do principals know who the best teachers are?

If principals and other administrators are doing their jobs, they already know who the best and worse teachers are. One year, Brookline administered one form of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in the fall to third graders and the state administered a different form of the same test in the spring. I calculated the mean gain score for each teacher and asked the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction to tell me which teachers would have the highest and lowest gain scores. She got the group of highest teachers exactly right and missed only one of the lowest. I would expect building-based administrators to do even better. More formal analysis confirms my experience (Murnane, 1975; Jacob and Lefgren, 2008).

Measurement Matters: Perspectives on Education Policy from an Economist and School Board Member (pdf file)
by Kevin Lang

measurement in EM

My first grader has been learning about measurement in 1st grade. In principle, this is a worthwhile topic. I understand that on most international comparisons, U.S. students tend to do quite badly on measurement. There is an interesting compilation of international studies by the National Center for Education Statistics. According to NCES, US 4th graders did their worst on measurement; it was the only content area where 4th graders couldn't even meet the international average.

So, what are we doing about it in the schools? My first grader spent a couple weeks now on measurement. First, their only homework for the week and the bulk of their classtime was spent on making up their own measurements. For example, she might measure a book to see how many forks long it was. She was to find common objects and use them to measure other objects. After a week or so of this, she segued into standard measures. It's hard for me to gauge the amount of class time devoted to this, but it does seem that she spent at least 1/2 her time on made up measurements. This might aid her conceptual understanding of the topic, but I'm not sure that it is the best use of her time.

Judging from my 5th grader, there is little effort spent between 1st and 5th grade on the tedious task of learning to carefully line up your ruler, or protractor, to get an accurate measurement.

In the end, conceptual understanding is topping careful accuracy. Based on what I am seeing of Everyday Math in the elementary schools, I doubt we'll see much improvement in this content area on the next international assessment.