Education

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Measuring Student Growth? Really?

Measuring "academic growth" has been all the rage in recent years in education policy circles. Sounds like a good thing, right?  I wonder. Are the right tools being used? I also wonder?

Now, I don't claim to have particularly deep expertise in this arena, I am more of a policy generalist and observer who counts among his friends a number of deep thinking experts in various specialties and whose brains I occasionally pick, but that would be the extent of my "expertise" in education assessment policy from a statistical perspective. I do not come from an education background. I have a BS in Economics, which means I did have my share of upper level courses in math and statistics in college. I also have been privileged to be in some pretty interesting and unique positions professionally to watch the evolution of the data accountability model in education since the early nineties on a state/local level and then on the national stage, for the past almost thirty years.

Education in the US Since 1965, Perhaps It Is Time to Rethink the Federal Role

There was a time, way back in the day, when racial segregation in public education was commonplace across the country. "Separate but Equal" was the legal doctine upon which many, if not most, states addressed the issue.  As a society, thankfully we have come a long way since those days.