Category: News Clips

Value Added Meets the Schools: The Effects of Using Test-Based Teacher Evaluation on the Work of Teachers and Leaders

The March 2015 issue of Educational Researcher was devoted to the perceived usefulness/uselessness (depending on the perceiver) of high-stakes testing. The issue contains multiple perspectives from teachers, principals, and education researchers. The abstract from the journal’s editors sets the tone for the issue:

Teacher accountability based on teacher value-added measures could have far-reaching effects on classroom instruction
and student learning, for good and for ill. To date, however, research has focused almost entirely on the statistical
properties of the measures. While a useful starting point, the validity and reliability of the measures tell us very little
about the effects on teaching and learning that come from embedding value added into policies like teacher evaluation,
tenure, and compensation. We pose dozens of unanswered questions, not only about the net effects of these policies on
measurable student outcomes, but about the numerous, often indirect ways in which these and less easily observed effects
might arise. Drawing in part on other articles in the special issue, we consider perspectives from labor economics, sociology
of organizations, and psychology. Some of the pathways of these policy effects directly influence teaching and learning
and in intentional ways, while other pathways are indirect and unintentional. While research is just beginning to answer the
key questions, a key initial theme of recent research is that both the opponents and advocates are partly correct about the
influence of these policies.

Math anxiety

I recently read the following interesting articles on math anxiety from the perspective of cognitive scientist: http://www.danielwillingham.com/daniel-willingham-science-and-education-blog/math-anxiety-what-it-does-and-what-can-be-done and http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2014/Beilock.pdf. I don’t have a particular opinion on this, as my own expertise is on post-secondary students, but this definitely gave me some food for thought.

Talking about math to Congress

From MAA Focus:

If you think it’s hard to distill research results into a 15-minute conference presentation, try this: Choose a subject like matrix factorizations or recent progress on the twin prime conjecture. Figure out how to make a nonexpert audience—members of Congress, say—if not fully understand the chosen topic, at least appreciate its significance. Do this in a minute. The clock is ticking.

Jerry McNerney of California’s ninth congressional district has risen to such a challenge more than 10 times in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he has served since 2007. The only current member of the House or Senate to hold a doctorate in mathematics (University of New Mexico, 1981), McNerney has read into the congressional record one-minute expositions of such abstruse subjects as vector bundles, synesthesia, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope…

Boiling down complex material into a minute of talking is tricky, McNerney concedes, but he has been pleased with the results. As a member of the Public Face of Mathematics panel at the 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings, McNerney told listeners that being coaxed into thinking about math has a positive effect on his congressional fellows.

“Instead of all the usual bickering that you get on the House floor, everyone smiles,” he reported. “They say, ‘This is really fun.’”

Source: http://mcnerney.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/math-by-the-minute-on-capitol-hill

Gender Stereotypes in STEM

From the article Gender Stereotypes in STEM:

The study, which compared white and black women’s participation in and perception of STEM fields, found that black women were more likely than white women to show an interest in studying STEM disciplines when they enter college.

The research also shows that African Americans were less likely than white Americans to view STEM programs as masculine, which may help explain why the participation levels vary between the two ethnic groups.

The authors argue that race and ethnicity influence the gender stereotypes that women hold, which in turn influence their interest in the sciences, said Laurie O’Brien, an associate professor of psychology at Tulane University and one of the article’s lead authors.

Despite the findings of higher initial interest reflected in the journal article, other data show black women are underrepresented in the number of STEM bachelor’s degrees actually earned, according to the paper.

How Sports Can Help Your Kids Outsmart Everyone Else

Some quotes from the very nice op-ed piece at http://time.com/3510480/sports-math-financial-literacy/:

In her excellent book, Race to the Top, the journalist Elizabeth Green tells a story of a new hamburger that the A&W Restaurant chain introduced to the masses. Weighing 1/3 of a pound, it was meant to compete with McDonald’s quarter-pounder and was priced comparably. But the “Third Pounder” failed miserably. Consultants were mystified until they realized many A&W customers believed that they were paying the same for less meat than they got at McDonald’s. Why? Because four is bigger than three, so wouldn’t ¼ be more than 1/3?…

Just as a game is packed with fractions, probability, equations and even multi-variable calculus if you’re so inclined, so too is it a laboratory for risk assessment, principles of finance and behavioral economics—an emerging field that looks at the effects of psychology and emotion on economic decision-making…

Sports also provide a context for probability. Broadcasters may ask questions hypothetically, but real answers exist. Jones is only a 40% free-throw shooter but he makes both. What are the odds of that?

If only one day a response would come: Well, I’ll tell you, Bob. Forty percent is 4/10. Multiply that twice for the two shots. 4/10 x 4/10 = 16/100 or 16%. Not good odds, but not extraordinarily rare, either.

If nothing else, any kid who’s been to both a hockey game and a basketball game knows the difference between thirds and quarters, and, in turn, would have picked the right burger.