Growth seemed to be a hot topic this month, so I set out to write a blog post about student growth and how it should be (and shouldn’t be) used in school accountability systems. Then I read the Senate HELP committee’s RFI. When my blood pressure returned close to normal, my topic had changed. I had expected and can even accept the “school choice” vibes that ran through the RFI. What I cannot stomach, however, is the return to misplaced blame and outright meanness that helped derail the last 25 years of Education Reform.
Category Archives: Accountability
Accountability: Where Do I Begin?
If we’re serious about school accountability then it’s time to wipe the slate clean and begin again. There simply is no way to get from the current system, a glorified. Title 1 evaluation, to a working whole school accountability model. Here’s the first of an “Accountability Week” worth of posts to make that point.
A Commitment To Communicate
Andrew Ho, in his NCME presidential address, defended his use of metrics such as weeks, months, and “years of learning” citing what he dubbed as “the accuracy-engagement tradeoff” while asking “Can good communication enable better accuracy and engagement?” My response, as Andrew suggested is the answer to all such questions, is “It depends.”
Running In Circles, Chasing Our Tales
What is our story? What is it that we hope to accomplish with assessment and accountability? What makes instruction or schools effective? Why do we have such a difficult time answering fundamental questions and crafting a compelling narrative?
Getting Back to Basics (and Proficient) With Accountability
First Law of Holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
First Law of Blogs: If you find yourself feeling really emotional, don’t post.
The field routinely ignores the first. I regularly ignore the second.
So, let’s talk school accountability.
Treat the Symptom. And then?
One thing that pandemic has made clear is that schools are always going to be focused primarily on meeting the immediate needs of the students in front of them today. That’s what schools do. And it’s a good thing. It does, however, have implications for how we rethink accountability and education reform.
Clearing Our Heads on School Accountability
It will be impossible to improve or reimagine school accountability systems until we are ready to acknowledge that the premise on which current systems are based is patently false.
A Little Less IRT, A Little More IRS
It is clear to even the staunchest advocates of state testing and test-based accountability that item response theory (IRT) is not the best foundation on which to build models of school performance, let alone school effectiveness. It is time, therefore, to shift our accountability focus from IRT and building better tests to lessons we canContinue reading “A Little Less IRT, A Little More IRS”
The Best of Both Worlds
The concept sounds so appealing: The Best of Both Worlds. You can enjoy the advantages of two different situations or opportunities at the same time. You can have your cake and eat it too. It’s the American Dream – a Party in the USA! But is it really possible to have the best of bothContinue reading “The Best of Both Worlds”
AITA
It’s a fairly common occurrence for me not to recognize or know how to interpret the various emojis, acronyms, and hashtags I encounter while scrolling through the latest on Taylor Swift, the local sports teams, my favorite #GBBO contestants, and a little assessment and measurement angst – iykyk, right. The most recent case: the lettersContinue reading “AITA”
Embrace the Absurd 