Saturday, November 28, 2015

School metrics and real people

I found the book "Mission High: One School, How the Experts Tried to Fail It and the Students and Teachers Who Made It Triumph" by Kristina Rizga.  Since for the last 50 years, I have tried to keep my eye on methods and results of educational research, I looked into the book.  Mission High is a high school in the San Francisco area and Rizga is a writer who researched the place for 4 years.


She mentions standardized tests and metrics.  She knew going in that particular high school had not scored high on the tests.  She does one of the things that people do which helps to keep a major problem going and that is to use the word "measure" in connection with standardized tests.


The words "measure" and "metric" are often used in connection with school tests.  Such tests are standardized by giving them to a large, hopefully diverse group of students.  That way, when you take the test and score higher than 90% of the group who took it, we can say you outscored 90%.  That sounds good and it is.  It tells others that you did well on the test.  But the "scores" are very crude information, akin to telling the doctor that it hurts somewhere.


When I teach about such tests, which are very popular in the US and have been required of schools by the government, I like to refer to the diagram in the blog post:

http://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2014/09/tests-in-school-and-actual-learning.html  The diagram is an attempt to cast doubt on the value of a test score, especially one in the middle of the possible range of scores.  When scores are in the middle of the range, they are especially murky.  Clearly, if you select the correct choice on multiple choice question for none of the test items, you didn't do well on the test.  If you selected the correct choice for every question, clearly you did well.  But for a teacher, her student and the student's parents, the number of 'correct' questions is rather crude information.


You and I could have a much more useful conversation if we just focus on one question for which you did not select the answer the testing company gives credit for.  We would like to know which choice you made and WHY you chose that one.  Sometimes, you have a very good reason for your choice.  Once I hear your explanation, I might feel you are an advanced thinker in the subject.  Often everyone involved, the teacher, the student, the parents and maybe the administration of the school and the testing company that built and supplies the test are pre-conditioned to simply ask HOW MANY of the questions you answered with the supposedly correct choice.  This approach is approved by all but it is similar to asking how many bites you had of my cake instead of whether you enjoyed it and want another piece.




--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

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