On 13 Sep 2003 07:23:28 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Simon, Steve, PhD) wrote:
> I haven't been following the news on this very closely, but it > sounds like the evaluation of schools currently being done in the "No > Child Left Behind" program has some of the same issues as subgroup > analysis and fishing expeditions. I suspect there are some differences > also. > > Does anyone else see the analogy? Is there a good description > somewhere of exactly what the tests are, what the subgroups are, and > what the standards are? I think the program is a clever attack on the public school systems. It is clever, because it disguises de-funding and disruption (disruption arising from multiple sources, including, screwing up the regular curricula) as an attempt to 'improve' things, thus being 'pro-child' My impression of 'school evaluations' is that the *science* is not great, but there are some things that have been learned over the last 30 years. Further: what is known by experts was certainly far from the minds of Republicans, --who are anti-numerical, as part of being anti-science-- and was thoroughly ignored by politicians who decreed the programs. It has been my impression that the experts in the area were just about uniformly appalled at what has come about; and are pretty-much resigned to letting the thing collapse of its own failures. It might achieve a little bit positive, by showing how bad some schools can be. - On the other hand, I have not gone out of my way to read about it, so I could be mistaken. Why did W get his GOP allies to fund a foregone failure? - They do seek to divert funding to private schools, which is where children of BIG contributors are educated. - Public school teachers remain a workforce that is often unionized, and the teachers are often vocal, active, influential, and Democratic; so it is in the Republican interest to wipe them out. (See the parallel, somewhat, in the Presidential insistence that the new office of home security should not allow union protections; he was willing to dump the legislation rather than allow unions.) -- Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization." . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
