Schapiro wrote: > There have been several references on this list to a teacher > effectiveness study in Minneapolis Public Schools. > > I raised the issue of the "study" with David Heistad, > director of research or the district. He said no such study > has been done, although the existence of such a study might > have been inferred from a fuzzy quote in a newspaper some > time ago. I also raised with Dr. Heistad questions about > long-term studies that indicate about 90 percent of > longer-term achievement outcomes can be predicted by family > and neighborhood variables.
Since I have been discussing expert teaching I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'd been referencing this non-existent study. Much of my understanding has been drawn from the following reference: "The Cognitive Psychology of School Teaching: How Do We Characterize Expert Teachers?" In "The Cognitive Psychology of School Learning" by Ellen D. Gagne, Carol W. Yekovich, & Frank R. Yekovich. Additional references can be found in this text. Also since I can't determine exactly who cited the non-existent study maybe Mr. Schapiro could let me know offline. And, while I have Mr. Schapiro online (so to speak), I would like to ask him to take responsibility for prompting the removal of some blatant propaganda from the District's webpage on the effects of class size reductions (http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/about/referendum_class_size.shtml). That is the line, "Data shows that small class size increases achievement for students of all races." There are a couple of factors that make the conclusions on this page totally bogus, but this fallacious statement should be obvious to anyone who has had an introductory course in statistics that included correlation (as it should have been to the authors of this report). Michael Atherton http://QualityEd.US Candidate for Minneapolis School Board Prospect Park ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prepared and paid for by the Atherton for MPS Committee. 156 Orlin Ave SE, Mpls, MN 55414 _______________________________________ 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
