Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word:
Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word:
When Sean Corcoran was economist at New York University, he studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. While there, he discovered that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
As an economist at New York University, Sean Corcoran studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. His findings included that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points (Ravitch 270).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
During his time as an economist at New York University, Sean Corcoran performed studies in New York and Houston that tested each city’s teacher evaluation systems. Among his findings of teachers in New York City, he concluded that the average margin of error was approximately 28 points (Ravitch 270).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
During his time as an economist at New York University, Sean Corcoran performed studies in New York and Houston that tested each cities’ teacher evaluation systems. Among his findings of teachers in New York City, he concluded that the average margin of error was “plus or minus 28 points” (Ravitch 270).
Works Cited
Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270
No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year. Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points. So, a teachers who has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile. The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year. There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes. But it is difficult to trust any performance rating if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.Original source: Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
Sean Corcoran, an economist from New York University, studied the teacher evaluation programs in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was about 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
It is difficult to trust any performance rating if the chances of getting a similar rating next year are no better than rolling a dice.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
A teacher who gets a certain ranking at one point in their career may be more prone to recieve a different score the next year. (Ravitch, 270)
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
“It may be troublesome to fully trust any performance evaluation if recieving a similar performance evaluation the following year is merely a task of probability.” (Ravitch, 270)
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Dr. Sean Corcoran, a graduate of University of Maryland at College Park (Economics) and current researcher at NYU studied the systems of evaluating teachers in both New York State and Texas, “He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points…”
Diane Ravitch goes on to explain this phenomenon further:
“So, a teachers who has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile. The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year…” (Ravitch, 270)
Original Text: No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year.
Original source: Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books. Print.
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Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word:
No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year.
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Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word:
An alarmingly error-prone measure, estimates the value-added and other “growth” models.” These measures attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores.
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Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
An alarmingly error-prone measure, estimates the value-added and other “growth” models.” These measures attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores (Ravitch 270).
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Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Ravitch notes that, although some of the measures taken to identify a teacher’s success within her student’s test scores are considered to be effective, there are other measures that may have a margin of error (Ravitch 270).
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Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Ravitch notes that, even though some of the measures taken to identify a teacher’s success within her student’s test scores are considered to be effective, there are other measures that “are alarmingly error-prone in any given year” (Ravitch 270).
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Works Cited
Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes. But it is difficult to trust any performance rating if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
There will never be stability in these evaluations, some of which will show genuine changes in performance. It is hard to trust any performance evaluation if the odds of getting the same rating the following year are the same as tossing a coin.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
There will never be stability in these evaluations, some of which will show genuine changes in performance. It is hard to trust any performance evaluation if the odds of getting the same rating the following year are the same as tossing a coin. (Ravitch 270)
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010. Print.
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
The rankings will always be inconsistent and some of the data will show real differences in performance. Since the odds of getting the same rating the following year is solely up to chance, it is hard to rely on any performance evaluation. (Ravitch 270)
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010. Print.
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
The rankings lack consistency, and the data will show variations in student performance. Furthermore, performance ratings are unreliable because “the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss” (Ravitch 270).
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010. Print.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
“The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year.” (Ravitch 271)
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
The value-added scores tend to change between years. A teacher who gets a particular spot in year one is likely to get a different spot the next year.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
“The scores tend to change between years. A teacher who gets a particular placement in year one usually gets a different placement the next year.” (Ravitch 271)
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Sometimes the scores for teachers can go up or down in different years. In some instances teachers ranked highly in one year can be ranked very low in the next year. (Ravitch 271)
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
According to Ravitch, “the value-added scores also fluctuate between years.” Sometimes the scores for teachers can go up or down in different years. In some instances teachers ranked highly in one year can be ranked very low in the next year. (Ravitch 271)
Objective: In order to avoid plagiarism, one must first learn how to plagiarize. Each of the five paragraphs: the first three show different ways of plagiarizing, while the last two demonstrate how to paraphrase properly.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
Ex. 1: Diane Ravitch says that Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. She says he found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Ex 2: Ravitch uses results from an economist named Sean Corcoran from New York University, who studied teacher evaluation systems and found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points, to prove that the scores were unreliable for others to judge the actual performance of the teacher.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Ex 3: Ravitch uses results from an economist named Sean Corcoran from New York University, who studied teacher evaluation systems and found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points, to prove that the scores were unreliable for others to judge the actual performance of the teacher.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Ex 4: Through her own interpretation of Sean Cocoran’s analysis of teacher evaluations, Ravitch affirms that the “margin of error” when evaluating teachers in New York City is too high to accurately evaluate the teachers, and proves to be too inconsistent when comparing the scores over the years [1].
[1]:Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 270-271.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
In her novel, Diane Ravitch confirms that the system used to asses teachers is very unreliable and has too much of a gap to accurately evaluate them. Ravitch uses economist Sean Cocoran’s assertion that “the average ‘margin of error’ of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points” in order to prove that the system used in very inaccurate and unreliable [2].
[2]:Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 270-271.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Objective: In order to avoid plagiarism, one must first learn how to plagiarize.
In this post, I show different ways of plagiarizing, while the last two demonstrate how to paraphrase properly.
Original text:
No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year. Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points. So, a teachers who has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile. The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year. There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes. But it is difficult to trust any performance rating if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.
Original source: Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
When evaluating teachers in New York and Houston, the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points. Also, these rankings are instable from year to year. It is difficult to trust performance ratings if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
An NYU economist, Corocoran, found that the average “margin of error” in ratings of New York teachers was plus or minus 28 points. This is startling, because if you think about it, a teacher in the 43rd percentile could actually range from the 15th to the 71st percentile.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Using test scores to rank teachers is invalid due to instability. Some changes may shed light on real changes, but the chance of the same rating is a 50/50 shot (Ravitch, 271).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
There are many difficulties and holes in the attempt to rank teachers using students’ test scores. The changes of scores from year-to-year could illustrate improvement; however, this change could be easily due to chance (Ravitvh, 270-271).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Measuring teacher performance is a difficult task to attempt. Using students’ test scores is prone to issues. Year-to-year changes could be accounted for by chance or improvement, but differentiating cause may be difficult (Ravitch, 271). NYU economist Sean Corcoran looked at teacher evaluation systems and “found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points” (Ravitch, 270). This gives a 56-point range a teacher could fall in when looking at their percentile ranking. This wide, and therefore not informative, range and instability from year-to-year create difficulties in ranking teachers based on student-scores.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
The estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year. The average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
The ways in which teachers are evaluated in New York City and Houston have an average margin of error of plus or minus 28 points. For example, if some teachers ranked in the 43rd percentile were compared with other teachers, they may be as low as the 15th percentile or as high as the 71st.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
The ways in which teachers are evaluated in New York City and Houston have an average margin of error of plus or minus 28 points. For example, if some teachers ranked in the 43rd percentile were compared with other teachers, they may be as low as the 15th percentile or as high as the 71st (Ravitch 270-71)
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
There are inherent errors found in how teacher performance is measured that are so large these measure can be seen as ineffective and unreliable. In some places, ranges of up to 28 points of difference in how these teachers are tested on their adequacy can be found. Thus, the question arises, how can these measure be trusted if there is such a high degree of variability in the results (Ravitch 270-71)?
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
In looking at the ways in which teacher performance is measured, one can’t help but see that there are certain unreliable aspects to the methods. In a study performed by an economist at NYU, Sean Corcoran, “He found that the average “margin of error” of [the measure of] a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points”(Ravitch 270-71). In addition to the level of variability on every test, the performance of the teachers changed each year. These two factors provide the basis for why this measure of the performance of teachers in quite unreliable (Ravitch 270-71).
“The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year.”
Original Source:
Original source: Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
Example 1: The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Example 2: These value-added scores also fluctuate throughout the years. If an educator’s students get particular scores one year, these students are likely to get a different ranking the year after.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Example 3: These value-added scores also fluctuate throughout the years. If an educator’s students get particular scores one year, these students are likely to get a different ranking the year after. [1]
[1] Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Example 4: Ravitch notes that, even though these scores are curved and inflated, there is still oscillation with each new class. Similarly, teacher’s success rates will not necessarily be as elevated with each class he/she instructs. [1]
[1] Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Example 5: Ravitch notes that, even though these scores are curved and inflated, there is still oscillation with each new class. Essentially, these scores will naturally “fluctuate between years” (Ravitch, 271). Similarly, teacher’s success rates will not necessarily be as elevated with each class he/she instructs.[1]
[1] Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word
Diane Ravitch argues against using student test scores to decide if an individual teacher is effective. She reports that Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, found that that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word
The evidence of Corcoran says that there is an average “margin of error” of plus or minus 28 points, making it unpredictable to judge a teacher from year to year because between each year these value-added scores may change, causing these results to be instable. These flaws make it challenging to trust the results of the student test scores.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include citation
Diane Ravitch uses the evidence of economist Sean Corcoran to prove that the “margin of error” between teachers to too large and that the scores fluctuate between years. As a consequence, this makes the value-added scores to be hard to trust.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source
By using the evidence presented by an economist at New York University, Sean Corcoran, Ravitch proves that the “margin of error” is too large to have a teachings ranking actually hold merit. Furthermore, this “margin of error” varies each year as well as the rankings of teachings, there by creating unreliable data.[1]
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source
Diane Ravitch makes a case that the value-added scores to judge teachers are unreliable. With the evidence from an economist from New York University, which states that “the average ‘margin of error’ of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points”,[2] which means that the rankings of teachers is invalid.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
[1] Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 270-271.
[2] Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 270-271.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes. But it is difficult to trust any performance rating if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Instability will always exist in the rankings. Although real performance changes will be reflected it is problematic to have faith in a performance rating system in which a coin toss would give you the same odds of getting the same rating the following year.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Instability will always exist in the rankings. Although real performance changes are reflected it is problematic to have faith in a performance rating system in which a coin toss would give you the same odds of getting the same rating the following year. (Ravitch 271)
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
While a margin of error is to be expected in the results of any survey, in examining the teacher evaluation systems in both New York City and Houston economist Sean Corcoran found a statistic that diminishes the amount of confidence one could have in these systems. The New York City margin of error was plus or minus 28 points. (Ravitch 270)
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
While a margin of error is to be expected in the results of any survey, in examining the teacher evaluation systems in both New York City and Houston economist Sean Corcoran found a statistic that diminishes the amount of confidence one could have in these systems. The New York City margin of error was plus or minus 28 points meaning that “a teacher who has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile.” (Ravitch 270)
Work Cited
Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
The goal of this activity is to give us practice avoiding plagiarism by paraphrasing and crediting sources correctly. Below are 3 examples of plagiarism that might go unnoticed and two examples of how to properly paraphrase and cite the author of the source.
Original text:
No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year. Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points. So, a teachers who has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile. The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year. There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes. But it is difficult to trust any performance rating if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.
Original source: Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books. Print.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models” are error-prone in any given year.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
The value-added scores also vary every year. A teacher who gets a ranking one year is likely to get a different ranking the following year.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Sean Corcoran an economist conducted a study on the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. His results showed the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points (Ravitch 270).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
It is problematic to rely on performance ratings because they dont necessarily reflect real changes. The odds of seeing changes are similar to those received from a coin toss (Ravitch 270).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
A teacher who “has ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile (Ravitch 270)”. The value-added scores and rankings vary. There is a possibility for a teacher who receives a high ranking one year to receive a lower ranking the next year and vice versa (Ravitch 270).
This was a great activity and it made me more aware of what is considered plagiarism even when one might not think so.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
An economist at New York University, Sean Corcoran, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. In his results he found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
According to Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University who studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston, the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points (Ravitch 270).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
According to NYU economist Sean Corcoran’s findings, there is a flaw in the teacher evaluating system in New York City, therefor causing a teacher’s ranking, compared to others, to fall anywhere from plus 28 or minus 28 points (Ravitch 270).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
After studying the teacher evaluation systems in New York and Houston, NYU economist Sean Corcoran reported “that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was either plus or minus 28 points” (Ravitch 270).
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
No measure is perfect, but the estimates of value-added and other “growth models,” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year. Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Economist Sean Corcoran found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points. Therefore, a teacher who has ranked at the 43rd percentile could also fall between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile. The value-added scores are subject to change. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is not forever associated with said ranking.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Economist Sean Corcoran found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points. Therefore, a teacher who has ranked at the 43rd percentile could also fall between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile. The value-added scores are subject to change. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is not forever associated with said ranking (Ravitch 270).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
NYU Economist Sean Corcoran set out to prove how difficult it can be to determine a teacher’s impact solely through the teacher evaluation systems implemented in Houston and New York City. He found that there is an extreme fluctuation amongst scores over the years, and compared the odds of accurately determining a teacher’s impact via these systems to those of a coin toss (Ravitch 271).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Due to findings of instability throughout the Houston and New York City teacher evaluation systems, NYU Economist Sean Corcoran deems both systems not entirely accurate. Corcoran reports, “The value-added scores also fluctuate between years. A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year” (Ravitch 271). Maybe it is time for a change in how we assess the teachings of our educators.
Works Cited
Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York:
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
The value-added scores also vary between years. A teacher who obtains a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the following year. There will continuously be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
No measure is faultless, but the approximations of value-added and other “growth models,” which try to separate the “true effect” of a particular teacher via his or her students’ test scores, are disturbingly prone to error in any given year. Economist at New York University, Sean Corcoran, examined the teacher assessment systems in Houston and New York City.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
He discovered that the mean “margin of error” of a teacher from New York City was plus or minus 28 points. Thus, a teacher who has tiered at the 43rd percentile contrasted to his or her contemporaries may perhaps be anywhere between the 15th percentile and the 71st percentile (Ravitch 271).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Although there is no way to properly evaluate a teacher, the value-added and other variations of “growth models” are especially detrimental and prone to error—regardless of the year (Ravitch 271). For example, Sean Corcoran, an esteemed economist at New York University, carefully assessed the systems used to evaluate teachers in a number of public schools consisted within both New York City and Houston, Texas districts (Ravitch 271).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Because of how the system essentially functions, there is a strong likelihood that there will be no stability in teachers’ rankings (Ravitch 271). Fundamentally this means that although a teacher may receive one particular ranking in his or her first year, the teacher is most likely not going to receive the same ranking the ensuing year (Ravitch 271). Due to this sort of instability, only some of the rankings will truly “reflect ‘real’ performance changes” (Ravitch 271). Consequently, the system is incredibly faulty and it is no longer a system evaluating teachers’ performances—rather, a system that evaluates the teachers’ luck (Ravitch 271).
Works Cited:
Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year. There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
If a teacher gets a specific ranking in his or her first year it is probable that he or she will score differently the following year. These rankings will always be unstable, and only some of them will reflect serious performance changes.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
If a teacher gets a specific ranking in his or her first year it is probable that he or she will score differently the following year. These rankings will always be unstable, and only some of them will reflect real performance changes (Ravitch 270).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Generally, the ranking a given educator achieves after their first assessment is not indicative of future rankings, as only a portion of these scores can be relied upon to demonstrate the teacher’s true progress – or lack thereof (Ravitch 270).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Generally, the ranking a given educator achieves after their first assessment is not indicative of future rankings. These scores are widely considered to be unreliable, and only some of these rankings “will reflect ‘real’ performances changes” (Ravitch 270).
Works Cited
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York:
Basic, 2011. 270-71. Print.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
There will always be instability in these rankings, some of which will reflect “real” performance changes. But it is difficult to trust any performance rating if the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Instability in these rankings will always exist, some of which reflects real changes in performance. However, it is hard to be convinced by such a rating if the chances of receiving the same rating next year are not greater than a coin toss.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Instability in these rankings will always exist, some of which reflect real changes in performance. However, it is hard to be convinced by such a rating if the chances of receiving the same rating next year are not greater than a coin toss (Ravitch 270-271).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
In her book, Ravitch discusses the instability of teacher performance rankings and how difficult it is to determine their accuracy, given how greatly they can change from year to year. She concludes that such ratings are too unreliable to be taken seriously (270-271).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
In her book, Ravitch discusses the instability of teacher performance rankings and how difficult it is to determine their accuracy, given how greatly they can change from year to year. She concludes that such ratings are too unreliable to be taken seriously because “the odds of getting the same rating next year are no better than a coin toss” (270-271).
Original source: Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books, 2011, pp. 270-71.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University who studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York and Houston found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Professor Corcoran, an economist at New York University, researched the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He concluded that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28points.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Professor Corcoran, an economist at New York University, researched the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. He concluded that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28points. (Ravitch 270-271).
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
According to economist Sean Corcoran, value-added scores are unreliable in the sense that the ranking a teacher receives varies by year (Ravitch 270-271).
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
Based on Ravitch’s analysis of economist Sean Corcoran’s studies, she argues “A teacher who gets a particular ranking in year one is likely to get a different ranking the next year.” (Ravitch 270).
Works Cited
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print.
What did Gustave Feingold write on intelligence and immigrants in 1920s Hartford?
When approaching source detective question, my first course of action was to do a quick and dirty Google search. I typed in all the important pieces in the hopes of yielding fast yet accurate results. The top five of the 706,000 results looked accurate.
Unfortunately, none of them would allow me to read the full pdf without payment. It was back to the drawing board. I decided to look over the “Search strategies for sources” under “Resources & Tools” on Ed Reform commons site.
I started with the bold subtitle, If you know very little, because I knew little to nothing about the topic.The site instructs us to use Wikipedia. On the Wikipedia site, I searched for Gustave Feingold and yielded no results. A couple of times, I misspelled his name and had to go back and check my question to make sure I had it right. It’s impossible to find the information if there are mistakes in the search inquiry, so attention to detail is a must. According to Wikipedia, my subject did not have a page.
Yet, another dead-end. I went back to the search strategies page and continued to work my way down the list. The next recommended search engine was Trincoll.WorldCat.org. I tried my luck.In my first search I only filled in the author section.
I assumed that the topic of immigration would be easy to find among Feingold’s publications.It wasn’t.I did an advance search that included the word immigration and still nothing.
A conversation with Jack got me thinking about other places that Gustave’s immigration article could be.We brainstormed about other relevant databases and decided to try Google Scholar.I didn’t think that it would be a successful search, because Google was the first search engine I tried.I did my quick and dirty search of “Gustave Feingold immigrant”.The first result was a home run. It was exactly what I needed.
Jack explained that this branch of Google was geared toward scholarly work, so my results pool was more specific to my academic needs.I clicked on the article title, and it lead me to American Psychological Association database. With VPN, the educational psychology article can be downloaded for free.
In the article, “Intelligence of First Generation Immigrant Groups”, Gustave Feingold disproves and discredits the results of Army testing that portray the children of immigrants as intellectually inferior. In fact, Gustave shows that their is very little difference in the intellectual ability of American-reared in comparison to their full blooded American counterparts.
Feingold, Gustave. “Intelligence of the First Generation of Immigrant Groups (A Study and a Critique).” Journal of Educational Psychology Feb. 1924: Print.
How can you find Lewis Terman’s early intelligence tests?Lewis Terman was an educational psychologist at Stanford university who developed an intelligence test (later known as the Stanford-Binet IQ test), which he described in his 1916 book. Does Trinity library own this book or is the full-text version freely available online? Describe your search strategy, as well as a few sample questions from the original test, and cite your source.
Search Process:
As suggested on the web post for the source post activity, I decided to make an appointment with one of the librarians. During my appointment with the librarian, she showed me how to use the online catalog to see if the book is located in Trinity’s library.
Click to visit Trinity College's Library Online Catalog
I decided to search the catalog by the author’s name (last name first) to see what results would display. I saw two results on the webpage that displayed his name. I decided to click on the second result that had 7 titles on record. As I scrolled down the page, the last result titled “Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale” that was published in 1916. This book is available for checkout in Trinity’s library, and it can be found in the main collection.
Terman’s book is also available in full-text online for free through Google Books. To find this text, I used the advanced search feature and typed in his last name (Terman) and the publication year (1916) of the book. Terman’s book appeared as the second entry on the results page. When I clicked on the link I was directed to the page that has the full copy of the book. One nice thing about the online text is the ability for readers to use the search box feature to search within the text.
Click to view Google Book's advanced search feature
Below is an example of one of the tests in Terman’s book:
Excerpt from: "Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale" Photo Source: Google Books
Final Reflections:
I would like to give a special thanks to Katy Hart the Arts and Humanities librarian for assisting me with this search. I was not aware of Google Books prior to this activity, and I feel that it can be very useful for me ind the future. This activity reminded how useful the library actually is, and I plan to use its resources more frequently.
Sources:
Terman, Lewis Madison. 1916. The Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Question: How can you find Robert Yerkes’ Army alpha and beta tests? For our next class we’ll analyze intelligence tests developed during World War I, which were published by Clarence Yoakum and Robert Yerkes in their book, Army Mental Tests (1920). Does Trinity Library own this book? If not, how can you request it from a nearby library, or even better, instantly view the full-text version for free? Describe your search strategy, and if possible, skim the contents and describe some that stand out.
To start my search for Robert Yerkes’ Amry alpha and beta tests, I scheduled an appointment with a librarian. However, Blizzard Nemo postponed that option. Instead, I started with the library website. I began looking for Clarence Yoakum and Robert Yerkes’s book, Army Mental Tests (1920). From the library site, I clicked the link to “CTW Consortium Catalog.”
Using an Advanced Search, I looked for “army mental tests” under Title and “yerkes” and “yoakum” under Author.
The search was successful, and a collection is available at Wesleyan University. Trinity students can request the book through the Action menu on the right side.
Alpha and Beta intelligence tests were used to be able to test large populations with untrained examiners in 1917. These tests were used to determine candidates fit (or unfit) to serve in the army and hold officer positions. [1] Using the library database (PsycINFO), I was able to find abstracts (summaries) for the contents of Army Mental Tests. Searching “yerkes” and “yoakum” under Author, I found the book as well as information on each chapter, though not the full text itself.
The book includes the making of the tests, the methodology and results, a guide for examining people using the test, army tests, practical applications, and blank forms. Binet, a French psychologist, created intelligence tests for school children that were used in some schools. Revisions were made, and both group and individual tests were developed for use in the army after America joined WWI. The test pages, instructions for administering, and blank forms are all included in the book. This information was gleamed from the abstracts found on PsycINFO.
[1] “Revising the Test” (on Army Alpha and Beta intelligence tests), from “Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement, Chapter 5,” Facing History and Ourselves, January 3, 2012, http://www.facinghistory.org/revising-test.
Who published the National School Service and why? For our next class we’ll read a short article by educational psychologist Robert Yerkes, “The Mental Rating of School Children,” National School Service 1, no. 12 (February 15, 1919): 6–7, http://archive.org/details/nationalschoolse01unituoft. Who created this publication and what was its purpose in 1919? What major themes stand out in the February issues? And who made it available for us to view on the Internet today?
The National School Service was a monthly paper (magazine) produced and distributed by the Division of Educational Extension, in the Department of the Interior of the United States government. This publication was addressed namely to the teachers and educators who had the most impact on the minds of children, but was also available to the public, such as parents of children in the educational system.
Though these monthly issues would seemingly focus on the latest academic developments and teachers who inspire change in the lives of students, the National School Service actually serves a very different purpose. These monthly papers serve as a form of propaganda, promoting nationalistic views of America and informing teachers of the most important aspects of the military…namely, the victories and sacrifices of American soldiers the government wants fed to the minds of youth. Conveniently enough, a very patriotic poem “My Country,” is plastered directly underneath Robert M. Yerkes’ article. That is to say, Major Robert M. Yerkes. Yerkes is not just a psychologist or a scholar, but also a member of the United States Armed Forces.
(Image from http://archive.org/details/nationalschoolse01unituoft)
Robert Yerke’s article within the February 1919 issue of The National School Service suggests a new way to evaluate the mental capabilities of students, thereby classifying them into three groups. By using “the application of mental measurement in the army,” Yerke suggests tracking students in 3 groups: A, B, and C; A completing 5th grade material in 3 years, B in 4, and C in 6. These groups would then separate students into “diverse courses,” funneling A students into a professional track, B into an Industrial track, and C into a manual labor track. Yerke argues that this would be beneficial to students’ intelligence (each student would be able to work at their own level without being pushed or held back), and would provide equal opportunities for children of families in all classes.
(Image from http://archive.org/details/nationalschoolse01unituoft)
This issue was published in February of 1919. Though World War I had just come to a close, the Red Scare was just beginning to take root in society. Furthermore, soldiers were returning from war and had extreme difficulty finding jobs. Interestingly enough, a front-page article of this issue is entitled, “Our Soldiers Become Serious Students,” and another article, “Special Message to Teachers” emphasizes how this month it is imperative that teachers stress the extreme importance of staying in school to their students. This push to both keep kids in school and send retuning soldiers back to school shows how desperate the government was to produce a highly intelligent youth after such a devastating war. Furthermore, it illustrates the lack of job opportunities that currently exist, or jobs that the government feels “may lead him nowhere.” These are most likely the manual labor jobs that Yerke’s “group C” kids would be tailored for.
(Images from http://archive.org/details/nationalschoolse01unituoft)
These National School Service issues were made available online by the Internet Archive, an incredible resource housing millions of primary sources online, and giving multiple means of locating past information on the internet. However, these issues were posted on this database by The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto, Canada. I found this curious, seeing how The National School Service was an American produced paper. The information that I needed to answer my questions were located within the text of the February 1919 issue and I was able to reach conclusions through my own historical knowledge of WWI and the Red Scare. However, I wanted to further investigate why these magazines were made available by a Canadian library, and where, if anywhere, could I find the magazine in the archives of the United States government.
(Image from http://archive.org/details/nationalschoolse01unituoft) I was surprised and alarmed upon realizing that the government has done a very keen job at making The National School Service papers disappear from American history. Not only was I not able to find the works through any of Trinity’s library resources, but I was also unable to find references to the issues on academic search engines such as JSTOR.
Though the National School Service is not directly available through Trinity resources, Trinity does offer, through WorldCat, multiple resources to locate an issue.
(Image from http://trincoll.worldcat.org/title/national-school-service/oclc/1759403)
Blame it on my generation…but I was extremely narrow-minded in my thought process of: If I can’t find something online with ease, it must either not exist, or those controlling the internet must be hiding it! However, copies of the National School Service are conveniently located in many libraries (yes, with actual books….yikes!) around the country.
It was only through a search for Yerkes (not the magazine itself) on JSTOR that I was able to find, “The Handbook of private schools” written by Porter Sargent. This book mentions Yerke’s study on the mental measurement of students as found in the National School Service, though this was the only place in which I could find any proof that such an issue even existed.
Though the above statement is no longer accurate, I think that the passage within Porter Sargent’s “The Handbook of private schools” does a nice job of summing up Yerke’s article.
Upon searching the National Archives at www.archives.gov/education, no record of “The National School Service” was found. Clearly, America is ashamed of the propaganda this paper promoted.
It is true that through a search of the national archives online I was not able to locate any issue of the National School Service. However, that is why the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education is so important. This library has utilized their time, resources, and funds to prioritize the online availability of the National School Service, and as scholars, we must be grateful for such accessibility to a document that reveals so much about our country’s past education system.
Prompt: How do you find scholarly books on the history of intelligence testing? Imagine that you decide to write a research essay on the history of intelligence testing, particularly how it evolved in U.S. education during the twentieth century. Describe your search strategy for finding books on this topic at Trinity Library, and cite five of the most relevant titles. (Hint: the goal of this question is to distinguish between keyword and subject-term searches.)
This past week I was able to meet with Trinity librarian Erin Valentino. I have learned in my time here that it would be considered foolish not to meet with a librarian before beginning research in the library. Her assistance in navigating the vast collection of media within the library is something that was essential to me completing my source detective question.
To begin, she asked me what kind of media I was looking for. I replied “books” as the question states. She told me had I answered articles, we would look under scholarly sites such as JSTOR or simply the Trinity College Article Database. Because I did answer books however, she directed me to WorldCat, which searches amongst all types of media. She told me we will be utilizing the “advanced search” feature.
I began by entering “iq test history” in the keyword field.
I recieved 1,637 search results. I was told that because I had searched by keyword, any publication containing the texts: “iq”, “test”, and “history” will be generated. I searched through the first 15 until I was able to select a book that I thought would be essential in a report. It was titled “IQ: a smart history of a failed idea”.
On the bottom of the page was the call number, which is how one would find it on Level 3. But to the right is a field titled “More like this”. This is used to suggest books of similar topics to the inquirer. It also lists the subjects these books are categorized under within the system. One subject I found on the right side of the page jumped out at me: “Intelligence Tests–history.”
Subjects> Intelligence Tests -- history.
I brought my cursor over the text and clicked, refined the search for only books, and was brought to a more concise, only 214 items long. This is when I felt I had arrived at where I was supposed to be looking for information, for all the books shared the subject of “intelligence tests– history” rather than simply containing a word or three. Keywords can help you start, but once you have figured out which direction you want your research to head, subject searching is much more helpful.
*I was able to further specify the subject into “intelligence tests–history–20th Century United States”, in an attempt to address the initial question better, but I found that some books were left out of the search that would have been useful, such as The Big Test by Nicholas Lemann.
At the end of my research session, I organized my results in order of relevance and found that the 5 most relevant books on the subject of the history intelligence tests were:
The mismeasure of man
by Stephen Jay Gould
The intelligence men, makers of the IQ controversy
by Raymond E Fancher
The big test : the secret history of the American meritocracy
by Nicholas Lemann
IQ : a smart history of a failed idea
by Stephen Murdoch
Measuring minds : Henry Herbert Goddard and the origins of American intelligence testing
by Leila Zenderland
The 5 most relevant books on the subject of the history of intelligence testing.
A special thanks to Erin Valentino for her assistance during my research.
Question: How did book reviewers assess Ravitch’s reversal? Next week’s book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, became a best-seller in part because of the dramatic shift in thinking by its author, historian and policy advocate Diane Ravitch. How do you locate in-depth reviews of this book in both scholarly and popular media? Describe your search strategy, and quote some representative reviews, including both favorable and critical comments.
In The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Diane Ravitch, also known as one of America’s education experts, desperately claims that America’s educational system must be immediately reformed in order to protect and improve the quality of education. This book caused a major uproar within the Educational reform community, because of Ravitch’s change of heart. As a former assistant secretary of education, Ravitch worked closely with the Bush administration in order to implement the No Child Left Behind Act nationwide. Critics have flooded the Internet with extensive book reviews on The Death and Life of the Great American School System, favoring and objecting her views. It was fairly difficult to determine whether reviews on Ravitch’s works were considered scholarly reviews, or ones posted in popular media. Scholarly reviews are those written by scholars, whether they are published on blogs such as Word Press or whether they are published onto scholarly journals/databases.
Option One: Looking inside the book
This source detective work assignment asked me to locate in-depth reviews on Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System. The first thing I did was to look inside the actual book itself to locate some of the blurbs/excerpts regarding her book, since many authors tend to give a few lines. In this case, the book’s very first page read: Praise for The Death and Life of the Great American School System. I immediately realized that although I would be able to find entire book reviews through the lines provided, the chances of me reading a critical book review were slim to none, so my next action was to actually Google some of the lines provided by the author. This gave me a better insight to some of the book reviews, and whether the author had taken specific lines from a critical book review. Some of the praises that were selected to appear in her book that were published onto popular media websites such as NYTimes.com, were actually written by scholars- in this case Alan Wolfe, a political scientist, and sociologist/Professor at Boston College.
Other favorable book reviews on her book, such as that written for the Denver Post were written by guest writers, which are not considered scholars. The most important thing to keep in mind while searching for scholarly book reviews is to acknowledge the fact that there is a distinction between scholarly and popular media. The easiest way to determine what is scholarly and what is not, requires you to Google the author and make the connection based on the information given regarding who wrote the article.
Option Two: Google is Indeed Your Friend!
My search to locate critical book reviews, led me once again to Google- only this time to locate the actual author’ website, where the author provides hyperlinks to her book reviews found throughout the Internet.
Using your laptop or a desktop at the Trinity College Raether Library, use Google and search “Diane Ravitch Reviews.”
The very first link provided by Google should lead you directly to Diane Ravitch’s website- specifically the section where the reviews are found.
You will note that there are two sections to the webpage- Book Reviews, and Commentary About the Book or Author, we must keep in mind that we are looking for book reviewsand not commentaries regarding the book itself.
Only some of the links provided under Book Reviews lead to in-depth reviews, always remember to Google the author if the link provided leads to a Word Press Blog, or an article published on a website. Also remember that although Amazon may list some lengthy and critical reviews- those may not necessary count as scholarly or even popular media because of the nature in which the comment is being made.
Option Three: Using Resources Provided by Trinity College (My Personal Favorite)
Ask a Research Librarian
Make great use of the Trinity College Librarians, they truly do know how to give you the answer to all questions that are research related.
I was fortunate enough to be able to walk into the library and receive immediate help upon asking for it at the front desk. Usually the best way to go about meeting with a research librarian is to make an appointment through the Library Scheduler website.
I was able to meet with Outreach Library Kelly Dagan and explained to her that I needed assistance in locating scholarly databases such as WorldCat.org where I could find Scholarly reviews on The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Kelly asked me what the book was about and explained to me that it was fairly easy to find databases that were geared toward my specific area of study.
I was told to go to the Trinity College Library Website, and under Articles, to search up the Educational Studies database. This lead me to a webpage that lists databases specifically geared towards literature on Educational Studies.
Screen Shot of the Trinity College Library Website
Kelly pointed out to me that JStor, and the Education Full Text databases were the best ones suited for my search.
For the two databases, I realized that I would be able to refine my search to Reviews, specifically to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) entries on both of the websites.
Both the JStor search, and the Education Full Text databases produced dozens of findings (scholarly reviews) on The Death and Life of the Great American School System. (Click on the links above to see for yourself!)
Findings I found it easier to locate book reviews that favored Ravitch’s radical work, than to locate those critiquing it. Some of the more favorable comments included:
“The first thing to say about Diane Ravitch’s new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System (Basic Books, 2010), is that it is the bravest book on education in years, perhaps ever. Why brave? Because it’s a book about being wrong, a book that rejects reforms Ravitch once espoused, and that, like most mea culpas, will probably lose her many old friends without gaining her nearly as many new ones.” – Richard Barbieri, Independent School
“Ravitch writes early in The Death and Life of the Great American School System, “When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views.” Her ability to change her mind is what makes this book so valuable. In it, Ravitch explains clearly why she first believed in NCLB, why she changed her mind, and where she believes current school reform efforts are wrong. This is an important book. Ravitch has done us a great service. Policy makers ignore her at everyone’s peril.” – Dudley Barlow, Education Digest
Below are some of the comments I found critiquing Diane Ravitch’s works:
“While I applaud Ravitch- after all it takes a good deal of courage to do what she is doing- I am also tempted to ask a somewhat impolite question. Given the immense evidence against the positions she had originally so strenuously supported, what took her so long?” – Michael W. Apple, Educational Policy
“While Ravitch covers the landscape of issues thoroughly, she offers few solutions to the problems she has posed, some are not only worth considering, but have been shouted from the rooftops in the field of education, other hearken back to Ravitch’s conservative roots with frightening results.” –Scott Cody, InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies
Works Cited
1. Apple, Michael W. “Challenging One’s Own Orthodoxy: Diane Ravitch and the Fate of American Schools.” Educational Policy 24.4 (2010): 687-98. JSTOR. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.
2. Barlow, Dudley. “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” Education Digest 76.2 (2010): 69-72. Education Full Text. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.
3. Barbieri, Richard. “The Death And Life of The Great American School System.” Independent School 71.1 (2011): 118-20. Education Full Text. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.
4. Cody, Scott M. “Review: The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch.” InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies 6 (2011): 1-4. EScholarship. Web. 1 Feb. 2013.
What was the companion article to Thomas Nast’s political cartoon? In our next class we will examine a political cartoon by Thomas Nast, titled “The American River Ganges: The Priests and the Children,” which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, May 8, 1875, page 384. The cartoon is freely available online. In fine print at the bottom, it refers to a companion article, “The Common Schools and their Foes,” on page 385 of same issue. Describe your search strategy to locate the article and summarize its content. (Hint: Sometimes the past is only available in print.)
This week, I had the opportunity to do some real detective work to find my source. The first stop of my search was the Watkinson Library at Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and it happened to be my only stop. I was greeted at the door by an extremely well-dressed elderly gentleman, Mr. Peter Knapp, Special Collections Librarian and College Archivist who was eager to hear about my problem and see how he could be of assistance. When I showed him Thomas Nast’s political cartoon, “The American River Ganges,” I could tell by the smile on his face that he was quite sure what I needed. He asked, “Harper’s Weekly?” and with an astonished look on my face, I simply responded, “Yes, please.” I took the courtesy of leaving the main floor for a few minutes while he searched for the Harper’s Weekly 1875 Edition (It is standard procedure that guests of the Watkinson cannot be left unattended on the main floor.)
When Mr. Knapp returned, he brought with him an extremely dense book titled “Harper’s Weekly – 1875” and suggested that I could find what I was looking for on page 385 (in reference to American River Ganges). When I opened to page 385 I found the companion article titled “The Public Schools and its Foes.” Directly above the article was another political cartoon by Nast. This cartoon titled, “No Church need apply” depicts a Catholic bishop handing out Vatican decrees to young school-aged boys. The boys stood in the doorway of a school, and the sign beside the doorway read, “No Sect can rule this school,” the main theme of the companion article.
The companion article written by Eugene Lawrence highlighted the greatest enemy of the common schools as being the Roman Catholic Church and its leader Pope Pius IX as well as other religious/political institutions that did not promote American common schools. The article favored the condition of the common schools and emphasized what we consider today to be the separation of church and state:
“Their people have become conscious that the common school is the source of ease, comfort, wealth; that it doubles the value of their lands, build towns, factories, railroads; and hence all over the south there is a plain advance toward a new condition of society.” (p.386)
Furthermore, Lawrence cited the common schools as places for “repression of violence” and “cultivation of knowledge” and expresses the notion that the enemies of the common school, which included, “a foreign pope, democratic politicians and a foreign sect” as being responsible for “the decreed destruction of the common school…” (p.386)
Lawrence speaks to his readers as an advocate of reason and truth, he says that the “newspaper is the natural fruit of the common school” (p.386) which would allow readers to give credence to his published article on the evils of the Roman Catholic Church and other Religious institutions and their corruption of American schools:
“At Des Moines, when an episcopal clergyman assailed the common schools from his pulpit, members of the congregation rose and left the church, in protest of religious bigotry…” (p.386)
He goes on to say that schools under the jurisdiction of Pope Pius IX were “never needed” and questions why they were built in the first place – while alluding to the fact that they were built to contest the traditional common school system.
Lawrence mentions that the public (common) schools offer “ample room for all the children of the city” (p.386) in reference to the many parochial schools in New York City. He goes on to say that Papal priests were in association with Boss Tweed and Peter Sweeney and had a direct involvement as conspirators in the political ring. This piece of the article was towards the very end – almost as if to tell his readers: if you still aren’t convinced…here’s more proof.
Lawrence ends his piece with two very important quotes, which sum up his article on the separation of church from American schools, but even more importantly, the vilification of all who opposed the common schools. The first quote stood out to me because of the notion that those who did not support common schools must not support their country as loyal Americans:
“No patriotic American of any creed of race will suffer his own honest and necessary principle of un-sectarian education to be tainted by any dangerous compromise…” (p.386)
Finally, Lawrence urges his readers to understand that: “the only sure defense we have against it, is to vote it down…” (p.386) in reference to the church’s presence in American schools and the political authority that common citizens yield through their right to vote.
Acknowledgements
A very special thank you to Mr. Peter Knapp and the Watkinson Library staff for allowing me to use their vast archives.
Were 19th-century women permitted to be public speakers?
To answer the presented question I used my prior knowledge and skills from being a history major to approach the question. I used the Trinity College Library online resources and databases to search for sources that would be able to answer the question. I personally prefer JSTOR, so I searched through JSTOR.
A struggle and very important aspect of searching in JSTOR is the keywords that you use to search. In my first search I used the keywords “19th century”, “women”, and “public speaking”. I further narrowed my results by only searching for results in English that are articles, books, or reviews, and narrowed the discipline to American Studies, Education, Feminist and Women’s Studies, and History. My results were very scattered, in order to narrow it down and to get better results I modified my search and added the keyword “American” in addition to my previous keywords. My search results yielded this. After that, I read the titles of the works and picked out a few that I thought would help answer my question. The following titles are the articles that I thought would help me to answer the question: “Schooling Women in Citizenship”, “woman’s High Calling: The Teaching Profession in America, 1830-1860”, “On the American Dream: Equality, Ambiguity, and the Persistence of Rage”, and “Allowed Irregularities: Women Preaches in the Early 19th-Century Maritimes”.
In the article “Schooling Women in Citizenship” by Susan Douglas Franzosa, I found a quote that read “In the schools, girls and boys learned to revere and support the laws that provided for women’s disenfranchisement and prohibition from speaking in public, owning property, holding political office, and voting”.[1] On the other hand, in the article “Allowed Irregularities: Women Preachers in the Early 19th-Century Maritimes” by D.G. Bell it reads “This study uncovers no tradition of female preaching in Maritime Protestantism, but the findings suggest tat female preaching was not uncommon”.[2] A female preacher suggests that women were allowed to be public speakers and in front of audiences of both men and women. However, it has a religious dimension attached to it. It does not answer the question of whether a woman would be able to give a public speech on something other than religion. In addition, in the article “woman’s high calling: the teaching profession in America, 1830-1860” it says, “When the movement to improve the public schools took hold in the 1820s and ‘30s, leading reformers could point to women teachers and pupils in the female seminaries as qualified instructors for common schools”.[3]
In order to further my search, I went out on a limb and googled the presented question. Most of the times nothing but Wikipedia or other unreliable sources come up. However, this time it presented me with an interesting source “Social Conditions Inspired Women to Speak Up – In Speaking Up Women Changed History”, which said “Women could not speak in public without fear of being hit with rotten vegetables or worse”.[4] Eventually, “A few of the young women at Oberlin, led by abolitionist and feminist Lucy Stone, organized the first debating society ever formed among college girls. At first they held their meetings secretly in the woods, with sentinels on the watch to give warming of intruders and later at the home of an old black woman at the edge of the wood”. [5] Furthermore, Phillips the author of this article comments, “Stone, who graduated from Oberlin in 1847, refused to write a commencement speech since she would not be allowed to read it. Ten years later, in 1857, Oberlin College finally allowed a woman to read her part at the public ceremony”.[6] Phillips argues that after the middle of the century women were beginning to be allowed to speak in public.
With this knowledge I went back to JSTOR and used “lucy stone”, “19th century”, “America”, and “public speaking”. I did not find many different sources. In order to find more sources I decided to use a different database, Google Scholar. I just typed in “lucy stone 19th century public speaking” and discovered a book titled Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman’s Rights”. I then searched within the book for “public speaking”. With these results I was able to confirm the discoveries of the article by Lois Phillips, that Lucy Stone was able to public speak as a woman and was headlining this campaign. However, it was not until after half way through the 19th century that this was possible.
[1] Susan Douglas Franzosa, “Schooling Women in Citizenship”, Theory into Practice , Vol. 27, No. 4, Civic Learning (Autumn, 1988), 278.
[2] D.G. Bell “Allowed Irregularities: Women Preachers in the Early 19th-century Maritimes”, Acadiensis , Vol. 30, No. 2 (SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2001), 4.
[3] Keith e. Melder, “woman’s high calling: the teaching profession in America, 1830-1860”, American Studies , Vol. 13, No. 2 (fall 1972), 20.
[4] Lois Phillips, ‘Social Conditions Inspired Women to Speak Up – In Speaking Up Women Changed History”, 4.
As a visiting student, I expect that this class will provide a unique perspective on present-day education reform by encouraging exploration through a historical lens. Much of my past experience and current realm of study engages learning and reform through lenses of modern research and cognitive development. I am excited to look for historical patterns in order to newly inform my perspective in the current education reforms.
I recently became acquainted with the Educational Studies program at Trinity, and immediately fell in love with the courses that were offered. As a student who has been through many different types of educational institutions, including public and now private, I have noticed that there is a major problem that exists in the way schools teach our children. As an Educational Studies major, I hope to learn what causes these imperfections in the system, and particularly what have policy-makers in the past done to relieve many of the problems. As mentioned, this class will not only teach me the aims that educational reformers had in the past, but it will also teach me what we can do in the future. I also hope to polish my writing skills in order to properly execute my ideas about Education reform.
I spent the last two and a half years working at a community college. More often then not in attempting to implement a new program, activity or initiative I was met with a daunting series of bureaucratic red tape. It was all incredibly frustrating to me and I constantly was asking myself, “Why is change so hard?” along with “Where does this resistance stem from?” Attending Trinity and in particular taking this course is my attempt to begin to answer those questions. I want to learn about the process of change in our educational system, how and why some reforms succeed, what are the catalysts for educational reform and how all the moving pieces come together to break the barrier of inertia, as I have experienced it, in education. Additionally, I have limited experience with many of the technologies being used in this course and look forward to gaining exposure to these.
