Department of Ed folks know their gramher
Some months after requesting age disaggregation of college-grad literacy stats from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, I haven’t had a response, so I sent an e-mail followup. A staff member replied promptly, saying it was probably a problem with the website request form. But there was no longer any analytical staff available to the […]
The last chapter problem
In Improving Poor People (1997), Michael Katz wrote: Historians and other social scientists who offer interpretive accounts of social issues always face a “last chapter” problem. Readers expect them to extract clear lessons from history, offer unambiguous recommendations, and foresee the future. My standard response—my role is to analyze and explain the problem; I have […]
NCLB prediction: 20% impurities
Take a gander at the NCLB reauthorization recommendations from the National Association of State Title I Directors, compiled early in October. Most of the recommendations are a standard opening gambit, but then there are recommendations 4-6:
Carrots and sticks in education
I’m now more convinced than ever that discussions of consequences in K-12 accountability systems happen in bunkers, without enough understanding of how things work together (or don’t).
One small task for an editor, and one article waiting for a tiny thing
It took me about a day and a half to scrounge together enough time to whip the next article into shape. When you see it, you’ll understand: more than 20 tables. The authors did a very nice job of getting the tables about 90% of the way, but I’m finicky on some things. But that’s […]