It's a shortish list this week, but then you're probably napping more this weekend.
Software Is a Long Con
"Computer systems are poorly built, badly maintained, and often locked in
a maze of vendor contracts and outdated spaghetti code that amounts to a
death spiral. This is true of nothing else we buy."
Not specifically about education, but given the heavy attempt to turn education into a software product, boy is this about education.
Indiana Survey Issues
Indiana was the scene of a big study about how parents choose in a "robust" choice environment. Now here comes the National Education Policy Center to explain how chock-full of holes the Indiana study is.
A Rule That Stands Above the Golden One
Teacher Tom provides yet another useful lesson form the littles.
New Standards, Old Thinking
Enjoy the work of Charles Sampson, a New Jersey superintendent who is not afraid to call baloney by its name.
How To Get Your Mind To Read
Why content knowledge matters (and so, why the "reading is just a skill" approach of ed reform is wrong).
A Google, A Plan, A Canal
Business is a bad metaphor for education, and the failure of that brand of ed reform is reminiscent of the problems of building the Erie Canal (I love a good historical parallel). This piece comes with a challenge-- what is the correct metaphor for education?
Faking the Grade
The most brutal take-down yet of the imaginary reformy "success" of New Orleans. When some starts yammering how great things went in NOLA, send them straight to this piece. Caveat: it uses test scores in part to prove its point, and I'm no fan of using test scores to prove anything-- but they are the game that reformsters said they would win.
"Computer systems are poorly built, badly maintained, and often locked in a maze of vendor contracts and outdated spaghetti code that amounts to a death spiral. This is true of nothing else we buy." The writer is talking about security vulnerabilities in general, but when it comes to education, the very product itself is flawed, mediocre, and works badly. In no other area would a software vendor get away with it. My mind is continually boggled by how bad a job education software does in educating. If Facebook or Microsoft provided systems that performed as poorly as Pearson, they would go out of business. Consumers would abandon them by the billions.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, educational software, CBE, etc. has an Achilles heel. One that programmers will never overcome. Kids want to be taught by real people.