are meaningless because of the Internet is simply refusing to do their job and citing a bogus reason for doing so. And any teacher who can't tell their students' writing from online sources either isn't requiring the students to write enough, or isn't paying close enough attention to what they write.

Joanne has excellent comments, of course:

The story concludes with a Santa Monica High senior who's never written a long term paper, though he's enrolled in honors and AP classes. He says writing research papers would take time from his extracurriculars: "band, tennis, religious studies and political and youth groups." He also claims there wouldn't be time for required testing, though there are no required tests for 12th graders.

"To be accepted into a university, you have to be a stellar student, athletic, musically inclined and involved in the community," he said. "For students like me, if I was getting term and research papers, it would hinder my ability to perform well in other classes and continue all of the extracurricular activities I am involved in."

He's going to Duke. Good luck on learning to organize and write a term paper, kid. You'll need it.

The daughter of a friend of mine went to a small, nurturing private school that believed in emphasizing students' strengths. Nobody told the girl she had to learn to organize and write long papers. In her freshman year at an elite college, she had to write long papers for every class. She flunked out.

The appalling lack of writing

The appalling lack of writing instruction

Joanne Jacobs has a good take on the LA Times story about the only two "R's" left in education. We got Readin', we got 'Rithmatic...but somewhere along the line, writing has vanished from the high school curriculum:

Across the country, high school English and social studies teachers have cut back or simply abandoned the traditional term paper.

Although some students and critics contend that teachers are lazier than in the past, many educators say they can't grade piles of papers for overcrowded classes while trying to meet the increased demands of standardized testing, many of which involve multiple-choice questions. Other teachers believe that term papers are meaningless exercises, because the Internet has made plagiarism more common and difficult to spot. And many say long (10- to 15-page) research papers are pointless, because many students' basic writing skills are weak and are more likely to improve with shorter and more frequent assignments.

A report by the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, a panel of academics gathered by the College Board, found that 75% of high school seniors never receive writing assignments in history or social studies. The study also found that a major research and writing project required in the senior year of high school "has become an educational curiosity, something rarely assigned." In addition, the report found that, by the first year of college, more than 50% of freshmen are unable to analyze or synthesize information or produce papers free of language errors.

Hey, whaddaya know, they managed to work a critique of standardized testing into the beginning of an article on the death of writing...as though there are no tests which measure writing, and no way to teach writing in addition to other skills. Is there nothing that can't be blamed on the tests?

And the rise of the Internet makes papers "meaningless"? For starters, search engines make it easier to spot papers cribbed from online sources. There are classes offered on this very subject. There have been articles written about it. There are teacher's combat guides. Any teacher who claims that teaching writing skills are meaningless because of the Internet is simply refusing to do their job and citing a bogus reason for doing so. And any teacher who can't tell their students' writing from online sources either isn't requiring the students to write enough, or isn't paying close enough attention to what they write.

Joanne has excellent comments, of course:

The story concludes with a Santa Monica High senior who's never written a long term paper, though he's enrolled in honors and AP classes. He says writing research papers would take time from his extracurriculars: "band, tennis, religious studies and political and youth groups." He also claims there wouldn't be time for required testing, though there are no required tests for 12th graders.

"To be accepted into a university, you have to be a stellar student, athletic, musically inclined and involved in the community," he said. "For students like me, if I was getting term and research papers, it would hinder my ability to perform well in other classes and continue all of the extracurricular activities I am involved in."

He's going to Duke. Good luck on learning to organize and write a term paper, kid. You'll need it.

The daughter of a friend of mine went to a small, nurturing private school that believed in emphasizing students' strengths. Nobody told the girl she had to learn to organize and write long papers. In her freshman year at an elite college, she had to write long papers for every class. She flunked out.

No good deed goes unpunishedSome

No good deed goes unpunished

Some of you, due to your generous natures, have been trying to send books to me off my Amazon wish list. When I originally posted the list, I mentioned that I prefer used books, both for their thriftiness value and their broken-in feeling (I love the feeling of soft paper). However, it seems that Amazon is set up to work properly only with new books, and by "properly" I mean the default shipping address already in place and hidden from the buyer's view.

I certainly don't mind a new book, but if you find a used version that is a lot cheaper than the new, I'd hate for you to pass it up. So email me for my home address, and then use that for sending the used version.

And again, I thank you all so much for your generosity. I've already received one book and have discovered that two more are on the way. You guys make me feel so appreciated! Given the rather obscure and socially-unappealing nature of this blog, I'm delighted to have found such a devoted audience.

No good deed goes unpunishedSome

No good deed goes unpunished

Some of you, due to your generous natures, have been trying to send books to me off my Amazon wish list. When I originally posted the list, I mentioned that I prefer used books, both for their thriftiness value and their broken-in feeling (I love the feeling of soft paper). However, it seems that Amazon is set up to work properly only with new books, and by "properly" I mean the default shipping address already in place and hidden from the buyer's view.

I certainly don't mind a new book, but if you find a used version that is a lot cheaper than the new, I'd hate for you to pass it up. So email me for my home address, and then use that for sending the used version.

And again, I thank you all so much for your generosity. I've already received one book and have discovered that two more are on the way. You guys make me feel so appreciated! Given the rather obscure and socially-unappealing nature of this blog, I'm delighted to have found such a devoted audience.

No good deed goes unpunishedSome

No good deed goes unpunished

Some of you, due to your generous natures, have been trying to send books to me off my Amazon wish list. When I originally posted the list, I mentioned that I prefer used books, both for their thriftiness value and their broken-in feeling (I love the feeling of soft paper). However, it seems that Amazon is set up to work properly only with new books, and by "properly" I mean the default shipping address already in place and hidden from the buyer's view.

I certainly don't mind a new book, but if you find a used version that is a lot cheaper than the new, I'd hate for you to pass it up. So email me for my home address, and then use that for sending the used version.

And again, I thank you all so much for your generosity. I've already received one book and have discovered that two more are on the way. You guys make me feel so appreciated! Given the rather obscure and socially-unappealing nature of this blog, I'm delighted to have found such a devoted audience.

More trouble in FloridaRemember the

More trouble in Florida

Remember the FBI raid on the Miami-Dade teachers' union (UTD) offices? Well, the scandalous findings from that raid are making headlines now. UTD President Pat Tornillo has apparently been spending money lavishly on himself :

* The Miami Herald got hold of 21 months’ worth of UTD credit card statements, many of which were charges for personal and luxury items by President Pat Tornillo. James Angleton, the union’s chief financial officer who fingered Tornillo to the FBI, says Tornillo already gets a $42,700 annual stipend to cover his business expenses, so that UTD should almost never have to reimburse him. Nevertheless, Tornillo’s charges included a six-night, $20,000 stay at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami, even though he has a rental apartment “300 yards away,” according to the Herald.

He charged python-print pajamas [!] and a matching robe to the union, plus made a purchase from the Sinclair Intimacy Institute. You can visit their web site at http://www.bettersex.com for a full list of products your brain really doesn’t want to associate with Pat Tornillo.

Over the 20-month period, at least $350,000 in union dues were spent on Tornillo’s tailored suits, vacations, jewelry, cable TV service, artwork and groceries.

It gets better. The union's CFO made a six-figure personal loan to the UTD last fall to help the union "make ends meet." This was but one in a series of personal loans made to improve the credit rating of the union while it was having difficulty meeting its bank loan payments.

The UTD is desperately trying to separate itself from this scandal in order to avoid public backlash. The union's legal affairs are now going to be handled at the state level by the Florida Education Association - the same association that is publicly criticizing the FCAT. I suppose this means that holding schools accountable for education is bad, while managing a corrupt union that wastes millions of dollars is perfectly okay.

And speaking of the FCAT, the coalition challenging Governor Bush isn't backing down. The FCAT Protest Coalition has announced that they will pursue legal action against Florida if the governor does not suspend the FCAT results and allow the thousands of students to receive their high school diplomas. But Gov. Bush isn't backing down either. Spokeswoman Alia Faraj announced Saturday that "there was no chance of suspending the FCAT results."

Meanwhile, we hear stories such as this one:

For Tatiana Jacobs-Debrow, 18, a senior at Miami Northwestern, the test means she won't be attending the University of Miami next year. She had planned to study computer science.

In tears, the teen's mother pleaded with the group for help Saturday.

''My baby came to me yesterday and she couldn't even look me in the eye because she felt ashamed,'' Tonya Jacobs-Debrow said. ``That isn't right. My daughter is an honors student.''

How can a high school honors student who is planning to major in computer science fail this test? Information about the FCAT can be found here. The test items are at a 10th-grade level. This honors student has been given multiple attempts to pass. She was allowed to use a calculator on the math and science sections, and all the formulas are provided. And yet she can't pass a math exam that asks her to read and interpolate graphs, and multiply negative numbers (pp 19-20)? She can't pass a reading exam that asks simple questions about the meaning of words and the basic writing strategy of an essay (p. 8)? On multiple attempts over two years? When she needs a score of only 300 out of 500 on each section to pass?

Either she doesn't have the ability, or she knows her stuff but answers very carelessly, or she freezes up on exams. None of these bode well for someone who is planning to take college-level computer science classes. What's going on here?

For more on the FCAT controversy, see the news articles below:

FCAT Fallout: 1 In 11 Seniors Won't Graduate On Time
Some seniors who failed FCAT will take part in graduation
FCAT Protest Draws 3,000
State Works To Minimize FCAT Fallout
Bush: FCAT scores up in every grade but 10th
Politics still follows FCAT even as test scores rise
FCAT Moratorium Rejected

More trouble in FloridaRemember the

More trouble in Florida

Remember the FBI raid on the Miami-Dade teachers' union (UTD) offices? Well, the scandalous findings from that raid are making headlines now. UTD President Pat Tornillo has apparently been spending money lavishly on himself :

* The Miami Herald got hold of 21 months’ worth of UTD credit card statements, many of which were charges for personal and luxury items by President Pat Tornillo. James Angleton, the union’s chief financial officer who fingered Tornillo to the FBI, says Tornillo already gets a $42,700 annual stipend to cover his business expenses, so that UTD should almost never have to reimburse him. Nevertheless, Tornillo’s charges included a six-night, $20,000 stay at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami, even though he has a rental apartment “300 yards away,” according to the Herald.

He charged python-print pajamas [!] and a matching robe to the union, plus made a purchase from the Sinclair Intimacy Institute. You can visit their web site at http://www.bettersex.com for a full list of products your brain really doesn’t want to associate with Pat Tornillo.

Over the 20-month period, at least $350,000 in union dues were spent on Tornillo’s tailored suits, vacations, jewelry, cable TV service, artwork and groceries.

It gets better. The union's CFO made a six-figure personal loan to the UTD last fall to help the union "make ends meet." This was but one in a series of personal loans made to improve the credit rating of the union while it was having difficulty meeting its bank loan payments.

The UTD is desperately trying to separate itself from this scandal in order to avoid public backlash. The union's legal affairs are now going to be handled at the state level by the Florida Education Association - the same association that is publicly criticizing the FCAT. I suppose this means that holding schools accountable for education is bad, while managing a corrupt union that wastes millions of dollars is perfectly okay.

And speaking of the FCAT, the coalition challenging Governor Bush isn't backing down. The FCAT Protest Coalition has announced that they will pursue legal action against Florida if the governor does not suspend the FCAT results and allow the thousands of students to receive their high school diplomas. But Gov. Bush isn't backing down either. Spokeswoman Alia Faraj announced Saturday that "there was no chance of suspending the FCAT results."

Meanwhile, we hear stories such as this one:

For Tatiana Jacobs-Debrow, 18, a senior at Miami Northwestern, the test means she won't be attending the University of Miami next year. She had planned to study computer science.

In tears, the teen's mother pleaded with the group for help Saturday.

''My baby came to me yesterday and she couldn't even look me in the eye because she felt ashamed,'' Tonya Jacobs-Debrow said. ``That isn't right. My daughter is an honors student.''

How can a high school honors student who is planning to major in computer science fail this test? Information about the FCAT can be found here. The test items are at a 10th-grade level. This honors student has been given multiple attempts to pass. She was allowed to use a calculator on the math and science sections, and all the formulas are provided. And yet she can't pass a math exam that asks her to read and interpolate graphs, and multiply negative numbers (pp 19-20)? She can't pass a reading exam that asks simple questions about the meaning of words and the basic writing strategy of an essay (p. 8)? On multiple attempts over two years? When she needs a score of only 300 out of 500 on each section to pass?

Either she doesn't have the ability, or she knows her stuff but answers very carelessly, or she freezes up on exams. None of these bode well for someone who is planning to take college-level computer science classes. What's going on here?

For more on the FCAT controversy, see the news articles below:

FCAT Fallout: 1 In 11 Seniors Won't Graduate On Time
Some seniors who failed FCAT will take part in graduation
FCAT Protest Draws 3,000
State Works To Minimize FCAT Fallout
Bush: FCAT scores up in every grade but 10th
Politics still follows FCAT even as test scores rise
FCAT Moratorium Rejected

More trouble in FloridaRemember the

More trouble in Florida

Remember the FBI raid on the Miami-Dade teachers' union (UTD) offices? Well, the scandalous findings from that raid are making headlines now. UTD President Pat Tornillo has apparently been spending money lavishly on himself :

* The Miami Herald got hold of 21 months’ worth of UTD credit card statements, many of which were charges for personal and luxury items by President Pat Tornillo. James Angleton, the union’s chief financial officer who fingered Tornillo to the FBI, says Tornillo already gets a $42,700 annual stipend to cover his business expenses, so that UTD should almost never have to reimburse him. Nevertheless, Tornillo’s charges included a six-night, $20,000 stay at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami, even though he has a rental apartment “300 yards away,” according to the Herald.

He charged python-print pajamas [!] and a matching robe to the union, plus made a purchase from the Sinclair Intimacy Institute. You can visit their web site at http://www.bettersex.com for a full list of products your brain really doesn’t want to associate with Pat Tornillo.

Over the 20-month period, at least $350,000 in union dues were spent on Tornillo’s tailored suits, vacations, jewelry, cable TV service, artwork and groceries.

It gets better. The union's CFO made a six-figure personal loan to the UTD last fall to help the union "make ends meet." This was but one in a series of personal loans made to improve the credit rating of the union while it was having difficulty meeting its bank loan payments.

The UTD is desperately trying to separate itself from this scandal in order to avoid public backlash. The union's legal affairs are now going to be handled at the state level by the Florida Education Association - the same association that is publicly criticizing the FCAT. I suppose this means that holding schools accountable for education is bad, while managing a corrupt union that wastes millions of dollars is perfectly okay.

And speaking of the FCAT, the coalition challenging Governor Bush isn't backing down. The FCAT Protest Coalition has announced that they will pursue legal action against Florida if the governor does not suspend the FCAT results and allow the thousands of students to receive their high school diplomas. But Gov. Bush isn't backing down either. Spokeswoman Alia Faraj announced Saturday that "there was no chance of suspending the FCAT results."

Meanwhile, we hear stories such as this one:

For Tatiana Jacobs-Debrow, 18, a senior at Miami Northwestern, the test means she won't be attending the University of Miami next year. She had planned to study computer science.

In tears, the teen's mother pleaded with the group for help Saturday.

''My baby came to me yesterday and she couldn't even look me in the eye because she felt ashamed,'' Tonya Jacobs-Debrow said. ``That isn't right. My daughter is an honors student.''

How can a high school honors student who is planning to major in computer science fail this test? Information about the FCAT can be found here. The test items are at a 10th-grade level. This honors student has been given multiple attempts to pass. She was allowed to use a calculator on the math and science sections, and all the formulas are provided. And yet she can't pass a math exam that asks her to read and interpolate graphs, and multiply negative numbers (pp 19-20)? She can't pass a reading exam that asks simple questions about the meaning of words and the basic writing strategy of an essay (p. 8)? On multiple attempts over two years? When she needs a score of only 300 out of 500 on each section to pass?

Either she doesn't have the ability, or she knows her stuff but answers very carelessly, or she freezes up on exams. None of these bode well for someone who is planning to take college-level computer science classes. What's going on here?

For more on the FCAT controversy, see the news articles below:

FCAT Fallout: 1 In 11 Seniors Won't Graduate On Time
Some seniors who failed FCAT will take part in graduation
FCAT Protest Draws 3,000
State Works To Minimize FCAT Fallout
Bush: FCAT scores up in every grade but 10th
Politics still follows FCAT even as test scores rise
FCAT Moratorium Rejected

Ba ha ha haYou know,

Ba ha ha ha

You know, it seems every blog has run a "What are you?" quiz lately, with the blogger posting their results - Which Lord of the Rings character are you? Which weapon are you? What historical figure are you?" I've been tempted to post my results for some of them, but never found one that I really liked.

Then I went to visit the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler's page tonight, and he posted his results from the "What animal are you?" quiz at Quizilla. He was a Crow, which sounds pretty cool, and I love animals, so I decided to give it a try. Maybe I'd be something sexy, like a cat, or cool and scary, like a snake.

Nope.

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

First I discover I have a male brain, now I'm a badger. A great day for my self-esteem, folks.

Ba ha ha haYou know,

Ba ha ha ha

You know, it seems every blog has run a "What are you?" quiz lately, with the blogger posting their results - Which Lord of the Rings character are you? Which weapon are you? What historical figure are you?" I've been tempted to post my results for some of them, but never found one that I really liked.

Then I went to visit the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler's page tonight, and he posted his results from the "What animal are you?" quiz at Quizilla. He was a Crow, which sounds pretty cool, and I love animals, so I decided to give it a try. Maybe I'd be something sexy, like a cat, or cool and scary, like a snake.

Nope.

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

First I discover I have a male brain, now I'm a badger. A great day for my self-esteem, folks.

Ba ha ha haYou know,

Ba ha ha ha

You know, it seems every blog has run a "What are you?" quiz lately, with the blogger posting their results - Which Lord of the Rings character are you? Which weapon are you? What historical figure are you?" I've been tempted to post my results for some of them, but never found one that I really liked.

Then I went to visit the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler's page tonight, and he posted his results from the "What animal are you?" quiz at Quizilla. He was a Crow, which sounds pretty cool, and I love animals, so I decided to give it a try. Maybe I'd be something sexy, like a cat, or cool and scary, like a snake.

Nope.

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

First I discover I have a male brain, now I'm a badger. A great day for my self-esteem, folks.

Graduation Day in black and

Graduation Day in black and white

Today is graduation day at the University of Pennsylvania. As the Washington Post reports, racially and ethnically themed ceremonies for seniors are the new biggest thing, so that seniors can "celebrate their cultural connections as well as their ability to overcome the special challenges they face at predominantly white universities." Professor John H. McWhorter, one of the more well-known and outspoken critics of race-conscious college admissions, had this to say about these ceremonies:

"The fact that these ceremonies are so prevalent nicely shows that the common defense of racial preferences -- that it puts whites and blacks on the same campus to learn about and become comfortable with each other -- is senseless...On the contrary, campuses are precisely where many black students learn a new separatist conception of being 'black' that they didn't have before."

Do separate dorms, cultural centers, and ceremonies make students feel safe and honored - or are they merely isolating students in cultural ghettos? As always, Erin O'Connor has a lengthy and excellent post on the topic:

Supporters of these ceremonies claim that they recognize the special achievement of minority students in the (implicitly oppressive) atmosphere of the predominantly white university. As the house dean of Penn's black dorm explains it, "Our students need the support they get from one another. ... Often, they don't receive the same recognition and support as other students in the university."

The fact that minority graduations are instances where minority students actually get more support and recognition than "other students" does not enter into this argument. Neither does the notion that such a ceremony might feel like a cheap and belated compensation to students who have been underserved by their school (if indeed they have). Neither does the notion that "other students" are hardly an undifferentiated mass of privileged white male oppressors. Neither does the notion that it is not in itself an achievement to be black (or white). Neither does the possibility that some black graduating seniors--perhaps a significant number of the 50% of them that were not at Penn's ceremony this year--might regard black graduation as the final, ironic, crowning insult delivered by the pigeon-holing efforts of Penn's resident diversity industry. More than one Penn undergrad has confessed to me how disappointed and disturbed they were to find that their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality.

And John Rosenberg, from whom I discovered this story in the first place, had this to say:

Another refuge from diversity is the W.E.B. DuBois College House, a Penn dorm that houses about one quarter of Penn's black undergraduates. How does this segregation (and that's what it is, even if it's self-segregation) contribute to diversity? If minorities are admitted to prestigious places like Penn in order to provide diversity, why not require them to live in diverse dorms? Recipients of athletic scholarships are generally required to play sports; why shouldn't diversity preferees be required to provide diversity?

"Required to provide diversity" - this last comment emphasizes one of the aspects of "diversity" that I've always found so insulting. The diversity is not provided for the minority students; rather, they are admitted in order to provide diversity for the "un-diverse" white college population. Therefore, minority students are allowed to segregate themselves, while white students are required to coexist with and learn from minority students, because they need to be more "diverse." How condescending. It's unsuprising that, as Erin reports, minority students were dismayed to find that "their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality."

Minority students can have their own ceremonies, their own space, their own dorms; white students cannot. This sounds suspiciously as though "diversity" is mandated for whites, but racial segregation is perfectly okay for non-whites. Can anyone give me a better explanation for why the same people who get upset when some high school students in Georgia throw themselves a separate all-white prom (which is no different from throwing a party to which you invite your own friends, if all of them happen to be white) have no problem with college minorities attending segregated graduation celebrations?

Graduation Day in black and

Graduation Day in black and white

Today is graduation day at the University of Pennsylvania. As the Washington Post reports, racially and ethnically themed ceremonies for seniors are the new biggest thing, so that seniors can "celebrate their cultural connections as well as their ability to overcome the special challenges they face at predominantly white universities." Professor John H. McWhorter, one of the more well-known and outspoken critics of race-conscious college admissions, had this to say about these ceremonies:

"The fact that these ceremonies are so prevalent nicely shows that the common defense of racial preferences -- that it puts whites and blacks on the same campus to learn about and become comfortable with each other -- is senseless...On the contrary, campuses are precisely where many black students learn a new separatist conception of being 'black' that they didn't have before."

Do separate dorms, cultural centers, and ceremonies make students feel safe and honored - or are they merely isolating students in cultural ghettos? As always, Erin O'Connor has a lengthy and excellent post on the topic:

Supporters of these ceremonies claim that they recognize the special achievement of minority students in the (implicitly oppressive) atmosphere of the predominantly white university. As the house dean of Penn's black dorm explains it, "Our students need the support they get from one another. ... Often, they don't receive the same recognition and support as other students in the university."

The fact that minority graduations are instances where minority students actually get more support and recognition than "other students" does not enter into this argument. Neither does the notion that such a ceremony might feel like a cheap and belated compensation to students who have been underserved by their school (if indeed they have). Neither does the notion that "other students" are hardly an undifferentiated mass of privileged white male oppressors. Neither does the notion that it is not in itself an achievement to be black (or white). Neither does the possibility that some black graduating seniors--perhaps a significant number of the 50% of them that were not at Penn's ceremony this year--might regard black graduation as the final, ironic, crowning insult delivered by the pigeon-holing efforts of Penn's resident diversity industry. More than one Penn undergrad has confessed to me how disappointed and disturbed they were to find that their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality.

And John Rosenberg, from whom I discovered this story in the first place, had this to say:

Another refuge from diversity is the W.E.B. DuBois College House, a Penn dorm that houses about one quarter of Penn's black undergraduates. How does this segregation (and that's what it is, even if it's self-segregation) contribute to diversity? If minorities are admitted to prestigious places like Penn in order to provide diversity, why not require them to live in diverse dorms? Recipients of athletic scholarships are generally required to play sports; why shouldn't diversity preferees be required to provide diversity?

"Required to provide diversity" - this last comment emphasizes one of the aspects of "diversity" that I've always found so insulting. The diversity is not provided for the minority students; rather, they are admitted in order to provide diversity for the "un-diverse" white college population. Therefore, minority students are allowed to segregate themselves, while white students are required to coexist with and learn from minority students, because they need to be more "diverse." How condescending. It's unsuprising that, as Erin reports, minority students were dismayed to find that "their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality."

Minority students can have their own ceremonies, their own space, their own dorms; white students cannot. This sounds suspiciously as though "diversity" is mandated for whites, but racial segregation is perfectly okay for non-whites. Can anyone give me a better explanation for why the same people who get upset when some high school students in Georgia throw themselves a separate all-white prom (which is no different from throwing a party to which you invite your own friends, if all of them happen to be white) have no problem with college minorities attending segregated graduation celebrations?

Graduation Day in black and

Graduation Day in black and white

Today is graduation day at the University of Pennsylvania. As the Washington Post reports, racially and ethnically themed ceremonies for seniors are the new biggest thing, so that seniors can "celebrate their cultural connections as well as their ability to overcome the special challenges they face at predominantly white universities." Professor John H. McWhorter, one of the more well-known and outspoken critics of race-conscious college admissions, had this to say about these ceremonies:

"The fact that these ceremonies are so prevalent nicely shows that the common defense of racial preferences -- that it puts whites and blacks on the same campus to learn about and become comfortable with each other -- is senseless...On the contrary, campuses are precisely where many black students learn a new separatist conception of being 'black' that they didn't have before."

Do separate dorms, cultural centers, and ceremonies make students feel safe and honored - or are they merely isolating students in cultural ghettos? As always, Erin O'Connor has a lengthy and excellent post on the topic:

Supporters of these ceremonies claim that they recognize the special achievement of minority students in the (implicitly oppressive) atmosphere of the predominantly white university. As the house dean of Penn's black dorm explains it, "Our students need the support they get from one another. ... Often, they don't receive the same recognition and support as other students in the university."

The fact that minority graduations are instances where minority students actually get more support and recognition than "other students" does not enter into this argument. Neither does the notion that such a ceremony might feel like a cheap and belated compensation to students who have been underserved by their school (if indeed they have). Neither does the notion that "other students" are hardly an undifferentiated mass of privileged white male oppressors. Neither does the notion that it is not in itself an achievement to be black (or white). Neither does the possibility that some black graduating seniors--perhaps a significant number of the 50% of them that were not at Penn's ceremony this year--might regard black graduation as the final, ironic, crowning insult delivered by the pigeon-holing efforts of Penn's resident diversity industry. More than one Penn undergrad has confessed to me how disappointed and disturbed they were to find that their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality.

And John Rosenberg, from whom I discovered this story in the first place, had this to say:

Another refuge from diversity is the W.E.B. DuBois College House, a Penn dorm that houses about one quarter of Penn's black undergraduates. How does this segregation (and that's what it is, even if it's self-segregation) contribute to diversity? If minorities are admitted to prestigious places like Penn in order to provide diversity, why not require them to live in diverse dorms? Recipients of athletic scholarships are generally required to play sports; why shouldn't diversity preferees be required to provide diversity?

"Required to provide diversity" - this last comment emphasizes one of the aspects of "diversity" that I've always found so insulting. The diversity is not provided for the minority students; rather, they are admitted in order to provide diversity for the "un-diverse" white college population. Therefore, minority students are allowed to segregate themselves, while white students are required to coexist with and learn from minority students, because they need to be more "diverse." How condescending. It's unsuprising that, as Erin reports, minority students were dismayed to find that "their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality."

Minority students can have their own ceremonies, their own space, their own dorms; white students cannot. This sounds suspiciously as though "diversity" is mandated for whites, but racial segregation is perfectly okay for non-whites. Can anyone give me a better explanation for why the same people who get upset when some high school students in Georgia throw themselves a separate all-white prom (which is no different from throwing a party to which you invite your own friends, if all of them happen to be white) have no problem with college minorities attending segregated graduation celebrations?

A magical postIf you haven't

A magical post

If you haven't been reading Bill Whittle's excellent blog, Eject!Eject!Eject!, you're missing out on some of the finest online writing ever. Today's post is entitled, "Magic", and it's a wonder. He all-too-briefly addresses the shortcomings of the public school system that allow for unrealistic, anti-logical, "magical" thinking:

Like so many of our other destructive tendencies, this whole mess really started in the latter part of the 1960’s. For a century prior, our public schools were the envy of the world. The very idea that a whole nation could educate their entire population was so radical that scholars from around the world flocked to the United States in the nineteenth century to see such a bold miracle for themselves.

Right up into the late 1950’s, when Sputnik lit a fire under science and technical education, US public schools performed magnificently. Now I’m not a professional educator, but I suspect this might have had something to do with the fact that we were more interested in teaching history, science, writing, literature and math than we were about raising self-esteem, discussing birth control and indoctrinating political and environmental beliefs. There were specialized people who taught these things way back then, and they were called “parents.” The only “soft science” taught in those days was “citizenship,” a class that sounds so dated and quaint today that we can only lament how far we have fallen. The idea that we would teach people how the system works, rather than telling them what to think about it, has long gone. And we continue to pay the price for it.

Anyway, some time in the late 1960’s Sauron gets the Ring and along comes the Hippie movement. Their entire philosophy was summed up succinctly in a slogan from the times: if it feels good, do it.

This sounds simplistic and childlike. In fact, it is: but it is also extremely subtle and pervasive, and as a personal philosophy it has enormous seductive power. It frees you from the constraints of discipline, study, responsibility and ethics, not to mention relieving you of the burden of making choices based on evidence, reason, logic or fact.

Now those Hippies are college professors, and post-modernism is their Grail.

You know the drill: No objective reality. All truth is relative. You can believe whatever you want, when you want. You can be descended from Atlantean Priests! You can have Mental Powers to move objects, read the future, and speak to dead people! Even better, you can save six billion trillion tons of silicon, nickel and iron in the third orbit around the sun – a sphere that has endured 5 billion years of asteroid impacts, volcanoes, ice ages, and having its core knocked out and into orbit -- by holding up a piece of wood with some lettered cardboard on one end and by marching down the street chanting two-line political philosophies!

Priceless.

A magical postIf you haven't

A magical post

If you haven't been reading Bill Whittle's excellent blog, Eject!Eject!Eject!, you're missing out on some of the finest online writing ever. Today's post is entitled, "Magic", and it's a wonder. He all-too-briefly addresses the shortcomings of the public school system that allow for unrealistic, anti-logical, "magical" thinking:

Like so many of our other destructive tendencies, this whole mess really started in the latter part of the 1960’s. For a century prior, our public schools were the envy of the world. The very idea that a whole nation could educate their entire population was so radical that scholars from around the world flocked to the United States in the nineteenth century to see such a bold miracle for themselves.

Right up into the late 1950’s, when Sputnik lit a fire under science and technical education, US public schools performed magnificently. Now I’m not a professional educator, but I suspect this might have had something to do with the fact that we were more interested in teaching history, science, writing, literature and math than we were about raising self-esteem, discussing birth control and indoctrinating political and environmental beliefs. There were specialized people who taught these things way back then, and they were called “parents.” The only “soft science” taught in those days was “citizenship,” a class that sounds so dated and quaint today that we can only lament how far we have fallen. The idea that we would teach people how the system works, rather than telling them what to think about it, has long gone. And we continue to pay the price for it.

Anyway, some time in the late 1960’s Sauron gets the Ring and along comes the Hippie movement. Their entire philosophy was summed up succinctly in a slogan from the times: if it feels good, do it.

This sounds simplistic and childlike. In fact, it is: but it is also extremely subtle and pervasive, and as a personal philosophy it has enormous seductive power. It frees you from the constraints of discipline, study, responsibility and ethics, not to mention relieving you of the burden of making choices based on evidence, reason, logic or fact.

Now those Hippies are college professors, and post-modernism is their Grail.

You know the drill: No objective reality. All truth is relative. You can believe whatever you want, when you want. You can be descended from Atlantean Priests! You can have Mental Powers to move objects, read the future, and speak to dead people! Even better, you can save six billion trillion tons of silicon, nickel and iron in the third orbit around the sun – a sphere that has endured 5 billion years of asteroid impacts, volcanoes, ice ages, and having its core knocked out and into orbit -- by holding up a piece of wood with some lettered cardboard on one end and by marching down the street chanting two-line political philosophies!

Priceless.

A magical postIf you haven't

A magical post

If you haven't been reading Bill Whittle's excellent blog, Eject!Eject!Eject!, you're missing out on some of the finest online writing ever. Today's post is entitled, "Magic", and it's a wonder. He all-too-briefly addresses the shortcomings of the public school system that allow for unrealistic, anti-logical, "magical" thinking:

Like so many of our other destructive tendencies, this whole mess really started in the latter part of the 1960’s. For a century prior, our public schools were the envy of the world. The very idea that a whole nation could educate their entire population was so radical that scholars from around the world flocked to the United States in the nineteenth century to see such a bold miracle for themselves.

Right up into the late 1950’s, when Sputnik lit a fire under science and technical education, US public schools performed magnificently. Now I’m not a professional educator, but I suspect this might have had something to do with the fact that we were more interested in teaching history, science, writing, literature and math than we were about raising self-esteem, discussing birth control and indoctrinating political and environmental beliefs. There were specialized people who taught these things way back then, and they were called “parents.” The only “soft science” taught in those days was “citizenship,” a class that sounds so dated and quaint today that we can only lament how far we have fallen. The idea that we would teach people how the system works, rather than telling them what to think about it, has long gone. And we continue to pay the price for it.

Anyway, some time in the late 1960’s Sauron gets the Ring and along comes the Hippie movement. Their entire philosophy was summed up succinctly in a slogan from the times: if it feels good, do it.

This sounds simplistic and childlike. In fact, it is: but it is also extremely subtle and pervasive, and as a personal philosophy it has enormous seductive power. It frees you from the constraints of discipline, study, responsibility and ethics, not to mention relieving you of the burden of making choices based on evidence, reason, logic or fact.

Now those Hippies are college professors, and post-modernism is their Grail.

You know the drill: No objective reality. All truth is relative. You can believe whatever you want, when you want. You can be descended from Atlantean Priests! You can have Mental Powers to move objects, read the future, and speak to dead people! Even better, you can save six billion trillion tons of silicon, nickel and iron in the third orbit around the sun – a sphere that has endured 5 billion years of asteroid impacts, volcanoes, ice ages, and having its core knocked out and into orbit -- by holding up a piece of wood with some lettered cardboard on one end and by marching down the street chanting two-line political philosophies!

Priceless.

"Malignant" curriculum manualsCharles Johnson of

"Malignant" curriculum manuals

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs caught my attention with an entry on The Textbook League. The TL is an organization that provides commentaries on textbooks, curriculum manuals, videos and reference books. The commentaries are available online and through a letter that sent to teachers, administrators, and private citizens.

What got Charles riled up was this review of ISLAM:A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, entitled: Page for Page, This Is the Most Malignant Product That I've Seen During All My Years as a Reviewer

ISLAM: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100 is produced and distributed by Interaction Publishers, of Carlsbad, California. This company, which does business under the name "Interact" (and refers to itself by that name), promotes ISLAM: A Simulation as a curriculum manual for use by history teachers in grades 6 through 12. ISLAM: A Simulation consists of lesson plans and handouts for a three-week program of classroom instruction in which students "will simulate becoming Muslims" and allegedly "will learn about the history and culture of Islam..."

ISLAM: A Simulation has no educational purpose, and it can serve no educational function. From beginning to end, it is nothing but a Muslim religious publication, produced by writers who seek to exploit classroom teachers for propagating Islam...ISLAM: A Simulation directs teachers to deceive their students and to boost Islam by disseminating lies and by falsifying history...ISLAM: A Simulation requires teachers to indoctrinate their students by feeding them servings of "information" in which historical facts are insidiously intermixed with Muslim myths and Muslim woo-woo...ISLAM: A Simulation directs teachers to present facts, myths and woo-woo as equivalent, equipotent items...ISLAM: A Simulation requires teachers and students alike to abandon rationality, to shun analytical thinking, and to embrace the view that any claim about anything -- no matter how fatuous the claim may be -- must be accepted as true.

No, I don't know what "woo woo" is, either, but it doesn't sound good. At the end of the lengthy review, which is backed up by footnotes, the reviewer concludes:

Page for page and ounce for ounce, ISLAM: A Simulation is the most malignant product that I have seen during all my years as a reviewer of instructional materials...This document's malignancy transcends mere deceit, however, for the Interact writers have used their lies and other devices to mount a sustained attack on rationality itself.

I have sought to emphasize, in this review, that Interact's program requires a great deal of promotion and participation by the classroom teacher -- the teacher who must serve as Interact's dupe, must carry out Interact's instructions for bamboozling and deluding students, and must even recount a flying-horse legend as if it were history. I now assert that any teacher who would do such things should be sacked forthwith. I assert that any teacher who would have anything to do with Islam: A Simulation should be fired before the day is out. Islam: A Simulation has no place in any legitimate school, and neither does any teacher who is so ignorant and so stupid that he cannot recognize Interact's manual of rubbish for what it is.

Think reviewer William J. Bennetta is overstating the case? This isn't the first time this product has come under such scrutiny. Estimable scholar Daniel Pipes reviewed it last year:

...the curriculum presents matters of Islamic faith as historical fact. The Kaaba, "originally built by Adam," it announces, "was later rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ismail." Really? That is Islamic belief, not verifiable history. In the year 610, Interaction goes on, "while Prophet Muhammad meditated in a cave ... the angel Gabriel visited him" and revealed to him God's Message" (yes, that's Message with a capital "M.") The curriculum sometimes lapses into referring to "we" Muslims and even prompts students to ask if they should "worship Prophet Muhammad, God, or both."

The Thomas More Law Center is absolutely correct: This simulation blatantly contradicts Supreme Court rulings which permit public schools to teach about religion on condition that they do not promote it. Interaction openly promotes the Islamic faith, contrary to what a public school should do. As Richard Thompson of the center notes, the Byron school district "crossed way over the constitutional line when it coerced impressionable 12-year-olds to engage in particular religious rituals and worship, simulated or not..."

I also found another letter by William Benetta on the TL site in which he questions Ms. Suzanne C. Rios, the administrator for the Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Office of the California State Department of Education, as to why their office granted legal-compliance approval to ISLAM:A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, in spite of the fact that California's Department of Education booklet, entitled "Standards for Evaluating Instructional Materials for Social Content", explicitly prohibits the approval of any instructional product that subjects the student to religious indoctrination.

This was the first of three letters sent to Ms. Rios, none of which were answered.

P.S. - if you go to the LGF link, be sure to read the comments. Charles's peanut gallery always has the best (most sarcastic and hilarious) take on these absurdities...

"Malignant" curriculum manualsCharles Johnson of

"Malignant" curriculum manuals

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs caught my attention with an entry on The Textbook League. The TL is an organization that provides commentaries on textbooks, curriculum manuals, videos and reference books. The commentaries are available online and through a letter that sent to teachers, administrators, and private citizens.

What got Charles riled up was this review of ISLAM:A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, entitled: Page for Page, This Is the Most Malignant Product That I've Seen During All My Years as a Reviewer

ISLAM: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100 is produced and distributed by Interaction Publishers, of Carlsbad, California. This company, which does business under the name "Interact" (and refers to itself by that name), promotes ISLAM: A Simulation as a curriculum manual for use by history teachers in grades 6 through 12. ISLAM: A Simulation consists of lesson plans and handouts for a three-week program of classroom instruction in which students "will simulate becoming Muslims" and allegedly "will learn about the history and culture of Islam..."

ISLAM: A Simulation has no educational purpose, and it can serve no educational function. From beginning to end, it is nothing but a Muslim religious publication, produced by writers who seek to exploit classroom teachers for propagating Islam...ISLAM: A Simulation directs teachers to deceive their students and to boost Islam by disseminating lies and by falsifying history...ISLAM: A Simulation requires teachers to indoctrinate their students by feeding them servings of "information" in which historical facts are insidiously intermixed with Muslim myths and Muslim woo-woo...ISLAM: A Simulation directs teachers to present facts, myths and woo-woo as equivalent, equipotent items...ISLAM: A Simulation requires teachers and students alike to abandon rationality, to shun analytical thinking, and to embrace the view that any claim about anything -- no matter how fatuous the claim may be -- must be accepted as true.

No, I don't know what "woo woo" is, either, but it doesn't sound good. At the end of the lengthy review, which is backed up by footnotes, the reviewer concludes:

Page for page and ounce for ounce, ISLAM: A Simulation is the most malignant product that I have seen during all my years as a reviewer of instructional materials...This document's malignancy transcends mere deceit, however, for the Interact writers have used their lies and other devices to mount a sustained attack on rationality itself.

I have sought to emphasize, in this review, that Interact's program requires a great deal of promotion and participation by the classroom teacher -- the teacher who must serve as Interact's dupe, must carry out Interact's instructions for bamboozling and deluding students, and must even recount a flying-horse legend as if it were history. I now assert that any teacher who would do such things should be sacked forthwith. I assert that any teacher who would have anything to do with Islam: A Simulation should be fired before the day is out. Islam: A Simulation has no place in any legitimate school, and neither does any teacher who is so ignorant and so stupid that he cannot recognize Interact's manual of rubbish for what it is.

Think reviewer William J. Bennetta is overstating the case? This isn't the first time this product has come under such scrutiny. Estimable scholar Daniel Pipes reviewed it last year:

...the curriculum presents matters of Islamic faith as historical fact. The Kaaba, "originally built by Adam," it announces, "was later rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ismail." Really? That is Islamic belief, not verifiable history. In the year 610, Interaction goes on, "while Prophet Muhammad meditated in a cave ... the angel Gabriel visited him" and revealed to him God's Message" (yes, that's Message with a capital "M.") The curriculum sometimes lapses into referring to "we" Muslims and even prompts students to ask if they should "worship Prophet Muhammad, God, or both."

The Thomas More Law Center is absolutely correct: This simulation blatantly contradicts Supreme Court rulings which permit public schools to teach about religion on condition that they do not promote it. Interaction openly promotes the Islamic faith, contrary to what a public school should do. As Richard Thompson of the center notes, the Byron school district "crossed way over the constitutional line when it coerced impressionable 12-year-olds to engage in particular religious rituals and worship, simulated or not..."

I also found another letter by William Benetta on the TL site in which he questions Ms. Suzanne C. Rios, the administrator for the Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Office of the California State Department of Education, as to why their office granted legal-compliance approval to ISLAM:A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, in spite of the fact that California's Department of Education booklet, entitled "Standards for Evaluating Instructional Materials for Social Content", explicitly prohibits the approval of any instructional product that subjects the student to religious indoctrination.

This was the first of three letters sent to Ms. Rios, none of which were answered.

P.S. - if you go to the LGF link, be sure to read the comments. Charles's peanut gallery always has the best (most sarcastic and hilarious) take on these absurdities...

"Malignant" curriculum manualsCharles Johnson of

"Malignant" curriculum manuals

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs caught my attention with an entry on The Textbook League. The TL is an organization that provides commentaries on textbooks, curriculum manuals, videos and reference books. The commentaries are available online and through a letter that sent to teachers, administrators, and private citizens.

What got Charles riled up was this review of ISLAM:A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, entitled: Page for Page, This Is the Most Malignant Product That I've Seen During All My Years as a Reviewer

ISLAM: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100 is produced and distributed by Interaction Publishers, of Carlsbad, California. This company, which does business under the name "Interact" (and refers to itself by that name), promotes ISLAM: A Simulation as a curriculum manual for use by history teachers in grades 6 through 12. ISLAM: A Simulation consists of lesson plans and handouts for a three-week program of classroom instruction in which students "will simulate becoming Muslims" and allegedly "will learn about the history and culture of Islam..."

ISLAM: A Simulation has no educational purpose, and it can serve no educational function. From beginning to end, it is nothing but a Muslim religious publication, produced by writers who seek to exploit classroom teachers for propagating Islam...ISLAM: A Simulation directs teachers to deceive their students and to boost Islam by disseminating lies and by falsifying history...ISLAM: A Simulation requires teachers to indoctrinate their students by feeding them servings of "information" in which historical facts are insidiously intermixed with Muslim myths and Muslim woo-woo...ISLAM: A Simulation directs teachers to present facts, myths and woo-woo as equivalent, equipotent items...ISLAM: A Simulation requires teachers and students alike to abandon rationality, to shun analytical thinking, and to embrace the view that any claim about anything -- no matter how fatuous the claim may be -- must be accepted as true.

No, I don't know what "woo woo" is, either, but it doesn't sound good. At the end of the lengthy review, which is backed up by footnotes, the reviewer concludes:

Page for page and ounce for ounce, ISLAM: A Simulation is the most malignant product that I have seen during all my years as a reviewer of instructional materials...This document's malignancy transcends mere deceit, however, for the Interact writers have used their lies and other devices to mount a sustained attack on rationality itself.

I have sought to emphasize, in this review, that Interact's program requires a great deal of promotion and participation by the classroom teacher -- the teacher who must serve as Interact's dupe, must carry out Interact's instructions for bamboozling and deluding students, and must even recount a flying-horse legend as if it were history. I now assert that any teacher who would do such things should be sacked forthwith. I assert that any teacher who would have anything to do with Islam: A Simulation should be fired before the day is out. Islam: A Simulation has no place in any legitimate school, and neither does any teacher who is so ignorant and so stupid that he cannot recognize Interact's manual of rubbish for what it is.

Think reviewer William J. Bennetta is overstating the case? This isn't the first time this product has come under such scrutiny. Estimable scholar Daniel Pipes reviewed it last year:

...the curriculum presents matters of Islamic faith as historical fact. The Kaaba, "originally built by Adam," it announces, "was later rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ismail." Really? That is Islamic belief, not verifiable history. In the year 610, Interaction goes on, "while Prophet Muhammad meditated in a cave ... the angel Gabriel visited him" and revealed to him God's Message" (yes, that's Message with a capital "M.") The curriculum sometimes lapses into referring to "we" Muslims and even prompts students to ask if they should "worship Prophet Muhammad, God, or both."

The Thomas More Law Center is absolutely correct: This simulation blatantly contradicts Supreme Court rulings which permit public schools to teach about religion on condition that they do not promote it. Interaction openly promotes the Islamic faith, contrary to what a public school should do. As Richard Thompson of the center notes, the Byron school district "crossed way over the constitutional line when it coerced impressionable 12-year-olds to engage in particular religious rituals and worship, simulated or not..."

I also found another letter by William Benetta on the TL site in which he questions Ms. Suzanne C. Rios, the administrator for the Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Office of the California State Department of Education, as to why their office granted legal-compliance approval to ISLAM:A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, in spite of the fact that California's Department of Education booklet, entitled "Standards for Evaluating Instructional Materials for Social Content", explicitly prohibits the approval of any instructional product that subjects the student to religious indoctrination.

This was the first of three letters sent to Ms. Rios, none of which were answered.

P.S. - if you go to the LGF link, be sure to read the comments. Charles's peanut gallery always has the best (most sarcastic and hilarious) take on these absurdities...

Are you hard-wired for empathy?Simon

Are you hard-wired for empathy?

Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, has developed an exam to see if you have a male or female brain. His theory is that males are hardwired for understanding, and females are hardwired for empathy. Before you take the test, do remember that "if you score in the low E [empathy] range, this is by no means an indicator that you have any kind of problem." Heh.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you my scores. My empathy score was a rock-bottom 28 - lower than the female average of 47, and even the male average of 42. It's still a few points higher than those with functioning autism, so I suppose that's a good thing. On the other hand, my systemizing score was 38, which is above the male mean of 30, and way above the female mean of 24.

My brain type? On the cusp of the "Extreme Type S", or male brain. My mom would agree that my brain must be hard-wired differently than most, given my attraction to snakes (some phobia researchers suggest that humans are hard-wired to fear them), but I'm still skeptical.

Now, does Simon Baron-Cohen have an explanation for how a woman can have an "Extreme Type S" male brain and a thriving set of female fat cells? If I've got such a "systemizing" brain, why can't I figure out how to beat this chocolate craving? It's not fair, I tell you.

Are you hard-wired for empathy?Simon

Are you hard-wired for empathy?

Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, has developed an exam to see if you have a male or female brain. His theory is that males are hardwired for understanding, and females are hardwired for empathy. Before you take the test, do remember that "if you score in the low E [empathy] range, this is by no means an indicator that you have any kind of problem." Heh.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you my scores. My empathy score was a rock-bottom 28 - lower than the female average of 47, and even the male average of 42. It's still a few points higher than those with functioning autism, so I suppose that's a good thing. On the other hand, my systemizing score was 38, which is above the male mean of 30, and way above the female mean of 24.

My brain type? On the cusp of the "Extreme Type S", or male brain. My mom would agree that my brain must be hard-wired differently than most, given my attraction to snakes (some phobia researchers suggest that humans are hard-wired to fear them), but I'm still skeptical.

Now, does Simon Baron-Cohen have an explanation for how a woman can have an "Extreme Type S" male brain and a thriving set of female fat cells? If I've got such a "systemizing" brain, why can't I figure out how to beat this chocolate craving? It's not fair, I tell you.

Are you hard-wired for empathy?Simon

Are you hard-wired for empathy?

Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, has developed an exam to see if you have a male or female brain. His theory is that males are hardwired for understanding, and females are hardwired for empathy. Before you take the test, do remember that "if you score in the low E [empathy] range, this is by no means an indicator that you have any kind of problem." Heh.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you my scores. My empathy score was a rock-bottom 28 - lower than the female average of 47, and even the male average of 42. It's still a few points higher than those with functioning autism, so I suppose that's a good thing. On the other hand, my systemizing score was 38, which is above the male mean of 30, and way above the female mean of 24.

My brain type? On the cusp of the "Extreme Type S", or male brain. My mom would agree that my brain must be hard-wired differently than most, given my attraction to snakes (some phobia researchers suggest that humans are hard-wired to fear them), but I'm still skeptical.

Now, does Simon Baron-Cohen have an explanation for how a woman can have an "Extreme Type S" male brain and a thriving set of female fat cells? If I've got such a "systemizing" brain, why can't I figure out how to beat this chocolate craving? It's not fair, I tell you.

Why are affluent parents so

Why are affluent parents so "testy"?

It's not hard to figure out why teachers' unions oppose testing. It's definitely not hard to figure why students don't like it. But why on earth would affluent parents oppose it? Debra Saunders explores this mystery in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle:

You'd think [affluent] parents would be embarrassed to voice this [anti-testing] opinion in public, because it's so anti-education -- except they are so uninformed as to not even understand what they're against.

1. Tests like the STAR [Standardized Testing and Reporting program] test diagnose problems in individual students' learning. Middle-class parents may think their kids are getting a great education, but STAR can red-flag a learning disability or signal that Buffy failed to learn a math skill. Discover the problem early, and Buffy doesn't fall further behind.

2. Standardized tests highlight what is working. When the Open Court reading program raised reading scores in Sacramento, and showed weaker performance in the five schools that used a different reading series, it showed Sacramento what worked. Superintendents of other districts also could see tangible results.

3. Low test results shame schools to improve. Low-performing schools have been able to benefit greatly. Oakland Unified, for example, adopted Open Court to boost its dismal reading scores, and student literacy improved.

4. The California exit exam has forced students and schools alike to make sure that those who weren't learning much in high school at least graduate with a minimal level of reading and math skills...

5. All students who go to a California state college or university benefit from the exit exam and standardized tests...

Debra isn't suggesting that students do nothing but take tests - testing shouldn't last for days on end, nor should it be redundant. Certainly, a testing program should undergo constant quality assurance checks and reform, to be sure that the test is valid and that the results are not being affected by test fatigue.

This sort of commentary isn't a wholesale criticism of parents who do everything they can (and who buy everything they can) to help improve their child's education. I've no patience with people who oppose capitalism, or who think that income should be redistributed so that no child has more opportunity to learn than any other child. Many is the time that a testing critic has said to me, "You know, SAT scores are related to the parent's income," as though I've never heard this argument before and will be forced to beat a hasty retreat in the face of its mighty logic.

What these testing critics don't do is carefully consider that statement in context. If they did, they'd realize that virtually every indicator of intellectual achievement for youths in our society is somewhat related to parental income. Given that we live in a capitalistic society, and given that kids in our society are financially dependent on their parents during their K-12 education (and usually beyond), it's going to follow naturally that kids from wealthier families are going to have more opportunities to learn than kids who are not so well off. It would be bizarre if the SATs were not related in some way to income. That's reality.

So I don't begrudge parents the chance to improve their own kid's education. I do, however, take offense when they oppose testing that is desperately necessary to help improve education for kids who aren't so lucky. I know that outcomes can never be equalized, but certainly opportunities can be more equal, and standardized testing is the way to tell if underfunded schools that serve the poorer kids are doing the job right.

It's appalling that many parents' groups don't see it this way, and this sort of snobbish opposition has been going on for some time. For example, there's CARE (the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education) in Massachusetts, which is fighting the MCAS (under the aegis of FairTest, of course). Unfortunately, Blogger deleted my post related to the New York Times' article, The Test Mess, and the article is no longer free on the NYTimes website. In this article, a member of CARE had the gall, bad taste, and lack of historical perspective to claim that testing was equivalent to the yellow stars that Jews had to wear in Germany in WWII.

Other CARE supporters don't lack for snobbery. Dan Greenberg, in this article from 1999. insists that math questions such as the following are meaningless:

"A repair service charges $25 to send a service person on a call and $30 per hour for labor. If h stands for the number of hours of labor, which [algebraic] expression below can the company use to compute the charge for the service call?"

Meaningless, because "everyone knows how to compute the charge, even little kids," and knowledge of algebraic expressions is useless. He also doesn't understand why all 10th-graders should be subjected to "abstract literary pieces" by Thomas Wolfe, Shakespeare, and William Faulkner, because "very few sixteen-year-olds, or adults for that matter, [will] find [these] absorbing." So Faulkner should be reserved only for the special kids in AP classes, eh, Mr. Greenberg?

Then there are the smart kids who boycott tests, ostensibly because the tests are "unfair." Boycotting tests is the ultimate method of sparing oneself any exertion while still making a "brave" political statement. These boycotters are similar to the collegiate anti-war protestors who are forever skipping class to show their "courageous" dissent. "Hey, it's a big sacrifice to skip Professor Humdrum's Statistics 101 class so that we can go wave signs around and holler at passersby, but we're willing to make that sacrifice!" Yeah, right.

Anyway, the classic example of student test boycotters is Kimberly Marciniak, the Texas student who boycotted the state exams - with parental approval, of course. She insists that the tests are biased against minorities and poor students. She's one of the best students in her class, so I couldn't figure out why no one had bothered to explain to her that the tests, in fact, are the best means of identifying failing schools so that educational reforms can be implemented to help these poor students do better. Apparently, either her parents didn't understand this, or they simply wanted their overachieving offspring to be spared the misery of having to take these basic skills exams, so it's not surprising that Kimberly's comments went unchallenged by those around her.

Joanne Jacobs has more on this as well.

Why are affluent parents so

Why are affluent parents so "testy"?

It's not hard to figure out why teachers' unions oppose testing. It's definitely not hard to figure why students don't like it. But why on earth would affluent parents oppose it? Debra Saunders explores this mystery in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle:

You'd think [affluent] parents would be embarrassed to voice this [anti-testing] opinion in public, because it's so anti-education -- except they are so uninformed as to not even understand what they're against.

1. Tests like the STAR [Standardized Testing and Reporting program] test diagnose problems in individual students' learning. Middle-class parents may think their kids are getting a great education, but STAR can red-flag a learning disability or signal that Buffy failed to learn a math skill. Discover the problem early, and Buffy doesn't fall further behind.

2. Standardized tests highlight what is working. When the Open Court reading program raised reading scores in Sacramento, and showed weaker performance in the five schools that used a different reading series, it showed Sacramento what worked. Superintendents of other districts also could see tangible results.

3. Low test results shame schools to improve. Low-performing schools have been able to benefit greatly. Oakland Unified, for example, adopted Open Court to boost its dismal reading scores, and student literacy improved.

4. The California exit exam has forced students and schools alike to make sure that those who weren't learning much in high school at least graduate with a minimal level of reading and math skills...

5. All students who go to a California state college or university benefit from the exit exam and standardized tests...

Debra isn't suggesting that students do nothing but take tests - testing shouldn't last for days on end, nor should it be redundant. Certainly, a testing program should undergo constant quality assurance checks and reform, to be sure that the test is valid and that the results are not being affected by test fatigue.

This sort of commentary isn't a wholesale criticism of parents who do everything they can (and who buy everything they can) to help improve their child's education. I've no patience with people who oppose capitalism, or who think that income should be redistributed so that no child has more opportunity to learn than any other child. Many is the time that a testing critic has said to me, "You know, SAT scores are related to the parent's income," as though I've never heard this argument before and will be forced to beat a hasty retreat in the face of its mighty logic.

What these testing critics don't do is carefully consider that statement in context. If they did, they'd realize that virtually every indicator of intellectual achievement for youths in our society is somewhat related to parental income. Given that we live in a capitalistic society, and given that kids in our society are financially dependent on their parents during their K-12 education (and usually beyond), it's going to follow naturally that kids from wealthier families are going to have more opportunities to learn than kids who are not so well off. It would be bizarre if the SATs were not related in some way to income. That's reality.

So I don't begrudge parents the chance to improve their own kid's education. I do, however, take offense when they oppose testing that is desperately necessary to help improve education for kids who aren't so lucky. I know that outcomes can never be equalized, but certainly opportunities can be more equal, and standardized testing is the way to tell if underfunded schools that serve the poorer kids are doing the job right.

It's appalling that many parents' groups don't see it this way, and this sort of snobbish opposition has been going on for some time. For example, there's CARE (the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education) in Massachusetts, which is fighting the MCAS (under the aegis of FairTest, of course). Unfortunately, Blogger deleted my post related to the New York Times' article, The Test Mess, and the article is no longer free on the NYTimes website. In this article, a member of CARE had the gall, bad taste, and lack of historical perspective to claim that testing was equivalent to the yellow stars that Jews had to wear in Germany in WWII.

Other CARE supporters don't lack for snobbery. Dan Greenberg, in this article from 1999. insists that math questions such as the following are meaningless:

"A repair service charges $25 to send a service person on a call and $30 per hour for labor. If h stands for the number of hours of labor, which [algebraic] expression below can the company use to compute the charge for the service call?"

Meaningless, because "everyone knows how to compute the charge, even little kids," and knowledge of algebraic expressions is useless. He also doesn't understand why all 10th-graders should be subjected to "abstract literary pieces" by Thomas Wolfe, Shakespeare, and William Faulkner, because "very few sixteen-year-olds, or adults for that matter, [will] find [these] absorbing." So Faulkner should be reserved only for the special kids in AP classes, eh, Mr. Greenberg?

Then there are the smart kids who boycott tests, ostensibly because the tests are "unfair." Boycotting tests is the ultimate method of sparing oneself any exertion while still making a "brave" political statement. These boycotters are similar to the collegiate anti-war protestors who are forever skipping class to show their "courageous" dissent. "Hey, it's a big sacrifice to skip Professor Humdrum's Statistics 101 class so that we can go wave signs around and holler at passersby, but we're willing to make that sacrifice!" Yeah, right.

Anyway, the classic example of student test boycotters is Kimberly Marciniak, the Texas student who boycotted the state exams - with parental approval, of course. She insists that the tests are biased against minorities and poor students. She's one of the best students in her class, so I couldn't figure out why no one had bothered to explain to her that the tests, in fact, are the best means of identifying failing schools so that educational reforms can be implemented to help these poor students do better. Apparently, either her parents didn't understand this, or they simply wanted their overachieving offspring to be spared the misery of having to take these basic skills exams, so it's not surprising that Kimberly's comments went unchallenged by those around her.

Joanne Jacobs has more on this as well.

Why are affluent parents so

Why are affluent parents so "testy"?

It's not hard to figure out why teachers' unions oppose testing. It's definitely not hard to figure why students don't like it. But why on earth would affluent parents oppose it? Debra Saunders explores this mystery in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle:

You'd think [affluent] parents would be embarrassed to voice this [anti-testing] opinion in public, because it's so anti-education -- except they are so uninformed as to not even understand what they're against.

1. Tests like the STAR [Standardized Testing and Reporting program] test diagnose problems in individual students' learning. Middle-class parents may think their kids are getting a great education, but STAR can red-flag a learning disability or signal that Buffy failed to learn a math skill. Discover the problem early, and Buffy doesn't fall further behind.

2. Standardized tests highlight what is working. When the Open Court reading program raised reading scores in Sacramento, and showed weaker performance in the five schools that used a different reading series, it showed Sacramento what worked. Superintendents of other districts also could see tangible results.

3. Low test results shame schools to improve. Low-performing schools have been able to benefit greatly. Oakland Unified, for example, adopted Open Court to boost its dismal reading scores, and student literacy improved.

4. The California exit exam has forced students and schools alike to make sure that those who weren't learning much in high school at least graduate with a minimal level of reading and math skills...

5. All students who go to a California state college or university benefit from the exit exam and standardized tests...

Debra isn't suggesting that students do nothing but take tests - testing shouldn't last for days on end, nor should it be redundant. Certainly, a testing program should undergo constant quality assurance checks and reform, to be sure that the test is valid and that the results are not being affected by test fatigue.

This sort of commentary isn't a wholesale criticism of parents who do everything they can (and who buy everything they can) to help improve their child's education. I've no patience with people who oppose capitalism, or who think that income should be redistributed so that no child has more opportunity to learn than any other child. Many is the time that a testing critic has said to me, "You know, SAT scores are related to the parent's income," as though I've never heard this argument before and will be forced to beat a hasty retreat in the face of its mighty logic.

What these testing critics don't do is carefully consider that statement in context. If they did, they'd realize that virtually every indicator of intellectual achievement for youths in our society is somewhat related to parental income. Given that we live in a capitalistic society, and given that kids in our society are financially dependent on their parents during their K-12 education (and usually beyond), it's going to follow naturally that kids from wealthier families are going to have more opportunities to learn than kids who are not so well off. It would be bizarre if the SATs were not related in some way to income. That's reality.

So I don't begrudge parents the chance to improve their own kid's education. I do, however, take offense when they oppose testing that is desperately necessary to help improve education for kids who aren't so lucky. I know that outcomes can never be equalized, but certainly opportunities can be more equal, and standardized testing is the way to tell if underfunded schools that serve the poorer kids are doing the job right.

It's appalling that many parents' groups don't see it this way, and this sort of snobbish opposition has been going on for some time. For example, there's CARE (the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education) in Massachusetts, which is fighting the MCAS (under the aegis of FairTest, of course). Unfortunately, Blogger deleted my post related to the New York Times' article, The Test Mess, and the article is no longer free on the NYTimes website. In this article, a member of CARE had the gall, bad taste, and lack of historical perspective to claim that testing was equivalent to the yellow stars that Jews had to wear in Germany in WWII.

Other CARE supporters don't lack for snobbery. Dan Greenberg, in this article from 1999. insists that math questions such as the following are meaningless:

"A repair service charges $25 to send a service person on a call and $30 per hour for labor. If h stands for the number of hours of labor, which [algebraic] expression below can the company use to compute the charge for the service call?"

Meaningless, because "everyone knows how to compute the charge, even little kids," and knowledge of algebraic expressions is useless. He also doesn't understand why all 10th-graders should be subjected to "abstract literary pieces" by Thomas Wolfe, Shakespeare, and William Faulkner, because "very few sixteen-year-olds, or adults for that matter, [will] find [these] absorbing." So Faulkner should be reserved only for the special kids in AP classes, eh, Mr. Greenberg?

Then there are the smart kids who boycott tests, ostensibly because the tests are "unfair." Boycotting tests is the ultimate method of sparing oneself any exertion while still making a "brave" political statement. These boycotters are similar to the collegiate anti-war protestors who are forever skipping class to show their "courageous" dissent. "Hey, it's a big sacrifice to skip Professor Humdrum's Statistics 101 class so that we can go wave signs around and holler at passersby, but we're willing to make that sacrifice!" Yeah, right.

Anyway, the classic example of student test boycotters is Kimberly Marciniak, the Texas student who boycotted the state exams - with parental approval, of course. She insists that the tests are biased against minorities and poor students. She's one of the best students in her class, so I couldn't figure out why no one had bothered to explain to her that the tests, in fact, are the best means of identifying failing schools so that educational reforms can be implemented to help these poor students do better. Apparently, either her parents didn't understand this, or they simply wanted their overachieving offspring to be spared the misery of having to take these basic skills exams, so it's not surprising that Kimberly's comments went unchallenged by those around her.

Joanne Jacobs has more on this as well.

Racial bias on the SAT?John

Racial bias on the SAT?

John Rosenberg of the always-excellent Discriminations sent along a link to a review in today's Chronicle of Higher Education. I don't have a subscription, but John was kind enough to reprint the review in full in his email to me:

The SAT is not making the grade, says Roy O. Freedle, a former senior research psychologist at Educational Testing Service. He writes that the test is biased against minority students and needs to be reformed to more accurately represent their achievement and potential.

Mr. Freedle compared the performances of black students and white students on what are considered the easy questions and hard questions on the test. Among students who had received the same overall score, he says, the black students had consistently scored a little better on the hard questions and a little worse on the easy ones. Mr. Freedle hypothesizes that the easy questions, in both the verbal and math sections of the test, use a more common vocabulary, which is open to a wider variety of interpretations and associations based on one's cultural background. However, the hard questions, he says, use a rarer vocabulary that has fewer meanings and is more likely to be encountered only in an academic setting.

His proposed solution is a simple one: score only the hard questions. Mr. Freedle calls this method of scoring the test "the Revised-SAT, or R-SAT." He suggests sending colleges an R-SAT score along with the regular one, reasoning that it would result in more black students' being admitted to prestigious institutions.

Subscribers to Harvard Educational Review can read the article online, and others can obtain information about the journal at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~hepg/her.html

Okay. That's an....interesting theory. Without having read the report, it appears Mr. Freedle is defining bias solely as the differential probability, for different subgroups of equal ability, of answering items correctly. That's not a bad definition of bias, but most psychometricians would look for more evidence.

Before stating definitively that the SAT items were biased one way or another, a researcher might want to examine the factor analytic structure of the test, to see if it differs for the different subgroups (meaning, roughly, that the items seem to be related to one another in different ways). Internal differences can also point to bias - does the rank ordering of item difficulties differ for different subgroups? And finally, if there's a difference in the slope of the regression lines - if college GPA, for example, is significantly less predictable from SAT scores for blacks than for whites - that's also evidence of test bias. The SAT is known to overpredict first-year GPA for black students (more so for males than females), but in that case the intercepts of the lines are different for different groups, not the slopes.

So it seems Mr. Freedle is talking here only about bias due to differential item functioning (DIF) - when members of different groups who have the same abilities have different probabilities of answering an item correctly. Even this one method is not universally accepted - there is plenty of controversy about which DIF statistic to use, or what matching score to use for the subgroups - but let's assume for the moment his calculations of DIF are correct.

However, there's still a problem here. Mr. Freedle is describing the SAT items as biased, in this case meaning exhibiting DIF. But he isn't suggesting that we try to rid the SAT of DIF. He is suggesting that we supplement a test that is partly biased against high-scoring blacks, and partly biased against high-scoring whites, with the addition of a test that is solely biased against high-scoring whites. I mean, you can try to gloss over this fact by talking about how it benefits black students, but unlike many other things in life, item bias is a zero-sum game. If high-scoring black students have a better chance of answering an item correctly than high-scoring white students, then the item is measuring something other than what it is intended to measure, and white students are going to be disadvantaged by a recounting of those items.

Mr. Freedle is suggesting that SAT items, in addition to measuring their primary dimensions of verbal and math skills, are measuring a second dimension - this "academic vocabulary." By suggesting that we emphasize it, he is suggesting that it is an important dimension, and not just "noise." But if the items - especially math items - are not intended to measure this vocabulary, then this dimension is noise, and there's no justification for enhancing the noise by over-emphasizing the biased items.

Mr. Freedle obviously has an ideological end in mind. He believes more black students should be admitted to top-tier universities. But to suggest that we support this endeavor by emphasizing biased items - again, he's the one who has defined the items as "biased" - is not psychometrically sound.

The more I thought about this, the more unsure I was of the soundness of his arguments, and whether there were data that would refute them. So, I decided to visit the College Board's online research library (yeah, on a Friday night, I know - I lead such an exciting life), and whaddaya know, there's already a rebuttal to Mr. Freedle's study posted on the site. It assumes the reader has read the report, but it also provides a great deal of explanation for just where Mr. Freedle went wrong:

Roy O. Freedle's recent article in Harvard Educational Review, entitled "Correcting the SAT's Ethnic and Social-Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating SAT Scores," is based on small differences between white students' responses and the responses of students from other ethnic groups to test items that were discussed by a number of researchers...Although any study that purports to reduce group differences must be looked at seriously, Freedle's study is so flawed that its conclusions are misleading.

There are myriad technical problems with the report, including misuse of regression and differential item functioning (DIF), and even a misunderstanding of how scores on the SAT are calculated. But one need not be a psychometrician to understand the fundamental problem with the study. The reduction in group differences is not the result of more sensitive or appropriate measurement, but rather, it is because the proposed measure relies mostly on students' guessing the answers to test questions.

To probe a little deeper, let us examine more closely Freedle's argument around DIF. Researchers have found that, on average, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American students tend to choose the correct response on easy test questions slightly less often than white students with an equal total test score. In contrast, they choose the correct response on difficult test questions slightly more often than white students with an equal total test score. Noting that this phenomenon occurs with SAT vocabulary questions but not with critical reading questions, Freedle suggests that the College Board should dispense with SAT critical reading questions, as well as the easier half of all vocabulary questions to improve the scores of ethnic minority test-takers.

Te suggestion that critical reading be dropped or de-emphasized on the SAT, given its importance for success in college, would not be educationally or psychometrically sound even if it were based on a credible analysis..Freedle himself notes that the critical reading items lack what he calls "the familiar pattern of bias."

To summarize so far - Mr. Freedle is suggesting dropping items that show no bias, according to his own results. The College Board alleges that he doesn't even correctly grasp the scoring method of the SAT, much less calculate DIF in the proper fashion. Doesn't look good for Mr. Freedle, does it?

Let us look briefly at the data for the so-called SAT-R Section that Freedle recommends. On the difficult items that are included in the SAT-R, African-American candidates receive an average score of 22 percent out of a perfect score of 100 percent. Since there are five answer options for each question, 22 percent is only slightly above what would be expected from random guessing, namely 20 percent. White candidates do somewhat better, achieving an average score of 31 percent. [I'm assuming this gap is smaller than for the SAT overall.] The results indicate that this test is too hard for either group and would be a frustrating experience for most students. There are simply too many questions that are geared to those with a much higher level of knowledge and skill than is required of college freshmen. Extending Freedle's argument, we could substantially reduce all group differences if the test were made significantly more difficult so that all examinees would have to guess the answers to nearly all of the questions. We could then predict that each subgroup would have an average of 20 percent of their answers correct, based on chance...

In brief, Freedle's suggestions boils down to capitalizing on chance performance. This kind of performance may represent either random guesses, or unconnected bits of knowledge that are not sufficiently organized to be of any use in college studies.

Very interesting. I hadn't even considered the guessing argument, but then, I wasn't aware of just how difficult the difficult items were. The College Board is claiming that the proposed revised SAT would not be a true measure of anyone's ability, because it would be so difficult a test that most test takers would be guessing the answers. If black students at high ability levels guess better than white students, that is most certainly not a valid measure of ability.

As the College Board puts it, "Freedle's suggestions boils down to capitalizing on chance performance." For those of you not in the field of psychometric research, the statement that one is "capitalizing on chance" is synonymous with saying, "You started with the end result in mind, and now you're trying to prove that the data show more than they actually do, and if you collect another set of data, you'll get a different answer, because your results aren't going to generalize." It's an important and fundamental criticism to make against a research study.

The rebuttal also emphatically denies that the mathematics questions measure any sort of secondary vocabulary dimension, which removes any justification whatsoever for creating a revised SAT for difficult math items. Overall, the rebuttal feels pretty definitive to me, but it won't surprise me if reporters pick up on Mr. Freedle's article without mentioning the rebuttal. The buzzwords of "racial bias" and "SAT" will be just too tempting for some to ignore, and chances are they won't look further to assess the validity of Mr. Freedle's claims.

Racial bias on the SAT?John

Racial bias on the SAT?

John Rosenberg of the always-excellent Discriminations sent along a link to a review in today's Chronicle of Higher Education. I don't have a subscription, but John was kind enough to reprint the review in full in his email to me:

The SAT is not making the grade, says Roy O. Freedle, a former senior research psychologist at Educational Testing Service. He writes that the test is biased against minority students and needs to be reformed to more accurately represent their achievement and potential.

Mr. Freedle compared the performances of black students and white students on what are considered the easy questions and hard questions on the test. Among students who had received the same overall score, he says, the black students had consistently scored a little better on the hard questions and a little worse on the easy ones. Mr. Freedle hypothesizes that the easy questions, in both the verbal and math sections of the test, use a more common vocabulary, which is open to a wider variety of interpretations and associations based on one's cultural background. However, the hard questions, he says, use a rarer vocabulary that has fewer meanings and is more likely to be encountered only in an academic setting.

His proposed solution is a simple one: score only the hard questions. Mr. Freedle calls this method of scoring the test "the Revised-SAT, or R-SAT." He suggests sending colleges an R-SAT score along with the regular one, reasoning that it would result in more black students' being admitted to prestigious institutions.

Subscribers to Harvard Educational Review can read the article online, and others can obtain information about the journal at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~hepg/her.html

Okay. That's an....interesting theory. Without having read the report, it appears Mr. Freedle is defining bias solely as the differential probability, for different subgroups of equal ability, of answering items correctly. That's not a bad definition of bias, but most psychometricians would look for more evidence.

Before stating definitively that the SAT items were biased one way or another, a researcher might want to examine the factor analytic structure of the test, to see if it differs for the different subgroups (meaning, roughly, that the items seem to be related to one another in different ways). Internal differences can also point to bias - does the rank ordering of item difficulties differ for different subgroups? And finally, if there's a difference in the slope of the regression lines - if college GPA, for example, is significantly less predictable from SAT scores for blacks than for whites - that's also evidence of test bias. The SAT is known to overpredict first-year GPA for black students (more so for males than females), but in that case the intercepts of the lines are different for different groups, not the slopes.

So it seems Mr. Freedle is talking here only about bias due to differential item functioning (DIF) - when members of different groups who have the same abilities have different probabilities of answering an item correctly. Even this one method is not universally accepted - there is plenty of controversy about which DIF statistic to use, or what matching score to use for the subgroups - but let's assume for the moment his calculations of DIF are correct.

However, there's still a problem here. Mr. Freedle is describing the SAT items as biased, in this case meaning exhibiting DIF. But he isn't suggesting that we try to rid the SAT of DIF. He is suggesting that we supplement a test that is partly biased against high-scoring blacks, and partly biased against high-scoring whites, with the addition of a test that is solely biased against high-scoring whites. I mean, you can try to gloss over this fact by talking about how it benefits black students, but unlike many other things in life, item bias is a zero-sum game. If high-scoring black students have a better chance of answering an item correctly than high-scoring white students, then the item is measuring something other than what it is intended to measure, and white students are going to be disadvantaged by a recounting of those items.

Mr. Freedle is suggesting that SAT items, in addition to measuring their primary dimensions of verbal and math skills, are measuring a second dimension - this "academic vocabulary." By suggesting that we emphasize it, he is suggesting that it is an important dimension, and not just "noise." But if the items - especially math items - are not intended to measure this vocabulary, then this dimension is noise, and there's no justification for enhancing the noise by over-emphasizing the biased items.

Mr. Freedle obviously has an ideological end in mind. He believes more black students should be admitted to top-tier universities. But to suggest that we support this endeavor by emphasizing biased items - again, he's the one who has defined the items as "biased" - is not psychometrically sound.

The more I thought about this, the more unsure I was of the soundness of his arguments, and whether there were data that would refute them. So, I decided to visit the College Board's online research library (yeah, on a Friday night, I know - I lead such an exciting life), and whaddaya know, there's already a rebuttal to Mr. Freedle's study posted on the site. It assumes the reader has read the report, but it also provides a great deal of explanation for just where Mr. Freedle went wrong:

Roy O. Freedle's recent article in Harvard Educational Review, entitled "Correcting the SAT's Ethnic and Social-Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating SAT Scores," is based on small differences between white students' responses and the responses of students from other ethnic groups to test items that were discussed by a number of researchers...Although any study that purports to reduce group differences must be looked at seriously, Freedle's study is so flawed that its conclusions are misleading.

There are myriad technical problems with the report, including misuse of regression and differential item functioning (DIF), and even a misunderstanding of how scores on the SAT are calculated. But one need not be a psychometrician to understand the fundamental problem with the study. The reduction in group differences is not the result of more sensitive or appropriate measurement, but rather, it is because the proposed measure relies mostly on students' guessing the answers to test questions.

To probe a little deeper, let us examine more closely Freedle's argument around DIF. Researchers have found that, on average, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American students tend to choose the correct response on easy test questions slightly less often than white students with an equal total test score. In contrast, they choose the correct response on difficult test questions slightly more often than white students with an equal total test score. Noting that this phenomenon occurs with SAT vocabulary questions but not with critical reading questions, Freedle suggests that the College Board should dispense with SAT critical reading questions, as well as the easier half of all vocabulary questions to improve the scores of ethnic minority test-takers.

Te suggestion that critical reading be dropped or de-emphasized on the SAT, given its importance for success in college, would not be educationally or psychometrically sound even if it were based on a credible analysis..Freedle himself notes that the critical reading items lack what he calls "the familiar pattern of bias."

To summarize so far - Mr. Freedle is suggesting dropping items that show no bias, according to his own results. The College Board alleges that he doesn't even correctly grasp the scoring method of the SAT, much less calculate DIF in the proper fashion. Doesn't look good for Mr. Freedle, does it?

Let us look briefly at the data for the so-called SAT-R Section that Freedle recommends. On the difficult items that are included in the SAT-R, African-American candidates receive an average score of 22 percent out of a perfect score of 100 percent. Since there are five answer options for each question, 22 percent is only slightly above what would be expected from random guessing, namely 20 percent. White candidates do somewhat better, achieving an average score of 31 percent. [I'm assuming this gap is smaller than for the SAT overall.] The results indicate that this test is too hard for either group and would be a frustrating experience for most students. There are simply too many questions that are geared to those with a much higher level of knowledge and skill than is required of college freshmen. Extending Freedle's argument, we could substantially reduce all group differences if the test were made significantly more difficult so that all examinees would have to guess the answers to nearly all of the questions. We could then predict that each subgroup would have an average of 20 percent of their answers correct, based on chance...

In brief, Freedle's suggestions boils down to capitalizing on chance performance. This kind of performance may represent either random guesses, or unconnected bits of knowledge that are not sufficiently organized to be of any use in college studies.

Very interesting. I hadn't even considered the guessing argument, but then, I wasn't aware of just how difficult the difficult items were. The College Board is claiming that the proposed revised SAT would not be a true measure of anyone's ability, because it would be so difficult a test that most test takers would be guessing the answers. If black students at high ability levels guess better than white students, that is most certainly not a valid measure of ability.

As the College Board puts it, "Freedle's suggestions boils down to capitalizing on chance performance." For those of you not in the field of psychometric research, the statement that one is "capitalizing on chance" is synonymous with saying, "You started with the end result in mind, and now you're trying to prove that the data show more than they actually do, and if you collect another set of data, you'll get a different answer, because your results aren't going to generalize." It's an important and fundamental criticism to make against a research study.

The rebuttal also emphatically denies that the mathematics questions measure any sort of secondary vocabulary dimension, which removes any justification whatsoever for creating a revised SAT for difficult math items. Overall, the rebuttal feels pretty definitive to me, but it won't surprise me if reporters pick up on Mr. Freedle's article without mentioning the rebuttal. The buzzwords of "racial bias" and "SAT" will be just too tempting for some to ignore, and chances are they won't look further to assess the validity of Mr. Freedle's claims.

Racial bias on the SAT?John

Racial bias on the SAT?

John Rosenberg of the always-excellent Discriminations sent along a link to a review in today's Chronicle of Higher Education. I don't have a subscription, but John was kind enough to reprint the review in full in his email to me:

The SAT is not making the grade, says Roy O. Freedle, a former senior research psychologist at Educational Testing Service. He writes that the test is biased against minority students and needs to be reformed to more accurately represent their achievement and potential.

Mr. Freedle compared the performances of black students and white students on what are considered the easy questions and hard questions on the test. Among students who had received the same overall score, he says, the black students had consistently scored a little better on the hard questions and a little worse on the easy ones. Mr. Freedle hypothesizes that the easy questions, in both the verbal and math sections of the test, use a more common vocabulary, which is open to a wider variety of interpretations and associations based on one's cultural background. However, the hard questions, he says, use a rarer vocabulary that has fewer meanings and is more likely to be encountered only in an academic setting.

His proposed solution is a simple one: score only the hard questions. Mr. Freedle calls this method of scoring the test "the Revised-SAT, or R-SAT." He suggests sending colleges an R-SAT score along with the regular one, reasoning that it would result in more black students' being admitted to prestigious institutions.

Subscribers to Harvard Educational Review can read the article online, and others can obtain information about the journal at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~hepg/her.html

Okay. That's an....interesting theory. Without having read the report, it appears Mr. Freedle is defining bias solely as the differential probability, for different subgroups of equal ability, of answering items correctly. That's not a bad definition of bias, but most psychometricians would look for more evidence.

Before stating definitively that the SAT items were biased one way or another, a researcher might want to examine the factor analytic structure of the test, to see if it differs for the different subgroups (meaning, roughly, that the items seem to be related to one another in different ways). Internal differences can also point to bias - does the rank ordering of item difficulties differ for different subgroups? And finally, if there's a difference in the slope of the regression lines - if college GPA, for example, is significantly less predictable from SAT scores for blacks than for whites - that's also evidence of test bias. The SAT is known to overpredict first-year GPA for black students (more so for males than females), but in that case the intercepts of the lines are different for different groups, not the slopes.

So it seems Mr. Freedle is talking here only about bias due to differential item functioning (DIF) - when members of different groups who have the same abilities have different probabilities of answering an item correctly. Even this one method is not universally accepted - there is plenty of controversy about which DIF statistic to use, or what matching score to use for the subgroups - but let's assume for the moment his calculations of DIF are correct.

However, there's still a problem here. Mr. Freedle is describing the SAT items as biased, in this case meaning exhibiting DIF. But he isn't suggesting that we try to rid the SAT of DIF. He is suggesting that we supplement a test that is partly biased against high-scoring blacks, and partly biased against high-scoring whites, with the addition of a test that is solely biased against high-scoring whites. I mean, you can try to gloss over this fact by talking about how it benefits black students, but unlike many other things in life, item bias is a zero-sum game. If high-scoring black students have a better chance of answering an item correctly than high-scoring white students, then the item is measuring something other than what it is intended to measure, and white students are going to be disadvantaged by a recounting of those items.

Mr. Freedle is suggesting that SAT items, in addition to measuring their primary dimensions of verbal and math skills, are measuring a second dimension - this "academic vocabulary." By suggesting that we emphasize it, he is suggesting that it is an important dimension, and not just "noise." But if the items - especially math items - are not intended to measure this vocabulary, then this dimension is noise, and there's no justification for enhancing the noise by over-emphasizing the biased items.

Mr. Freedle obviously has an ideological end in mind. He believes more black students should be admitted to top-tier universities. But to suggest that we support this endeavor by emphasizing biased items - again, he's the one who has defined the items as "biased" - is not psychometrically sound.

The more I thought about this, the more unsure I was of the soundness of his arguments, and whether there were data that would refute them. So, I decided to visit the College Board's online research library (yeah, on a Friday night, I know - I lead such an exciting life), and whaddaya know, there's already a rebuttal to Mr. Freedle's study posted on the site. It assumes the reader has read the report, but it also provides a great deal of explanation for just where Mr. Freedle went wrong:

Roy O. Freedle's recent article in Harvard Educational Review, entitled "Correcting the SAT's Ethnic and Social-Class Bias: A Method for Reestimating SAT Scores," is based on small differences between white students' responses and the responses of students from other ethnic groups to test items that were discussed by a number of researchers...Although any study that purports to reduce group differences must be looked at seriously, Freedle's study is so flawed that its conclusions are misleading.

There are myriad technical problems with the report, including misuse of regression and differential item functioning (DIF), and even a misunderstanding of how scores on the SAT are calculated. But one need not be a psychometrician to understand the fundamental problem with the study. The reduction in group differences is not the result of more sensitive or appropriate measurement, but rather, it is because the proposed measure relies mostly on students' guessing the answers to test questions.

To probe a little deeper, let us examine more closely Freedle's argument around DIF. Researchers have found that, on average, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American students tend to choose the correct response on easy test questions slightly less often than white students with an equal total test score. In contrast, they choose the correct response on difficult test questions slightly more often than white students with an equal total test score. Noting that this phenomenon occurs with SAT vocabulary questions but not with critical reading questions, Freedle suggests that the College Board should dispense with SAT critical reading questions, as well as the easier half of all vocabulary questions to improve the scores of ethnic minority test-takers.

Te suggestion that critical reading be dropped or de-emphasized on the SAT, given its importance for success in college, would not be educationally or psychometrically sound even if it were based on a credible analysis..Freedle himself notes that the critical reading items lack what he calls "the familiar pattern of bias."

To summarize so far - Mr. Freedle is suggesting dropping items that show no bias, according to his own results. The College Board alleges that he doesn't even correctly grasp the scoring method of the SAT, much less calculate DIF in the proper fashion. Doesn't look good for Mr. Freedle, does it?

Let us look briefly at the data for the so-called SAT-R Section that Freedle recommends. On the difficult items that are included in the SAT-R, African-American candidates receive an average score of 22 percent out of a perfect score of 100 percent. Since there are five answer options for each question, 22 percent is only slightly above what would be expected from random guessing, namely 20 percent. White candidates do somewhat better, achieving an average score of 31 percent. [I'm assuming this gap is smaller than for the SAT overall.] The results indicate that this test is too hard for either group and would be a frustrating experience for most students. There are simply too many questions that are geared to those with a much higher level of knowledge and skill than is required of college freshmen. Extending Freedle's argument, we could substantially reduce all group differences if the test were made significantly more difficult so that all examinees would have to guess the answers to nearly all of the questions. We could then predict that each subgroup would have an average of 20 percent of their answers correct, based on chance...

In brief, Freedle's suggestions boils down to capitalizing on chance performance. This kind of performance may represent either random guesses, or unconnected bits of knowledge that are not sufficiently organized to be of any use in college studies.

Very interesting. I hadn't even considered the guessing argument, but then, I wasn't aware of just how difficult the difficult items were. The College Board is claiming that the proposed revised SAT would not be a true measure of anyone's ability, because it would be so difficult a test that most test takers would be guessing the answers. If black students at high ability levels guess better than white students, that is most certainly not a valid measure of ability.

As the College Board puts it, "Freedle's suggestions boils down to capitalizing on chance performance." For those of you not in the field of psychometric research, the statement that one is "capitalizing on chance" is synonymous with saying, "You started with the end result in mind, and now you're trying to prove that the data show more than they actually do, and if you collect another set of data, you'll get a different answer, because your results aren't going to generalize." It's an important and fundamental criticism to make against a research study.

The rebuttal also emphatically denies that the mathematics questions measure any sort of secondary vocabulary dimension, which removes any justification whatsoever for creating a revised SAT for difficult math items. Overall, the rebuttal feels pretty definitive to me, but it won't surprise me if reporters pick up on Mr. Freedle's article without mentioning the rebuttal. The buzzwords of "racial bias" and "SAT" will be just too tempting for some to ignore, and chances are they won't look further to assess the validity of Mr. Freedle's claims.

And now for something completely

And now for something completely different...

...just because it's Friday, and my brain is dead.

A Japanese website. That sells hats. For cats. With photos.

I think it's the equivalent of our PetSmart - but Japanese cats must be MUCH better behaved than their American counterparts.

Here's my favorite one:

The thought of stuffing my bitchy, petulant, demanding little cat in this curls' n' bandanna getup makes me almost hysterical. I'd pay dearly for it afterwards - but oh, would it ever be worth it.

And now for something completely

And now for something completely different...

...just because it's Friday, and my brain is dead.

A Japanese website. That sells hats. For cats. With photos.

I think it's the equivalent of our PetSmart - but Japanese cats must be MUCH better behaved than their American counterparts.

Here's my favorite one:

The thought of stuffing my bitchy, petulant, demanding little cat in this curls' n' bandanna getup makes me almost hysterical. I'd pay dearly for it afterwards - but oh, would it ever be worth it.

And now for something completely

And now for something completely different...

...just because it's Friday, and my brain is dead.

A Japanese website. That sells hats. For cats. With photos.

I think it's the equivalent of our PetSmart - but Japanese cats must be MUCH better behaved than their American counterparts.

Here's my favorite one:

The thought of stuffing my bitchy, petulant, demanding little cat in this curls' n' bandanna getup makes me almost hysterical. I'd pay dearly for it afterwards - but oh, would it ever be worth it.

When you wish upon a

When you wish upon a star

After a year and a half of blogging, I've finally given in to my, um, acquisitive impulses, and I've decided to create a link to my Amazon wish list. It's now over there on the left hand side, above the disclaimer. If you've never done this before, don't be surprised when Amazon gives you the option to choose a different shipping address than the default one. Just click on the default one (instead of entering a new address), and it'll get to me.

One of the regular readers of this blog assured me that it wasn't tacky to list it, and I know that I have enjoyed the chance in the past to treat a blogger or two to a free book or magazine suscription. So it's there, if any of you find yourselves with money to burn.

Two things. First, should you feel like buying me something, let me say that I prefer used books. No, seriously. The books don't even have to be in good condition. Some of my favorite books are held together with rubber bands. I prefer my books to be as well-loved and well-used as a pair of old jeans, and buying them used is not only my favorite method of thrifty recycling, but they're already "broken-in."

Note, also, that while there are books on education and educational reform on the list, there are no books on statistics and psychometrics. That's because this is my fun list of books I don't have to read. The result is that the list is rather, um, eclectic.

When you wish upon a

When you wish upon a star

After a year and a half of blogging, I've finally given in to my, um, acquisitive impulses, and I've decided to create a link to my Amazon wish list. It's now over there on the left hand side, above the disclaimer. If you've never done this before, don't be surprised when Amazon gives you the option to choose a different shipping address than the default one. Just click on the default one (instead of entering a new address), and it'll get to me.

One of the regular readers of this blog assured me that it wasn't tacky to list it, and I know that I have enjoyed the chance in the past to treat a blogger or two to a free book or magazine suscription. So it's there, if any of you find yourselves with money to burn.

Two things. First, should you feel like buying me something, let me say that I prefer used books. No, seriously. The books don't even have to be in good condition. Some of my favorite books are held together with rubber bands. I prefer my books to be as well-loved and well-used as a pair of old jeans, and buying them used is not only my favorite method of thrifty recycling, but they're already "broken-in."

Note, also, that while there are books on education and educational reform on the list, there are no books on statistics and psychometrics. That's because this is my fun list of books I don't have to read. The result is that the list is rather, um, eclectic.

When you wish upon a

When you wish upon a star

After a year and a half of blogging, I've finally given in to my, um, acquisitive impulses, and I've decided to create a link to my Amazon wish list. It's now over there on the left hand side, above the disclaimer. If you've never done this before, don't be surprised when Amazon gives you the option to choose a different shipping address than the default one. Just click on the default one (instead of entering a new address), and it'll get to me.

One of the regular readers of this blog assured me that it wasn't tacky to list it, and I know that I have enjoyed the chance in the past to treat a blogger or two to a free book or magazine suscription. So it's there, if any of you find yourselves with money to burn.

Two things. First, should you feel like buying me something, let me say that I prefer used books. No, seriously. The books don't even have to be in good condition. Some of my favorite books are held together with rubber bands. I prefer my books to be as well-loved and well-used as a pair of old jeans, and buying them used is not only my favorite method of thrifty recycling, but they're already "broken-in."

Note, also, that while there are books on education and educational reform on the list, there are no books on statistics and psychometrics. That's because this is my fun list of books I don't have to read. The result is that the list is rather, um, eclectic.

Okay, that was...weirdI posted all

Okay, that was...weird

I posted all those stories below this morning, and forgot to check to make sure that they went through. Apparently, they didn't, and when I tried to publish just a few minutes ago, it appeared that Homestead thought my account had expired. So I called their help number, only to find out that they are closed today (yes, the entire place). So I tried to publish again - and it went through.

All the more reason to get off Homestead and onto a different hosting service soon...

Okay, that was...weirdI posted all

Okay, that was...weird

I posted all those stories below this morning, and forgot to check to make sure that they went through. Apparently, they didn't, and when I tried to publish just a few minutes ago, it appeared that Homestead thought my account had expired. So I called their help number, only to find out that they are closed today (yes, the entire place). So I tried to publish again - and it went through.

All the more reason to get off Homestead and onto a different hosting service soon...

Okay, that was...weirdI posted all

Okay, that was...weird

I posted all those stories below this morning, and forgot to check to make sure that they went through. Apparently, they didn't, and when I tried to publish just a few minutes ago, it appeared that Homestead thought my account had expired. So I called their help number, only to find out that they are closed today (yes, the entire place). So I tried to publish again - and it went through.

All the more reason to get off Homestead and onto a different hosting service soon...

Lost BoysBusiness Week has picked

Lost Boys

Business Week has picked up on the new gender gap in education:

It may still be a man's world. But it is no longer, in any way, a boy's. From his first days in school, an average boy is already developmentally two years behind the girls in reading and writing. Yet he's often expected to learn the same things in the same way in the same amount of time. While every nerve in his body tells him to run, he has to sit still and listen for almost eight hours a day. Biologically, he needs about four recesses a day, but he's lucky if he gets one, since some lawsuit-leery schools have banned them altogether. Hug a girl, and he could be labeled a "toucher" and swiftly suspended -- a result of what some say is an increasingly anti-boy culture that pathologizes their behavior.

If he falls behind, he's apt to be shipped off to special ed, where he'll find that more than 70% of his classmates are also boys. Squirm, clown, or interrupt, and he is four times as likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. That often leads to being forced to take Ritalin or risk being expelled, sent to special ed, or having parents accused of negligence. One study of public schools in Fairfax County, Va., found that more than 20% of upper-middle-class white boys were taking Ritalin-like drugs by fifth grade.

Once a boy makes it to freshman year of high school, he's at greater risk of falling even further behind in grades, extracurricular activities, and advanced placement. Not even science and math remain his bastions...All the while, he's 30% more likely to drop out, 85% more likely to commit murder, and four to six times more likely to kill himself, with boy suicides tripling since 1970.

As for college -- well, let's just say this: At least it's easier for the guys who get there to find a date...in every state, every income bracket, every racial and ethnic group, and most industrialized Western nations, women reign, earning an average 57% of all BAs and 58% of all master's degrees in the U.S. alone. There are 133 girls getting BAs for every 100 guys -- a number that's projected to grow to 142 women per 100 men by 2010, according to the U.S. Education Dept.

The article doesn't pretend that the world has become "equalized," but notes that, when men are "dropping out of the labor force, walking out on fatherhood, and disconnecting from civic life in greater numbers," the gender revolution may not turn out to be as wonderful as feminists of the '70's had hoped.

Lost BoysBusiness Week has picked

Lost Boys

Business Week has picked up on the new gender gap in education:

It may still be a man's world. But it is no longer, in any way, a boy's. From his first days in school, an average boy is already developmentally two years behind the girls in reading and writing. Yet he's often expected to learn the same things in the same way in the same amount of time. While every nerve in his body tells him to run, he has to sit still and listen for almost eight hours a day. Biologically, he needs about four recesses a day, but he's lucky if he gets one, since some lawsuit-leery schools have banned them altogether. Hug a girl, and he could be labeled a "toucher" and swiftly suspended -- a result of what some say is an increasingly anti-boy culture that pathologizes their behavior.

If he falls behind, he's apt to be shipped off to special ed, where he'll find that more than 70% of his classmates are also boys. Squirm, clown, or interrupt, and he is four times as likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. That often leads to being forced to take Ritalin or risk being expelled, sent to special ed, or having parents accused of negligence. One study of public schools in Fairfax County, Va., found that more than 20% of upper-middle-class white boys were taking Ritalin-like drugs by fifth grade.

Once a boy makes it to freshman year of high school, he's at greater risk of falling even further behind in grades, extracurricular activities, and advanced placement. Not even science and math remain his bastions...All the while, he's 30% more likely to drop out, 85% more likely to commit murder, and four to six times more likely to kill himself, with boy suicides tripling since 1970.

As for college -- well, let's just say this: At least it's easier for the guys who get there to find a date...in every state, every income bracket, every racial and ethnic group, and most industrialized Western nations, women reign, earning an average 57% of all BAs and 58% of all master's degrees in the U.S. alone. There are 133 girls getting BAs for every 100 guys -- a number that's projected to grow to 142 women per 100 men by 2010, according to the U.S. Education Dept.

The article doesn't pretend that the world has become "equalized," but notes that, when men are "dropping out of the labor force, walking out on fatherhood, and disconnecting from civic life in greater numbers," the gender revolution may not turn out to be as wonderful as feminists of the '70's had hoped.

Lost BoysBusiness Week has picked

Lost Boys

Business Week has picked up on the new gender gap in education:

It may still be a man's world. But it is no longer, in any way, a boy's. From his first days in school, an average boy is already developmentally two years behind the girls in reading and writing. Yet he's often expected to learn the same things in the same way in the same amount of time. While every nerve in his body tells him to run, he has to sit still and listen for almost eight hours a day. Biologically, he needs about four recesses a day, but he's lucky if he gets one, since some lawsuit-leery schools have banned them altogether. Hug a girl, and he could be labeled a "toucher" and swiftly suspended -- a result of what some say is an increasingly anti-boy culture that pathologizes their behavior.

If he falls behind, he's apt to be shipped off to special ed, where he'll find that more than 70% of his classmates are also boys. Squirm, clown, or interrupt, and he is four times as likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. That often leads to being forced to take Ritalin or risk being expelled, sent to special ed, or having parents accused of negligence. One study of public schools in Fairfax County, Va., found that more than 20% of upper-middle-class white boys were taking Ritalin-like drugs by fifth grade.

Once a boy makes it to freshman year of high school, he's at greater risk of falling even further behind in grades, extracurricular activities, and advanced placement. Not even science and math remain his bastions...All the while, he's 30% more likely to drop out, 85% more likely to commit murder, and four to six times more likely to kill himself, with boy suicides tripling since 1970.

As for college -- well, let's just say this: At least it's easier for the guys who get there to find a date...in every state, every income bracket, every racial and ethnic group, and most industrialized Western nations, women reign, earning an average 57% of all BAs and 58% of all master's degrees in the U.S. alone. There are 133 girls getting BAs for every 100 guys -- a number that's projected to grow to 142 women per 100 men by 2010, according to the U.S. Education Dept.

The article doesn't pretend that the world has become "equalized," but notes that, when men are "dropping out of the labor force, walking out on fatherhood, and disconnecting from civic life in greater numbers," the gender revolution may not turn out to be as wonderful as feminists of the '70's had hoped.

Not a new lynch ropeDevoted

Not a new lynch rope

Devoted Reader Bob B. sends his impression of the comments by the head of the Miami-Dade NAACP on The O'Reilly Factor" this past Tuesday night:

I hope you caught the President of the Miami NAACP on "The O'Reilly Factor"...He was vehemently opposed to Florida's mandatory exit - or competency - testing program for HS seniors.

After hearing him use the term "High Stakes Testing" repeatedly, I have a better appreciation for what you are up against. He simply could not accept the obvious fact that people unable to pass - (make that "get a 40 on" a "watered down" exam even when given 8 chances) were not sufficiently educated to be given a diploma.

He ranted, he raved, he used questionable anecdotal evidence - but basically it was just another demand that we once again lower standards so we could pretend that people who are not "making it" really are.

Ultimately though, I think he managed to turn off the vast majority of
the audience. And while that's good, I'll still bet that he will eventually succeed by hanging raciest labels on all of us who still think that diplomas should mean something more than "occasionally attended".

Anyone else see the show, or get this impression? I certainly found this official statement on the NAACP website to be rambling and meaningless, if not downright incorrect:

Today we are faced with tremendous challenges. In education, high stakes testing such as the FCAT is being misused for, and the attacks on affirmative action are today's equivalent of yesterday's lynch ropes. The median net worth for a Black family is $7,073 and for a white family $49,030.

"Misused" for what? And why would high-stakes testing be something the NAACP should oppose? When Florida's state colleges and universities ended race- and gender-based admission policies in 2000, the number of minority students entering the system increased by 12 percent. How is that equivalent to a "lynch rope?"

The part about the net worth is probably correct, although the figure given on the NAACP site for the median net worth of black families is smaller than the figure given for black families eight years ago. The only online figures I could find were for elderly black and white families, and there the gap is astonishing ($16,091 vs. $110,839).

The ironic part, though, is that research organizations such as the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research specifically note that education is related to income. And yet the Miami-Dade NAACP is fighting a valuable tool that can be used to increase the quality of education for Florida's students, and are in effect fighting for the right to allow students who aren't proficient in English and mathematics to graduate from Florida's high schools. They're shooting themselves in the foot with that attitude.

Not a new lynch ropeDevoted

Not a new lynch rope

Devoted Reader Bob B. sends his impression of the comments by the head of the Miami-Dade NAACP on The O'Reilly Factor" this past Tuesday night:

I hope you caught the President of the Miami NAACP on "The O'Reilly Factor"...He was vehemently opposed to Florida's mandatory exit - or competency - testing program for HS seniors.

After hearing him use the term "High Stakes Testing" repeatedly, I have a better appreciation for what you are up against. He simply could not accept the obvious fact that people unable to pass - (make that "get a 40 on" a "watered down" exam even when given 8 chances) were not sufficiently educated to be given a diploma.

He ranted, he raved, he used questionable anecdotal evidence - but basically it was just another demand that we once again lower standards so we could pretend that people who are not "making it" really are.

Ultimately though, I think he managed to turn off the vast majority of
the audience. And while that's good, I'll still bet that he will eventually succeed by hanging raciest labels on all of us who still think that diplomas should mean something more than "occasionally attended".

Anyone else see the show, or get this impression? I certainly found this official statement on the NAACP website to be rambling and meaningless, if not downright incorrect:

Today we are faced with tremendous challenges. In education, high stakes testing such as the FCAT is being misused for, and the attacks on affirmative action are today's equivalent of yesterday's lynch ropes. The median net worth for a Black family is $7,073 and for a white family $49,030.

"Misused" for what? And why would high-stakes testing be something the NAACP should oppose? When Florida's state colleges and universities ended race- and gender-based admission policies in 2000, the number of minority students entering the system increased by 12 percent. How is that equivalent to a "lynch rope?"

The part about the net worth is probably correct, although the figure given on the NAACP site for the median net worth of black families is smaller than the figure given for black families eight years ago. The only online figures I could find were for elderly black and white families, and there the gap is astonishing ($16,091 vs. $110,839).

The ironic part, though, is that research organizations such as the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research specifically note that education is related to income. And yet the Miami-Dade NAACP is fighting a valuable tool that can be used to increase the quality of education for Florida's students, and are in effect fighting for the right to allow students who aren't proficient in English and mathematics to graduate from Florida's high schools. They're shooting themselves in the foot with that attitude.

Not a new lynch ropeDevoted

Not a new lynch rope

Devoted Reader Bob B. sends his impression of the comments by the head of the Miami-Dade NAACP on The O'Reilly Factor" this past Tuesday night:

I hope you caught the President of the Miami NAACP on "The O'Reilly Factor"...He was vehemently opposed to Florida's mandatory exit - or competency - testing program for HS seniors.

After hearing him use the term "High Stakes Testing" repeatedly, I have a better appreciation for what you are up against. He simply could not accept the obvious fact that people unable to pass - (make that "get a 40 on" a "watered down" exam even when given 8 chances) were not sufficiently educated to be given a diploma.

He ranted, he raved, he used questionable anecdotal evidence - but basically it was just another demand that we once again lower standards so we could pretend that people who are not "making it" really are.

Ultimately though, I think he managed to turn off the vast majority of
the audience. And while that's good, I'll still bet that he will eventually succeed by hanging raciest labels on all of us who still think that diplomas should mean something more than "occasionally attended".

Anyone else see the show, or get this impression? I certainly found this official statement on the NAACP website to be rambling and meaningless, if not downright incorrect:

Today we are faced with tremendous challenges. In education, high stakes testing such as the FCAT is being misused for, and the attacks on affirmative action are today's equivalent of yesterday's lynch ropes. The median net worth for a Black family is $7,073 and for a white family $49,030.

"Misused" for what? And why would high-stakes testing be something the NAACP should oppose? When Florida's state colleges and universities ended race- and gender-based admission policies in 2000, the number of minority students entering the system increased by 12 percent. How is that equivalent to a "lynch rope?"

The part about the net worth is probably correct, although the figure given on the NAACP site for the median net worth of black families is smaller than the figure given for black families eight years ago. The only online figures I could find were for elderly black and white families, and there the gap is astonishing ($16,091 vs. $110,839).

The ironic part, though, is that research organizations such as the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research specifically note that education is related to income. And yet the Miami-Dade NAACP is fighting a valuable tool that can be used to increase the quality of education for Florida's students, and are in effect fighting for the right to allow students who aren't proficient in English and mathematics to graduate from Florida's high schools. They're shooting themselves in the foot with that attitude.

Finding the PSAT's grammar glitchThe

Finding the PSAT's grammar glitch

The ruling of an outside panel of experts has forced ETS to throw out a PSAT question that was graded incorrectly.Kevin Keegan, a journalism teacher at James Hubert Blake High School, said there was a problem with the following item:

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African Americans have endured."

Test takers were asked to identify whether there were any grammatical errors in this sentence. ETS had the correct answer as, "No error." But Keegan was sure there was an error:

The word "her," he posited, was improperly referring to "Toni Morrison's," so the answer should have been "A," signifying a mistake in "her to create." Many grammar manuals insist that a pronoun such as "her" should refer only to a noun, not, as in the case of the possessive "Toni Morrison's," an adjective...Keegan, 49, noticed the question while going over the returned test of a student. "I was taught that rule a long time ago -- 30 years ago -- and I have actually enforced it on people's essays," he said.

When Keegan notified ETS of this, they disagreed with him and said that the meaning of the sentence was clear, and that the majority of the test takers answered "No error". Keegan's criticism, however, was not related to the clarity of the sentence, but it's grammatical correctness, and the number of test takers who answered "No error" wasn't really the point.

After some back-and-forth wrangling, the independent panel concluded that Keegan was correct. ETS resrescored the test without Question 10 for the 500,000 or so students who saw it, and kept the higher of the two scores for each test taker.

Thanks to reader Michael McKeown for submitting this.

Update: I didn't realize when I posted this that the Weekly Standard published an article related to this yesterday. WS writer David Skinner bypasses the grammar issue and instead suggests that the question actually should have been a "true-false" item about Morrison's alleged "genius." On the other hand, blogger Eugene Volokh believes that there really was no error in the statement, and a reader writes in to back him up.

Finding the PSAT's grammar glitchThe

Finding the PSAT's grammar glitch

The ruling of an outside panel of experts has forced ETS to throw out a PSAT question that was graded incorrectly.Kevin Keegan, a journalism teacher at James Hubert Blake High School, said there was a problem with the following item:

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African Americans have endured."

Test takers were asked to identify whether there were any grammatical errors in this sentence. ETS had the correct answer as, "No error." But Keegan was sure there was an error:

The word "her," he posited, was improperly referring to "Toni Morrison's," so the answer should have been "A," signifying a mistake in "her to create." Many grammar manuals insist that a pronoun such as "her" should refer only to a noun, not, as in the case of the possessive "Toni Morrison's," an adjective...Keegan, 49, noticed the question while going over the returned test of a student. "I was taught that rule a long time ago -- 30 years ago -- and I have actually enforced it on people's essays," he said.

When Keegan notified ETS of this, they disagreed with him and said that the meaning of the sentence was clear, and that the majority of the test takers answered "No error". Keegan's criticism, however, was not related to the clarity of the sentence, but it's grammatical correctness, and the number of test takers who answered "No error" wasn't really the point.

After some back-and-forth wrangling, the independent panel concluded that Keegan was correct. ETS resrescored the test without Question 10 for the 500,000 or so students who saw it, and kept the higher of the two scores for each test taker.

Thanks to reader Michael McKeown for submitting this.

Update: I didn't realize when I posted this that the Weekly Standard published an article related to this yesterday. WS writer David Skinner bypasses the grammar issue and instead suggests that the question actually should have been a "true-false" item about Morrison's alleged "genius." On the other hand, blogger Eugene Volokh believes that there really was no error in the statement, and a reader writes in to back him up.

Finding the PSAT's grammar glitchThe

Finding the PSAT's grammar glitch

The ruling of an outside panel of experts has forced ETS to throw out a PSAT question that was graded incorrectly.Kevin Keegan, a journalism teacher at James Hubert Blake High School, said there was a problem with the following item:

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African Americans have endured."

Test takers were asked to identify whether there were any grammatical errors in this sentence. ETS had the correct answer as, "No error." But Keegan was sure there was an error:

The word "her," he posited, was improperly referring to "Toni Morrison's," so the answer should have been "A," signifying a mistake in "her to create." Many grammar manuals insist that a pronoun such as "her" should refer only to a noun, not, as in the case of the possessive "Toni Morrison's," an adjective...Keegan, 49, noticed the question while going over the returned test of a student. "I was taught that rule a long time ago -- 30 years ago -- and I have actually enforced it on people's essays," he said.

When Keegan notified ETS of this, they disagreed with him and said that the meaning of the sentence was clear, and that the majority of the test takers answered "No error". Keegan's criticism, however, was not related to the clarity of the sentence, but it's grammatical correctness, and the number of test takers who answered "No error" wasn't really the point.

After some back-and-forth wrangling, the independent panel concluded that Keegan was correct. ETS resrescored the test without Question 10 for the 500,000 or so students who saw it, and kept the higher of the two scores for each test taker.

Thanks to reader Michael McKeown for submitting this.

Update: I didn't realize when I posted this that the Weekly Standard published an article related to this yesterday. WS writer David Skinner bypasses the grammar issue and instead suggests that the question actually should have been a "true-false" item about Morrison's alleged "genius." On the other hand, blogger Eugene Volokh believes that there really was no error in the statement, and a reader writes in to back him up.

Academic dishonesty at UNC-Chapel HillWhat

Academic dishonesty at UNC-Chapel Hill

What does the war in Iraq have to do with an introductory Anthropology class? Nothing, but that didn't stop UNC-Chapel Hill professor Alison Greene from using 75% of the class time to push anti-war ideology. It gets better; questions were included on the midterm that had nothing to do with the official subject of the course, and everything to do with Professor Greene's left-wing beliefs:

What is beyond the pale, however, is requiring students to parrot anti-conservative opinions on tests, and this is exactly what Greene did. Below are three questions that appeared on a recent midterm (answers in bold):

37. In the video, Greetings from Iraq, the filmmaker demonstrates that U.N. sanctions mandated following the Gulf War of 1991
a. effectively weakened Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.
b. produced rampant inflation.
c. resulted in dramatic increases in malnutrition and related diseases among children.
d. made basic medicines and hospital supplies difficult or impossible to acquire.
e. ANSWERS “b.,” “c.,” and “d.” are all TRUE.

38. According to material presented in lecture written by a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert, _______________________ are “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD). In contrast, ______________________ are “area denial” and or terror weapons.
a. only nuclear weapons; chemical and biological weapons
b. only nuclear and biological weapons; chemical weapons
c. nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; land mines
d. only nuclear and chemical weapons; biological weapons
e. only chemical and biological; nuclear weapons

39. Using the definition above in combination with the findings of U.N. weapons inspectors, it is possible to state definitively that Iraq clearly _________________ “weapons of mass destruction.”
a. possesses, has used, and intends the future use of
b. does NOT possess
c. has exported
d. intends to supply terrorist groups with
e. formerly possessed but now has destroyed all of its

These questions are dishonest for many reasons. One is because these questions, especially the last two, are based on shoddy scholarship. According to the students, the email on which these two questions were based was not distributed to the class and the qualifications of this expert were never provided. Most importantly, the questions ignore the common definition of the term “weapons of mass destruction.”

As FrontPage Magazine points out, a simple Google search gives students enough information to rebut each of Professor Greene's specious arguments. Kudos to the Carolina Review for reporting on the matter.

Academic dishonesty at UNC-Chapel HillWhat

Academic dishonesty at UNC-Chapel Hill

What does the war in Iraq have to do with an introductory Anthropology class? Nothing, but that didn't stop UNC-Chapel Hill professor Alison Greene from using 75% of the class time to push anti-war ideology. It gets better; questions were included on the midterm that had nothing to do with the official subject of the course, and everything to do with Professor Greene's left-wing beliefs:

What is beyond the pale, however, is requiring students to parrot anti-conservative opinions on tests, and this is exactly what Greene did. Below are three questions that appeared on a recent midterm (answers in bold):

37. In the video, Greetings from Iraq, the filmmaker demonstrates that U.N. sanctions mandated following the Gulf War of 1991
a. effectively weakened Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.
b. produced rampant inflation.
c. resulted in dramatic increases in malnutrition and related diseases among children.
d. made basic medicines and hospital supplies difficult or impossible to acquire.
e. ANSWERS “b.,” “c.,” and “d.” are all TRUE.

38. According to material presented in lecture written by a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert, _______________________ are “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD). In contrast, ______________________ are “area denial” and or terror weapons.
a. only nuclear weapons; chemical and biological weapons
b. only nuclear and biological weapons; chemical weapons
c. nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; land mines
d. only nuclear and chemical weapons; biological weapons
e. only chemical and biological; nuclear weapons

39. Using the definition above in combination with the findings of U.N. weapons inspectors, it is possible to state definitively that Iraq clearly _________________ “weapons of mass destruction.”
a. possesses, has used, and intends the future use of
b. does NOT possess
c. has exported
d. intends to supply terrorist groups with
e. formerly possessed but now has destroyed all of its

These questions are dishonest for many reasons. One is because these questions, especially the last two, are based on shoddy scholarship. According to the students, the email on which these two questions were based was not distributed to the class and the qualifications of this expert were never provided. Most importantly, the questions ignore the common definition of the term “weapons of mass destruction.”

As FrontPage Magazine points out, a simple Google search gives students enough information to rebut each of Professor Greene's specious arguments. Kudos to the Carolina Review for reporting on the matter.

Academic dishonesty at UNC-Chapel HillWhat

Academic dishonesty at UNC-Chapel Hill

What does the war in Iraq have to do with an introductory Anthropology class? Nothing, but that didn't stop UNC-Chapel Hill professor Alison Greene from using 75% of the class time to push anti-war ideology. It gets better; questions were included on the midterm that had nothing to do with the official subject of the course, and everything to do with Professor Greene's left-wing beliefs:

What is beyond the pale, however, is requiring students to parrot anti-conservative opinions on tests, and this is exactly what Greene did. Below are three questions that appeared on a recent midterm (answers in bold):

37. In the video, Greetings from Iraq, the filmmaker demonstrates that U.N. sanctions mandated following the Gulf War of 1991
a. effectively weakened Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.
b. produced rampant inflation.
c. resulted in dramatic increases in malnutrition and related diseases among children.
d. made basic medicines and hospital supplies difficult or impossible to acquire.
e. ANSWERS “b.,” “c.,” and “d.” are all TRUE.

38. According to material presented in lecture written by a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert, _______________________ are “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD). In contrast, ______________________ are “area denial” and or terror weapons.
a. only nuclear weapons; chemical and biological weapons
b. only nuclear and biological weapons; chemical weapons
c. nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; land mines
d. only nuclear and chemical weapons; biological weapons
e. only chemical and biological; nuclear weapons

39. Using the definition above in combination with the findings of U.N. weapons inspectors, it is possible to state definitively that Iraq clearly _________________ “weapons of mass destruction.”
a. possesses, has used, and intends the future use of
b. does NOT possess
c. has exported
d. intends to supply terrorist groups with
e. formerly possessed but now has destroyed all of its

These questions are dishonest for many reasons. One is because these questions, especially the last two, are based on shoddy scholarship. According to the students, the email on which these two questions were based was not distributed to the class and the qualifications of this expert were never provided. Most importantly, the questions ignore the common definition of the term “weapons of mass destruction.”

As FrontPage Magazine points out, a simple Google search gives students enough information to rebut each of Professor Greene's specious arguments. Kudos to the Carolina Review for reporting on the matter.

More fallout over the FCATThree

More fallout over the FCAT

Three schools have now protested against the FCAT by staging walkouts, and minority and religious leaders are threatening an economic boycott of state industries if Governor Bush refuses to take action by May 22nd. The article provides links to more stories about groups of students and activists who are angry about the FCAT. Why are they so angry, and what, precisely, do they want to force Governor Bush to do?:

Anger over the graduation standard has prompted calls for a boycott of critical state industries, including tourism, citrus and even the Florida Lottery. A group of community activists, politicians and religious leaders is organizing the boycott, which they say will begin on May 22 if Gov. Jeb Bush does not act to alter the graduation requirements by that date.

More than 4,800 students in South Florida were told they would not receive their high school diplomas in June because they did not pass the FCAT...In Wednesday's protest, which mirrored protests at two other Miami-Dade County high schools last week, more than 100 Hialeah High School students walked out of class during their lunch period...

I must say, even though I believe their protest is misguided, you have to admire them for skipping lunch and not, say, algebra class.

Students claim the test is unfair to students not proficient in English, and activists cite reports that show that the overwhelming majority of students who failed the test in 2003 were black or Hispanic.

Explain to me how a test that measures a student's ability to read English is "unfair" to students who are not proficient in English. By that measure, the Pennsylvania Bar Exam is unfair to me because I don't know the legal code in this state. The test is supposed to be identifying students who do not know English by the 12th grade. Florida is trying to ensure that the holder of a high school diploma is proficient in the English language. This is not an "unfair" requirement.

As to the claim that more minority students fail the exam, I've yet to see the exact numbers, so I don't know to what extent this claim is true. It probably is true, because this relationship between ethnic group and percentage passing the test holds for fourth-graders. But it's entirely possible that the test is not the problem. I've yet to hear one of these activists asking why more African American and Hispanic students are failing. The claim that the tests are biased is unsupported by any data (group mean differences are neither necessary nor sufficient indicators of test bias).

Here's one research report that has taken a straightforward look at the FCAT data and the minority acheivement gap. I found it helpful in understanding the situation:

It is important to avoid oversimplified interpretations of the achievement gap. There is, of course, nothing inherent in the ethnicity of students that causes test performance levels. However, these racial/ethnic categories are related to performance differences.

According to a recent report by the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement (Reachingthe Top, the College Board, 1999):"Since the 1960s, one of the big advances has been in our understanding of the sources of differences ina cademic achievement among racial and ethnic groups. With regard to expanding and improving efforts to increase the number of top underrepresented minority students, some of the most valuable insights concern five factors found to be strongly associated with student educational outcomes: 1) economic circumstances; 2) level of parents' education; 3) racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination; 4) cultural attributes of the home, community, and school; and 5) quality, amount, and uses of school resources.

Note that "biased exams" are not listed here. The report obviously doesn't consider objective educational standards, or the use of one standardized test, for all students, to be part of the problem of poor minority educational achievement.

Why aren't these minority activists in Florida fighting these negative forces that the task force identified? Why aren't they demanding that minority students be taught better? Why aren't they pushing for a cultural change in the way minority kids view education? Why aren't they, as the paper suggests, looking at high-achieving schools that have high percentages of minority students, to see what those schools are doing right? Why are they insisting that the test is the problem, and that removing it would be some sort of solution?

More fallout over the FCATThree

More fallout over the FCAT

Three schools have now protested against the FCAT by staging walkouts, and minority and religious leaders are threatening an economic boycott of state industries if Governor Bush refuses to take action by May 22nd. The article provides links to more stories about groups of students and activists who are angry about the FCAT. Why are they so angry, and what, precisely, do they want to force Governor Bush to do?:

Anger over the graduation standard has prompted calls for a boycott of critical state industries, including tourism, citrus and even the Florida Lottery. A group of community activists, politicians and religious leaders is organizing the boycott, which they say will begin on May 22 if Gov. Jeb Bush does not act to alter the graduation requirements by that date.

More than 4,800 students in South Florida were told they would not receive their high school diplomas in June because they did not pass the FCAT...In Wednesday's protest, which mirrored protests at two other Miami-Dade County high schools last week, more than 100 Hialeah High School students walked out of class during their lunch period...

I must say, even though I believe their protest is misguided, you have to admire them for skipping lunch and not, say, algebra class.

Students claim the test is unfair to students not proficient in English, and activists cite reports that show that the overwhelming majority of students who failed the test in 2003 were black or Hispanic.

Explain to me how a test that measures a student's ability to read English is "unfair" to students who are not proficient in English. By that measure, the Pennsylvania Bar Exam is unfair to me because I don't know the legal code in this state. The test is supposed to be identifying students who do not know English by the 12th grade. Florida is trying to ensure that the holder of a high school diploma is proficient in the English language. This is not an "unfair" requirement.

As to the claim that more minority students fail the exam, I've yet to see the exact numbers, so I don't know to what extent this claim is true. It probably is true, because this relationship between ethnic group and percentage passing the test holds for fourth-graders. But it's entirely possible that the test is not the problem. I've yet to hear one of these activists asking why more African American and Hispanic students are failing. The claim that the tests are biased is unsupported by any data (group mean differences are neither necessary nor sufficient indicators of test bias).

Here's one research report that has taken a straightforward look at the FCAT data and the minority acheivement gap. I found it helpful in understanding the situation:

It is important to avoid oversimplified interpretations of the achievement gap. There is, of course, nothing inherent in the ethnicity of students that causes test performance levels. However, these racial/ethnic categories are related to performance differences.

According to a recent report by the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement (Reachingthe Top, the College Board, 1999):"Since the 1960s, one of the big advances has been in our understanding of the sources of differences ina cademic achievement among racial and ethnic groups. With regard to expanding and improving efforts to increase the number of top underrepresented minority students, some of the most valuable insights concern five factors found to be strongly associated with student educational outcomes: 1) economic circumstances; 2) level of parents' education; 3) racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination; 4) cultural attributes of the home, community, and school; and 5) quality, amount, and uses of school resources.

Note that "biased exams" are not listed here. The report obviously doesn't consider objective educational standards, or the use of one standardized test, for all students, to be part of the problem of poor minority educational achievement.

Why aren't these minority activists in Florida fighting these negative forces that the task force identified? Why aren't they demanding that minority students be taught better? Why aren't they pushing for a cultural change in the way minority kids view education? Why aren't they, as the paper suggests, looking at high-achieving schools that have high percentages of minority students, to see what those schools are doing right? Why are they insisting that the test is the problem, and that removing it would be some sort of solution?

More fallout over the FCATThree

More fallout over the FCAT

Three schools have now protested against the FCAT by staging walkouts, and minority and religious leaders are threatening an economic boycott of state industries if Governor Bush refuses to take action by May 22nd. The article provides links to more stories about groups of students and activists who are angry about the FCAT. Why are they so angry, and what, precisely, do they want to force Governor Bush to do?:

Anger over the graduation standard has prompted calls for a boycott of critical state industries, including tourism, citrus and even the Florida Lottery. A group of community activists, politicians and religious leaders is organizing the boycott, which they say will begin on May 22 if Gov. Jeb Bush does not act to alter the graduation requirements by that date.

More than 4,800 students in South Florida were told they would not receive their high school diplomas in June because they did not pass the FCAT...In Wednesday's protest, which mirrored protests at two other Miami-Dade County high schools last week, more than 100 Hialeah High School students walked out of class during their lunch period...

I must say, even though I believe their protest is misguided, you have to admire them for skipping lunch and not, say, algebra class.

Students claim the test is unfair to students not proficient in English, and activists cite reports that show that the overwhelming majority of students who failed the test in 2003 were black or Hispanic.

Explain to me how a test that measures a student's ability to read English is "unfair" to students who are not proficient in English. By that measure, the Pennsylvania Bar Exam is unfair to me because I don't know the legal code in this state. The test is supposed to be identifying students who do not know English by the 12th grade. Florida is trying to ensure that the holder of a high school diploma is proficient in the English language. This is not an "unfair" requirement.

As to the claim that more minority students fail the exam, I've yet to see the exact numbers, so I don't know to what extent this claim is true. It probably is true, because this relationship between ethnic group and percentage passing the test holds for fourth-graders. But it's entirely possible that the test is not the problem. I've yet to hear one of these activists asking why more African American and Hispanic students are failing. The claim that the tests are biased is unsupported by any data (group mean differences are neither necessary nor sufficient indicators of test bias).

Here's one research report that has taken a straightforward look at the FCAT data and the minority acheivement gap. I found it helpful in understanding the situation:

It is important to avoid oversimplified interpretations of the achievement gap. There is, of course, nothing inherent in the ethnicity of students that causes test performance levels. However, these racial/ethnic categories are related to performance differences.

According to a recent report by the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement (Reachingthe Top, the College Board, 1999):"Since the 1960s, one of the big advances has been in our understanding of the sources of differences ina cademic achievement among racial and ethnic groups. With regard to expanding and improving efforts to increase the number of top underrepresented minority students, some of the most valuable insights concern five factors found to be strongly associated with student educational outcomes: 1) economic circumstances; 2) level of parents' education; 3) racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination; 4) cultural attributes of the home, community, and school; and 5) quality, amount, and uses of school resources.

Note that "biased exams" are not listed here. The report obviously doesn't consider objective educational standards, or the use of one standardized test, for all students, to be part of the problem of poor minority educational achievement.

Why aren't these minority activists in Florida fighting these negative forces that the task force identified? Why aren't they demanding that minority students be taught better? Why aren't they pushing for a cultural change in the way minority kids view education? Why aren't they, as the paper suggests, looking at high-achieving schools that have high percentages of minority students, to see what those schools are doing right? Why are they insisting that the test is the problem, and that removing it would be some sort of solution?

The effect of California's exit

The effect of California's exit exam

A recent missive from Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute. I haven't discovered the link to this yet, but here's the entire email notification that I received:

High School Exit Exam Has Improved Learning

SACRAMENTO, CA-In a recent speech, Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA), blared, "We have to fight to end these absurd tests that are biased, racist, and unfairly define kids and teachers as failures." The CTA is sponsoring legislation that would effectively eliminate the state's high-school exit exam. A new study, however, shows that the exit exam has improved the quality of instruction.

Wow, Wayne Johnson could not be more wrong. No evidence has ever been presented to show that the exit exams are biased or racist. All we know is that minority students are more likely to fail them, which reflects the poor schooling they've been given. Yes, when they cannot pass a 10th-grade-level exam on eight attempts, the kids and teachers are labeled as failures - and rightfully so. The test is reflecting a reality that Mr. Johnson would like to dismiss.

The high school exit exam was first administered in 2001 to students in the class of 2004, the first required to pass the exam as a prerequisite for getting a diploma. Although students will have multiple opportunities to pass, low initial passage rates have caused groups like the CTA to fight the exam. The legislation that created the exam, however, also mandated an independent evaluation of it. That evaluation, conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization, has just been released and supports key aspects of the exam.

First, after reviewing testing guidelines laid down by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council for Measurement in Education, the evaluation concluded that the exit exam "meets all of the test standards for use as a graduation requirement."

In case you don't know those organizations, they're the big three in my field. I'm a member of AERA and NCME, as is almost every psychometrician. NCME in particular is going to value psychometric soundness over ideology, and the approval of that organization is meaningful.

More interesting is the fact that the exit exam has served as an incentive for schools to implement the state's rigorous academic content standards. Since the exit exam is aligned with the standards, which cover core subjects such as English, math, science, and social studies, schools that want their students to pass should be emphasizing the standards in classroom instruction. The evaluation found that the exam "has been a major factor leading to dramatically increased coverage of the California Content Standards at both the high school and middle school levels and to development or improvement of courses providing help for students who have difficulty mastering these standards."

Wow, so holding teachers accountable, and labeling them as failures if students don't learn the basic standards, does force schools to improve. Who'd have thought it?

According to the evaluation, in 1999 only about 20 percent of schools surveyed in the report covered at least three-quarters of the standards, whereas in the current school year more than 80 percent of the schools reported such in-depth coverage. The report found that schools with high levels of standards coverage had much higher passage rates on the exit exam than schools that had not implemented the standards as intensely. For example, on the English portion, 100 percent of the schools in the survey which had high levels of standards coverage had passage rates of 75 percent or greater. In contrast, only 59 percent of schools that had lower standards coverage had passing rates of 75 percent or greater.

Many critics of the exit exam argue that "low quality" teachers at poor urban schools are the reason for bad instruction and poor passage rates.

In a word - So? How is that point a justification for removing the exam? Identifying weak links in the educational system is part of the purpose of the exam. Without the exam, poor teachers can just go on shortchanging their students. What's more, this "criticism," aside from being surreal, isn't even true:

However, according to the report's authors: "We also investigated the possible impact of teacher qualifications, defined by their credentials and years of experience, and professional development programs for the teachers on the effectiveness of standards-based instruction. There was no clear evidence that teacher qualification was an important factor."

The report's findings indicate that the high-school exit exam has improved the quality of instruction for students, which in turn will improve their achievement. Giving in to the doomsayers will end up only hurting students.

Exactly.

The effect of California's exit

The effect of California's exit exam

A recent missive from Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute. I haven't discovered the link to this yet, but here's the entire email notification that I received:

High School Exit Exam Has Improved Learning

SACRAMENTO, CA-In a recent speech, Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA), blared, "We have to fight to end these absurd tests that are biased, racist, and unfairly define kids and teachers as failures." The CTA is sponsoring legislation that would effectively eliminate the state's high-school exit exam. A new study, however, shows that the exit exam has improved the quality of instruction.

Wow, Wayne Johnson could not be more wrong. No evidence has ever been presented to show that the exit exams are biased or racist. All we know is that minority students are more likely to fail them, which reflects the poor schooling they've been given. Yes, when they cannot pass a 10th-grade-level exam on eight attempts, the kids and teachers are labeled as failures - and rightfully so. The test is reflecting a reality that Mr. Johnson would like to dismiss.

The high school exit exam was first administered in 2001 to students in the class of 2004, the first required to pass the exam as a prerequisite for getting a diploma. Although students will have multiple opportunities to pass, low initial passage rates have caused groups like the CTA to fight the exam. The legislation that created the exam, however, also mandated an independent evaluation of it. That evaluation, conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization, has just been released and supports key aspects of the exam.

First, after reviewing testing guidelines laid down by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council for Measurement in Education, the evaluation concluded that the exit exam "meets all of the test standards for use as a graduation requirement."

In case you don't know those organizations, they're the big three in my field. I'm a member of AERA and NCME, as is almost every psychometrician. NCME in particular is going to value psychometric soundness over ideology, and the approval of that organization is meaningful.

More interesting is the fact that the exit exam has served as an incentive for schools to implement the state's rigorous academic content standards. Since the exit exam is aligned with the standards, which cover core subjects such as English, math, science, and social studies, schools that want their students to pass should be emphasizing the standards in classroom instruction. The evaluation found that the exam "has been a major factor leading to dramatically increased coverage of the California Content Standards at both the high school and middle school levels and to development or improvement of courses providing help for students who have difficulty mastering these standards."

Wow, so holding teachers accountable, and labeling them as failures if students don't learn the basic standards, does force schools to improve. Who'd have thought it?

According to the evaluation, in 1999 only about 20 percent of schools surveyed in the report covered at least three-quarters of the standards, whereas in the current school year more than 80 percent of the schools reported such in-depth coverage. The report found that schools with high levels of standards coverage had much higher passage rates on the exit exam than schools that had not implemented the standards as intensely. For example, on the English portion, 100 percent of the schools in the survey which had high levels of standards coverage had passage rates of 75 percent or greater. In contrast, only 59 percent of schools that had lower standards coverage had passing rates of 75 percent or greater.

Many critics of the exit exam argue that "low quality" teachers at poor urban schools are the reason for bad instruction and poor passage rates.

In a word - So? How is that point a justification for removing the exam? Identifying weak links in the educational system is part of the purpose of the exam. Without the exam, poor teachers can just go on shortchanging their students. What's more, this "criticism," aside from being surreal, isn't even true:

However, according to the report's authors: "We also investigated the possible impact of teacher qualifications, defined by their credentials and years of experience, and professional development programs for the teachers on the effectiveness of standards-based instruction. There was no clear evidence that teacher qualification was an important factor."

The report's findings indicate that the high-school exit exam has improved the quality of instruction for students, which in turn will improve their achievement. Giving in to the doomsayers will end up only hurting students.

Exactly.

The effect of California's exit

The effect of California's exit exam

A recent missive from Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute. I haven't discovered the link to this yet, but here's the entire email notification that I received:

High School Exit Exam Has Improved Learning

SACRAMENTO, CA-In a recent speech, Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA), blared, "We have to fight to end these absurd tests that are biased, racist, and unfairly define kids and teachers as failures." The CTA is sponsoring legislation that would effectively eliminate the state's high-school exit exam. A new study, however, shows that the exit exam has improved the quality of instruction.

Wow, Wayne Johnson could not be more wrong. No evidence has ever been presented to show that the exit exams are biased or racist. All we know is that minority students are more likely to fail them, which reflects the poor schooling they've been given. Yes, when they cannot pass a 10th-grade-level exam on eight attempts, the kids and teachers are labeled as failures - and rightfully so. The test is reflecting a reality that Mr. Johnson would like to dismiss.

The high school exit exam was first administered in 2001 to students in the class of 2004, the first required to pass the exam as a prerequisite for getting a diploma. Although students will have multiple opportunities to pass, low initial passage rates have caused groups like the CTA to fight the exam. The legislation that created the exam, however, also mandated an independent evaluation of it. That evaluation, conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization, has just been released and supports key aspects of the exam.

First, after reviewing testing guidelines laid down by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council for Measurement in Education, the evaluation concluded that the exit exam "meets all of the test standards for use as a graduation requirement."

In case you don't know those organizations, they're the big three in my field. I'm a member of AERA and NCME, as is almost every psychometrician. NCME in particular is going to value psychometric soundness over ideology, and the approval of that organization is meaningful.

More interesting is the fact that the exit exam has served as an incentive for schools to implement the state's rigorous academic content standards. Since the exit exam is aligned with the standards, which cover core subjects such as English, math, science, and social studies, schools that want their students to pass should be emphasizing the standards in classroom instruction. The evaluation found that the exam "has been a major factor leading to dramatically increased coverage of the California Content Standards at both the high school and middle school levels and to development or improvement of courses providing help for students who have difficulty mastering these standards."

Wow, so holding teachers accountable, and labeling them as failures if students don't learn the basic standards, does force schools to improve. Who'd have thought it?

According to the evaluation, in 1999 only about 20 percent of schools surveyed in the report covered at least three-quarters of the standards, whereas in the current school year more than 80 percent of the schools reported such in-depth coverage. The report found that schools with high levels of standards coverage had much higher passage rates on the exit exam than schools that had not implemented the standards as intensely. For example, on the English portion, 100 percent of the schools in the survey which had high levels of standards coverage had passage rates of 75 percent or greater. In contrast, only 59 percent of schools that had lower standards coverage had passing rates of 75 percent or greater.

Many critics of the exit exam argue that "low quality" teachers at poor urban schools are the reason for bad instruction and poor passage rates.

In a word - So? How is that point a justification for removing the exam? Identifying weak links in the educational system is part of the purpose of the exam. Without the exam, poor teachers can just go on shortchanging their students. What's more, this "criticism," aside from being surreal, isn't even true:

However, according to the report's authors: "We also investigated the possible impact of teacher qualifications, defined by their credentials and years of experience, and professional development programs for the teachers on the effectiveness of standards-based instruction. There was no clear evidence that teacher qualification was an important factor."

The report's findings indicate that the high-school exit exam has improved the quality of instruction for students, which in turn will improve their achievement. Giving in to the doomsayers will end up only hurting students.

Exactly.

Louisiana's failed voucher billsDespite the

Louisiana's failed voucher bills

Despite the failing public schools and the highest percentage of students in private or homeschools in the nation, Louisiana's voucher bills appear to be dead in the water. The teachers unions, school boards, and superintendents have all fought this "drain" on the public school system - the same system that has produced twenty-three failing schools (with another 100 or so being borderline) and NAEP scores that are well below the national average in every category. Thanks to these "educators," the voucher bills are not likely to get out of education committees this year.

Louisiana's failed voucher billsDespite the

Louisiana's failed voucher bills

Despite the failing public schools and the highest percentage of students in private or homeschools in the nation, Louisiana's voucher bills appear to be dead in the water. The teachers unions, school boards, and superintendents have all fought this "drain" on the public school system - the same system that has produced twenty-three failing schools (with another 100 or so being borderline) and NAEP scores that are well below the national average in every category. Thanks to these "educators," the voucher bills are not likely to get out of education committees this year.

Louisiana's failed voucher billsDespite the

Louisiana's failed voucher bills

Despite the failing public schools and the highest percentage of students in private or homeschools in the nation, Louisiana's voucher bills appear to be dead in the water. The teachers unions, school boards, and superintendents have all fought this "drain" on the public school system - the same system that has produced twenty-three failing schools (with another 100 or so being borderline) and NAEP scores that are well below the national average in every category. Thanks to these "educators," the voucher bills are not likely to get out of education committees this year.

Walter Williams interviewRight Wing News

Walter Williams interview

Right Wing News has lately been running a series of fascinating interviews, and the latest one is with a particular idol of mine - college professor, conservative economic guru and social pundit Walter Williams. Blogger John Hawkins introduces the interview by discussing the recent FCAT exit exam controversy,. The comments section for that post is worth the read as well.

Excerpts from the interview:

John Hawkins: Related question, The US Supreme Court is going to be ruling on a University of Michigan program that gives preferences to minority students. Do you think they should abandon the program or keep it in place and...

Walter Williams: I think they should abandon it, 100%...

John Hawkins: ...And also do you think those sorts of programs are overall a help or hindrance to minorities today?

Walter Williams: Racial preferences have been on balance a hindrance to black Americans & Hispanic Americans. Look at the University of California, Berkeley back in the seventies and eighties. Close to seventy percent of black students who were admitted there did not graduate. The SAT scores of these black students who were admitted there were slightly higher than the national average. But the problem was, the rest of the students at Berkeley were getting twelve and thirteen hundreds on the SAT. So, the black students there were in over their heads and just could not make it in that high powered academic setting.

On the other hand, at Cal State-San Jose, which is not that far from Berkeley, roughly seventy percent of the black students there didn't graduate either. Here's what the problem was. The problem was that the black students who would have graduated from Cal State-San Jose were recruited to Berkeley to become failures. There was an academic mismatch.

You find the same thing at MIT. Black students in the engineering department, they score in the top 5% nationally in the quantitative portion of the SAT. However, close to 50% are on academic probation or flunking out at MIT. What's the problem? Well, the rest of the students in the engineering department are in the top 1%, which puts the black students at MIT near the bottom of the student body. So those black student who are being turned into failures at MIT, if they'd gone to engineering school at University of Pennsylvania or Cornell, they'd be on the Dean's list.

So it's kind of like you're saying to me, "Walter, would you teach me how to box?" Then, the first fight I get you is with Lennox Lewis. Now you might have the potential to be a good boxer, but you're going to get your brains beaten out before you learn to bob and weave. So, the question for black people is, "do we have so many youngsters who score in the top 5% nationally that we can afford to have them turned into failures at MIT in the name of diversity and multiculturalism?" For me, my answer is no.

Walter Williams interviewRight Wing News

Walter Williams interview

Right Wing News has lately been running a series of fascinating interviews, and the latest one is with a particular idol of mine - college professor, conservative economic guru and social pundit Walter Williams. Blogger John Hawkins introduces the interview by discussing the recent FCAT exit exam controversy,. The comments section for that post is worth the read as well.

Excerpts from the interview:

John Hawkins: Related question, The US Supreme Court is going to be ruling on a University of Michigan program that gives preferences to minority students. Do you think they should abandon the program or keep it in place and...

Walter Williams: I think they should abandon it, 100%...

John Hawkins: ...And also do you think those sorts of programs are overall a help or hindrance to minorities today?

Walter Williams: Racial preferences have been on balance a hindrance to black Americans & Hispanic Americans. Look at the University of California, Berkeley back in the seventies and eighties. Close to seventy percent of black students who were admitted there did not graduate. The SAT scores of these black students who were admitted there were slightly higher than the national average. But the problem was, the rest of the students at Berkeley were getting twelve and thirteen hundreds on the SAT. So, the black students there were in over their heads and just could not make it in that high powered academic setting.

On the other hand, at Cal State-San Jose, which is not that far from Berkeley, roughly seventy percent of the black students there didn't graduate either. Here's what the problem was. The problem was that the black students who would have graduated from Cal State-San Jose were recruited to Berkeley to become failures. There was an academic mismatch.

You find the same thing at MIT. Black students in the engineering department, they score in the top 5% nationally in the quantitative portion of the SAT. However, close to 50% are on academic probation or flunking out at MIT. What's the problem? Well, the rest of the students in the engineering department are in the top 1%, which puts the black students at MIT near the bottom of the student body. So those black student who are being turned into failures at MIT, if they'd gone to engineering school at University of Pennsylvania or Cornell, they'd be on the Dean's list.

So it's kind of like you're saying to me, "Walter, would you teach me how to box?" Then, the first fight I get you is with Lennox Lewis. Now you might have the potential to be a good boxer, but you're going to get your brains beaten out before you learn to bob and weave. So, the question for black people is, "do we have so many youngsters who score in the top 5% nationally that we can afford to have them turned into failures at MIT in the name of diversity and multiculturalism?" For me, my answer is no.

Walter Williams interviewRight Wing News

Walter Williams interview

Right Wing News has lately been running a series of fascinating interviews, and the latest one is with a particular idol of mine - college professor, conservative economic guru and social pundit Walter Williams. Blogger John Hawkins introduces the interview by discussing the recent FCAT exit exam controversy,. The comments section for that post is worth the read as well.

Excerpts from the interview:

John Hawkins: Related question, The US Supreme Court is going to be ruling on a University of Michigan program that gives preferences to minority students. Do you think they should abandon the program or keep it in place and...

Walter Williams: I think they should abandon it, 100%...

John Hawkins: ...And also do you think those sorts of programs are overall a help or hindrance to minorities today?

Walter Williams: Racial preferences have been on balance a hindrance to black Americans & Hispanic Americans. Look at the University of California, Berkeley back in the seventies and eighties. Close to seventy percent of black students who were admitted there did not graduate. The SAT scores of these black students who were admitted there were slightly higher than the national average. But the problem was, the rest of the students at Berkeley were getting twelve and thirteen hundreds on the SAT. So, the black students there were in over their heads and just could not make it in that high powered academic setting.

On the other hand, at Cal State-San Jose, which is not that far from Berkeley, roughly seventy percent of the black students there didn't graduate either. Here's what the problem was. The problem was that the black students who would have graduated from Cal State-San Jose were recruited to Berkeley to become failures. There was an academic mismatch.

You find the same thing at MIT. Black students in the engineering department, they score in the top 5% nationally in the quantitative portion of the SAT. However, close to 50% are on academic probation or flunking out at MIT. What's the problem? Well, the rest of the students in the engineering department are in the top 1%, which puts the black students at MIT near the bottom of the student body. So those black student who are being turned into failures at MIT, if they'd gone to engineering school at University of Pennsylvania or Cornell, they'd be on the Dean's list.

So it's kind of like you're saying to me, "Walter, would you teach me how to box?" Then, the first fight I get you is with Lennox Lewis. Now you might have the potential to be a good boxer, but you're going to get your brains beaten out before you learn to bob and weave. So, the question for black people is, "do we have so many youngsters who score in the top 5% nationally that we can afford to have them turned into failures at MIT in the name of diversity and multiculturalism?" For me, my answer is no.

Girls gone wildI'm sure that,

Girls gone wild

I'm sure that, by this point, you're all aware of the "hazing" melee that happened outside of Glenbrook North High School, and have seen the atrocious video of the violence. The response to the scandalous event (which left five girls hospitalized) has been almost universally scornful, and I've provided links to some of the Op-eds and letters below.

"Where were the parents?": Fox writer Liza Porteus wonders if perhaps the parents involved were trying too hard to be "friends," rather than fathers and mothers, when they supplied the alcohol and hazing supplies for this fiasco.

When privileged girls go wild: Tresa McBee ponders the double standard of our expectations of youth violence:

If this had been an inner-city melee, we’d fret about how teen gangs have taken over the urban landscape, but, oh well, that’s to be expected. But because it happened among children of so much privilege in a well-heeled suburb, our eyes widen as our hands flutter to our mouths: How, we wonder in stupefaction, could this happen in mom-andapple-pie America? Why, 85 percent of Glenbrook Northers go on to a four-year college, for heaven’s sake.

Time to become conscious. Amoral kids live in your neighborhood, too. Even upper-middle-class ones. They merely drive nicer cars with more gadgets on their parentsupplied key chains.

What little girls are made of: Fish guts and beer, according to Kathleen Parker, who is unnerved by the remorseless response of the girls who were involved:

...what's disturbing and frankly creepy about the "powder-puff" implosion is the apparent lack of remorse, empathy or insight -or any of the responses we might expect from well-adjusted, sensitive human beings -either from participants or among observers. There's something very wrong with this picture, and it may well be us...Several of the students quoted in a recent Chicago Sun-Times story, for example, said the juniors got what they deserved. Others said girls beating up girls wasn't "news." One jarring quote from a girl involved in the beatings captures the lack of empathy. Noting that one girl needed several stitches in her head, she said something like: "It's not like she's dead."

See the violence for what it is: Chicago Tribune writer Dawn Turner Trice urges readers to remember that "Young people do very stupid and sometimes despicable things," regardless of Zip code or income.

Don't assume all students are like this: two Glenbrook North students write in to say that the hazing incident isn't indicative of the students as a whole, and the tradition has become "frowned upon not only by GBN students and faculty but also the entire Northbrook community."

Oh, and of course the lawsuits have begun. At least two senior girls who were involved feel they shouldn't be suspended for a whole 10 days (much less expelled) for participating in the event, in which juniors were beaten and showered with mud, feces and garbage. The event happened off-campus, you see, and the lawyers are claiming the school doesn't have the jurisdiction to punish the alleged assailants.

Girls gone wildI'm sure that,

Girls gone wild

I'm sure that, by this point, you're all aware of the "hazing" melee that happened outside of Glenbrook North High School, and have seen the atrocious video of the violence. The response to the scandalous event (which left five girls hospitalized) has been almost universally scornful, and I've provided links to some of the Op-eds and letters below.

"Where were the parents?": Fox writer Liza Porteus wonders if perhaps the parents involved were trying too hard to be "friends," rather than fathers and mothers, when they supplied the alcohol and hazing supplies for this fiasco.

When privileged girls go wild: Tresa McBee ponders the double standard of our expectations of youth violence:

If this had been an inner-city melee, we’d fret about how teen gangs have taken over the urban landscape, but, oh well, that’s to be expected. But because it happened among children of so much privilege in a well-heeled suburb, our eyes widen as our hands flutter to our mouths: How, we wonder in stupefaction, could this happen in mom-andapple-pie America? Why, 85 percent of Glenbrook Northers go on to a four-year college, for heaven’s sake.

Time to become conscious. Amoral kids live in your neighborhood, too. Even upper-middle-class ones. They merely drive nicer cars with more gadgets on their parentsupplied key chains.

What little girls are made of: Fish guts and beer, according to Kathleen Parker, who is unnerved by the remorseless response of the girls who were involved:

...what's disturbing and frankly creepy about the "powder-puff" implosion is the apparent lack of remorse, empathy or insight -or any of the responses we might expect from well-adjusted, sensitive human beings -either from participants or among observers. There's something very wrong with this picture, and it may well be us...Several of the students quoted in a recent Chicago Sun-Times story, for example, said the juniors got what they deserved. Others said girls beating up girls wasn't "news." One jarring quote from a girl involved in the beatings captures the lack of empathy. Noting that one girl needed several stitches in her head, she said something like: "It's not like she's dead."

See the violence for what it is: Chicago Tribune writer Dawn Turner Trice urges readers to remember that "Young people do very stupid and sometimes despicable things," regardless of Zip code or income.

Don't assume all students are like this: two Glenbrook North students write in to say that the hazing incident isn't indicative of the students as a whole, and the tradition has become "frowned upon not only by GBN students and faculty but also the entire Northbrook community."

Oh, and of course the lawsuits have begun. At least two senior girls who were involved feel they shouldn't be suspended for a whole 10 days (much less expelled) for participating in the event, in which juniors were beaten and showered with mud, feces and garbage. The event happened off-campus, you see, and the lawyers are claiming the school doesn't have the jurisdiction to punish the alleged assailants.

Girls gone wildI'm sure that,

Girls gone wild

I'm sure that, by this point, you're all aware of the "hazing" melee that happened outside of Glenbrook North High School, and have seen the atrocious video of the violence. The response to the scandalous event (which left five girls hospitalized) has been almost universally scornful, and I've provided links to some of the Op-eds and letters below.

"Where were the parents?": Fox writer Liza Porteus wonders if perhaps the parents involved were trying too hard to be "friends," rather than fathers and mothers, when they supplied the alcohol and hazing supplies for this fiasco.

When privileged girls go wild: Tresa McBee ponders the double standard of our expectations of youth violence:

If this had been an inner-city melee, we’d fret about how teen gangs have taken over the urban landscape, but, oh well, that’s to be expected. But because it happened among children of so much privilege in a well-heeled suburb, our eyes widen as our hands flutter to our mouths: How, we wonder in stupefaction, could this happen in mom-andapple-pie America? Why, 85 percent of Glenbrook Northers go on to a four-year college, for heaven’s sake.

Time to become conscious. Amoral kids live in your neighborhood, too. Even upper-middle-class ones. They merely drive nicer cars with more gadgets on their parentsupplied key chains.

What little girls are made of: Fish guts and beer, according to Kathleen Parker, who is unnerved by the remorseless response of the girls who were involved:

...what's disturbing and frankly creepy about the "powder-puff" implosion is the apparent lack of remorse, empathy or insight -or any of the responses we might expect from well-adjusted, sensitive human beings -either from participants or among observers. There's something very wrong with this picture, and it may well be us...Several of the students quoted in a recent Chicago Sun-Times story, for example, said the juniors got what they deserved. Others said girls beating up girls wasn't "news." One jarring quote from a girl involved in the beatings captures the lack of empathy. Noting that one girl needed several stitches in her head, she said something like: "It's not like she's dead."

See the violence for what it is: Chicago Tribune writer Dawn Turner Trice urges readers to remember that "Young people do very stupid and sometimes despicable things," regardless of Zip code or income.

Don't assume all students are like this: two Glenbrook North students write in to say that the hazing incident isn't indicative of the students as a whole, and the tradition has become "frowned upon not only by GBN students and faculty but also the entire Northbrook community."

Oh, and of course the lawsuits have begun. At least two senior girls who were involved feel they shouldn't be suspended for a whole 10 days (much less expelled) for participating in the event, in which juniors were beaten and showered with mud, feces and garbage. The event happened off-campus, you see, and the lawyers are claiming the school doesn't have the jurisdiction to punish the alleged assailants.

When should affirmative action end?There's

When should affirmative action end?

There's a dazzling Den Beste post up today that ties together Jayson Blair, affirmative action, and the Florida FCAT flap. Go and read it now.

Kudos to Stephen for pointing out that the policies of the anti-testing crowd often result in the sort of racist attitudes that they claim to oppose:

[FCAT opponent] Curry doesn't like the fact that a consistent testing process is being applied equally and objectively to all students. Clearly Curry wants it to be easier for some students to pass and get a high school diploma than others, and clearly the "other things" Curry wants to take into account [to determine whether a student receives a diploma] is race...

I guess the worry is that the diploma actually does have practical significance, in the sense that if you don't have one it's harder to open certain doors than if you do have one. But that's because the diploma is presumed to signify a certain level of achievement. Curry wants to lower the bar for some people, but what that will mean is that not all diplomas will be judged equally. If "other factors" enter into it, then soon everyone will know that the diploma is more meaningful if the hand holding it is white.

And it means that a black kid who is brilliant, and who aced that quiz, will have his diploma devalued. To include "other factors" is to actually institutionally perpetuate the presumption that minority kids are inferior and to make it formal public policy. It seems to me that this attitude was exactly what the old movement was trying to eliminate.

Exactly. The testing opponents who claim that tests are "biased" when large numbers of minority children fail them, and who call for the removal of the tests, are essentially claiming that minority children are incapable of passing multiple-choice exams. If large numbers of minority children fail, their teachers and school administrators should be forced to account for that. Removing exit exams such as the FCAT not only removes the need to hold schools accountable, but it also implies that no matter what we do, these children cannot meet an objective standard.

When should affirmative action end?There's

When should affirmative action end?

There's a dazzling Den Beste post up today that ties together Jayson Blair, affirmative action, and the Florida FCAT flap. Go and read it now.

Kudos to Stephen for pointing out that the policies of the anti-testing crowd often result in the sort of racist attitudes that they claim to oppose:

[FCAT opponent] Curry doesn't like the fact that a consistent testing process is being applied equally and objectively to all students. Clearly Curry wants it to be easier for some students to pass and get a high school diploma than others, and clearly the "other things" Curry wants to take into account [to determine whether a student receives a diploma] is race...

I guess the worry is that the diploma actually does have practical significance, in the sense that if you don't have one it's harder to open certain doors than if you do have one. But that's because the diploma is presumed to signify a certain level of achievement. Curry wants to lower the bar for some people, but what that will mean is that not all diplomas will be judged equally. If "other factors" enter into it, then soon everyone will know that the diploma is more meaningful if the hand holding it is white.

And it means that a black kid who is brilliant, and who aced that quiz, will have his diploma devalued. To include "other factors" is to actually institutionally perpetuate the presumption that minority kids are inferior and to make it formal public policy. It seems to me that this attitude was exactly what the old movement was trying to eliminate.

Exactly. The testing opponents who claim that tests are "biased" when large numbers of minority children fail them, and who call for the removal of the tests, are essentially claiming that minority children are incapable of passing multiple-choice exams. If large numbers of minority children fail, their teachers and school administrators should be forced to account for that. Removing exit exams such as the FCAT not only removes the need to hold schools accountable, but it also implies that no matter what we do, these children cannot meet an objective standard.

When should affirmative action end?There's

When should affirmative action end?

There's a dazzling Den Beste post up today that ties together Jayson Blair, affirmative action, and the Florida FCAT flap. Go and read it now.

Kudos to Stephen for pointing out that the policies of the anti-testing crowd often result in the sort of racist attitudes that they claim to oppose:

[FCAT opponent] Curry doesn't like the fact that a consistent testing process is being applied equally and objectively to all students. Clearly Curry wants it to be easier for some students to pass and get a high school diploma than others, and clearly the "other things" Curry wants to take into account [to determine whether a student receives a diploma] is race...

I guess the worry is that the diploma actually does have practical significance, in the sense that if you don't have one it's harder to open certain doors than if you do have one. But that's because the diploma is presumed to signify a certain level of achievement. Curry wants to lower the bar for some people, but what that will mean is that not all diplomas will be judged equally. If "other factors" enter into it, then soon everyone will know that the diploma is more meaningful if the hand holding it is white.

And it means that a black kid who is brilliant, and who aced that quiz, will have his diploma devalued. To include "other factors" is to actually institutionally perpetuate the presumption that minority kids are inferior and to make it formal public policy. It seems to me that this attitude was exactly what the old movement was trying to eliminate.

Exactly. The testing opponents who claim that tests are "biased" when large numbers of minority children fail them, and who call for the removal of the tests, are essentially claiming that minority children are incapable of passing multiple-choice exams. If large numbers of minority children fail, their teachers and school administrators should be forced to account for that. Removing exit exams such as the FCAT not only removes the need to hold schools accountable, but it also implies that no matter what we do, these children cannot meet an objective standard.

"A suspect instructional strategy at

"A suspect instructional strategy at the least"

Ok, I know it's wrong to laugh at this story. But I have to admit that my first reading of it reduced me to a mass of helpless giggles:

Principal Richard W. Stoddard [of Chestnut Accelerated Middle School, Springfield MA] recently emphasized to his staff that profanity and insulting language were cause for disciplinary action. [Teacher Charlotte] Livingstone went a step further, assigning her sixth-graders on Monday to write down naughty words and then discuss them in class. The resulting lists included sexual and racial slang words that parents declined to repeat.

I know, I shouldn't laugh. The kids were really upset. But the entire thing is so absurd. Ms. Livingstone is a math teacher. What the hell was she thinking? Did she really think that making kids write down every banned word would stop some of the kids from using them? Was she angry that any words were banned at all, and this was her way of fighting the system? Was this her way of standing up for "free speech?" Does she have the IQ of mayonnaise?

"A suspect instructional strategy at

"A suspect instructional strategy at the least"

Ok, I know it's wrong to laugh at this story. But I have to admit that my first reading of it reduced me to a mass of helpless giggles:

Principal Richard W. Stoddard [of Chestnut Accelerated Middle School, Springfield MA] recently emphasized to his staff that profanity and insulting language were cause for disciplinary action. [Teacher Charlotte] Livingstone went a step further, assigning her sixth-graders on Monday to write down naughty words and then discuss them in class. The resulting lists included sexual and racial slang words that parents declined to repeat.

I know, I shouldn't laugh. The kids were really upset. But the entire thing is so absurd. Ms. Livingstone is a math teacher. What the hell was she thinking? Did she really think that making kids write down every banned word would stop some of the kids from using them? Was she angry that any words were banned at all, and this was her way of fighting the system? Was this her way of standing up for "free speech?" Does she have the IQ of mayonnaise?

"A suspect instructional strategy at

"A suspect instructional strategy at the least"

Ok, I know it's wrong to laugh at this story. But I have to admit that my first reading of it reduced me to a mass of helpless giggles:

Principal Richard W. Stoddard [of Chestnut Accelerated Middle School, Springfield MA] recently emphasized to his staff that profanity and insulting language were cause for disciplinary action. [Teacher Charlotte] Livingstone went a step further, assigning her sixth-graders on Monday to write down naughty words and then discuss them in class. The resulting lists included sexual and racial slang words that parents declined to repeat.

I know, I shouldn't laugh. The kids were really upset. But the entire thing is so absurd. Ms. Livingstone is a math teacher. What the hell was she thinking? Did she really think that making kids write down every banned word would stop some of the kids from using them? Was she angry that any words were banned at all, and this was her way of fighting the system? Was this her way of standing up for "free speech?" Does she have the IQ of mayonnaise?

More exit exam folliesJoanne Jacobs

More exit exam follies

Joanne Jacobs has already blogged this article, but the thesis bears repeating: California's high school exit exam is an extremely easy exam. It's targeted to 10th-grade level. Students are allowed eight attempts to pass it. And yet, of the almost 460,000 seniors in California who have taken the English portion of the test, 19 percent have failed, while 38 percent have failed the math portion. Debra Saunders refuses to give in to the "self-styled advocates" for the students who are demanding the removal of the exam:

If high school seniors can't pass this test, they aren't likely to get into college...They [the "self-styled advocates for poor and minority students"] should figure this out: The exam exists to pull poor and minority students out of an educational ghetto. As board member Tacheny explained, the "real tragedy" in California public education is how few schools reflect the state average; most are significantly above it or below it. The exit exam has put low-performing schools on notice that they have to expect more from themselves, their teachers and students.

Besides, it's insulting to assume that minority and poor kids can't pass a basic test. And it's counterproductive to disallow an exit exam because some special-education students can't pass it -- especially when their school districts can issue certificates of completion in lieu of a diploma to students who don't have the capacity to learn basic academics.

More exit exam folliesJoanne Jacobs

More exit exam follies

Joanne Jacobs has already blogged this article, but the thesis bears repeating: California's high school exit exam is an extremely easy exam. It's targeted to 10th-grade level. Students are allowed eight attempts to pass it. And yet, of the almost 460,000 seniors in California who have taken the English portion of the test, 19 percent have failed, while 38 percent have failed the math portion. Debra Saunders refuses to give in to the "self-styled advocates" for the students who are demanding the removal of the exam:

If high school seniors can't pass this test, they aren't likely to get into college...They [the "self-styled advocates for poor and minority students"] should figure this out: The exam exists to pull poor and minority students out of an educational ghetto. As board member Tacheny explained, the "real tragedy" in California public education is how few schools reflect the state average; most are significantly above it or below it. The exit exam has put low-performing schools on notice that they have to expect more from themselves, their teachers and students.

Besides, it's insulting to assume that minority and poor kids can't pass a basic test. And it's counterproductive to disallow an exit exam because some special-education students can't pass it -- especially when their school districts can issue certificates of completion in lieu of a diploma to students who don't have the capacity to learn basic academics.

More exit exam folliesJoanne Jacobs

More exit exam follies

Joanne Jacobs has already blogged this article, but the thesis bears repeating: California's high school exit exam is an extremely easy exam. It's targeted to 10th-grade level. Students are allowed eight attempts to pass it. And yet, of the almost 460,000 seniors in California who have taken the English portion of the test, 19 percent have failed, while 38 percent have failed the math portion. Debra Saunders refuses to give in to the "self-styled advocates" for the students who are demanding the removal of the exam:

If high school seniors can't pass this test, they aren't likely to get into college...They [the "self-styled advocates for poor and minority students"] should figure this out: The exam exists to pull poor and minority students out of an educational ghetto. As board member Tacheny explained, the "real tragedy" in California public education is how few schools reflect the state average; most are significantly above it or below it. The exit exam has put low-performing schools on notice that they have to expect more from themselves, their teachers and students.

Besides, it's insulting to assume that minority and poor kids can't pass a basic test. And it's counterproductive to disallow an exit exam because some special-education students can't pass it -- especially when their school districts can issue certificates of completion in lieu of a diploma to students who don't have the capacity to learn basic academics.

The "rigors" of teacher trainingHere's

The "rigors" of teacher training

Here's one way to get extra credit as a teacher-candidate at Michigan State University (MSU) - attend an anti-war rally. Oh, sure, if you go to a pro-war rally, the instructor will give credit as well, although MSU's spokeswoman "didn’t know of any” such rallies. Yeah, they were scarce as hen's teeth during the war, mmm-hmm. Could it be that this emphasis on political activity is related to the education crisis?

In 1996, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy published “Declining Standards at Michigan Public Universities” by Dr. Thomas F. Bertonneau, then an English instructor for Central Michigan University, and a well-known critic of teacher training he said “emphasize[s] emotion and subjectivity over rigor”...

“A preference for trivia is also part of the problem in today’s teacher education courses,” Bertonneau pointed out. “The curricula offered by university education departments are heavy on fuzzy ‘self-awareness,’ ‘multicultural,’ and other faddish or politicized material, and light on the hard knowledge of the subjects that teachers must eventually teach.”

The MSU course in which teacher candidates could receive credit for taking an anti-Iraq war stance was Teacher Education 250, “Human Diversity, Power and Opportunity in Social Institutions.” This very course was singled out by Bertonneau in 1996 as an example of the kind of frivolous, and ultimately profitless, courses Michigan’s teacher candidates must endure as part of their preparation for the classroom...

What sorts of teachers — and students — does such instruction produce? As early as January 1995, The Detroit News...revealed that one-third of prospective geography and health teachers flunked their certification tests and that those taking biology and history exams fared only slightly better. The article noted that “While nearly all [prospective teachers] passed a basic skills test in reading, writing and math,” the test is “so easy that it gives the public no assurance of any level of competency.”

Well, we should all be thankful that almost all of them passed those basic skills tests. What more could we expect from men and women who have college degrees? And who said you needed to know geography to teach geography? Everything's right there on the maps, isn't it?

The "rigors" of teacher trainingHere's

The "rigors" of teacher training

Here's one way to get extra credit as a teacher-candidate at Michigan State University (MSU) - attend an anti-war rally. Oh, sure, if you go to a pro-war rally, the instructor will give credit as well, although MSU's spokeswoman "didn’t know of any” such rallies. Yeah, they were scarce as hen's teeth during the war, mmm-hmm. Could it be that this emphasis on political activity is related to the education crisis?

In 1996, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy published “Declining Standards at Michigan Public Universities” by Dr. Thomas F. Bertonneau, then an English instructor for Central Michigan University, and a well-known critic of teacher training he said “emphasize[s] emotion and subjectivity over rigor”...

“A preference for trivia is also part of the problem in today’s teacher education courses,” Bertonneau pointed out. “The curricula offered by university education departments are heavy on fuzzy ‘self-awareness,’ ‘multicultural,’ and other faddish or politicized material, and light on the hard knowledge of the subjects that teachers must eventually teach.”

The MSU course in which teacher candidates could receive credit for taking an anti-Iraq war stance was Teacher Education 250, “Human Diversity, Power and Opportunity in Social Institutions.” This very course was singled out by Bertonneau in 1996 as an example of the kind of frivolous, and ultimately profitless, courses Michigan’s teacher candidates must endure as part of their preparation for the classroom...

What sorts of teachers — and students — does such instruction produce? As early as January 1995, The Detroit News...revealed that one-third of prospective geography and health teachers flunked their certification tests and that those taking biology and history exams fared only slightly better. The article noted that “While nearly all [prospective teachers] passed a basic skills test in reading, writing and math,” the test is “so easy that it gives the public no assurance of any level of competency.”

Well, we should all be thankful that almost all of them passed those basic skills tests. What more could we expect from men and women who have college degrees? And who said you needed to know geography to teach geography? Everything's right there on the maps, isn't it?

The "rigors" of teacher trainingHere's

The "rigors" of teacher training

Here's one way to get extra credit as a teacher-candidate at Michigan State University (MSU) - attend an anti-war rally. Oh, sure, if you go to a pro-war rally, the instructor will give credit as well, although MSU's spokeswoman "didn’t know of any” such rallies. Yeah, they were scarce as hen's teeth during the war, mmm-hmm. Could it be that this emphasis on political activity is related to the education crisis?

In 1996, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy published “Declining Standards at Michigan Public Universities” by Dr. Thomas F. Bertonneau, then an English instructor for Central Michigan University, and a well-known critic of teacher training he said “emphasize[s] emotion and subjectivity over rigor”...

“A preference for trivia is also part of the problem in today’s teacher education courses,” Bertonneau pointed out. “The curricula offered by university education departments are heavy on fuzzy ‘self-awareness,’ ‘multicultural,’ and other faddish or politicized material, and light on the hard knowledge of the subjects that teachers must eventually teach.”

The MSU course in which teacher candidates could receive credit for taking an anti-Iraq war stance was Teacher Education 250, “Human Diversity, Power and Opportunity in Social Institutions.” This very course was singled out by Bertonneau in 1996 as an example of the kind of frivolous, and ultimately profitless, courses Michigan’s teacher candidates must endure as part of their preparation for the classroom...

What sorts of teachers — and students — does such instruction produce? As early as January 1995, The Detroit News...revealed that one-third of prospective geography and health teachers flunked their certification tests and that those taking biology and history exams fared only slightly better. The article noted that “While nearly all [prospective teachers] passed a basic skills test in reading, writing and math,” the test is “so easy that it gives the public no assurance of any level of competency.”

Well, we should all be thankful that almost all of them passed those basic skills tests. What more could we expect from men and women who have college degrees? And who said you needed to know geography to teach geography? Everything's right there on the maps, isn't it?

Another success storyRoberto Mata, who

Another success story

Roberto Mata, who came to this country from Mexico City, endured grinding poverty and almost-insurmountable challenges. He entered the United States during his teenage years, when he didn't know a word of English; yet this past weekend, he graduated from Bethany College. And now, a full scholarship to Harvard awaits him; he plan to get his Ph.D. and become a minister:

The boy with the ragged clothes with the sack of stolen corn is never far from Mata, who is 26 now. "That little boy," says Mata and looks down at the floor, "he still comes back."

He comes at night, when Mata is studying in his room or finishing up a paper. "He makes me take a break and say, ‘Thank God. Thank God. Thank God,’" says Mata and he raises his hands up toward the heavens. "I think — this is real."

He pulls himself out of the couch and heads out the door to study. He has a final exam in Greek the next morning. He will stay up until 4 a.m. preparing for it.

Mata walks across the road toward his room, greeting students who say hi, who call out his name. He turns and smiles. "It has been a great journey," he says.

Finally, now, he is on his way.

The reader who sent the link to me was one of Roberto's professors, who said that Roberto "was the commencment speaker for our graduation and got a standing ovation from the crowd when he was finished." Wonderful.