Topic 4: How Valid is the Evidence? by Jesse Roest https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q How do schools actually progress and improve? en-us 2018-03-07 20:29:47 UTC 2018-03-12 22:37:58 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Growing.png 1) School Accountability jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239397344 Centralized accountability frameworks attach relatively severe consequences to schools (such as school sanctions) and to teachers (like salary limitations) that are unable to meet student achievement targets (Klinger et. al. 2011)
Challenges with accountability framework 
  • Various assumptions 
  • “The foundation upon which such accountability framework are based, educators’ ability to identify systematic learning needs and select appropriate instructional practices to address these needs, and the assessment information used to determine learning needs and measure the effectiveness of educators’ efforts” (Klinger et. al. 2011)


]]> 2018-03-07 20:36:13 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239397344 2) Accountability Framework jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239398917
  • The following as been put in place in B.C. Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Ontario have similarities:
  • “Working to improve students’ educational results” 
  • Setting targets 
  • Ways to measure success 
  • “Identifying areas that need improvement” (Klinger et. al. 2011)
    • ]]>     2018-03-07 20:40:05 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239398917     3) SEF = Facilitate School Effectiveness jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239399691  9 methods to facilitate school effectiveness:
    • Build school capacity 
    • Foster introspection, reflection, and analysis 
    • Improve planning 
    • Collaborative and collegial conversations 
    • High-yield, research-based strategies 
    • Monitoring and feedback strategies 
    • Unique improvement needs 
    • Communicate, celebrate and build confidence 

    ]]>     2018-03-07 20:41:58 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239399691     4) Challenges for the SEF jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239400540
  • Mainly a lack of research and evidence 
  • “Foundations of the SEF have yet to be fully explored as operational mechanisms that actually improve teaching and learning”.
  • “A second body of research influencing the SEF is a set of policy concepts that are being heavily promoted in the professional community”. 
  • Operational challenges - again issues with evidence 
  • “Underlying assumptions upon which these models are built”. 
  • Assumptions that teachers and administrators ‘have the information and skills to make effective decisions that will lead to improved student outcomes”

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 20:44:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239400540     5) Personal SEF / Accountability Applications jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239401466 Despite the accountability efforts found across Canada, student's achievement levels have changed very little. We need to consider that students achievement is influenced in other ways such as student; work habits, family socioeconomic background, language, and ethnic and immigration history. How can we measure such social factors? Measurement is great but we need to be able to determine validity of statistical data. Lets examine further through Garner's article...]]> 2018-03-07 20:45:56 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239401466 6) Data & Tests jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239403372
  • Test scores in the modern world are usual understood to be indicators or strengths and weaknesses
  • Many educators believe that students should not be reduced to a number
  • Data such as test scores can be a valuable asset to a teacher, IF they know how to use them

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 20:50:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239403372     7) Personal Bias jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239404163
  • However, if a teacher has a conviction against testing, they should not give tests. 
  • The aversion to numbers is not new to education.
  • The author links using statistics in unconventional ways like in the baseball movie “Moneyball”
  • Some of the aversion to tests and scores stems from the “failure” of the IQ test. Currently half the population is below average which seems depressing to most that our generation is statistically getting less intelligent. 

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 20:51:49 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239404163     8) Historical Implications jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239404383
  • Numbers are also said to never lie - historically numbers were idolized as holy things that were unchangeable and measurable. Many still hold to this way of thinking today, including teachers. 
  • Numbers and test scores can be manipulated
  • Stats can be mismanaged to fit one’s personal agenda (politics) 
  • Stats can be left out to skew the overall message
  • These ideas have major implications and carry over into education and forming teachers philosophies on testing and grading.

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 20:52:20 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239404383     9) Tests & Stats Application jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239404621
  • We all must agree that we need statistics
  • Without statistics, we limit our ability to think thoughtfully about our society; without statistics, we have no accurate ways of judging how big a problem may be, whether it is getting worse, or how well the policies designed to address that problem actually work. And Awestruck or Naïve attitudes towards statistics are no better than ignoring statistics; statistics have no magical properties, and it is foolish to assume that all statistics are equally valid.
  • We all must agree that we need tests
  • Reality is complicated, and every statistic is someone’s summary, a simplification of that complexity. Every statistic must be created and the process of creation always involves choices that affect the resulting number and therefore affect what we understand after the figures summarize and simplify the problem.

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 20:52:57 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239404621     10) Burning Question jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239405629 Should we consider how tests are viewed by the general public and innumerate users as we (educators) form our own philosophies on grading and testing?]]> 2018-03-07 20:55:37 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239405629 11) School Rankings jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239412733 School rankings impact morale, teacher effectiveness, selective admission procedures and the erosion of professionalism in an educational system that values standardized testing and market driven reforms.
    (Simmonds & Webb 2013)]]>     2018-03-07 21:15:17 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239412733     12) The Fraser Report jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239413365
  • The Fraser Institute of Vancouver devised a statistical regime that changed how schools were perceived by the public through developing an annual school “report card’ that highlighted and concealed differences between schools
  • Public school rankings provided parents with an instrument that distinguished high-ranking “good” schools from low ranking “bad” ones. 
  • This makes the standardized assessment practices “high-stakes” because they can be used to create a marketplace for privatization and school choice where there had not been one previously
  • For many people, it is through school rankings that they come to know, evaluate and recognize what ‘good’ schools are according to a particular epistemology of seeing - an epistemology created by the Fraser Institute
  • (Simmonds & Webb 2013)

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 21:17:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239413365     12) The Fraser Report jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239413562
  • The Fraser Institute of Vancouver devised a statistical regime that changed how schools were perceived by the public through developing an annual school “report card’ that highlighted and concealed differences between schools
  • Public school rankings provided parents with an instrument that distinguished high-ranking “good” schools from low ranking “bad” ones. 
  • This makes the standardized assessment practices “high-stakes” because they can be used to create a marketplace for privatization and school choice where there had not been one previously
  • For many people, it is through school rankings that they come to know, evaluate and recognize what ‘good’ schools are according to a particular epistemology of seeing - an epistemology created by the Fraser Institute

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 21:17:39 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239413562     13) Educational Policy Influencers jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239415517
  • Apple (2004) identifies four distinct groups that emerged as 21st century forces that he feels profoundly shape the educational policy landscape: neoliberals, neoconcervatives, authoritarian populists (fundamentalists), and “experts for hire”.
  • Neoliberals (like Fraser Institute):economic modernizers who want educational policy to be centered around the economy and around performance objectives. They see schools as needing to be transformed and made more competitive
  • Neoconservatives (Like BC ministry of education) are deeply committed to establishing tighter mechanisms of control over knowledge through national or state curriculum and testing. 
  • (Simmonds & Webb 2013)

    • ]]>     2018-03-07 21:23:54 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239415517     14) Media & Applications jroest1 https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239416077 Media continuously portrayed private/independent schools as “top rated” schools leading to public to believe it was better than public schools. 
    I know from personal experience that our school's open house draws many families that reference the Fraser Report as pull factor in choosing our independent school in Calgary.]]>     2018-03-07 21:26:02 UTC https://padlet.com/jroest1/9k7j3wy7q25q/wish/239416077