tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post8121825462686916927..comments2023-11-03T04:00:24.785-04:00Comments on Kentucky School News and Commentary: NAEP Long-term Data Confirms, American Schools Have Never Been Better Richard Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14586435007687942849noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-1141235794082306012013-07-02T22:19:20.361-04:002013-07-02T22:19:20.361-04:00John Tukey, esteemed statistician and member of th...John Tukey, esteemed statistician and member of the original NAEP technical committee, insisted that any statistic presented should have along side it a defensible standard error. Else, how is one to know whether a 27 point difference is large or small. On the SATs, for example, a standard error (there could be others) is about 30 points, so 27 points is no big deal.<br /><br />This Haycock piece is a marvelous example of the worst kind of cherry picking of results, combined with their indiscriminate presentation. How about this:<br /><br /> "In math, for example, the lowest performing 13-year-olds in 2012 scored 27 points higher than did the lowest performing 13-year-olds in 1978. And the highest performers in 2012 scored 16 points above the highest performers at the beginning of the trend."<br /><br />I am not sure how she defines lowest scoring and highest scoring (and apparently she is not going to tell us), but NAEP has notoriously bad measurement of the extremes of the proficiency distribution, especially on the low end. That 27 points could be just fluff.<br /><br />There are some noticeable differences in the profiles of performance, for example, in mathematics. Both samples, age 9 and 13, score much, much higher on items measuring data analysis and statistics. On other subscales, there has been little improvement. A trend analysis substantiates both of the above statements.<br /><br />But, her's is a blog. No need to worry about defending idiosyncratic interpretations of results. <br />Skip Kifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5776587.post-66231440179912235532013-07-02T15:12:32.486-04:002013-07-02T15:12:32.486-04:00So how is it that we are actually demonstrating lo...So how is it that we are actually demonstrating long term increases in acheivement, including gap reduction, but our leaders and media seem to think we are behind the curve?<br /><br />High Schools are simply going to have to be retooled to be something completely different from the current seat time, pre-determined credit aquisition model which mimics the past. One thing that folks are going to have to let go of is the romanticized and over emphasized place which athletics plays in high schools - we simply can't afford them at the level they currently function. I don't want to beat up on sports but KHSAA keeps lumping more sports onto the possible list of activities which parents can petition to have - bass fishing, bowling, etc. At the same time schools have less and less money to spend on these activities and staff who are already overburdened with growing daily instructional expectations. I say let the AAU/traveling/club teams have it all. I spend more and more time dealing with athletic manusha, not to mention the countless hours of supervision as a school principal and I have an athletic director. I know this wont' be popular in small counties which have centralized their community identity and social behaviors around HS athletice for decades but I am tired of trying to find money for equipment, salary for new sports, increasing officials expenses and transportation. How can we expect our students take a broader and more involved view of their education when we spend so much on time and money on something which frankly doesn't directly contribute to student academic growth?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com