9486 in the collection
Data-Collection Advocates Weigh Progress Toward Accountability
Ohanian Comment: Here are the Managing Partners of the Data Quality Campaign:
Achieve, Inc - http://www.achieve.org
Alliance For Excellent Education - http://www.all4ed.org
Council Of Chief State School Officers - http://www.ccsso.org
Education Commission Of The States - http://www.ecs.org
Education Trust - http://www.edtrust.org
National Association Of State Boards Of Education - http://www.nasbe.org
National Association Of System Heads - http://www.nashonline.org
National Center For Educational Achievement - http://www.nc4ea.org
National Center For Higher Education Management Systems - http://www.nchems.org
National Governors Association Center For Best Practices - http://www.nga.org/center
Schools Interoperability Framework Association - http://www.sifinfo.org
Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services - http://www.schoolmatters.com
State Educational Technology Directors Association - http://www.setda.org
State Higher Education Executive Officers - http://www.sheeo.org
Sidenote: Of course Standard & Poor's has a finger in the pot. McGraw-Hill profits no matter who's in the White House. The naive fixate on Republicans and Democrats when really what we have is a government run by Big Business.
You can get a list of Endorsing Partners here.
Quote of the Day: the need to be better connected with businesses to determine what knowledge and skills students needed to succeed after college. Hmph! First, they have a great need to be able to find a job. Did anybody notice that 700 desperate people applied for a school janitorial position in Ohio? These folk should read the headlines that scream Worst Year for College Graduates Ever! College graduates can't find jobs because they lack skills and knowledge; they can't find jobs because corporate America is laying people off, not hiring them. How will the Data Qality Campaign address this messy little fact?
Uner the leadership of President Obama and U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, we taxpayers are shelling out a lot of money to the foxes to find out what works in the chicken coop.
Someone should investigate the quality of the contents of standardized tests, not the numbers they produce.
By Eric Kelderman
Washington
With the help of $250-million in federal money, accountability advocates are seeking to make a quantum leap forward in analyzing what works in education (or doesn’t), from preschool through college. At a forum here on Tuesday, they discussed progress so far in using data toward that end.
The money comes from the new federal stimulus law and is accompanied by a strong message from President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan that collecting data on student performance is a key part of the White House’s education agenda.
“We cannot drive real change if we don’t know the facts,” Mr. Duncan said at the forum, which was sponsored by the Data Quality Campaign, a consortium of education groups trying to encourage states to track student performance. “If we use the data … we have the chance to reshape education in America over the next few years,” Mr. Duncan added.
Proponents of the approach cheered the secretary and the administration’s support for better accountability systems, but several challenges remain, other speakers noted.
“Now that there’s a lot of money available, it is very tempting to think that we’ve made it and that the challenges that remain are primarily technical,” said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, an advocacy group working to close the achievement gaps among some racial groups. But data-collection systems are worthless unless states actually use the information to drive the policy questions and answers, she said.
Forty-six states have data systems that incorporate at least six of 10 elements that the Data Quality Campaign has recommended, such as giving each pupil a unique number to use throughout his or her academic career and comparing an individual's test scores over time (The Chronicle, May 9, 2008).
But few states are collecting enough of the right kind of information to help students succeed in college, said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve Inc., a nonprofit education-policy group that was started by the nation's governors and corporate leaders.
Reginald L. Robinson, president of the Kansas Board of Regents, said universities in his state were getting information from elementary and secondary schools, but needed to be better connected with businesses to determine what knowledge and skills students needed to succeed after college.
Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, said one of the issues in his state was that private colleges have been reluctant to share data on how their students perform. Mr. Rendell speculated that those institutions were reluctant to do so because it could show that students at public colleges were just as successful as those at more-expensive private colleges.
— Eric Kelderman
Chronicle of Higher Education
2009-03-11
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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