Comments on: Value Subtracted http://www.edwize.org/value-subtracted Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:46:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: jd2718 http://www.edwize.org/value-subtracted/comment-page-1#comment-61385 jd2718 Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:42:12 +0000 http://edwize.org/value-subtracted#comment-61385 And there's still the gorilla in the room: these tests may simply not be reliable instruments, in which case year to year comparisons may be meaningless. If the year to year numbers fluctuate, that would be a sign that something is wrong with the tests (the old 4th grade and 8th grade tests did exactly that. They were probably useless for comparison, if anyone wanted to learn anything. Useless for classifications finer than 1,2,3,4 (eg high-2 probably meant nothing), but useful for newspaper headlines, torturing kids, scaring teachers, etc) Jonathan And there’s still the gorilla in the room: these tests may simply not be reliable instruments, in which case year to year comparisons may be meaningless.

If the year to year numbers fluctuate, that would be a sign that something is wrong with the tests

(the old 4th grade and 8th grade tests did exactly that. They were probably useless for comparison, if anyone wanted to learn anything. Useless for classifications finer than 1,2,3,4 (eg high-2 probably meant nothing), but useful for newspaper headlines, torturing kids, scaring teachers, etc)

Jonathan

]]>