Education by statistics

February 10, 2010
Back to TopCommentsE-mailPrint

So many people in the business world are measured by numbers. Lawyers rack up billable hours, venture capitalists strive for returns on investment and factory workers attack defects. And don’t overlook sales, the ultimate in rising or falling based on one’s merits.

School districts, administrators and teachers have been judged on Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress scores for a number of years, but they’re about to be plunged deeper into seeing their performances measured by statistics.

The Indiana Department of Education today rolled out a plan that gauges how much students are learning by comparing individual students to peer students across the state. A student’s academic achievement will be compared against other students in the state who scored at the exact same level on ISTEP+. School systems then will be summarized as high-achieving/high-growth, high-achieving/low-growth, low-achieving/high-growth, and low-achieving/low-growth. And parents will know how much their child is improving compared to their peers.

The department hopes a more detailed analysis will better reveal what works and what doesn’t. And don’t forget that the department wants teacher salaries based partly on test scores.

Here’s a related question. How will private outfits like Park Tudor School, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School and Heritage Christian School respond as public schools get more serious about improvement?

It’s easy to dismiss private school boasts about high tests scores because the students have motivated parents. What’s difficult to determine is how much private schools elevate academics of already high-performing students.

Parents who like the more detailed statistics coming out of public education might start asking those kinds of questions of private schools.

Should private schools adopt the same system, or maybe a similar one? If they don’t, will they fall behind? Remember that Detroit car companies ruled the nation’s highways until they rejected Edwards Deming’s statistical measures and he took the ideas to a manufacturing backwater called Japan.

Might public schools improve so much that they give private schools a run for their money?

Your thoughts?

ADVERTISEMENT
  • Private Schools will LOVE Growth Models
    Derek RedelmanFebruary 10, 2010 2:07 PM
    For one, it will help dispel the exaggerated claims that private schools are working with "better raw material." That may be true for a small number of selective private schools; but most of Indiana's private schools are essentially open enrollment - and many Catholic schools in the inner cities are serving very challenging populations.

    Indeed, the Catholic schools in the Indianapolis Archdiocese are already using growth data to evaluate the performance of their schools, their teachers and their students - so they're already ahead of this game.

    And that's just one of the reasons that many private schools do so well. They actually seek out and adopt these kinds of improvement strategies. They don't wait around for state mandates.

    Unfortunately, much of that gets ignored by the teachers unions and other skeptics who can't bring themselves to believe that many private schools actually do things differently and that their success is not the result of better "raw product."

    The growth model will help demonstrate all of that.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • It is a classroom that the public schools work with
    DupreeFebruary 10, 2010 4:00 PM
    Yes, matching a poor IPS student with a poor Greenwood student is an improved method of grading teaching progress....but it excludes that fact that the IPS school has a classroom full of distractions that pull down learning opportunities. When a public school or big city school can leave-no-student-behind, it means these students are dragging every other student down. One must consider the classroom composition and how that composition prevents learning.

    A key to remember, each school trys their best to teach. Government only prevents progress with rules and regulations that hurt the average public school student.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • It is a classroom that the public schools work with
    DupreeFebruary 10, 2010 4:01 PM
    Yes, matching a poor IPS student with a poor Greenwood student is an improved method of grading teaching progress....but it excludes that fact that the IPS school has a classroom full of distractions that pull down learning opportunities. When a public school or big city school can leave-no-student-behind, it means these students are dragging every other student down. One must consider the classroom composition and how that composition prevents learning.

    A key to remember, each school trys their best to teach. Government only prevents progress with rules and regulations that hurt the average public school student.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • Not a Change
    BlairFoxFebruary 10, 2010 5:53 PM
    As long as the system is still setup to ensure fewer class days instead of more, practical classes instead of theory, and rigidity instead of flexibility, the quality of education in Indiana will always be lower than that of the world. We need real education modernization, not just facial changes.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

Post a comment to this blog

COMMENTS POLICY
We reserve the right to remove any post that we feel is obscene, profane, vulgar, racist, sexually explicit, abusive, or hateful.
 
You are legally responsible for what you post and your anonymity is not guaranteed.
 
Posts that insult, defame, threaten, harass or abuse other readers or people mentioned in IBJ editorial content are also subject to removal. Please respect the privacy of individuals and refrain from posting personal information.
 
No solicitations, spamming or advertisements are allowed. Readers may post links to other informational websites that are relevant to the topic at hand, but please do not link to objectionable material.
 
We may remove messages that are unrelated to the topic, encourage illegal activity, use all capital letters or are unreadable.
 

Messages that are flagged by readers as objectionable will be reviewed and may or may not be removed. Please do not flag a post simply because you disagree with it.

ADVANCED SEARCH
Sponsored by
ADVERTISEMENT

  1. If a television station wants to improve viewership, get rid of the local blackout. I was born by the brickyard, and have attended 15 or more races. I have children now, I won't attend unless circumstances are perfect. As those with growing families know, they never are. I'm always impressed that upwards of 250,000 people attend the 500. However, as a growing, or, more apt, sprawling city, Indianapolis and its immediate suburbs count almost 2.2 million. Show the race live, let the venue get a kick-back on revenues, and open-wheel racing might have a fighting chance to be relevant again. Just in time for those tax-payer lights to make sense.

  2. John Moore, I too have had the same issue recently. A property next to my house was on the Land Bank and I was interested in purchasing. When I tried to contact Reggie, I got back emails that had nothing to do with what I asked about. Actually my latest response from him was on this past Friday. I had asked about how to buy the property and if it was still available. His response to me was to contact the mayor's office to get the schedule of his appearances. (???) Hopefully the city is able to do something to fix what this guy has done, it would be nice if they would take the properties back and sell them properly so land owners like me and you mother would have a fair chance.

  3. I too work in the industry, with over 25 years of experience and your political spin has probably nothing to do with any rebranding. "Let's dress it up" would have nothing to do with the government "telling us how and what to eat." Give it a political rest. And being a producer for a radio show doesn't mean you've been involved in advertising and branding for 30 years.

  4. Ms. Morris did not understand the ways of the business world, otherwise, like the IMS, she could have petitioned the State Legislature for a handout of State Funds for her charity work. Ms. Morris should consider becoming a state lobbyist for Lemonade Stand Operators.

  5. David Copperfield!

ADVERTISEMENT