Research that doesn't tell us anything

In education you hear “I believe” way too many times. I mock these people who think that there is no evidence required – as long as you believe it works in education it must be so. It is as if education is a religion with a prescribed set of beliefs and those of us heretics on the outside must be derided for upsetting their belief system.

On the outside we say there must be evidence – student achievement is the coin of the realm and without it you are one of the barriers to education improvement.

Lately, however, I am questioning my belief in student achievement. I am beginning to wonder if anything actually does get you student achievement that is really superior to something else.

I base this on a series of disappointing study results. First you had the New Teacher Center study. It seemed to indicate that an intense mentoring program didn’t yield significant results. Then you had a recent study on the TAP teacher career ladder program. Not to mention many studies on charter schools, National Board Certification, Vouchers and TFA - - none of which is a home run for opponents or supporters.

It is really beginning to appear to me that if the “gold standard” of random assignment doesn’t really seem to answer any of the real questions then why are paying researchers millions of dollars to conduct the study? Shouldn’t one of these programs have shown some really significant gains? Or is it the incredibly wide variation in student and teacher performance so far gone that we can’t really see small differences in results? Maybe the earth really isn't flat!

It is above my head – but those who are smarter than I need to come up with a better judge of results that actually tells us something and doesn’t use up millions of dollars to give us a vague answer.

McCain Backs ABCTE

Washington, DC (July 16, 2008) —
If elected president, Arizona Senator John McCain would focus effort and energy toward recruiting talented career changers into the teaching profession. According to a speech today, McCain’s education platform will focus significantly on teacher recruitment, in light of the fact that America’s schools are suffering from a critical teacher shortage.

Under a proposal outlined by Senator McCain, additional funding would be set aside to help recruit career changers into the teaching profession.

In remarks at the 99th annual NAACP convention in Cincinnati today, McCain outlined a bold education reform agenda which includes an expansion of school choice and additional funding for alternative teacher recruitment programs. “Many thousands of highly qualified men and women have great knowledge, wisdom, and experience to offer public school students. But a monopoly on teacher certification prevents them from getting that chance.”

“If I am elected president, school choice for all who want it, an expansion of Opportunity Scholarships, and alternative certification for teachers will all be part of a serious agenda of education reform,” McCain said. “I will target funding to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class, or who participate in an alternative teacher recruitment program such as Teach for America, the American Board for [Certification of] Teacher Excellence, and the New Teacher Project.”

ABCTE hailed McCain’s focus on innovative teacher recruitment and called on Senator Barack Obama, McCain’s opponent, to echo the same message.

Dave Saba, President of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence(ABCTE) stated: “We applaud and thank Senator McCain for highlighting the needs of America’s students in his speech before the NAACP today. Education is the civil rights issue of our time. We can only ensure a quality education when every child has a great teacher. Alternative teacher certification programs like the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence are bringing critical expertise into the classroom.”

ABCTE’s goal is to recruit talented professionals to change jobs and become teachers. Eight U.S. states currently use ABCTE to recruit and certify teachers, and the organization has recruited more than 6,000 talented career changers to enter the teaching profession.

ABCTE has made great strides this year in improving education. In May, Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri signed legislation creating an alternate route to teaching using the ABCTE program. In June Traci Brown, a scholarship recipient, earned the 1,000th certification issued by ABCTE. Most recently, Mathematica Policy Research released a survey showing that 85 percent of ABCTE teachers were still teaching three years after they were certified.

“It is great to see the candidates talking about this issue and recognizing programs like ABCTE that are having a positive impact on education,” said Saba. “ABCTE is not a partisan program; it is a way forward for all of America’s public, private and public charter schools suffering the effects of a critical teacher shortage. All candidates should embrace this effective alternative.”

About ABCTEThe American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence is a non-profit organization, dedicated to recruiting, preparing, certifying and supporting dedicated professionals to improve student achievement through quality teaching. ABCTE is an innovative teacher preparation and certification program for highly knowledgeable individuals who want to change careers and become teachers. For more information about ABCTE, please visit www.abcte.org.

Education Research Shows Nothing but High Price Tags

Two articles this week on education research with no real winner or loser in either. Shocking. The first study is the result of an exhaustive study of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Ed Week says that the results show that “National Board Teachers found to be Effective”. Wow – not exactly a resounding victory.

Next up was a study of supplemental education services (SES). In this case the results were mixed with a Rand study showing some improvement but other studies showing no real improvement. Not exactly a resounding defeat.

Notice a trend. It costs a lot of money to conduct a study to determine student achievement yet we cannot really see any truly significant results. In the case of the National Board, the effect size was .04 – this means that only 4% of the gains made by students can be attributable to the fact that the child had a National Board teacher. Even if the results are better, the samples sizes are small due to the cost and the detractors of a program will call it out based on sample size even if it is statistically significant.

There is no slam dunk in studies of student achievement. It is sad but true that the costs are too high and the variation seems to be too great to really get a feel for the success of one program or another. Maybe we need a new measure?