Educational triage

Let's say that instead of literacy as a goal, 5th grade teacher Ms Smith's mandate is to make sure all her students weigh 100 pounds at the end of the year - the 5th grade "weight" level. She weighs them carefully as soon as school starts and notes which ones are in the 85-99 pound range. If she wants to look successful, she will need to have as many students in her class weigh 100 pounds or more by spring, To maximize her chances of this happening, she will feed those just under the minimum weight the most. Those already weighing over 100 pounds don't need more food. The chances of the severely underweight gaining 15 or 25 pounds in a year are so small that giving food to them would be a waste. In practical Ms Smith's class both the heaviest and lightest kids will go hungry, but Ms Smith's odds of meeting the expectation of the state and federal government are better than they would be had she fed everyone.

According to Jennifer Booher-Jennings's "Rationing Education In an Era of Accountability" in the June 2006 Phi Delta Kappan this strategy is being promoted and applied not to weight gain, of course, but to learning in schools using data-driven decision making tools. The author lists two dilemmas schools using data face:

Dilemma 1. Data can be used to improve student achievement, but they can also be used to target some students at the expense of others.

Dilemma 2. It is unfair to hold schools accountable for the new students or for subgroups that are too small to yield statistically reliable estimates of a school's effectiveness; however the consequences of excluding some students may be to deny them access to scarce educational resources. 

A number of pundits have suggested that a better slogan than No Child Left Behind would be Every Child Moves Ahead. Think how much different Ms Smith's classroom resources would be allocated if instead of every child needing to weigh 100 pounds to be considered "successful," each child needed to gain 5 pounds or 10% of his beginning weight during the year. The kid who already weights 150 pounds and the 65 pounder would still be given resources since their increases would be considered as important as the "bubble" students.

Measuring individual student growth, often called "value added" assessment, is the only ethical approach to data-based decision-making. It's the only way every student will "count." Do any of our legislators get this?

___________

A second, equally scary/heart-breaking story in the June Kappan is "Handcuff Me, Too!" in which Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld describes what happens when a bright, enthusiastic 5-year-old enters an assessment-driven classroom where the first grade curriculum has been "pushed down."  

Please schools, don't turn the young fisherman shown in the picture at the left into a school-hater. Save the worksheets and tests for a year or two. The world will still go around.

Babies are devious

My experience is that babies are sticking with their best tactic for getting one to fall completely in love with them. The snooze on the chest...

Carrie 1973

Miles 2006

 I hope all you fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers and fathers-in-law had a great day yesterday.

Long Overdue...indeed!

Not long ago, I wrote pessimistically about the fate of libraries (Career guidance), citing a variety of sources that described various negative perceptions that threaten them.

Happily, a new report has been released that shows a quite different public attitude: one of support and acknowledgement of  the importance of libraries, even in digital age. LONG OVERDUE: A FRESH LOOK AT PUBLIC ATTITUDES ABOUT LIBRARIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY finds:

The American people expect and prize public library service in the Internet age. In fact, they see libraries as potential solutions to many communities’ most pressing problems, from universal access to computers to a safe place for teens. But the research suggests a troubling “perception” gap, with many elected leaders reluctant to consider libraries a funding priority, and community residents – even those most appreciative of the library – unaware that libraries face stiff competition for funds. This spells a missed opportunity for elected leaders, who could build upon libraries’ currency in the community to address a host of contemporary problems, as well as for the library community, which could better secure libraries’ funding future by trumpeting the many traditional and innovative roles libraries play today.

 What I find intriguing about this study is that while libraries seem to have massive public support, they cannot rest on their laurels, but must continue to demonstrate that the perform "essential" services within their communities to decision-makers. Perhaps this continuous need to justify one's existence has become the hallmark of our times.

George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence...on pain of liquidation." It seems today we need to appear before that board every five months  - or five weeks.

Anyway, read the report. It's encouraging to those of us who love libraries...