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The Gates Foundation does a huge amount of research into education, making him a much better representative of the state of the art than people who have taken s

by jforman 14y ago

The Gates Foundation does a huge amount of research into education, making him a much better representative of the state of the art than people who have taken specific approaches to reform.

droithomme 14y ago
What you call research I call agenda driven grants that presuppose something and then run a contrived and canned kangaroo court style test study to prove what the agenda presumed. One presumption the foundation promotes is that not enough people have college degrees and that more people need college degrees. Another presumption the foundation promotes is that nationwide standardized testing and the uniform curriculum that requires is the best way to ensure teaching is high quality. Another presumption the foundation promotes is that colleges should have high graduation rates and it is wasteful when they do not. The foundation then provides grants for people to promote agendas which the foundation has predetermined. That's not research.
- jforman 14y ago
  I don't think your characterization is fair. Read this: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-framing-paper.pdf http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-fra... It's a reasonably enlightened approach to outcomes measurement that doesn't rely solely on high-stakes testing. They track: * Measure 1: Student achievement gains on assessments * Measure 2: Classroom observations and teacher reflections * Measure 3: Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge * Measure 4: Student perceptions of the classroom instructional environment * Measure 5: Teachers’ perceptions of working conditions and instructional support at their schools The report associated with the MET program is indeed rigorous research based on this framework. You may disagree with it, but at least represent it accurately.
  - droithomme 14y ago
    It explicitly states it starts with premises they are assuming to be true. You have a nice list but there's one thing you forgot to mention, and intriguingly it's the key new innovation in this project: dystopian police state panoramic cameras installed in 100% of classrooms and a central website run by ETS to upload monitoring videos for evaluation by technocrats. There is no evidence that this is going to help teaching. The assumption is that it will, and the project is funding tests to demonstrate that it is effective, which will be the finding of the "study", because the desired outcome is always the finding of these studies; they are as unbiased and without a desired outcome as pharmaceutical studies to show the safety of a new erection pill.

by jforman 14y ago

The Gates Foundation does a huge amount of research into education, making him a much better representative of the state of the art than people who have taken specific approaches to reform.

droithomme 14y ago

What you call research I call agenda driven grants that presuppose something and then run a contrived and canned kangaroo court style test study to prove what the agenda presumed. One presumption the foundation promotes is that not enough people have college degrees and that more people need college degrees. Another presumption the foundation promotes is that nationwide standardized testing and the uniform curriculum that requires is the best way to ensure teaching is high quality. Another presumption the foundation promotes is that colleges should have high graduation rates and it is wasteful when they do not. The foundation then provides grants for people to promote agendas which the foundation has predetermined. That's not research.

jforman 14y ago
I don't think your characterization is fair. Read this: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-framing-paper.pdf http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-fra... It's a reasonably enlightened approach to outcomes measurement that doesn't rely solely on high-stakes testing. They track: * Measure 1: Student achievement gains on assessments * Measure 2: Classroom observations and teacher reflections * Measure 3: Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge * Measure 4: Student perceptions of the classroom instructional environment * Measure 5: Teachers’ perceptions of working conditions and instructional support at their schools The report associated with the MET program is indeed rigorous research based on this framework. You may disagree with it, but at least represent it accurately.
- droithomme 14y ago
  It explicitly states it starts with premises they are assuming to be true. You have a nice list but there's one thing you forgot to mention, and intriguingly it's the key new innovation in this project: dystopian police state panoramic cameras installed in 100% of classrooms and a central website run by ETS to upload monitoring videos for evaluation by technocrats. There is no evidence that this is going to help teaching. The assumption is that it will, and the project is funding tests to demonstrate that it is effective, which will be the finding of the "study", because the desired outcome is always the finding of these studies; they are as unbiased and without a desired outcome as pharmaceutical studies to show the safety of a new erection pill.