History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
The problem with how school quality is measured
- 07-19-2011
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Blog by Mark Phillips/Washington Post
There’s a story about a guy who looks out his window one night and sees a neighbor crawling around under the corner streetlight. He asks him what he’s doing. “I’m looking for a $10 bill I dropped,” replies the man. “Where did you drop it?” asks the neighbor. “Up the street.” Amazed, the neighbor asks, “Then why are you looking for it here?” “Because the light is better,” the man replies. The story is a good metaphor for how we evaluate school performance. The most important data regarding school performance is lying up the street in the dark, while using standardized test scores is like looking under the streetlight. At least the man in the story is not under the illusion that a few coins he finds under the streetlight are the same as the $10 bill. And at least he knows what he’s lost. That’s more than can be said about how we usually evaluate school performance. (more...)
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