Re: Wasting Class Time

[kber <kber@EARTHLINK.NET>]

George Sheridan wrote:

snip
"In the same district, I am told, administrators have instituted a
system of triage. Whereas teachers serving needy populations often
devote much of their time and
effort to students in the bottom third of the class, teachers in this
district have been told to focus on the middle third. The theory is that
with much effort a student
might move from the second to the tenth percentile, but it wouldn't help
the API (Academic Performance Index). Students at the 35th or 40th
percentile might be
able to get scores above 50. The goal is to get "above the mean."
snip

interesting, because in the research on teacher efficacy, one of the
strong pieces of evidence about teachers who have a strong sense of
efficacy (Bandura's concept, as developed by Gibson and Dembo among
others) is that they obtain higher overall test scores )for what that is
worth) precisely because, believing they can help any student succeed,
they put so much effort into student at the bottom.  Now, since some who
originally test at the bottom are going to rise merely by regression to
the mean, and given that it is easier to raise low scores than to raise
scores already very high, it would seem - all the evidence taken
together - that California district is going to be hoist by its own
petard.

peace


Ken Bernstein

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