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Dec

7

Battelle worthy of good editorial, but PD shouldn’t promote myth of $ = “A” students


Value-added analyses for education evaluation have been in the works through Battelle for Kids since at least 2004. I don’t know if they ever completed the writing project they’d mentioned to me about a few years back, but it was a fascinating possibility. The Plain Dealer’s editorial is nice – complimentary.  But, as someone who follows gifted education, I am not appreciative of its dismissive attitude toward the concern that the highest achieving kids are in fact learning every year.

The editorial ties together affluence with getting As, thus furthering several stereotypes and myths about good students only existing in wealthy districts.  We know that’s absurd.  And if we say that it isn’t absurd, then we’re saying that the As earned in schools that aren’t, as the PD says, “affluent” aren’t equivalent to the As in the affluent districts. Again, that too is absurd.  Are there differences? Hell yes.  But does it have to do with the amount of money?  Well – I thought we were always arguing about how it isn’t about the money and that we don’t want to throw more money around and so on.

So – can we please not make it about the money – unless it really is about the money?

And in the case of high-achieving students – all districts who have them, and all districts of course do have them – should be concerned.  Those students often aren’t in any measured subgroup.  And so we should be concerned about whether they’re learning from year to year or not.

I feel another LTR coming on.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:59 pm December 7th, 2007 in Education, Media 

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