tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post4443811042419276923..comments2024-01-03T02:31:48.560-08:00Comments on <center>Dewey to Delpit</center>: Measurement, Incentives, and Educational ReformMax Beanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09411037394257752336noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-66298260436617504382010-08-15T10:16:12.824-07:002010-08-15T10:16:12.824-07:00fascinating. I hadn't heard about this. It may...fascinating. I hadn't heard about this. It may signify the beginning of a more rigorous approach to measuring educational quality at the college level. Of course, with rigor comes rigidity. <br /><br />What's your take, JB? Do you find that these outcomes assessments get in the way of your instruction? Do they even affect you? Are you involved in designing the assessments?<br /><br />If you have any links to info on this self-study, go ahead and post them. I'd like to read up on it.Max Beanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09411037394257752336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-48007440455700451162010-08-15T07:30:50.943-07:002010-08-15T07:30:50.943-07:00"Well, here's a brilliant, elegant idea: ..."Well, here's a brilliant, elegant idea: pay attention to the outcomes." <br /><br />I can't speak for pre-college education, but "outcomes assessment" has been a buzzword in higher education for some years. I believe it has entered the protocols of accrediting organizations, such as the Middle States group responsible for accrediting colleges. Colleges must document what they are doing to assess outcomes. At Queens College, CUNY, departments must write explanations of their outcomes assessment policy as part of the official self-study in the accreditation process.jbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10302000193451232534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-82477999297156077112010-08-11T12:06:36.663-07:002010-08-11T12:06:36.663-07:00Certainly, educational quality was measured in 19t...Certainly, educational quality was measured in 19th Century England. Under the recitation system of education then in vogue, classes consisted largely of students standing up and reciting, verbatim or in paraphrase, sections from the preceding night's reading or from material presented by the professor during the preceding class. These recitations were assessments, in that they told the professor how well the student had learned the preceding day's material-- and they were frequent and lengthy. If anything, I'd say the recitation system was excessively weighted towards assessment over instruction. I don’t know what happened in Ancient Greece, but I’m sure there were tests.<br /><br />What there may not have been in 19th Century England—and surely was not in Ancient Greece—is any kind of standardized, nation-wide assessment. I’m not sure when standardized testing began in America, but elite universities had begun using the SAT as a meritocratic means of identifying students deserving scholarships, by the mid-1930s. This constituted a nationally standardized, if not universally administered exam. According to Wikipedia, though, China had a system of standardized assessments called the Imperial Examinations, which were used pretty much continuously from 605 AD until 1905 AD, in order to make the selection of officials for the imperial bureaucracy more—you guessed it—meritocratic. <br /><br />The thing to remember in all of this, is that when you measure the student, you’re inevitably measuring the teacher and the school as well. A measure of student achievement is also a measure of educational quality.Max Beanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09411037394257752336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-42986280076862012812010-08-10T20:37:06.579-07:002010-08-10T20:37:06.579-07:00You write: "Because if we do not measure edu...You write: "Because if we do not measure educational quality, then we cannot know where and when it exists..."<br /><br />Does this mean that in, say, classical Athens or 19th Century England or any part of American history up until, probably, WWII -- where, presumably, no one was even thinking about measuring educational quality -- they didn't know where and when it existed?Henry Beanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03555397910059018460noreply@blogger.com