Jay and All --
I have been following with interest the discussion on MCAS.
Jay Warner writes...
>
> the idea of measuring educational performance is fundamentally
> worthwhile to meet certain objectives. the methods described
> here fall far short of any ideal,and appear to fall short of
practicallity.
>
As a high school teacher, I would like to make a plea to the educational
measurement community and statisticians on this list: get involved in this
national issue of accountability. I have argued for too many years that we
need to construct a rational system of accountability, but there are few
within the educational community who have the expertise to proceed in a
meaningful way, nor have there been incentives to do so.
All of you are citizens, as well as parents. My personal belief is that
anything like a perfect system is very much out of reach. But what is not
out of reach is a debate about methods and and informed discussion of the
inherent limitations of an accountability system. We should hold our
schools as accountable as possible, but IMHO not just throw money at
politically satisfying but fundamentally unhelpful and very expensive
testing programs.
We need to do what we can, not overinterpret what we get, and we need your
monitoring efforts -- the kind of discussion I have been reading here --
translated into assistance for those in our public school system who will be
charged with constructing accountability/assessment systems.
OK, off my soap box. Thank you for listening.
-- Chris
Chris Olsen
George Washington High School
2205 Forest Dr. S.E.
Cedar Rapids, IA 52403
(319)-398-2161
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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