tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post4193552647928123552..comments2024-03-29T04:34:05.185-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: CAP Still Plugging Takeovers and TurnaroundsPeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-85548326365089421452018-02-12T17:36:50.854-05:002018-02-12T17:36:50.854-05:00"CAP also says that it is "critical that..."CAP also says that it is "critical that states set the right parameters for measuring student progress" which would be a great thing to say if it were followed by the observation that the Big Standardized Test results soaked in VAM sauce are a lousy measure of school effectiveness, but they don't."<br /><br />The "real" problem onto-epistemologically speaking, that is from a basic foundational coneptual basis, THERE IS NO MEASURING IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS. There is assessing, judging, evaluating, and even pseudo-measuring (meaning fake measurements).<br /><br />The TESTS MEASURE NOTHING, quite literally when you realize what is actually happening with them. Richard Phelps, a staunch standardized test proponent (he has written at least two books defending the standardized testing malpractices) in the introduction to “Correcting Fallacies About Educational and Psychological Testing” unwittingly lets the cat out of the bag with this statement:<br /><br />“Physical tests, such as those conducted by engineers, can be standardized, of course [why of course of course], but in this volume , we focus on the measurement of latent (i.e., nonobservable) mental, and not physical, traits.” [my addition] (notice how he is trying to assert by proximity that educational standardized testing and the testing done by engineers are basically the same, in other words a “truly scientific endeavor”)<br /><br />Now since there is no agreement on a standard unit of learning, there is not exemplar of that standard unit and there is no measuring device calibrated against said non-existent standard unit, how is it possible to “measure the nonobservable”?<br /><br />THE TESTS MEASURE NOTHING for how is it possible to “measure” the nonobservable with a non-existing measuring device that is not calibrated against a non-existing standard unit of learning?????<br /><br />PURE LOGICAL INSANITY!<br />Duane Swackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11862054631331567527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-27485473461406392852018-02-12T10:05:55.038-05:002018-02-12T10:05:55.038-05:00Thank you for the summary of failed policies. Thank you for the summary of failed policies. Laura h. Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00554338609112790492noreply@blogger.com