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Mark Pullen
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Mark commented on the article |I don't agree with these policies, but since I don't live in Arizona, I have to ask this question: What types of things have occurred there to make the people of Arizona think that this type of legislation is needed?
Before we cast judgment, I have to wonder if perhaps some experiences specific to Arizona are causing this sort of lawmaking.
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Mark commented on the article |Silly question here: I understand the downside of teacher turnover in terms of educational quality, but how does teacher turnover cost $7 billion? Doesn't it cost more to keep a teacher that is higher on the payscale than to train in a new teacher who will begin on the lowest rung/step of the payscale?
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Mark commented on the article |Calling Gates a fool, as Singer does, is not at all helpful. While I personally disagree with much of Gates' vision for education reform, I appreciate his efforts and think our own efforts should be directed at coming up with our own vision pof how we can transform education rather than merely shouting down ideas we disagree with.
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Mark commented on the article |Chris -- Whites are the dominant culture in America, right? Yet Asian-American students very consistently outperform white students in a wide array of educational assessments. Why is that?
(pauses for you to come up with reasons)
...if I was to answer that question, I'd say that the Asian-American culture in general tends to value education very highly, encourages a strong work ethic, etc.
In general, that's precisely what black culture is not. Blacks who do well in school are mocked for being "too white." THAT is the cycle that IMO is the toughest for black students to break.
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Mark commented on the article |*facepalm*
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Mark commented on the article |
Why would understanding that two $1 bills do not equal two $100 bills be different for students of different races?
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Mark commented on the article |
@ Ira: I think math is a relevant and unbiased way to assess students. I also think tests that are written in English are acceptable, a point to which I assume you would object.
When you get all the way to "2+2 only equals 4 with a large set of assumptions behind it" then we can't really have a rational discussion about what students need to know and how we can assess those understandings and move them forward in either a special ed, regular ed, or GT setting.
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Mark commented on the article |
I think we really are talking about different things.
If what you say about cultural bias was true, at the very least, wouldn't the computation section of the Stanford (which consists of pure number computation only) be bias-free?
As far as "dominant culture language bias", does that mean tests written in English are inherently biased?
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Mark commented on the article |
Ira: regarding your assertion that we "rate children based on measurements which are all about socio-economics..."
I give the Stanford test to my students. It asks them to read short passages and answer questions about what they just read. It also asks them to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
What part of that is unfair?
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