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This pretends that test scores are a meaningful metric for the success of school funding when we know that's not true. How money was spent is just as important

This pretends that test scores are a meaningful metric for the success of school funding when we know that's not true. How money was spent is just as important how much. Which it seems is the argument you're making. Where I think you're missing nuance is in recognizing that the most meaningful comparison is not from state to state, where the lines are blurred. It's much more meaningful to compare outcomes from neighboring districts. And, in that comparison, it's extremely well documented that wealthy neighborhoods have significantly better outcomes than their poorer neighbors.

ghaff 6y ago
>extremely well documented that wealthy neighborhoods have significantly better outcomes than their poorer neighbors Sure. But wealthy neighborhood correlates with a bunch of other things than high property values and typically relatively high property taxes which fund schools. It also tends to correlate to successful people, often well-educated, with at least one parent who spends a lot of time involved with their children's schoolwork, other types of support including tutoring if necessary, etc. So it's more complicated than the local public school has more money and spends that money on the right things.
prepend 6y ago
> This pretends that test scores are a meaningful metric for the success of school funding when we know that's not true. Test scores are meaningful, but they aren’t absolute. To say test scores are meaningless is not true. The reason tests are used, and probably overused, is to have some sort of generalizable metric. Just because tests have flaws doesn’t mean they are worthless. I think more focus should be spent on better tests, and fewer, not on doing away with them. There’s some magical thinking that a country of 330M will be able to holistically evaluate kids across the country in a way that is useful for funding allocation.
WalterBright 6y ago
> pretends that test scores are a meaningful metric I agree. Having the student sign an affidavit that they know math is good enough for me.

ghaff 6y ago

>extremely well documented that wealthy neighborhoods have significantly better outcomes than their poorer neighbors Sure. But wealthy neighborhood correlates with a bunch of other things than high property values and typically relatively high property taxes which fund schools. It also tends to correlate to successful people, often well-educated, with at least one parent who spends a lot of time involved with their children's schoolwork, other types of support including tutoring if necessary, etc. So it's more complicated than the local public school has more money and spends that money on the right things.

prepend 6y ago

> This pretends that test scores are a meaningful metric for the success of school funding when we know that's not true. Test scores are meaningful, but they aren’t absolute. To say test scores are meaningless is not true. The reason tests are used, and probably overused, is to have some sort of generalizable metric. Just because tests have flaws doesn’t mean they are worthless. I think more focus should be spent on better tests, and fewer, not on doing away with them. There’s some magical thinking that a country of 330M will be able to holistically evaluate kids across the country in a way that is useful for funding allocation.

WalterBright 6y ago

> pretends that test scores are a meaningful metric I agree. Having the student sign an affidavit that they know math is good enough for me.