Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent post "How
Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions - Response to Haim #2"
[Hake (2011d)].
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ABSTRACT: In my post "How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions?"
[Hake (2011c)], I wrote:
". . . . demonstrations that the less-than-stellar value-added
assessments of Korsunsky's high school and Stuyvesant High School are
inequitable would require meaningful value-added measures such as
normalized average pre-to-posttest gains on valid and consistently
reliable tests of higher-order learning. . ."
Math-Teach's "Haim" responded: "The problem is that you are not sure
what you are measuring."
NONSENSE! In the case of Harvard, the higher-order learning consisted
of conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics.
Haim continued "First, parents and students seem to know something
about Stuyvesant that educator assessments clearly fail to discern. .
. . . Second . . . very many of Stuyvesant's students graduate at a
very high level (certainly by comparison to most other high school
graduates) of academic achievement. . . . the real problem is
transparent. It is the ceiling effect. . . .City-wide and state-wide
assessments are simply not designed for academic institutions."
The above has nothing whatsoever to do with the theme of my post: "It
is conceivable that if there were 'Eric Mazurs' or 'John Belchers' at
Korsunsky's high-school and the Stuyvesant High School, scenarios
similar to that at Harvard and MIT might occur. . . . . [[i.e.,
realization that students were not learning much from traditional
passive-student lecture methods followed by a switch to
interactive-engagement pedagogy.]]. . . . , even though all those
institutions are regarded as 'elite.' "
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"Above all things we must be aware of what I will call 'inert ideas'
- that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind
without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations."
Alfred North Whitehead (1929, 1965) in "The Aims of Education"
REFERENCES [URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 26 Jan 2011.]
Hake, R.R. 2011a. "The Ceiling Effect #2" online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://bit.ly/hUnHZe>. Post of 12 Jan 2011 16:19:49-0800
to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post
are being transmitted to various discussion lists are also online on
my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/gLWr7W> with a provision
for comments.
Hake, R.R. 2011b. "Value-Added Inequities: Should Value-Added
Measures Be Used to Evaluate Teachers?" online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://bit.ly/fN1HmD>. Post of 18 Jan 2011
15:34:47-0800to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the
complete post are being transmitted to various discussion lists are
also online on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/h23shQ>
with a provision for comments. See also Hake, R.R. 2011b.
Hake, R.R. 2011c. "How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions? "
online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://bit.ly/g25OHd>. Post
of 22 Jan 2011 14:50:14-0800 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract
and link to the complete post are being transmitted to various
discussion lists are also online on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at
<http://bit.ly/gnLPjH> with a provision for comments.
Hake, R.R. 2011d. "How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions -
Response to Haim #2 " online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://bit.ly/gxUOAb>. Post of 26 Jan 2011 16:14:36-0800 to AERA-L
and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being
transmitted to various discussion lists are also online on my blog
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/eyTZAj> with a provision for
comments. See also the relevant previous posts Hake (2011a,b,c)].
Whitehead, A. N. 1967. "Aims of Education and other essays. " Free
Press. Amazon.com information at <http://amzn.to/fIUbXB>. First
published in 1929. Note the "Look Inside" feature.