Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (3966)	10/29/2000 11:26:11 PM
From: Ben Wa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

your profile says you are in scotland. do you teach there or in the us?

To: epicure who wrote (3966)	10/29/2000 11:27:16 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

They based their questions about that ceiling in the TAAS scores on only ONE TEST.. That's one year's data X... It is statistically unreliable at the least. And lord knows how many students were represented by that test. And yes.. I DID peruse the 14 page report. How else do you think I was able to pick out the crucial points. I also went over and glanced at the Grissmer report and look at how he incorporated the data, the summary, and some of the pertinent data he showed with the improvements. But NONE OF THIS NEGATES the finding of the Grissmer report. All they are doing now is "nitpicking" the Texas NEAP scores and comparing them to the states only TAAS testing. Now either Grissmer's 271 page report is now being called INACCURATE, or they are tweaking the data for Texas in such a way that could easily be the case with California or any other state should they have opted to TARGET ANY OF THOSE STATES and eliminate the "controls" that Grissmer incorporated in his national test. But the TAAS scores are irrelevant X... Grissmer used the NEAP results, NOT THE TAAS ONES... And based upon the NAEP results, Texas did VERY WELL with regard to IMPROVING RESULTS ON THOSE TESTS. This whole new discussion about TAAS scores is suspicious in that is brought up just weeks before the election whereas no other state is scrutinized in a similar manner. If you would note... there was an entire section in Grissmer report that discusses the "Tennessee Experiment". Why didn't they discuss IT in detail? Why Texas and not California, the two states that were compared in Grissmer's report? So many questions that cannot be satisfied by the RAND disclaimer..

To: epicure who wrote (3966)	10/29/2000 11:36:13 PM
From: Slugger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

I want to know if there's a problem in Texas. Because if there IS than maybe testing a al TAAS type tests, isn't such a great idea. Almost everything we are doing here in California with regards to improving education began in Texas. Apparently there is enough information to convince a Democratic governor and a Democratic state legislature that this is the way to go.

To: epicure who wrote (3966)	10/30/2000 12:06:03 AM
From: bwanadon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10042

X: You teach in Calif? Do they make you work a whole 180 days/year in Calif. like they do in Ohio (165 with personal days allowed in our district)? Teachers sure are put upon aren't they. Actually, I have many friends and family in teaching that would seem to agree with you on the problem of testing. The larger problem (at least from those I know in the profession) is lack of discipline and parental involvement -particularly in the inner city. However, one thing seems clear - smaller class sizes have had little effect on raising test scores. In Japan classes are quite large (in some cases 50+). Our elementary class sizes (in the 1960's) were always over 30. Competition is needed. The proof is in the pudding.