Tuesday, June 07, 2011

EDUCATION - How Do We Grade Schools?

"Grading Schools: How to Determine the 'Good' From the 'Bad'?"
PBS Newshour 6/6/2011

What I've noticed on how officials "score" schools:
  • They score on pass/fail rather than "has there been an improvement"

  • Yearly testing is NOT the way to go

  • Expecting a child that is ALREADY behind to catch up to grade-level in just one year is unrealistic

  • A better way MAY be to send professional observers to schools (NOT every year, cycle through n-schools/yr) and see how the school classes are doing and use this as additional evaluation of school performance

  • Pay much more attention to parental involvement in their child's education

As this piece notes, the child's enviroment has a very big impact on their performance. We need to address that if we really expect general improvement.

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