Thoughts on Measuring Education
I’ve just read these interesting articles about measuring and evaluating public education: Rothstein: \”What\’s Wrong with Accountability by the Numbers?\” In my mind, MCAS would fit the authors’ idea of an appropriate test that covers a variety of skills (e.g. not just computation, but also critical thinking; not just ELA and math, but also science and—in the future—history). In this way, I think Massachusetts is ahead of the curve.
The authors feel that any test, though, needs to be used in combination with more qualitative assessments based on what our goals are regarding public education. I think this is a key factor—we in Newton need arrive at some consensus about what our values and goals are for Newton students. The authors propose having a corps of professional school inspectors to evaluate and judge what is happening at each school. Not sure I agree with this proposal for Newton, but it does lead to other ideas and hybrid solutions.
I’m sure I’ll be writing more about this in the months to come…wholesale importation of the business model—that of measuring, evaluating, and decision-making based solely on numbers—makes me very uncomfortable in the public education area.