A natural experiment with third-grade retention in Florida
Thus far, in the various news stories about the errors in Florida’s 2006 third-grade reading FCAT scores, no one has thought of the obvious study that should flow from it: a comparison between students retained in 2005 based on FCAT reading scores and students who were promoted but whose corrected scores in 2006 would have […]
Flubbing the FCAT reality check
Only months after Governor Jeb Bush left office, the facade of accurate test scores has fallen away from Florida’s high-stakes accountability system. After a drop in third-grade scores from 2006 to 2007, questions were raised about the rise in 2006 FCAT scores in third grade. With some pressure, the Florida Department of Education acknowledged in the […]
Teacher attrition
This week’s article by Bess Keller on teacher attrition statistics raises some interesting questions about the various estimates of teacher attrition, including the oft-cited “50% in 5 years” rule of thumb (sometimes attributed to Richard Ingersoll). Keller’s argument is that the 50% figure is an exaggeration and that other professions have attrition patterns similar to […]
Off to Arizona
My son is going with his grandmother for an Elderhostel trip along the Colorado River next week, so I’m chaperoning him to Phoenix today, spending the weekend with family, and then flying back. I have an article to finish preparing, some other stuff, and who knows what else. I’m exhausted from trying to combine a […]
This blog is now a podcast
By Sherman Dorn on June 16, 2007
You can now subscribe to this blog as a podcast. Just click on the picture or save the URL and paste in your favorite podcast aggregator (you can also click on this handy iTunes one-click link). The podcast uses text-to-speech technology, so you don’t get my voice, but it has decent production values given the […]
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