Classic Miranda, 2010: “The most valuable information standardised testing can provide is the difference good teaching makes, allowing the lucky child with a good teacher to improve at a greater rate than her contemporaries stuck with duds or mediocrities. This kind of information is, of course, anathema to a union culture hell-bent on preserving a false “see-no-evil” egalitarianism among its membership, where longevity of service is rewarded over excellence, ingenuity is crushed, and children, especially those without involved, competent parents, suffer.
“
| — |
US charter schools aren’t stuck with the tenure rules that make firing teachers difficult: “Known as the CREDOstudy, it evaluated student progress on math tests in half the nation’s five thousand charter schools and concluded that 17 percent were superior to a matched traditional public school; 37 percent were worse than the public school; and the remaining 46 percent had academic gains no different from that of a similar public school. The proportion of charters that get amazing results is far smaller than 17 percent.” http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?pagination=false |
