Links on Education, Leadership, and Data Warehousing
November 23, 2008
I thought it would be a good idea to post some of my latest delicious links.
Global Education Ning Space
This social network is a place for educators to meet other international partners. One of our districts is currently searching for a strong partner to collaborate with on classes and self. I am familiar with International Baccalaureate, but they may be too expensive for our purposes. This ning space may be a good alternative to finding international school partners.
Directory of Learning Professionals on Twitter
(Web site)
This is a directory of eLearning Professionals on twitter. Twitter is a great tool to meet new interesting people. I have browsed through facebook profiles, delicious users, Ning spaces, and other networks – and I have not found anything better than twitter for meeting and discovering interesting individuals. Twitter profiles are concise and descriptive. And you can search through “followers” and their “followers” to find a network of fascinating individuals in any field. Finally, Twitter users are typically early adoptors and thought leaders in the area of technology.
K12 Academic Excellence Solutions
(Web site)
I am not familiar with this company, but I discovered them through Tim Phillips’ profile on OETN. It appears that they build data warehousing solutions for education. As a SAS programmer and Computer Science major, I am a strong believer that database management systems, data warehouses, and business intelligence are the future of education. The only way to make good decisions is to have data to support decision-making. A strong data warehouse enables school districts to summarize and analyze student data and easily present it to decision makers.
On a sidenote, SchoolNet is another company leading the charge in Data Warehousing solutions. I also believe that understanding databases is a core 21st Century Skill.
Great Leadership: Guide to Leadership Assessments
This blog is an excellent resource on leadership. One of the most critical aspects of leadership is self-awareness and leadership assessments are a great way to build self-awareness. I am a particularly strong supporter of 360 Degree Feedback, or having performance reviews from “subordinates, peers, and managers.” Also, as a Psychology major, I have always been interested in personality assessments such as the Myers-Brigg.
If you have any interesting links on education, leadership, psychology, databases, business, or anything else – please do not hesitate to contact me.
Value of Value-added
August 15, 2008
Value-added is a major state initiative in Ohio and elsewhere and represents an important education policy trend. The basic premise of “value-added” is that progress is best measured by following a cohort of students over time rather than comparing cross-sectional achievement scores for a grade or school each year. For example, standard metrics of school improvement in 7th grade might show:
Year 1 – Average test scores in 7th grade were X%
Year 2 – Average test scores in 7th grade were Y%
As a result, if Y > X, then one may conclude that the 7th grade instruction in that school was effective.
The problem with this is that it does not actually measure progress. A better way to assess student achievement is to measure:
Year 1 – Test scores of a class in 7th grade
Year 2 – Test scores of that same class in 8th grade
Hence, the change in test score, or “value added,” is better able to capture the influence of a given teacher, school, or program on student achievement.
@sineadmullen, a researcher for Stanford University (and good friend), wrote on Twitter:
Doing some value-added modeling for my research. After being in classrooms all year, really makes me wonder what this actually captures
She followed this up with a thoughtful e-mail:
I think value-added modeling is a valuable tool in some respects, but it has some pretty major limitations. Clearly, we want teachers who can improve student test scores, they must be doing something right. However, it is unclear what it is that they are doing that makes their value-added scores high.
In the last year, I went into numerous schools throughout NYC and observed teachers with very high value added scores from the last three years (top quartile) and teachers who below average value-added scores (3rd quartile) (I was blind to who was who at the time). In general, the level of instruction was pretty bad. But what I found astounding was that I could not predict who was the more effective teacher.
My favorite teacher that I saw was one of the most incredible teachers I have ever seen including my own education. She connected with the students, they were excited about working, she had them doing rigorous work, having incredible conversations, their behavior was amazing. I mean really it was astounding. She was a low value-added teacher.
Other teachers who were high in value-added were the most boring classrooms I had ever stepped foot in. I even fell asleep during some of them. Often times the behavior management was good (and as part of our study we may find that the teachers with the best management were most effective in improving scores). But the level of work was mind numbingly boring. Students didn’t get meaningful feedback. They just went through the motions, practiced over and over again reading comprehension passages and math problems. The sort of the thing that obviously would translate to a higher test scores, but certainly not a great education.
So while I think value-added scores are important…they really miss the boat in showing us who the great teachers are or how great teaching translates into test scores. And in places like NYC, where they are hoping to make decisions about hiring and firing based on value-added rankings, I would be real hesitant. It seems to miss something real big.
Sinead criticizes value-added because she witnessed bad teaching achieving good value-added results. But the problem is not with the measurement method (ie. value-added), but rather with the outcome measurement (ie. test scores). While Value-Added is a conceptually powerful tool to track student progress, policymakers need to better understand the assessments being used to measure student outcomes.