Catherine Shreves, answering earlier questions about studies, writes: > > ""What some of the research says about technology and student > > achievement: > > > > The West Virginia Story: Achievement Gains > > http://www.mff.org/publications/publications.taf?page=155 > > > > Lesson learned: The top Technology School Districts in the Nation > > http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3748.cfm > > > > NCREL's Research on Technology in Education > > http://www.ncrel.org/tech/research.htm > > > > The impact of Education Technology on Education > > http://www.mff.org/publications/publications.taf?page=161 > > > > Tranforming Learning Through Technology > > http://www.mff.org/publications/publications.taf?page=266 > > > > Does it Computer? The Relationship between Educational Technology and > > Student Achievement in Math ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/res/technolog.pdf > > > > Accelerating Student Achivement and National Standards for Technology > > for > > students http://www.iste.org/research/reports/tlcu/tracking.html";
Then Michael Atherton writes: > Ah, the old shotgun approach to parent involvement: give them so much > information they won't be able to evaluate it. Not that I have the time, > but I can almost promise you (knowing the older research) that > none of these studies will show that computers have more than > a 10% impact on overall student achievement (and that's being > really generous; I think that most well designed and controlled > studies will show far less). For several months, Michael among other list members has asked Minneapolis school officials for studies, numbers, verifiable data, etc. on school board initiatives. MPS board president Catherine Shreves is good enough to take them time to provide several studies underlying the district's computing philosophy...and now it's too MUCH? And disdaining to read those studies, persistent critics such as Michael (who has presented a ton of his own studies) can evaluate them and know what they say....based on admittedly older research?! Surely, that wasn't the way I was taught to evaluate a hypothesis in school. As for usability: had Catherine provided one easy-to-digest study, it would have been dismissed as insignificant. Had she boiled several studies down and presented her analysis in easy-to-read nugget form, it would have been suspect (or worse, "spinning.") I've long believed the education wars are less about "science" than confirming a given side's pre-existing ideology. (And the goes for all sides.) That's why I find myself listening to parents' and teachers' anecdotal experiences, while gravitating to policymakers who seem the most open-minded...or at least open to data that challenges their assumptions. A paradigm that leaves school officials no recourse - present no studies, you're guilty; present studies, you're guilty - only confirms my pre-existing belief about politics over science. David Brauer King Field - Ward 10 _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
